Place Settings
 

Place Settings and Tabletop
The table sets the stage for the meal to come. A beautiful table can make your dinner more than a meal – it can create an experience you and your guests will cherish. To set a table as memorable as your meal, follow these simple steps. Here you'll find ways to set an elegant table with perfect place settings for each meal and every course, how to artfully arrange flowers and centerpiece – everything you need to make your table a work of art!
 

Dinnerware A formal dinner often means at least four courses – soup, salad, entrée and dessert. If you don't have enough pieces to service all your courses, improvise. Coffee cups are perfect for soup service, and the cup saucer is ideal for a mini salad. You can also mix and match several different patterns and colors to create an eclectic, hip new style that accommodates your serving needs.

• Center the dinner plate in front of the guest's chair, about an inch from the edge of the table. If you're using a service plate or charger, it goes beneath the dinner plate; the soup bowl goes on top of the dinner plate.
  
• The salad plate is placed to the left of the dinner plate, above the napkin. (To keep the table from looking cluttered, many hosts opt to bring the salad dish out after the soup has been cleared.)
  
• The bread and butter plate is set above and to the right of the salad plate.
   

Flatware Utensils are set on the table in the order of their use, starting at the outside of the place setting and working inward toward the plate. American table settings place flatware tines up (fork prongs and spoon bowl up); European settings place it tines down (fork prongs and spoon bowl down). You may have only two forks, a knife and a spoon for a casual dinner or as many as a dozen utensils for a formal meal. Set only what you need.

• Knives, spoons and special utensils are set to the right of the plate. At the far right is the seafood fork, generally used for appetizers, such as shrimp cocktail or oysters. Next in comes the soup spoon, then the teaspoon. The fish knife goes to the left of the spoons, if fish is being served, with the dinner knife far left, both with blades facing the plate. Steak knives are not part of the place setting and should appear with the steak.
  
• Forks are placed to the left of the dinner plate, in the order the courses are to be served. Typically, the salad fork is at the outer left side of the plate, with the fish fork (if needed) to the right. The dinner fork is far right, next to the plate.
  
• Dessert utensils are centered horizontally above the dinner plate, with the spoon handle facing right and the fork handle facing left. Place cards are centered above the dessert spoon.
  
• The butter spreader is laid horizontally across the bread plate, with the blade facing left, toward the plate.
  
• The napkin is folded and placed to the left of the forks. It also can be folded artistically and placed on the dinner plate or in a wine glass.
   

Glassware Because most people are right-handed, glasses are placed to the right of the plate. Formal table settings may require as many as four glasses, preferably stemware – a tall flute for champagne, a short, full goblet for water, a tulip-bowled glass for white wine and a deep ballooned goblet for red wine. Place the glasses in the order they'll be used.

• Place the water goblet directly above the dinner knife. The wine glasses go slightly to the right, first the red wine glass, then the white. The champagne flute is placed behind the wine glasses, forming a triangle. If you only have one size of glasses, set two glasses side by side – one for water and one for wine.
  
• The cup and saucer generally aren't placed on the table until dessert. But if you think guests will want coffee or tea with the meal, the cup and saucer are laid to the right of the spoons, with the cup handle facing right and the spoon placed vertically on the right of the saucer.
   

If you know you'll be entertaining left-handed guests, seat them at the end of the table to allow extra elbow room and reverse the entire place setting for their convenience.

Formal or casual, the rules are the same. Start with the outermost utensils and work your way in, using one per course. Toast with the first wine poured. When in doubt, mimic the host. It's what everyone else is doing!