Table florals that let guests
actually see each other

The 25cm rule

Guests sit across from each other. Anything taller than about 25 centimetres puts a wall of foliage between two people trying to talk. Keep compositions low and wide, or go genuinely tall and thin above sightline. The middle zone is where bad weddings live.

The vocabulary, in case you need it

• Kenzanpin holder for low bowls
• Runnerrepeated low pieces along the table
• Bud vase clustersingle stems, varied height, cheap look-big
• Posysmall hand-tied at each place setting

Edible accents that are not a gimmick

Figs, pomegranates, artichokes and olive branches work because they belong at a table. The trick is restraint: one food element per table, treated like a flower, not a fruit basket. A halved fig next to a garden rose reads intentional. Twelve citrus per setting reads desperate.

Candles and the smell problem

No scented candles near food, ever, and no heavily perfumed flowers at nose height. Stargazer lilies are banned from our dinner work for this reason. Eucalyptus at low level is fine; guests smell it only when they lean in to ask who did the flowers, which is the correct moment.

Table work is part of the event workshop and comes up again in the bootcamp when we quote restaurant subscriptions. For palette thinking, read the colour theory piece.