@Choux Perhaps @Cassiope can critique the tablescape for us. I like the simplicity and warmth of it but I love a candle.
Bit late for this, but it seemed rude not to reply and it's an interesting contrast with the recent state banquet, much brighter and more intimate: no centrepieces or tall candlesticks, lots of fairly low vases confined to a strip down the centre of the table (which seems to have glass over some sort of white covering, to lighten the overall look).
The flowers are Gloriosa superba – instantly recognisable, exotic and almost certainly air-freighted from southern Africa (they are a summer-flowering climber and require a heated greenhouse in the UK). The way they've been used seems weird though. Corralling the flowers in a central strip which has a different covering from the rest of the table and scattering them haphazardly across it distances diners from the floral display and encourages them to admire the overall tablescape rather than appreciate that they're being honoured with striking, unusual and (probably) expensive flowers.
FWLIW, I’d have ditched the central staging, kept the plain glass specimen vases – which are perfect for showing off individual blooms – but positioned them at the midpoints between the place settings, creating a focal point for each pair of diners and drawing their eyes towards the exotic flowers.
The sheet of flowers-effect tablescape is a nice idea, but it's not going to work if you create a boundary between the flowers and the rest of the tablescape and Gloriosa lilies are the wrong flower for it.
My last floral derail for 2025, I promise!