I recently had an appointment to go check out CE Rental - Top of the Table Design. They are the rental place that our caterer, General Store Cafe, collaborates with. The day before, I practically had a panic attack because I was so anxious about choosing what I wanted...or, even knowing what I wanted! As I've said many times before, on my blog and in real life, I have never done this before! I can throw a wicked party (if I do say so myself!) but I have never planned an event for over 100 people! I knew there were going to be a lot of options and that meant a lot of choices and that meant a lot of decisions and I was getting myself worked up before I even got there!!!!!!
I decided I would take some of my milk glass containers and some fake fall colored flowers to stick in them, to help me see my vision. Imagining is not really my strong suit, and I was worried I would not be able to really envision all the elements coming together.
And it turns out, I was worried for nothing (again)!
Jenn from GSC met me there (Is that normal? She is not a coordinator per se.... either way, super nice of her!), and we met with a woman from the rental company. Jenn had printed out my inspiration board and I busted out the milk glass and fake flowers. Then we were off to browse the very large, extensive warehouse of linens. It was so awesome! They explained the differences in quality and price, and I immediately vetoed all the elaborately designed linens.
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Not really our style.
Instead, we gathered some of the basic linens to try in brown and orange, as well as a green burlap-ish one, and a regular burlap linen. And the table dressing began!
First up, basic brown. This was nice but I had a couple of reservations. One, our barn is brown. Brown walls and brown floor and brown ceiling might mean brown linens would be a bit too much...brown. Two, once I saw the other textured linens, the cotton-poly linen was a bit bland.
With white plates and a yellow napkin.
Same look, different color napkin.
First up, basic brown. This was nice but I had a couple of reservations. One, our barn is brown. Brown walls and brown floor and brown ceiling might mean brown linens would be a bit too much...brown. Two, once I saw the other textured linens, the cotton-poly linen was a bit bland.
With white plates and a yellow napkin.
Same look, different color napkin.
Next we checked out the green burlap-y one! The texture was really interesting to me, and although I actually thought "I have never noticed anyone's linens at any wedding, ever" I rationalized that a lovely linen can really add to the overall aesthetic. Right?
In this first pic, you can see both the napkins, as well as a charger we were playing around with at the bottom of the photo. At two dollars a pop, though, the chargers are out - I didn't love them that much anyways.
In this first pic, you can see both the napkins, as well as a charger we were playing around with at the bottom of the photo. At two dollars a pop, though, the chargers are out - I didn't love them that much anyways.
And here is a close up of our lovely silverware and the texture of the green burlap-y one (I keep saying burlap-y and burlap-ish because the actual burlap was really rough and raw, and this was much more refined and smoother). I figured it'd be like, "Here's the basic ones, the rest of them are an arm and a leg and 5$ a piece" but they had a wide selection at the lowest price! Don't you think this adds a touch of vintage classiness to go with our milk glass? (Just say yes, ok?)
So I was really feeling the green burlap, and they were about to work up a price for me, when I looked past the woman's shoulder and saw the GLINEN! She had mentioned the glinen earlier when we were wandering the warehouse, and she was going to pull some, but she forgot and so did I. So I asked if we could try the glinen, just to see.
Oh, what is glinen, you ask?
GLITTER LINEN. Here, let me show you!
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Duh...winning!
Oh, what is glinen, you ask?
GLITTER LINEN. Here, let me show you!
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Duh...winning!
Bahahaha, just kidding! It's this, for real.
It has the texture of refined burlap, and has a subtle golden thread running through it that makes it glitter! Hence the name, glinen. Can you see the subtle sparkliness in the above image a little? (I took these pics on my iPhone, and so they are not the best quality, sorry.)
I was super excited after discovering the glinen. I really loved it, way more than I thought I would. I got samples of all the fabrics and the napkins, and showed them to the Mister. He immediately eliminated the brown and green ("too dark" he said) and narrowed it down to the glinen too!
And isn't "glinen" such a fun word to say???
How'd you pick your linens? And if it were you, which linen do you like the best of the ones shown?
The above photos also feature glinen, courtesy of Erin McLean Events.
And isn't "glinen" such a fun word to say???
How'd you pick your linens? And if it were you, which linen do you like the best of the ones shown?
I was really liking the texture and color of the green burlapish, and then the sparkly silver glinen came up and I was like, "This has taken a turn for the worst..." I have seen that type of fabric with the gold woven in (in fact our linens were white with silver woven in) and it looks really, really nice. Things are coming together lovely!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Is it really called glinen?
When you said glinen I totally was envisioning disco ball material...but this stuff looks great!! Such a pretty look!
ReplyDelete@Kristin - yes, it's really called glinen! I think they make it there. I tried to google it and could not find any results.
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna try to take a better pic of the sample I have and post it. I wish I could just like, zoom the sample into the computer so you guys could touch and feel and ooh and ahh over it (like you care so much, huh?). I have been watching (and re-reading) too much Harry Potter lately!