Setting a Pretty Table for Your Girlfriends: Pink & White

Setting a pretty table for your girlfriends’ lunch shouldn’t be stressful. It should feel easy and fun to create. 

Plus, you shouldn’t break the bank trying to impress your besties with an over-the-top table setting. 

A lunch with your girls needs to be casual and effortless. 

That was my goal with this sweet pink and white tablescape. 

Soft ~ simple ~ relaxed.

I created this girlfriends’ lunch table keeping those three keywords in mind. 

I wanted to share a table setting with you that you can easily recreate. That you feel confident to set yourself. Because you can do it ~ you can “set” this pink and white table setting. 

It’s not elaborate. It’s not filled with tons of pink and white table decor. It’s not going to take you an hour to set. 

Setting a pretty girlfriends’ luncheon like this table will take you 15 minutes. Tops!

Keep in mind, that you can recreate this table setting using any combination of two colors you want. That’s partly why it’s so simple.

If a pink and white table isn’t your color scheme, consider using yellow and white, blue and light gray, or light green and teal. Or any other variety of two colors.

Any combination that you like will work well. 

*Before I get into sharing with you how to set a pretty table for your girlfriends, I want to point out that this table is set using items from Target and vintage pieces. 

It’s a Target meets vintage table setting!

A super affordable table. Whoop~whoop!!

How to Set a Pretty Lunch Table for Your Girlfriends

Please note that this article may contain affiliate links. I may get commissions (at no cost to you) for purchases made through these links. You can read my full disclosure for more details.

Step 1: Select the foundation for your casual girlfriends lunch

When you decide to host your girlfriends for a casual luncheon, and you start thinking about how you’re going to set the table, the first thing to consider is what you will use as the foundation for the lunch table setting. 

How casual of a lunch will it be?

Do you want a bare tabletop? Or do you want to use a table runner, placemats, or a tablecloth? 

Having friends over for lunch is a great reason to dust off and use that table linen. You know, the one(s) that has been sitting in a drawer or cupboard for a while. 

Don’t keep it there. Bring it out and put it on your table and share it with your besties. They’ll appreciate it!

For my pretty pink and white table setting, I opted to use three table runners and run them across the width of the table, not the length of it. 

As you can see here, they’re short table runners, so they were perfect to go across my table. 

Also, they were cheap! (Otherwise, I wouldn’t have bought three of them.) I found them at Target, in the Dollar Spot section at ½ off. That’s $2.50 each!!! 

*Note: keep an eye out at Target for these deals!!

The neat thing about placing runners across your table is that the runners then act as placemats and part of the centerpiece at the same time. Double-duty!

Step 2: Layout the place settings for your luncheon table

After you have decided on the foundation for your lady’s lunch table, it’s time to set the table with the dishes, glasses, and silverware. 

I started my place settings with inexpensive silver charger plates. I had found this set of six at a local secondhand store for $3, which was a great deal. You can also find inexpensive chargers at Dollar Tree. 

Then I placed pink dinner plates on the chargers. 

(Can you tell that they’re plastic? Yep! Also from Target ~ for just 50 cents each!!) I’m all about keeping my table settings affordable, and I know that my besties won’t care that they’re plastic. They’ll probably love that they are!

On top of the dinner plates, I added light gray salad plates and put them off-center. (These too were from Target. Don’t you love their organic shape!) The placement creates a unique visual quality to the place setting. 

Next was adding the silverware and drinking glasses. Since I was using a salad plate, I included a salad fork next to the dinner fork in the place setting. 

Do you see those pink and white drinking glasses? They’re vintage! I found both sets at the same estate sale (that lady had AMAZING stuff!!). You can also shop for vintage drinking glasses on Replacements.com.

I paired the vintage drinking glasses with the Target table runner and dishes. See how pretty your table can be when you mix new and old pieces together. 

The key is for the colors to match. To stay true to your theme.

Then to complete the place settings for your girlfriends’ lunch table ~ add the napkins and napkin rings. 

I rolled up white napkins that have a lace detail and secured them with friendship bracelets that doubled as napkin rings. 

These diy friendship bracelets were SO EASY to make.

Seriously! They were easy. You can make them too.

I’d never made a friendship bracelet before (and didn’t want to make ones that were crazy involved). I was able to make these while watching TV. Check out how simple they’re to diy.

The best part is the bracelets also act as placeholders. So your friends know where to sit. 

Whether they choose to wear their bracelet, or not, they will definitely appreciate that you took the time to make something for them. 

And it will make your girlfriends luncheon that much more special!!

Step 3: Create a simple lunch table centerpiece

You’re almost done creating a simple lunch table for your besties. 

All that’s left is the centerpiece. 

I don’t know about you, but when a table setting doesn’t have a centerpiece, it feels naked to me. That it really needs something, not just the place settings. 

Do you feel that way too?

The centerpiece doesn’t need to be elaborate. It doesn’t need to have lots of elements and “stuff” as part of it. 

Your lunch table centerpiece can be SUPER SIMPLE. 

Like mine. 

I have a collection of milk glass vases. I see these vases being sold on Facebook Marketplace all the time. Often people have used them for weddings, and they don’t need 50 of them. (That’s A LOT!) So if you like milk glass, I bet you can find some vases pretty cheap. 

Of course, if you don’t have milk glass vases, small clear (or other colored) vases will work great for this simple centerpiece, too. 

Just line them down the middle of your table. I staggered the height of the vases as I like it visually, but you can put the tall ones in the middle and short ones on the ends if you prefer. After all, it’s your table!

To tie the pink and white tablescape theme together, I added delicate pink and white flowers to the vases. 

This is a simple table setting, so an elaborate floral bouquet wasn’t necessary.

*If you have a lot of vases ~ give each guest a vase with flowers to take home as a party gift. Everyone loves flowers!

Step 4: Consider other areas in your room to decorate

After you have finished setting the table for your girlfriends’ lunch, look around your room. Are there other areas that you should decorate with your theme colors?

Many of us have other pieces of furniture in the same room as our dining table and it’s nice to carry the theme colors onto those pieces. It makes them part of the table setting, too.

I have a buffet next to my dining table. Both were inherited from my Nana. I find decorating it with the same colors as on my table makes the room feel cohesive.

Keep in mind that you don’t need to go crazy decorating other surfaces in your room. Often times, just a little something works great.

For my pink and white themed table setting, I carried it onto my buffet.

I started with a cute wooden tray with handles that I had diy’d. Actually, I transformed a Target Dollar Spot Father’s Day tray into this pretty diy footed tray with handles. You should check what it looked like before and see how easy it was to transform. It looked SO different! (The link is below.)

Now, in all honesty, I had intended for this simple diy tray to be part of the centerpiece on my table. BUT it was too wide and took up too much space. It just didn’t look good as part of the table setting.

So I tried it on the buffet. Yep. Definitely cuter and fit better there!

Then I added a few more of the milk glass pieces I have on either side of the tray, and a small bowl in the middle with a few of the same flowers I used in the pink and white table setting centerpiece.

It definitely echos the three words I mentioned above: soft ~simple ~ relaxed.

There’s one more thing to consider when you’re hosting a lunch for your girlfriends.

Where will the food go? Will you be serving them? Will they bring their plates to a counter to fill them up? Or will the food dishes be placed on the table?

If you want your food dishes on the table, this simple centerpiece is SO EASY to move.

If you have a buffet, or countertop close to your table, like I do, just move the vases to it and display them in an attractive way.

Then the middle of your table setting is freed up for the food dishes. And your room still looks super cute and the theme is still being seen.

Gotta love how easy setting a pretty table for your girlfriends’ lunch can be! And talk about low stress!

Now you have NO EXCUSE to invite your besties over for a relaxed and fun-filled lunch. They’re gonna be SO impressed with you!!

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Check out the easy DIY projects used to decorate this tablescape:

• DIY Wooden Target Tray Transformation
• DIY Friendship Bracelet Napkin Ring

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Shop the Table

Check out other table settings:

• Coastal Grandmother Table Setting
• Simple Father’s Day Tablescape: White, Black & Green
• Blue & Yellow Tablescape for Spring with Mixed Patterns
• Simple Easter Lunch Tablescape: A “Pop” of Orange

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