I am Beginning to Plan my Valentine's Dinner Party

I love vintage valentines.  I wonder how the school girls felt when they got one of these sweet valentines from a half century ago. 

Imagining  a young girl giving this one to her boy of choice makes me chuckle:

I have been doing a little Valentine's day decorating as I find the items I already own.

I found a bag of these never-used lettered blocks in the basement last week. I was thrilled to find four blocks with the letters I needed for the upcoming holiday.  I combined them with a bag of glittered items I bought last year and made a couple of decorations for the top of the two dining room china/curio cabinets.

I will only be home one weekend from now until Valentine's Day, so I need to make my plans for my dinner party with DH's two brothers and their wives.
I searched my tablescaping blog to see previous tables I have set for Valentine's day.  I found a few, which gave me some idea of what I have to work with. Because, honestly, I forget at least half of the dishes and dining accessories I own!

I think I will use the red goblets for sure.  I would also like to use some vintage Valentines on the table.  At the moment I am planning on a purple tablecloth. Now that I see the lace overlay on pink, I may use that on the purple.  Then again, half of the dinner guests will be men, so I don't want to get to prissy.  We shall see.  It is great to have years of blog posts to look back and see what I have. Without the blogs, I would never have remembered all of this stuff!

I would love to use the red fabric rosettes that say "love",

 but I can't remember where I put them!  If strawberries look good in February, I may dip some in chocolate and nuts because I remember that these were very delicious last year. 

I am planning on stuffed chicken breasts and these Parmesan-crusted potatoes for dinner: I will throw a bit of pimento in the chicken filling for that splash of red color.

 I think a healthy fruit dessert would be nice, but I am not sure if that is what I will do. If the pears and strawberries look good a few days prior to my dinner, I may do both.  Then again, chocolate is always nice.............I am also planning on shrimp cocktails and a veggie--probably carrots to give some color. I think I will skip the salad ...or I could do just two shrimp in a heart shape and a small salad .... the planning is such fun, don't you think?

I really do love the planning of dinner parties.  I just hope it all turns out as I envision it!