HOW TO SET THE TABLE FOR A DINNER PARTY?

A step-by-step guide to planning a cohesive table setting, choosing serveware, and creating a dinner party atmosphere your guests will love.

As our social feeds fill with communal dining and dinner parties, it’s clear this trend is here to stay. We love how hosting brings us back to being present with friends and enjoying real-life connections. While all the inspiration online can be exciting, it can also feel overwhelming when you’re not sure where to start. That’s why we’ve put together a few simple tips to help guide your planning and make hosting a dinner party feel more approachable.

Quick Overview: How to Set the Table for a Dinner Party;

• Start with a loose theme or colour scheme - be willing to pivot
• Decide on your menu
• Choose your location
• Bring together the wider vision
• Select your serveware
• Choose complementary table decor
• Host your dinner party

Step 1: Start with a Loose Theme or Colour Scheme

We love to start with a general brainstorming of what we want the event theme or colour scheme to be based around. Are we feeling romantic and intense, bright and airy, tropical and fun? Figuring out the overall vibe you want for your dinner party will then help determine how you need to set the table and what type of table decor you will need to match back to the scene.

Be Willing to Pivot

We also suggest being ready to pivot from your initial idea. You might find when you get to future steps such as deciding on a menu or location that your theme needs to shift, keeping an open mind will make the planning and decorating less stressful!

Step 2: Decide on Your Menu

Once you have the overall vibe and aesthetic you are going for you need to think of a menu that supports this. If you have decided on romantic and intense you might want to focus on slow cooked meats, rich red wines, and dark chocolate desserts. Let your theme help guide the menu to really make sure it is cohesive and you don't have a menu that conflicts with your theme or vibe.

Keep your Menu Realistic

Another important part of this step is being realistic of what you can manage. If you are doing all of the cooking and hosting yourself you need to make sure your menu is feasible and remember it is ok to keep things simple! You don't need a complex menu to set a beautiful table for a dinner party. Focus on a few simple well made dishes that will be the focus of the table and dinner and don't worry about overdoing the offering unless you know you will have more help with the cooking and preparing of the the table!

If you are opting for more of a potluck where guests also bring a dish then make sure to provide loose guidelines of the types of food you need people to bring so it keeps with the overall theme of the dinner party and mixes well with the other dishes. Again try not to over complicate this, you still want your guests to enjoy the party and relax!

Step 3: Choose Your Location

Once you have an idea on your dinner party theme and menu think about the best place to set up the dinner party. For example if you opted for a more "tropical" theme it could be nice to set the table up outside versus inside for a more natural feel that is aligned with the theme and food. If you have decided on a theme that doesn't fit your own home now is the time to think about if there is somewhere else you want to host the dinner party at. Is there an event space or friends place that would better suit the theme you are after? 

This is where it is important to be opening to pivoting your theme. If you only have one option for where to host the party and it isn't matching your theme you might decide to tweak the theme or be happy to put in more effort with decorating the space and table to better match the theme.

Step 4: Bring Together the Wider Vision

Create a Visual Moodboard

Now that you have your theme, menu, and location you can combine all three to figure out what table decor and set up you are going to need to support the vision. We highly suggest making a Canva one pager of how it will all come together! Even as a Type B planners ourselves we find getting the ideas on one page and having a visual really makes the planning less stressful and helps the day of the dinner party run more smoothly.

Start gathering visuals of your location, the dishes you will be serving, inspiration pics for your theme, and then start adding decor to the picture that supports the greater picture.

Choose one Statement Element

We also recommend deciding on one statement piece or idea for your table setting and focusing on this. For example if you have opted for a "romantic" type theme then you might want your main table setting focus to be dramatic table cloth draping. Keep this statement look to one choice, if you try to focus on more than one statement look your table setting can quickly start to look messy and veer away from the theme.

Step 5: Select Your Serveware

Now we love to think about our serveware and how this will come together with the table setting. Again look to match your serveware to your theme. Look at large serving boards, plates, and cutlery and align all of these to your main theme and statement piece.

Serving Boards and Platters

We love our Stainless Steel Serving Board for a lot of theme types as the clean chrome look is easily paired back with different table settings and menus. You can also pair these with our Risers and if the chrome look doesn't match the theme you can drape fabric over the top but have the boards and risers still adding dimension to the table. The size of the serving boards are versatile as well and can we used for larger dishes or canapés. 

Dinner and Side Plates

For plates we have 4 colour options that are great for adding colour to a table setting and each colour can match to a different theme. If you have colourful plates at your dinner party make sure that they make sense with your theme, you can choose one colour or mix different colours. If you want to opt for white or neutral coloured plates you can still use colourful plates for serveware to add pops of colours to the table setting without committing the entire table that colour. Depending on how many courses you are serving we also love the look of a more neutral larger plate topped with our smaller colourful plates. You can then use our plates for the entree and then the larger more neutral plates for the mains.

Cutlery

Choosing your cutlery is the final step when looking at serveware and while a small detail it can add a lot of interest to your table setting and is an important part of the overall look. We offer Spiral Cutlery that is great for a unique and even vintage inspired vibe.

Step 6: Choose Complementary Table Decor

After choosing theme, menu, and serveware you are ready to look at additional table decor that supports all of these choices. We tend to focus on a few key items in this steps that we find are best for supporting table settings; table clothes, candles/candlesticks, and florals. These are great starting pieces that help build out the table and elevate your dinner party. You also don't need all types of table decor you can focus on one type to keep it simpler or try starting with one and layering on the others. It is important to add the layers with your serveware already set as you may end up with less room on the table than you originally thinking and serveware is an important part of your table decor. You can also use food, whether on your serveware or straight on the table, to help add interest to the table setting as well. 

Step 7: Host your Dinner Party

Now that your table is set the only part left is to cook the food and host your dinner party! While the pre-planning can seem like overkill at the time, when you are actually hosting the dinner party you will find it runs a lot more smoothly and you can focus on your guests an the day more.