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Ask A Sacramento Expert: How To Decorate Your Home For Thanksgiving

November 13, 2015 / 5:00 AM PST / CBS Sacramento

Its's always nice to get into the spirit of things for the holidays. Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday for most everyone for many reasons. This day serves as a beacon, letting everyone know that fall and winter are engaged in an annual battle where the outcome is the same, season after season. Thanksgiving is also a day where we tend to over stuff our stomachs, but it somehow seems worth it. The leftovers alone make Thanksgiving a day to look forward to.

Not everyone greets this holiday by just showing up and eating. Some folks like to touch up their living areas by doing some simple and non assuming things. You'd be surprised how easy it can be to convert the way your home looks, feels and even smells. Local expert Kate Whelan, owner of Kate Whelan Events, was kind enough to lend us a few tips on how to make your home perfect for the holiday. After looking at Whelan's website, you'll likely choose to go with her to get your wedding looking the way you always dreamed it could.

Kate Whelan
Kate Whelan Events
1808 Q Street
Sacramento, CA 95811
(888) 808-5283
katewhelanevents.com

Whelan is no stranger to decorations both modest and extravagant working as an award-winning wedding planner and designer. She can handle anything from consultation to coordination by month for weddings, and also handles special and corporate event planning and designing. Event planning has been her life since the establishment of Kate Whelan Events in 2003, and she was recently named "best wedding planner" in the Style Magazine Readers 2015 Choice Awards. She is a trusted, relied-upon source for events and weddings throughout Northern California.

With her great eye and mind for events, decorating and design, it's no wonder that Whelan has some great home decoration tips up her sleeve for when you're getting ready to host Thanksgiving dinner. Here are her top tips to make your home sparkle this holiday.

Add A Natural Effect To Your Place Cards

If you'd like to add a touch of Fall beauty to your place settings, try adding a piece of autumnal nature as a place card. Fallen leaves, apples, pumpkins, pine cones, pomegranates and even small branches make for the perfect easel to prop up a simple cream place card. Names can even be written directly onto leaves, apples, pumpkins or pomegranates using a metallic Sharpie or paint pen.

Quick And Easy Tablescapes

A quick and easy centerpiece for your Thanksgiving tablescape uses only a few bags of fresh cranberries, a tall pillar candle and a classic glass hurricane. Place your candle in the hurricane, surround it with cranberries and add a few inches of water to float the berries. Add one or a grouping of these to the center of your table and accent them with a few gourds, pumpkins and pine cones. Make sure to leave room for all of the delicious Thanksgiving dishes

Address All Five Senses

With design, addressing all of the senses is important — and one of the first senses that comes to mind for Thanksgiving is scent. If your dinner is being delivered or the kitchen us far from your dining space, use a crock-pot to boil a few oranges and cloves nearby — it brings the divine scent of fall to the room.

As a hospitality professional Andy Soto has worked every facet of the industry. He currently leads the team at Spectrum Restaurant Consulting. He started writing a hospitality blog in 2009 and restaurant writing for Sacramento Press in 2010. In 2011 Andy became a Sacramento Restaurant Examiner for Examiner.com. His work can be found on Examiner.com.

Thanksgiving