Know the Basic Rules to Set Your Dinner Table

By knowing a little about how to set your table while making other preparations for a dinner party at home, you can make your party more disciplined and perfect. Like suppose, you prepare delicious food, but the table setting is not so impressive, you lose on this point.

But this is no more the case, as it is really simple to adopt these small tips which will help you design your table formally and informally. The formal rules are not that formal as it sounds as there are few important and easy ones. It depends on your type of guests or the party which you are arranging. If it is for your friends, you need not be formal and can experiment creatively. But it is impressive if you know the rules when some formal guests like your colleagues are invited.

There are a few things to consider before you actually prepare your formal dining table. First of all, one of your primary concerns should be to have an adequate amount of room at the table, which will allow your guests to be comfortable without being overcrowded.

If you choose to have background music, make sure it is pleasing and appropriate for that particular dinner party. Always keep it at a low level to allow your guests to easily converse without having to resort to shouting just to hear each other.

Be sure to allow at least an inch of room from the edge of the table.

When arranging the cutlery, your dinner fork should be closet to the left of the dinner plate with the smaller, salad fork to the left of it.

Next, the dinner knife should be to the right of your dinner plate, followed by the salad knife, with the soup spoon on the far side of the setting.

The goblets should be placed at the top right corner above the place setting and are aligned as follows:

The red wine goblet is placed above the tip of the knife, followed by the water goblet behind to the left, and finally the white wine goblet to the right of the water goblet. The glasses arrangement may vary slightly in different formal dining table settings, as well as the placement of the napkin.

A traditional setting may choose to put the napkin to the left of the forks, while another setting may place the folded dinner napkin directly on the dinner plate.

If you are using bread and butter plates, they should be placed to the left of the dinner plate and above the forks. Also, place the bread and butter knife across the plate.

Another step in setting your table is to decide on the linens you'll be using. A white tablecloth and napkins are considered traditional for a formal dinner, while a patterned tablecloth work well for a more informal gathering.

These are some of the rules for a formal table setting. However, you can even experiment with your creativity. Like instead of using flowers or candles as the centre pieces which are the most popular trend and seen everywhere, you can replace it with a beautiful tray of red apples arranged in a pyramid which is simple but elegant.

The basic idea is to know the rules and according to the situation use them by manipulating as it demands in order to be impressive and to arrange what is called a good dinner party.

About the Author

Palak Agarwal is a research analyst at Admanya.com, India's leading consumer internet portal which educates consumers by providing extensive product information and robust research. Visit http://consumer.admanya.com for latest consumer reviews, buying tips, prices, advices, surveys and reports.

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