Tablescapes

At the Elle Women in Hollywood awards this month at the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, long-time producer Caravents worked with Elle event director Katie Crown on the overall vision and event design. Blush tones in details from the linens to the roses created a feminime feel along with graphite mirror runners with clear cylinder vases.

Weight Watchers hosted a pop-up dinner party at Carondelet House in Los Angeles earlier this month. With fare focusing on lighter local options, all cooked by Katsuya chef Jennie Trinh, the event included organic fall produce and foliage down the center of the long, rustic table.

The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles hosts its annual "Gala in the Garden" each year with tightly curated decor. In 2010, the look included tabletops clad in green linen napkins and white pillar candles for an earthy, fuss-free air.

At Diffa Dining by Design's New York iteration in 2013, Kenneth Cobonpue placed plates and cups in organic shapes on a spare wood table. The minimalist setting allowed eyes to focus on the living centerpiece: a cluster of moss topped with bowls that held live Betta fish.

Lanterns and flickering votives topped tables.

In the second-level dessert lounge, Hoosier Mama Pie Co.'s station offered mini pies on a stick.

White flowers and manzanita branches spruce up the Whole Foods Market South Loop's Tablescapes design.

The centerpieces of leaves, pine cones, fruits, and beaded flowers sat in mahogany pedestal bowls.

Matthew David Hopkins of 360 Design Events placed bowls of floating candles atop vegetative green roofing tiles at the 9/11 Memorial benefit.

Van Wyck & Van Wyck produced this year's Friends of the High Line benefit in New York. The centerpieces consisted of small burlap sacks filled with air ferns and other plants, which guests could take home with them.

At Chicago’s Harris Theater gala in June, Bill Heffernan used centerpieces of ferns and freesia as part of the event’s moonlit-forest look.

In September, Los Angeles floral designer Eric Buterbaugh set topiary balls on beds of wheatgrass at the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s Women’s Cancer Research Foundation luncheon celebrating the Nancy Short lecture series.

Fox celebrated its fall television lineup with a casino-style event in Los Angeles. YourBash! and Sada's Flowers collaborated on the event's shabby chic look, which included simple arrangements of succulents decorating the tables.

Sutra International Design used leafy branches to make centerpieces that resembled miniature trees for the Palm Beach Heart Ball in February.

After hosting the reception on the elevated park, the Friends of the High Line took the dinner portion of its 2010 summer benefit in New York inside the Phillips de Pury & Company gallery. The decor from Van Wyck & Van Wyck was designed to give the various rooms of the gallery a continuous look reminiscent of the High Line and included a 600-foot-long strip of foliage suspended overhead.

The nonprofit Imagine1Day—which supports education in Ethiopia—hosted its first gala, honoring Tracy Anderson, at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills on November 19. To label each seat, organizers placed stones emblazoned with individual guest names on tabletops.

At The New York Times's table at the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS' Dining by Design benefit in New York in 2004, interior design company Eric Cohler Design made a crossword puzzle using guests' names to serve as seating cards.

Last year, the Holiday Chic Suite popped up on Chicago's Michigan Avenue, where Debi Lilly of A Perfect Event oversaw the design—including seating cards pinned to green apples with sparkly tacks.

For another idea using apples, the National Association for Catering and Events 2012 gala in Washington had a "once upon a time" theme, with details from story books—including calligraphy seating cards that nodded to the poisoned apple in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Among the creative place card offerings from Cambridge, Massachusetts-based LoLo Event Design are ones meant to look like messages in a bottle with names on ribbons tied to the corks and numbers inside—suitable for an event with a beach or adventure theme.