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You're new to this dinner party thing and want to make a great impression on your guests--but with so many tableware pieces and thousands of different patterns, where do you start? First, determine what overall style you're going for: casual or formal. Next, decide how many people you'll invite--this will help you determine how many place settings you'll need to put together.
Choosing Your Casual China
The first thing to do is select your pattern. Are you a solid, a fruit, a floral, a...? There are so many choices. Think about the decorating choices you make and the overall mood of the table you'd like to set. You'll want to look at quite a few patterns before making your decision. Here are a few to start with:
'Pfaltzgraff Tandem 4-Piece Placesetting, Service for 1'
'Pfaltzgraff Monaco 4-Piece Placesetting, Service for 1'
'Pfaltzgraff Naturewood 4-Piece Stoneware Place Setting, Service for 1'
'Pfaltzgraff Pistoulet Salmon Les Assiettes de Pistoulet 3-Piece Place Setting, Service for 1'
'Pfaltzgraff Cappuccino 4-Piece Place Setting, Service for 1'
'Fiestaware Cobalt 831 4-Piece Dinnerware Placesetting, Service for 1'
'Mikasa Italian Countryside 5-Piece White Stoneware Place Setting, Service for 1'
'Mikasa Garden Harvest 5-Piece Stoneware Place Setting'
'Villeroy & Boch Casa Azul 11 3/4-Inch Buffet Plate'
Once you've found a style you love, think about how much you want in that pattern. Do you want an entire place setting for each person? Place settings generally come in 4- or 5-piece sets. A dinner plate, a soup/cereal bowl, a salad/dessert plate, and a teacup and saucer or a mug. If you like to mix and match, you may want to skip the place settings and buy individual pieces that fit together for a unique look. Otherwise, price the individual place settings against the sets for four, to find the best deal.
Once you choose your pattern, decide if you want matching serving pieces, or prefer to pick complementary pieces from other patterns. Either way, you'll want to buy the following:
-deep serving bowl
-shallow serving bowl
-platter
-salt and pepper shakers or mills
-sugar and creamer
-gravy boat
-butter dish
Depending on what you commonly serve at your table, you may also consider getting:
-casserole dish
-coffee or tea pot
-soup tureen
-chip and dip set
-salad bowl
Choosing Your Fine China
Choosing fine china involves exactly the same process, except there are often precious metals involved, and there are more types of serving pieces. You'll find that most fine china has platinum or gold accents or banding. It is also typically white or ivory. Choose your favorite combination! Here are a some popular patterns to get you started:
'Lenox Continental Dining Platinum 5-Piece Place Setting'
'Lenox Eternal 5-Piece Gold-Banded Fine China Placesetting'
'Lenox Vintage Jewel Platinum-Banded Bone China 5-Piece Place Setting'
'Lenox Hancock 5-Piece Fine China Placesetting'
'Royal Doulton Isabella 5-Piece Dinnerware Place Setting, Service for 1'
'Royal Worcester Evesham Gold Porcelain 5-Piece Dinnerware Place Setting, Service for 1'
For most fine dining situations, you'll want to be sure you have a full place setting for each guest as well as serving pieces from the same pattern.
Choosing Your Flatware
Now that you've picked out your dinnerware, you'll need utensils to actually eat with. If you're setting a casual table, you'll probably go with stainless steel. Fine dining requires slightly more sophisticated styles of stainless steel, or you can move up to sterling silver and really impress your guests. Casual dining will require a minimum of a fork, knife, and spoon; fine dining usually starts with a salad fork, dinner fork, knife, soup spoon, and teaspoon, and may also include any number of specialized utensils such as cocktail forks, fish forks, butter knives, etc. As with dinnerware, there are thousands of styles of flatware. Choose a style that fits with the style of your place setting. Also, be sure that you like each piece of your flatware pattern. If you love the spoon but think the fork is a little weird, look around a bit more before you make your choice. Flatware lasts a lifetime, after all. Here are some styles to get you started:
Casual:
'Oneida Flight 20-Piece Stainless Steel Flatware Set, Service for 4'
'Oneida True Rose 20-Piece Stainless Steel Flatware Set, Service for 4'
'Oneida Color Trends Navy Blue 20-Piece Flatware Set, Service for 4'
'Oneida Bancroft 20-Piece Stainless Steel Flatware Set, Service for 4'
Formal:
'Oneida Golden Juilliard 5-Piece Individual Place Setting'
'Oneida Wedgwood Seville 5-Piece Flatware Place Setting, Service for 1'
'Oneida Spinelle 5-Piece Individual Place Setting'
'Wallace Italian Sterling Impero 4-Piece Flatware Place Setting Continental Size'
'Wallace Grande Baroque 4-Piece Place Setting, Service for 1'
When you're buying your flatware, be sure also to pick up some matching serving utensils, including:
-cold meat fork
-serving spoons
-pierced serving spoons
-gravy ladle
-soup ladle
-sugar spoon
-salad servers
-flat server or pastry server
Choosing Appropriate Glassware
Last, but not least, you'll need to choose your glassware. Will you be drinking water, iced tea, red wine, white wine, champagne, beer, margaritas? For casual dining you can get away with a tumbler or goblet for most all beverages. Fine dining, or dining with wine connoisseurs, may demand more sophisticated glassware. Try these on for size:
'Riedel Vinum Bordeaux Wine Glasses, Set of 6'
'Riedel Vinum Chablis-Chardonnay Wine Glasses, Set of 2'
'Riedel Vinum Champagne/Prestige Cuvee Glasses, Set of 6'
'Riedel O Cabernet/Merlot Wine Tumblers, Set of 2'
'Riedel Vinum Water Glass, Set of 6'
'Riedel Vinum Martini Glasses, Set of 6'
'Luigi Bormioli Canaletto 14.5-Ounce Beverage Glasses, Set of 4'
Now that you've stocked up on everything to set your perfect table, you may want to brush up on exactly where each piece goes. Check out this terrific book to help you along: 'The Art of the Table: A Complete Guide to Table Setting, Table Manners and Tableware'
Bon appetit! |
Sponsored Search Products mentioned include:
Choosing Your Casual China
| | 1. |  | Pfaltzgraff Tandem 4-Piece Placesetting, Service for 1
Pfaltzgraff
| | 2. |  | Pfaltzgraff Monaco 4-Piece Placesetting, Service for 1
Pfaltzgraff
| | 3. |  | Pfaltzgraff Naturewood 4-Piece Stoneware Place Setting, Service for 1
Pfaltzgraff
| | 4. |  | Pfaltzgraff Pistoulet Salmon Les Assiettes de Pistoulet 3-Piece Place Setting, Service for 1
Pfaltzgraff
| | 5. |  | Pfaltzgraff Cappuccino 4-Piece Place Setting, Service for 1
Pfaltzgraff
| | 6. |  | Fiestaware Cobalt 831 4-Piece Dinnerware Placesetting, Service for 1
Fiestaware
| | 7. |  | Mikasa Italian Countryside 5-Piece White Stoneware Place Setting, Service for 1
Mikasa
| | 8. |  | Mikasa Garden Harvest 5-Piece Stoneware Place Setting
Mikasa
| | 9. |  | Villeroy & Boch Casa Azul 11 3/4-Inch Buffet Plate
Villeroy & Boch
| Choosing Your Fine China
| | 10. |  | Lenox Continental Dining Platinum 5-Piece Place Setting
Lenox
| | 11. |  | Lenox Eternal 5-Piece Gold-Banded Fine China Placesetting
Lenox
| | 12. |  | Lenox Vintage Jewel Platinum-Banded Bone China 5-Piece Place Setting
Lenox
| | 13. |  | Lenox Hancock 5-Piece Fine China Placesetting
Lenox
| | 14. |  | Royal Doulton Isabella 5-Piece Dinnerware Place Setting, Service for 1
Royal Doulton
| | 15. |  | Royal Worcester Evesham Gold Porcelain 5-Piece Dinnerware Place Setting, Service for 1
Royal Worcester
| Choosing Your Flatware
| | 16. |  | Oneida Flight 20-Piece Stainless Steel Flatware Set, Service for 4
Oneida
| | 17. |  | Oneida True Rose 20-Piece Stainless Steel Flatware Set, Service for 4
Oneida
| | 18. |  | Oneida Color Trends Navy Blue 20-Piece Flatware Set, Service for 4
Oneida
| | 19. |  | Oneida Bancroft 20-Piece Stainless Steel Flatware Set, Service for 4
Oneida
| | 20. |  | Oneida Golden Juilliard 5-Piece Individual Place Setting
Oneida
| | 21. |  | Oneida Wedgwood Seville 5-Piece Flatware Place Setting, Service for 1
Oneida
| | 22. |  | Oneida Spinelle 5-Piece Individual Place Setting
Oneida
| | 23. |  | Wallace Italian Sterling Impero 4-Piece Flatware Place Setting Continental Size
Wallace
| | 24. |  | Wallace Grande Baroque 4-Piece Place Setting, Service for 1
Wallace
| Choosing Appropriate Glassware
| | 25. |  | Riedel Vinum Bordeaux Wine Glasses, Set of 6
Riedel
| | 26. |  | Riedel Vinum Chablis-Chardonnay Wine Glasses, Set of 2
Riedel
| | 27. |  | Riedel Vinum Champagne/Prestige Cuvee Glasses, Set of 6
Riedel
| | 28. |  | Riedel O Cabernet/Merlot Wine Tumblers, Set of 2
Riedel
| | 29. |  | Riedel Vinum Water Glass, Set of 6
Riedel
| | 30. |  | Riedel Vinum Martini Glasses, Set of 6
Riedel
| | 31. |  | Luigi Bormioli Canaletto 14.5-Ounce Beverage Glasses, Set of 4
Luigi Bormioli
| | 32. |  | The Art of the Table: A Complete Guide to Table Setting, Table Manners and Tableware
by Suzanne Von Drachenfels
|
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