Happy July! Can you believe the year is already more than half over? How time flies (although I wasn’t feeling this way 2 weeks ago)… If you follow along on twitter or instagram, then you already know that our darling little Zoe Elizabeth made her grand entrance on June 20. Oh how we love this precious gift of life…I didn’t know it was possible to love someone this much! She arrived 13 days late, and nothing surrounding the labor and delivery went according to our plans. Funny the way God works and teaches us to trust him! In the end, we have a healthy, beautiful baby and we couldn’t have asked for anything more!

I’ll write more about our sweet daughter later this week. For now, I wanted to share some gorgeous 4th of July inspiration. The 4th of July is my favorite holiday – the fireworks, the celebration of America’s founding, the backyard barbeques and small town parades, gathering together with the community – love it all!

For my July collaboration with Sweet Root Village, we decided on an elegant 4th of July tabletop, full of white blossoms and simple, elegant details.

The centerpiece is a collection of red vintage glassware and white blooms – tulips, peonies, ranunculus, and hydrangea. Anyone can recreate this simple and refined centerpiece.

The patriotic detail – the placemats – are actually prints torn from a vintage book of American paintings. I purchased this book at a thrift store for a few dollars not knowing how I’d use the artwork. When I was gathering inspiration for this shoot, I happened upon the book and was thrilled when I found these gorgeous images celebrating America.

I always prefer to use real dishes for gatherings, even if just a casual 4th of July celebration. They’re prettier, and add an element of charm and thoughtfulness to the dinner. For this tabletop, I simply collected white and blue & white flowered plates and layered them. They don’t have to match perfectly, and keeping the colors limited to blue and white allows for the diversity of patterns. Place a fresh flower on each guest’s plate and you instantly have the easiest and prettiest place setting.

Blowing out the candles at the end of the evening is a bittersweet moment. Friends and family are gone, yet there are few things that indicate a time well spent with friends and family better than low burning candles with wax cascading down the candle, piled high at the base. A beautiful aftermath.

What do you have planned for the 4th? I’m not sure how our little family will be celebrating, but I sure hope little Zoe likes fireworks! 🙂

Happy Monday, friends!