Easter Hosting Tips from friends of Rebecca Udall

Easter Blooms – with Liberty Lane

We spoke with founder of Cotswold floral design studio Liberty Lane Flowers, Jen Evans, for her tips on seasonal blooms to elevate your Easter table.

Easter is undeniably one of the most exciting times of the year, heralding the arrival of spring with some of our favourite flowers, including hyacinths, peonies, ranunculus and tulips. When curating your Easter table, embrace the power of contrasting colours and add interest in the form of shape and texture with foliage snipped directly from your garden.

Seeking inspiration from what's in season is always a great place to start when it comes to floral arrangements. When shopping for your Easter weekend feast, let the fresh produce guide you; choose seasonal fruits and vegetables, such as deep red chicory or striking pink radicchio and let these vibrant tones steer the aesthetic of your overall design.

If you choose to incorporate vegetables into your arrangements, consider making them the focal point by filling your vessels with these first and then adding flowers as elegant accents. If you're creating smaller arrangements in bud vases keep it simple and cohesive by using just one variety or one colour and grouping these together. This approach not only adds a fresh, modern feel to your design, but will ensure your creation makes a beautiful statement at the heart of the table.

Image: Liberty Lane & Victoria Barron Studios

Hand Painted Decor – with Isla Simpson

We've long loved English fabric and wallpaper designer  Isla Simpson's delicately painted decorative eggs whenever we've spotted them on Instagram and she's kindly shared a guide to creating your own.

Hand-painted Easter eggs make a beautiful seasonal decoration. Start by carefully blowing out an egg (I use an unpicker to make small holes), then sketch a design with pencil and paint – acrylic paint works best! 

Once dry, display them in a pretty antique bowl on your kitchen sideboard or dining table alongside spring flowers. A mix of brown, pastel, and white eggs looks especially lovely. Or, thread with ribbon to hang on an Easter tree. Save your egg boxes to store them for next year!

Image: Isla Simpson

Delicious Eats with Margie Nomura

The host of our favourite foodie podcast, Desert Island Dishes, Margie Nomura, shares her advice for remaining stress-free when catering for a group. 

My main tip when it comes to any kind of hosting or entertaining is to keep things simple and serve dishes that you can make ahead of time so you aren't stressed when you're meant to be enjoying yourself.

For Easter a lovely slow roasted shoulder of lamb is hard to beat. I love serving mine with creamy cannellini beans and leeks and then drizzled in a minty herby salsa. Slow roasted lamb is brilliant as the oven does all the hard work and you can even slow roast it the day before, shred it and pop it in the fridge and then just gently reheat when you're ready to eat. 

For dessert something like a cheesecake is brilliant as you can make it the day before and it's happy sitting in the fridge until you need it. So stress free you won't even feel like you've hosted anyone, apart from maybe the washing up! 

Margie's Mini Egg cheesecake recipe can be found here.

Image: Margie Nomura

Creating a Cosy Ambience with Studio Alexandra 

Ali Childs, founder of Interior Design Studio Studio Alexandra, gave us some pointers on how to reimagine your space for hosting. While the table is likely to be the star of the show, she recommends creating smaller moments around the home for guests to relax and enjoy the ambience.

While the table is likely to be the star of the show when hosting for Easter, it’s possible to create smaller ‘moments’ around your home for guests to relax, chat and enjoy the ambience. Textiles are your friend when transforming a space usually used for family life, I use bench seating topped with sheepskins or cushions to allow for more seating options around the table and drape throws on any sofas and armchairs – it takes any stress away from spillages and gives a layered and cosy place for people to sink into and chat. 

Any great celebration hits all the senses, delicious food and beautiful tablescapes are key, but the tone is set with a relaxed playlist and the scents that welcome guests as they arrive.  I lean into the joys of spring with a favourite fresh smelling candle and fill any vessel I can lay my hands on with wildflowers, that both look and smell great. I’m never less precious about symmetry and matching colours than I am in spring – there’s something wonderfully frivolous and playful about leaning into the bright, clashing colour palette the season has to offer.

A bar area is a non-negotiable when hosting for more than a handful of people. It creates a space for people to congregate away from any food prep in the kitchen and means the host can hand over responsibility for keeping glasses filled. I use a bar cart or sideboard stocked with trays full of colourful glassware, a selection of tipples and nibbles for a self-serve area so my guests can fend for themselves while I add the finishing touches in the kitchen!

Image: Studio Alexandra

Easter Table Styling with Rebecca Udall

And finally, Rebecca shares her styling tips for an Easter table to remember. 

For extra special mealtimes such as Easter, go above and beyond with place settings and elevated details. Making this as personal and relevant as possible is most effective: whether it’s a little Easter gift for little ones, children decorating eggs with humorous portraits of family members or a small piece of everyone’s favourite chocolate, think of ways to bring joy to your guests. Opt for thoughtful ideas over grand gestures.

Be inspired by the seasonal changes and nature. Potted plants or bulbed flowers in aged terracotta or wicker pots look lovely. Aesthetically, a mixture of pot sizes is best but not required. Favourites for bulbed flowers are hyacinths, narcissus and hyacinths. You might be able to catch the end of the season for hellebores which have beautiful movement.

Wicker and rattan are a wonderful addition to an Easter table and I would always look to incorporate this in somewhere. Different textures, I think, are what really elevate a table. From linens to rattan, to decorative florals and eggs plus table accessories such as napkin rings and so forth – all the small elements come together for big impact.