Knowing Your Dinnerware by Knowing a Few Things

When you are the host of a dinner party, your table setting is the first factor that will set the mood. Naturally, your guests have advance information that the party will be either formal or casual from your invitation, thus, will set their expectations of the dining experience to the right level. It's your table setting that will start the party in their heads going, so to speak.

Know Your Theme

So, the question remains: How do you choose the right dinnerware for the party? The answer is simply to choose based on the theme of the party! Since you are the host, you must set the party theme, search through your kitchen shelves for the right tableware, and then begin the work of setting the table from the dinnerware to the accents.

When the party is in celebration of the holidays like Christmas, it is only logical that Christmas-themed flatware and dinnerware as well as the table decorations must be laid out. You need not necessarily purchase dinnerware with Christmas trees, snowmen and Santa Claus printed on it since you are only trying to evoke the spirit of Christmas. You can use the colors of Christmas, for example, as an inspiration - red, green and gold motif on the dinnerware will suffice.

For casual dinners, you will want your guests to feel like part of the family without necessarily making them suffer through plastic eating utensils. Your mid-range dinnerware will do for the party while the kids may have the plastic ones in a separate table.

Know Your Guests

You may also want to invite a mixed group of guests - parents and their children, family and friends, business acquaintances and clients, for example. Your dinnerware and flatware will then be easier to choose once you know the guests who are coming over.

For example, if your guests will determine your career for the next few years, you will want to impress them with the dinner party. Your table setting will then include the best Oneida Easton flatware in your collection. Or it may be that the 5-piece Oneida Juilliard collection you have been saving for important events will finally be used on your first formal dinner with the future in-laws.

Now, if your guests are family and friends coming over for a casual get-together, you can opt for the stoneware instead of the fine china. Besides, there may be the little nieces and nephews being their naturally energetic selves and you want to spare the expensive dinnerware from such abuse.

Know Your Menu

Of course, you want to match the dinnerware with the menu. Formal dinners usually have more dishes from the soup to the dessert, which means that formal dinnerware with its typical five-piece setting is desired. Casual dinnerware usually has just 4 pieces to each set to account for the informality of the dishes being served.

Thus, formal dinners with a menu of soup, salad, main course and dessert will require a soup bowl, a salad plate, a dinner plate, a bread and butter plate, cup and saucer, and a dessert plate. Casual dinners only have dinnerware consisting of a salad plate, a dinner plate and a cup and saucer with the soup bowl and the bread/dessert plate as optional items.



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