A beautiful Thanksgiving table is something I look forward to every year.  I love gathering my family and friends around, eating, laughing, and talking about the past year. 

This year, we are short one beloved family member – my grandfather passed away in May.  But we’ve also added one sweet new member – our little peanut!  Check my Instagram for some cute pictures of him in his turkey outfit when the day comes.   

The best thing about setting a beautiful Thanksgiving table is that as long as there are friends and family around it, it’s going to look great.

  But some of us want to make our setting a little more Pinterest-worthy and want to save a little money doing it, so here are my tips to setting a beautiful Thanksgiving table:

1. Pick a festive color scheme.  There are so many great fall themes that can make a beautiful table.  I’m always a fan of gold and red because I love the look of gold charger plates.  The Dollar Tree has gold charger plates for only $1 each, and you can re-purpose them for so many different things after Thanksgiving (including serving platters for other parties).  If gold charger plates aren’t your thing, you can use sheets of fall themed scrapbook paper as “place mats” under each plate, and many of them are on sale right now since it’s the end of the fall season.  You can also use a burlap and white theme, like this one from TomKat studio (complete with FREE printables),  or sprinkle some green or maroon in there for a light color palette with a pop of color. 
2. Create layers.  The more layers you build into your tablescape, the more visually appealing it is and the more expensive it looks!  Start with a textured table cloth (mine is an inexpensive Walmart one), add charger plates or place mats, and add your dishes and napkins.  I like to make each place setting a little work of art, even enlisting the help of my mom the night before! 🙂  For this particular table, I used some orange burlap cord  (from Dollar Tree) to tie a bow around my red napkins (which also do double duty for Christmas breakfast).  Then I tucked a red and yellow leaf into the tie to make a sweet little decoration on the plate.  Since all this colors are in the same color family, it all coordinates nicely.
3. Use the real stuff.  I’m a fan of real linens, dishes, and candle light.  I know, I know.  It’s so much easier to use plastic dinnerware, especially since they make really “convincing” plastic now, and it seems cheaper.  But to me, it’s not a Thanksgiving table without real dishes and napkins.  Here’s the key – invest in your dishes and linens and reuse them year after year.  All of my white plates are from Big Lots, and if they break I can replace one individually.  There are also dishes at Dollar Tree for $1 each.  It is much less to pay $10 for 10 dishes that you will use year after year than it is to buy a pack of plates and throw them away after dinner. 
4. Give your guests something to look at.  I love to decorate the center of the table with a little “story” for each and every place setting.  This past year, I used different sized glass vases and votives to make lots of beautiful light.  I used printed ribbon over burlap for a beautiful table runner that cost under $5 to make!  More on that to come.  Then, I sprinkled leaves and gourds down in the negative space.  It was the perfect blend of rustic and glam.  I bought the gourds at Michaels and used a coupon so it was less than $8! 
5. Borrow what you need to and buy what you can reuse.  I always buy my own dishes, glassware, and linens because I know I can use it in some capacity over the course of the year.  But things like extra chairs and serving platters can be borrowed from friends and family – AND you won’t have to figure out how to store them once Thanksgiving is over.  Bonus points!

Well there you have it!  It’s super easy to set a beautiful Thanksgiving table on a small budget.  It’s all about using these quick tips to make sure your table is both beautiful AND inexpensive. 

Until next time, ya’ll!

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