After Dark: Music & Light for the Summer Table
The other half of the table is the part you can't photograph — the sound, and the light low enough to stay all evening.
Last week I wrote about setting the summer table — the linen, the glasses, the food mostly already done. But the part that actually makes people stay isn’t on the table at all. It’s the two things you can’t really photograph: the sound, and the light.
The light.
Start lower than you think. One pillar candle down the middle, a few tea lights in the glasses you didn’t use, a hurricane to keep the flame from the breeze. Overhead light off, entirely. The table you fussed over for twenty minutes starts to look like something out of a film the moment the only light on it is moving.
The sound.
Music low enough that no one mentions it — but the silence never arrives. It should come from somewhere that isn’t your phone propped against a water glass. I keep one small speaker on the table; nothing technical, just something that looks like it belongs there and disappears into the evening once it’s playing.
The playlist.
The VivreEve Summer Table playlist — soul, slow grooves, a little after-dark — runs a little over an hour, which is about the length of a good first sitting. Press play and leave it.
That’s the whole production. Light it. Play it. Then sit down. If you’re just setting the table, start here → The Summer Table.
The Summer Table.
There is a particular kind of pressure that arrives with summer - the sense that the season is supposed to be effortless, and that if you are doing it correctly, you will be barefoot on a terrace somewhere, unbothered, with something cold in your hand.
Shop the Summer Table Edit -> The Summer Table
Everything I set a long evening from: linen tablecloth, napkins, wine glasses, tumblers, candles and holders, Ina Garten’s go-to dinners cookbook , Irreplaceable: 60 of Humanity’s Most Treasured Places, speaker .
What’s the one thing you always reach for when you set a table in summer? Tell me in the comments - I’m always editing.
À bientôt, Eve
P.S. Connect with me on Instagram @VivreEve or shop my curated recommendations on ShopMy.
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