Tablescaping

One Crafter's Success Story

A Craft Business Success Story

You won't find the word in the dictionary, yet there's hardly a woman alive who doesn't know what it means.

Tablescaping is setting themed tables for special events. The key word is "themed".

Tablescaping is more than bringing out your best linens and plopping a flower arrangement in the center of the table. It's creating an atmosphere for the meal that transports diners to a special time or place.

My sister-in-law, Jill, and her friend, Georjean, have built quite a successful business creating themed tables for large events like weddings and family reunions. They are much in demand and have won several tablescaping competitions with cash prizes and even a Caribbean vacation.

The last two years they were invited to decorate a room of the Pabst Mansion in Milwaukee for its annual Christmas Gala.

A job like the Pabst Christmas Gala doesn't pay much, but think of the free advertising. To quote from the 2005 event brochure: "Each year's magnificent decor attracts over 10,000 visitors, and this season will be no exception. The Mansion's rooms will be elegantly transformed by local designers ..." Then followed a list of the designers' names with their contact information.

It all began at a brainstorming session to raise money for their children's school. Someone came up with the idea of enlisting teams of mothers who would decorate tables from a single theme. Tickets would be sold for a cocktail viewing of the tables and then for a catered dinner on the beautifully-done tables the following evening.

By the time Jill and Georjean's kids had graduated, the annual event was so popular that no one would hear of them quitting. They moved the event to other venues and, over the course of the next ten years, they raised over $100,000 for local charities.

Also, over the course of those ten years, they started to get requests to do weddings, formal dinners and parties. And thus a very successful home-based business was born. I hope you enjoy the photos of some of the fundraiser tables. Jill always tells me the pictures don't do them justice.

You really have to be there to fully appreciate the incredible detail and ingenuity.