Tablescapes

"We designed a sunset dinner to showcase the New Museum’s Sky Room venue. Top-tier clients mingled in a space designed to convey the experience of watching the summer sunset from a field of foxtail millet." —Garin Baura

The tables at a graffiti-themed bar mitzvah designed by David Stark Design and Production, held at Center 548 in New York, displayed arrangements of daffodils and ranunculuses sprouting from cinder block planters.

"This corporate dinner needed to merge two very different companies: the lavish aspect of Moët Hennessey and the modern, urban edge of Wallpaper magazine. We played with contrast and scale by creating a floating garden overhead while the actual surface of the table was merely a strict double row of square glass votive candles." —Lewis Miller

For the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center’s gala, held in Miami in December, Shiraz Events designed miniature terrariums in fishbowls, that were placed on highboy tables during cocktail hour.

The Mint Agency used sand, shells, and bowls holding live fish as centerpieces at the September premiere dinner for Spring Breakers during the Toronto International Film Festival.

For the Clean the World gala, held at the Peabody Orlando in 2011, Special Event Floral filled fishbowls with blue marbles, then added battery-operated lights. The Peabody Orlando's duck soap appeared to float on top of each centerpiece.

David Monn decorated the Park Avenue Armory in New York for the 2012 holiday season. Monn used candles housed inside glass fishbowls to line the baseboards inside the ornate space.

Held on March 9, the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science’s annual Galaxy Gala had an aquatic theme inspired by the museum’s new facility now under construction, which includes a 500,000-gallon aquarium. Produced by Jose Dans and held at the JW Marriott Marquis, the various centerpiece designs by Wow Factor included stacked fishbowls filled with sand, lichen, pincushion proteas, and red branches.

Dinner at the California Science Center’s Discovery Ball, held in Los Angeles in March, took place underneath the wings of the Endeavour space shuttle. Reflecting the space theme, illuminated tables were topped with mini solar systems and tropical flowers in glass bowls.

At the 2009 awards reception for Commercial Real Estate Women, a national association representing women in the industry, fishbowls holding live goldfish were embedded into the bars, adding to the evening's aquatic theme.

For New York Design Center's table at Diffa’s Dining by Design in New York in 2011, Coffinier Ku Design folded red napkins into flower shapes and topped each one with a flower- and water-filled glass bowl.

At Diffa’s Dining by Design in Chicago in 2011, Erg International’s table, designed by Weetu, was topped with filmstrip-filled glass bowls.

A cute touch at Michael Amini's Old Hollywood-themed table: film canisters serving as chargers.

Kenneth Cobonpue's table was enclosed inside a sort of wicker birdcage. At the center of the organic wooden table was a mound of moss topped with bowls that held live Betta fish; directly above was a chandelier composed of glass jars holding faux fireflies.

At the Ralph Lauren Home table, vases filled with fluffy white ranunculuses echoed the oversize white paper lanterns glowing overhead. A slate waterfall backdrop flanked by palm tree trunks completed the tranquil scene.