Decorating for occasions and the dining table

22 min

Let's begin

A school graduation, a gusaba ceremony, a birthday and a family Sunday lunch all need decorating, but not in the same way. Decoration for an occasion has to do three jobs at once: set the mood the hosts want, guide guests to the important places (the entrance, the stage, the head table), and still leave room to eat, talk and move safely. This lesson shows how to plan the decoration of an event and how to decorate a dining table.

Definition

Theme: the single idea that links all the decorations of an event, for example "national colours" or "Rwandan heritage".

Formal decoration: decoration that follows set rules, often symmetrical and in a limited colour scheme, as at a wedding reception or official dinner. Informal decoration: relaxed, personal decoration, as at a family meal or a birthday.

Centrepiece: the main decoration placed in the middle of a table. Table runner: a long, narrow strip of fabric laid along the middle of a table.

Planning decoration for an occasion

Occasion and mood. Is it formal or informal, joyful or solemn? A wedding reception can be lavish; a commemoration calls for simple, restrained decoration.
Theme and colour scheme. Choose one theme and two or three colours. For a national day, the colours of the Rwandan flag (sky blue, yellow and green) are a ready-made scheme. Traditional ceremonies such as gusaba are often decorated with Rwandan crafts: woven baskets, wooden milk pots, mats and imigongo-style panels.
The venue. Note its size, light, power points and whether it is indoors or in a tent. Ask what may be fixed to the walls, and never block exits or fire equipment.
Focal points. Put the strongest decoration where eyes should go: the entrance, the backdrop behind the stage or head table, and the cake or gift table.
Budget. List every item with its cost before buying, and look for things you can borrow, reuse or pick, such as leaves, flowers and fabric.
Safety and clearing up. Plan who will remove the decorations and how waste will be sorted. Rwanda bans plastic carry bags and single-use plastic items (Law N° 17 of 2019), so prefer fabric, paper, leaves, flowers and baskets that can be reused or composted.

Decorating a dining table

Item	Good practice
Tablecloth	clean and ironed, hanging evenly on all sides; white or plain for formal meals
Table runner	along the centre of the table, in a colour from the theme; a strip of kitenge makes a cheap, bright runner
Centrepiece	low enough for guests to see each other (a common guide is under about 30 cm), or tall and slender on a stand well above eye level (Figure 2); not wider than about a third of the table, so dishes still fit
Flowers	fresh, without strong scent, which competes with the smell of food; shake off loose pollen and petals so nothing falls into dishes
Napkins	folded the same way at every place; simple folds (rectangle, triangle, fan) are quicker and more hygienic than elaborate ones that are handled a lot
Lighting	candles kept well away from fabric and flowers and never left burning unattended; battery candles are safer

Flower Moxie: making a long, low floral runner as a table centrepiece. Watch how the flowers are kept low and spread along the table, and how greenery fills the shape before the larger flowers go in.

Worked example

Worked example 1: a decoration budget (illustrative prices). A class is decorating 8 tables for a graduation lunch. Each table needs one kitenge runner at 2,500 Frw, flowers costing 3,000 Frw, and 8 cloth napkins hired at 100 Frw each. The budget is 60,000 Frw. Is it enough?

Runners: $8 \times 2{,}500 = 20{,}000$ Frw.
Flowers: $8 \times 3{,}000 = 24{,}000$ Frw.
Napkins: $8 \times 8 = 64$ napkins; $64 \times 100 = 6{,}400$ Frw.
Total: $20,000 + 24,000 + 6,400 = 50,400$ Frw.
Left over: $60,000 - 50,400 = 9,600$ Frw. The budget is enough; the runners can be reused at the next event.

Worked example

Worked example 2: decorating for a national day. Mugisha's school hall is to be decorated for Liberation Day (4 July). Plan the decoration.

Theme and colours: national colours, sky blue, yellow and green, with white as a neutral.
Focal point: a backdrop behind the stage of blue, yellow and green fabric drapes, with the national flag displayed properly and respectfully.
Tables: white cloths with alternating blue, yellow and green runners, and low arrangements of yellow flowers and green leaves.
Entrance: two potted plants and fabric bunting in the three colours.
Safety: drapes fixed firmly away from lights and exits; no single-use plastics; a team named to take everything down.

Warning

Safety at decorated events. Keep decorations clear of exits, fire extinguishers and electrical sockets. Never hang fabric over hot lamps. Balloons are a choking hazard for young children: the US Consumer Product Safety Commission warns that children under 8 can choke or suffocate on uninflated or broken balloons, so pick up every burst piece at once.

Tip

Memory hook: "Mood, theme, place, budget, safe." Plan an event's decoration in that order. On a table: low, light and not scented.

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Practice

Define a theme and a centrepiece.
Give two differences between formal and informal decoration.
List three things to find out about a venue before decorating it.
Give three rules for a centrepiece on a dining table.
Decorations for 6 tables cost: runners 3,000 Frw each, flowers 2,500 Frw per table, and candles 1,200 Frw per table. Find the total cost.
Plan the colour scheme and three decorations for a gusaba ceremony that the family wants to look traditional.
A host puts tall bouquets of strongly scented lilies and lit candles in the middle of each dining table. Evaluate this choice and suggest improvements.

Show answersHide answers

A theme is the single idea that links all the decorations of an event. A centrepiece is the main decoration placed in the middle of a table.
Formal: follows set rules, often symmetrical, limited colours (wedding reception, official dinner). Informal: relaxed, personal, more varied (family meal, birthday).
Any three: size; light; power points; indoors or in a tent; what may be fixed to walls; where the exits and fire equipment are.
Low (under about 30 cm) or tall and slender above eye level; no wider than about a third of the table; no strong scent; no loose pollen or petals; candles away from fabric.
Per table $3,000 + 2,500 + 1,200 = 6,700$ Frw; total $6 \times 6{,}700 = 40{,}200$ Frw.
For example: natural colours (black, white, red-brown, ochre and the colour of woven grass); an imigongo-style backdrop; woven mats and agaseke baskets on the tables; wooden milk pots as centrepieces or on a display table.
Poor: tall bouquets block the view across the table, strong lily scent competes with the food, lily pollen can drop and stain, and lit candles near flowers and cloth are a fire risk. Use low, lightly scented arrangements and battery candles, or keep real candles away from anything that can burn.

Sources and credits

Lesson text, table, Figure 2, worked examples and practice: written by Ganzaa. Prices in worked example 1 are illustrative.
Balloon warning: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, balloon safety guidance, summarised in Ganzaa's own words.
Photo: Elegant table setting with white floral centrepiece, Bhullargraphic (DP Singh Bhullar), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Video: How To Make a Floral Runner Centerpiece with an Oasis Tray, Flower Moxie, embedded from YouTube.

1Planning decoration for an occasion

2Decorating a dining table

Planning decoration for an occasion

Decorating a dining table