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Lush Woodland Inspired Dinner Party

Lush Woodland Inspired Dinner Party

Who says you can’t bring the outdoors inside? Calluna Events recently held a staff party, and took it as the perfect opportunity to create an inspiring tablescape full of moss and elements of greenery for a lush look we can’t resist. Thank you, of course, to James Christianson Photography for capturing it all!

lush woodland inspired dinner party - photo by James Christianson Photography https://ruffledblog.com/lush-woodland-inspired-dinner-party

From the event planners, Calluna Events: As a wedding planner I’m constantly dreaming up inspiration shoots and thinking outside of the box for my next design. Planning our staff holiday party was no exception to this. Our entire team works so hard all year long that when it came to celebrating the holidays I wanted to do something completely unexpected and blow them away in the process. The inspiration for this dinner party came from my desire to create a party, just like the ones we create all year long, only where they were the guests of honor.

Ruffled - photo by James Christianson Photography https://ruffledblog.com/lush-woodland-inspired-dinner-party

wedding lounge area - photo by James Christianson Photography https://ruffledblog.com/lush-woodland-inspired-dinner-party

Ruffled - photo by James Christianson Photography https://ruffledblog.com/lush-woodland-inspired-dinner-party

My initial idea was to see if our favorite caterer, Blackbelly Catering (Chef Hosea Rosenberg of Top Chef Season 5 fame) was available. We had the pleasure of working alongside them so many times this year but this time I wanted to treat our team to their incredible farm to table experience! Once I learned they were available I set out to find a venue and decided upon Moss Denver, a brand new urban space in the Santa Fe Arts District in Denver, CO. I am always looking for unique and new venues and I’m honored to say our event was one of the first dinners in the space. Then I set out to curate my favorite vendors with the idea that if I was going to plan a magical evening out for my team, I also wanted to create a inspiration shoot in the process. Not only to document the process but to give back to all the vendors who helped my vision come to life! Very simply I took the name of the venue – Moss Denver – and the styling for the evening was born. I wanted a woodland, rich and sophisticated feel, combined with the raw brick and urban, industrial feel of the venue. The color palate consisted of deep greens, rich plums, wood and metal which are some of my favorite colors and textures.

garden wedding reception - photo by James Christianson Photography https://ruffledblog.com/lush-woodland-inspired-dinner-party

Ruffled - photo by James Christianson Photography https://ruffledblog.com/lush-woodland-inspired-dinner-party

woodsy wedding inspiration - photo by James Christianson Photography https://ruffledblog.com/lush-woodland-inspired-dinner-party

Working with the oh-so-talented Cindy Ollig of The Perfect Petal (a Denver icon in the wedding industry) I showed her my vision and she turned the florals into life. With one major twist – I wanted a hanging floral installation and Cindy suggest we bring in a hanging kokedama installation above the table – she had never seen it done before at an event! I love creating never been seen before designs so I was inspired by Cindy taking my vision and adding to it! Cindy incorporated my favorite flowers into the design – anemones, rannuculus, scabiosa, leaves, berries, moss and ferns, as well as a variety of plants and textures. And finally we added woodland green taper candles and low gold votives, adding the perfect romantic candlelight to the tablescape.

hanging greenery - photo by James Christianson Photography https://ruffledblog.com/lush-woodland-inspired-dinner-party

Ruffled - photo by James Christianson Photography https://ruffledblog.com/lush-woodland-inspired-dinner-party

woodland place cards - photo by James Christianson Photography https://ruffledblog.com/lush-woodland-inspired-dinner-party

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I wanted to showcase rental items that had not been used before from two of our favorite rental partners. Yonder Floral + Design provide slate gray plates, birch wood chargers and wood handled flatware, the first event and styled shoot to use these in the Denver area. Yonder provided the green vintage cut glasses and also provided a seating vignette we created with Yonder just for our event with love seats, poufs, pillows, throws and appropriately named The Boulder. Event Rents provided gunmetal gray chairs – which arrived in Denver on Monday and were unpacked just in time for our dinner on Thursday – again being the first event to see them. Event Rents also provide the stemware and gray silk napkins. I worked with Meagan at Whimsy Design Studio to create hand painted, hand calligraphed menus and hand calligraphed escort cards that were displayed in a take home kokedama for each of my girls. Meagan is super talented and I felt the whimsy of her calligraphy went perfectly with the overall vision for the tablescape. Blackbelly created a five course dinner featuring local and seasonal foods and I worked with Boulder Wine Merchant Owner and Master Sommelier Brett Zimmerman to pair the wines with each course. Finally my team took home hand made chocolates from Boulder chocolatier Fortuna The inspiration shoot was styled by myself, Heather Dwight, Owner of Calluna Events and photographed by the oh-so-talented James Christianson Photography, internationally known photographer, who we love to work with any chance we can! It was an evening we all will never forget and will always cherish!

woodland inspired table setting - photo by James Christianson Photography https://ruffledblog.com/lush-woodland-inspired-dinner-party

Ruffled - photo by James Christianson Photography https://ruffledblog.com/lush-woodland-inspired-dinner-party

Ruffled - photo by James Christianson Photography https://ruffledblog.com/lush-woodland-inspired-dinner-party

Ruffled - photo by James Christianson Photography https://ruffledblog.com/lush-woodland-inspired-dinner-party

View all images from this event in the gallery

View Comment (1)
  • Your floral arrangements are absolutely beautiful and I love the out of the box thinking with the hanging plants.. Very different and unique!

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