Fall Feast
What do you get when you collaborate with several of your talented Shreveport friends with fall weather and a one hundred year old location?? You get a fabulous Fall Dinner party that was one for the books! Several weeks ago, I had the privilege to host an amazing dinner party at my family farm, Frierson Plantation. And let me tell y’all, Shreveport’s got TALENT! From the flowers to the food, everything was top notch and it was so refreshing to put together a spectacular event with other like-minded creatives.
Before I go on, I want to give you a little history of our location, Frierson Plantation, which is my family’s farm that I grew up on. This year, Frierson Plantation celebrates its 100th Birthday and 6 generations of farming. Frierson Plantation was established in 1919 and my family has been farming cotton, soybeans, corn, cattle and timber since then and still does today. My Great-Great Grandfather, Loraine Scriven Frierson and my Great Grandfather, George Archer Frierson, founded it. They moved the farm from Frierson, Louisiana to Gayles, Louisiana in 1919 for access to the railroad and the land. The old store also known as the (commissary) where we hosted the dinner used to be the place where the families that lived on the farm got their supplies for the week, haircuts, clothes for women and men and even their kerosene for lanterns. This store has seen so much history through the years and today it still serves as an office for my dad and his brothers and several events throughout the year.
So it all started when my friend Janie Dickson, of Jane Allen Designs, and I decided that we wanted to have a dinner party together. Janie is just like me and shares a passion for fancy tablescapes and dinner parties. We knew we wanted to loop in our other creative friends, Briana Belton, of Briana Belton Designs for flowers, Blake Jackson, of Whisk Dessert Bar and Drake Catering and Jessica O’Neill of Art by O’Neill. We knew we had to document it and had Kaitlin Haley Photography and Ellen Cannon Photography capture it. It was a dream team in the making and I would collaborate with these people a million times again.
Once the date was set for Friday, September 27th and the location was established we all did our part and did what we each do best! Everyone brought their own unique talents to the table and it was a night to remember.
So let’s get to it! For the “theme” we obviously wanted it to represent everything fall has to offer and somehow a “fig” came into play. We used figs not only on the paper products but also in the food and an image of a fig was printed on the tablecloth we found which you can purchase here. The “fig” became kind of a symbol of our event. For the paper I collaborated with my friend Jessica of Art by O’Neill. She painted some fall-ish things and I designed the beautiful layouts of the invites, liners, menus, gift tags and more. I love how it all came together and you can shop our entire collection here. You’ll also find images of green cabbage Wedgewood plates, a pheasant and a red Scout car on many of the paper products. Such a fun collection for fall and the holidays so definitely check it out!
For the tablescape, I worked mainly with Jessica and Janie on this. We all love to style a table and we wanted something fancy and unique but also something relatable that you could recreate at home. We all have stunning collections of china, flatware and table top so we combined all of our stuff to have a curated, collected look and not something that looked like it was all bought at the store. Lots of the vases and candlesticks we used were found at estate sales, which are a favorite hobby of mine, Jessica and Janie’s. Our color palette was mainly greens and browns because we wanted earthy, rich tones. If this isn’t fall, I don’t know what is!
The plates were something I had been eyeing for some time and just needed the right reason to invest in them. I love these brown and white splatter ceramic dinner plates by Mark D. Sikes collaboration with Blue Pheasant. I purchased them at Amy Berry Home and if you in Dallas you should check out her exquisite store! We also used the coordinating bowls. You can purchase them through her website here. I also have a collection of Green Wedgewood Cabbage plates that we used for our salad plates. A prime example of mixing “old” with the “new”. For the flatware, Jessica owns a beautiful collection of silver that completed the look we were going for. Modern but collected and timeless. When you plan a dinner party remember that you don’t always have to buy all new things. It’s fun to be able to re use pieces that you already own.
The wine goblets we used were from VIETRI and I love their simple silhouette. They are so versatile and go with everything. You can find them here. Janie found the water glasses at Target and I love the green. So perfect for the holidays! The wicker placemats I already owned and are from Target as well. They are not available anymore but I linked two other similar favorites here and here.
Now on to the flowers, my favorite part! Brianna did not disappoint. She is so creative and extremely talented. All we told her was the color palette and I mentioned we must have dahlias! We just let her do her thing and the arrangements were stunning. They had fall foliage, dark crimson dahlias, real figs and pomegranates falling out of them. The centerpieces were complimented with brass candlestick holders of all shapes and sizes and topped off with brown candlesticks. I love the unexpected color of brown for candles. Always choose a fun color for your candles. It adds so much flair.
For the food, Blake created the most delectable menu. We started with a cheese board filled with figs, pickled veg and house charcuterie and ended with a honey fig tart served with gran mariner Chantilly cream. Blake is so talented and a creative chef I might add. He loves creating amazing food but also loves to plate a beautiful dish. Everything was so colorful which I love. The roulade of Cornish hen served with savory butternut squash bread pudding might have been my favorite dish! My mouth is watering just thinking of it. Blake, when can we do this again?
For the bar, I had the great idea of setting it up in the back of my cousins red Scout. I love the unexpected use of the car. It was the perfect touch to the night and made it that much more festive. We had great beer from a local brewery, Cane River Brewery, lots of bourbon, a signature cocktail and lots and lots of wine of course! I even had matching monogram cocktail napkins made by Lindy Jackson of Poppy’s Monograms. I sent her the artwork from my invitations and she digitized the art onto the napkins. I love this unique and special touch.
It was such a splendid night and lots of toasts were made. We had such fun chats reminiscing the old times spent at the farm and all the history of this special place. It truly was a remarkable event and I’m so glad we did it! The whole night wouldn’t have been complete with out my talented friend and photographer Ellen Cannon who photographed it all. I love looking back at these photos and sharing them all with you! Special thanks to all my friends that made this night possible! I am ready for Round Two!
XX,
Caroline
