Valentine's Day Tablescape & Cupcake Ideas

This post is jam packed with Valentine’s day ideas. I’ve got a tablescape for a romantic Valentine’s day dinner (or party) and a couple of cute and easy ideas to decorate Valentine’s day cupcakes (you know I love a good cupcake).

There is a video that goes through the whole decorating process, just click the thumbnail below to watch all the shopping and baking action!

// valentine’s day shopping

The Target dollar spot has really stepped up their game. There were so many decor items for 5 dollars or less, like tiered trays, coffee station supplies, baskets and florals.

I found some pink jars and vases in the Target dollar spot that I thought would work well to add a touch of color to our Valentine’s day tablescape.

If you’re wanting to go for a certain color scheme for dining table decor, these plastic dishes are such a great buy at Target. I got these for 75 cents each and am going to use these with some white dishes I already have to give an elegant romantic Valentine’s day look.

I placed some pink roses in the mason jars. All the fresh flowers I picked up at my Target as well.

These light pink bud vases were also from the Target dollar spot. I decided to use some large feathers to dress them up and add height to our table decor.

The floral filler was new this year in my Target. It was $12 for the 6 pieces of vase filler. You’ll see how I ended up using this on the tablescape in a minute! But this is really versatile because of the large shapes. You could definitely fill a vase with this and it would look so pretty!

// conversation heart centerpiece

You’ll need a small bowl and a large trifle bowl. I got the small bowl at Dollar Tree (it was originally clear plastic, but I had painted it) and the large glass trifle bowl at Target for under $20.

Use floral foam in the small bowl.

And then trim and place the white roses into a dome shape inside of the floral foam. I used some small white roses around the bottom to fill in any empty spots.

You’ll need about 4-5 bags of conversation hearts to fill the empty area between the bowls.

I added a ribbon around the top for decoration. I used double stick tape to stick it to the bowl.

// the tablescape

I used a gold tray in the middle of the table and then placed the other vases around the centerpiece.

Then I used a few of those extra feathers and the vase filler I found at Target this year to fill in any empty spots on the tray.

Let’s see what we can do to make plain old paper napkins fancy. I didn’t want to spend money on pink fabric napkins that I knew I wouldn’t use more than once a year, so paper napkins will be perfect.

I started by opening the napkin up all the way and doing an accordion fold.

I’m just going to fold the accordion in half and stuff it into the napkin ring. It will fan open and create a beautiful look to the table.

I had created the napkin ring from a paper towel roll and raffia for my Thanksgiving tablescape.

// valentine’s day cupcakes

I consider cupcakes part of any festive table decor. You can probably tell by the name of this blog that cupcakes are one of my favorite things. If I were stranded on a desert island and I had to survive on one food…it would be cupcakes!

For these cupcakes, we’ll use a white cake mix to keep it easy. I also picked up a filled pastry bag to make the decorating easy too!

I like to use almond oil instead of vegetable oil because it gives the cake an almond, wedding cake flavor. It steps up the flavor a bit if you’re going to use a boxed cake mix.

We’re going to make little hearts on the inside of these cupcakes, so while the batter is baking, you’ll want to find the smallest most symmetrical strawberries from the bunch.

I’ll be using my handy strawberry huller to prep the strawberries for our cupcakes.

For the first decorating idea, slice off the muffin top and use a small heart shaped cookie cutter on the top part. 

Spread some icing on the bottom part of the cupcake and then use sprinkles on top of the frosting. 

You could leave it like that, or use more frosting to decorate the cupcake top with the heart cutout.

To add a fresh strawberry “heart” to the cupcake, use a paring knife to cut out the center.

Then place the strawberry and put the top part over the strawberry.

You can decorate with icing and no one will suspect a strawberry is inside until you cut it open! I actually did a heart baked right into the cupcake in a previous post from a few years ago. It came out really good and was super cute, if you’re looking for another “heart” option to the strawberries.

If you’re messy with the frosting, a good way to hide any mistakes is by squishing the icing right into some sprinkles or edible glitter.

I also like beads for the tops of my cupcakes because they look so dressy. I think it’s fun to have a variety of cupcake designs on display. That way everyone can pick their favorite.

Let’s see how our tablescape came out. This look is so soft and sweet and elegant and would be great for a couple on Valentine’s day or for a small Valentine’s day party for family or friends.

What I really love is you can take these ideas and use whatever color scheme you like best. For example, if you wanted a red and white theme, you could use red heart candies in the trifle bowl and buy red roses. Or even use red foil wrapped chocolate hearts in that trifle bowl…there are so many options to customize this look.

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