Night Garden

Ninety guests is small enough that we could skip the single dinner table altogether, so we set four small tables under four different trees and moved the whole party between them course by course. Each tree got its own string of low-hanging bulbs, wired at head height so the light stayed under the canopy instead of washing out the sky above it.

The walk between trees took about ninety seconds, so we used it — a server stationed on each path with a tray of the next drink, timed to reach the group halfway between courses. Nobody had an empty hand crossing the garden, and nobody noticed the choreography until we told them afterward.