How do you Set a Table?

Where does all that glassware go? What about the flatware? Setting a table can be confusing if you haven’t brushed up on your etiquette lately. Setting a table at your wedding isn’t as complicated as you would think.

Some of the things you might need to set your tables are:

• Dinner Knife
• Spoon
• Salad + Dinner Fork
• Dessert Fork
• Bread and Butter Plate and Knife
• Water Glass
• Wine Glass (you may choose red, white or universal)
• Champagne Flute
• Salad Plate + Dinner Plate
• Charger

There are variations depending on just how formal your table is set. For a typical wedding we tend to use only a salad and dinner fork and dinner knife for flatware. We don’t set the dessert fork on the table if the cake is not being served to the tables.

We like to set water on the tables because it is a nice touch for your guests to have something to drink upon sitting down. (Especially if they are in the southern heat!) We set wine and champagne glasses only if we are planning to serve them at the tables.

Helpful Table Setting Hints

• The spoon and the knife go to the right of the plate with the knife facing into the plate. (A way to remember this is that spoon and knife have five letters and so does right.)
• The forks go on the left. (You can remember this because fork and left both have four letters!)
• The dessert fork or spoon goes above the plate. If you have both the spoon faces the bread and butter plate and the fork faces the glassware.
• The water glass goes right above the knife. Taller glasses go behind the shorter ones.

Some tables are more complicated than others depending on how formal your meal is. Don’t stress about yours and set the table to match the formality of your dinner. (And making it pretty also helps!)

Check out more on this on Planning + Prosecco below!