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It’s that time of year when we’re thinking about long tables filled with friends, family and good food. I absolutely adore the autumn season here in Virginia where we get a true changing of the seasons.[/fusion_text]

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As much as I love being outdoors this time of year, I also love hosting a good fall party indoors since it can get a bit chilly at night. And lucky for us all, a big trend in decorating for the seasons is bringing the outside in, so we don’t have to skip out on those gorgeous, natural fall colors! By adding simple greenery and seasonal fruits and veggies to your party spreads, it creates a simple, elegant and (mostly) edible tablescape.

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A great shift in hostessing is to make the whole experience easy on yourself. At the end of the day, it’s all about gathering with your friends and family, right? No one wants a stressed out host. NO ONE. It’s not solely about impressing your guests; it’s about how your guests feel when they are there. I love to take my cues from Ina Garten and love when I get to repeat her mantra of “how easy was that?” while I am planning a gathering of any size.
Ina outsources where she can, so she’s not slaving away in the kitchen all day cooking up every element of her party menu. Of course a good home cooked meal is always nice, but for a simple fall get together, I don’t always have time for it, and the grocery store can do it better sometimes, especially with a few tweaks!
For this party, most everything came from the grocery store except for some simple personal touches like our white calligraphy pumpkins,  gold foiled napkins and blooms from my garden. I enjoy being able to add those special touches to make the whole spread feel special for my friends and family. And we’re happy to offer these items so that you can, too!

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A good color scheme can also help all your store bought food seem put together and purposeful. We went with a jewel toned fall colors theme in purples, reds, creams, greens and gold. Like I mentioned above, we gathered our most loved treats from the grocery store and our own decorations that are listed below.
Here’s what we picked up from the grocery store for our simple Fall Fête:

• Figs, Fig Jam, Grapes
• A white Cake that we simply spruced up with figs and rosemary
• Brie, Manchengo, Gouda cheeses
• Multigrain crackers
• Marcona Almonds
• Pumpkin Pie & Pecan Pie
• A few bottles of a good pinot noir

What we used as decorative tools to spruce things up:

• Simple greenery and blooms from my garden
• Our Real White Calligraphy Pumpkins & our selection of 6 Mini Pumpkins
• Our Thanksgiving collection napkins, you can see all of them here

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Our calligraphy pumpkins are in limited quantities this year, so if you want to get them for your party, porch, mantle of Fall tables, order sooner rather than later. They last for months after!
Whatever celebrations you have this season, we hope they are filled with your favorite people, really great food and a lot of “How easy was that?” 🙂
xo
Laura