We're lucky enough to have a guest post from florist Patricia Hall. She has some wow-tastic ideas for floral decor for your dinner table. Hope this inspires you next time you're throwing a dinner party!

Are you interested in guest blogging? If so, contact Julie!

And now, take it away, Patricia!

What’s more beautiful than a flower arrangement at the dinner a table? Floral variety and arrangement possibililties are endless! Here are some decor tips.

The rule of thumb is that the floral arrangement shouldn’t obstruct a diner’s view of the other guests. So, the flowers are most likely to be arranged in a shallow bowl or some other low lying container, and arranged mostly in spheres or in a more convex arrangement. However, if it’s only dinner for two, the flowers don’t have to be in the center of the table, but can be off to one side. In that case, the arrangements can be taller than usual. An arrangement can also be larger than usual if the table has one side against a wall. There can even be trees of roses, daisies or carnations. These are tall, but there's enough clearance beneath them so the guests can still see each other and hold a conversation.

Get creative when you're thinking about floral containers. Votive candle holders make lovely dinner table floral containers. They can hold one blossom each and be arranged down the length of the table. Adding some gently glowing tea candles is a nice touch. A single, long stemmed flower like a red poppy might even go well in a candlestick. Flowers can be arranged in ceramic bowls or rectangles, or in silver or glass bowls. Since silver stains easily, it would be best to put a glass liner in it before the flowers are added. Flowers can even be arranged in casserole dishes or mugs. Sometimes containers can be dispensed with all together, and there can just be rows of flowers on the table. In this case, to keep them still fresh looking all evening, they should be soaked in cool water for a few hours before the dinner party, or arranged on damp florist’s moss.

Yet, another idea is to have tiny vases of flowers by each place setting, or a single blossom on each plate.

The flowers in an arrangement can be fresh or dried. Old favorites for fresh flowers are roses, of course, zinnias, chrysanthemums, daisies, lily of the valley, tulips, sweet pea, and other flowers with a scent that’s pleasing but not so powerful that it overwhelms the smells of the food. Flowers that make good floral arrangements after they’re dried are anemone, aster, baby’s breath, calendula, nasturtiums, monkshood, orange blossoms, peonies, ranunculus, larkspur, lavender, lilac, violet and yarrow, teasel and loosestrife.

Patricia Hall works part-time for a florist but loves to surround herself with flowers at any given point of time. Even in her free time she loves to involve herself with everything flora and fauna.
"To me there is nothing more beautiful and global as the language of flowers - it is the easiest to understand all around the world in the same way. That is one reason why I truly admire flowers for what they represent in some ways - unity of all mankind"