To celebrate a birthday in a quiet home circle or to arrange a magnificent feast in a restaurant - everyone faced this dilemma at least once in their life. Meanwhile, the contradiction is not so insoluble if you are creative in mastering the rules of table setting and not spare the time and effort to prepare. After all, you can arrange everything at home to the highest level, beautifully decorate the birthday table with your own hands and at the same time not be burdened with the thought of the treasury of the place and the high cost of dishes and services. So, we are planning a moderately magnificent and beautiful holiday at home.
"This is the table - they are sitting at it"
When preparing a âbridgeheadâ for intimate or solemn gatherings, care must be taken to ensure that each guest has 80 cm of table surface. Of course, if the room is small, you will have to make room, but still proper serving requires some âairâ between the people sitting and comfort for a person of any complexion.
Self-cleaning tablecloth
The classic version is a snow-white tablecloth, it will emphasize the solemnity of the case, and the color variety of snacks. But if you are not sure that keep your composure when someone accidentally sways the glass, then you will have to forget about the classics. We do not consider the option with a transparent oilcloth over white, leaving it for gatherings in the country. The choice of a colored tablecloth requires attention to the entire interior - the combination of several ornaments inside the same room is a bad manners, as well as the use of more than two or three colors. When choosing a tablecloth, you need to pay attention to how much its edge will hang from the table (optimal length is 20-30 cm). Well, if there are small children in the house, then it is worth considering the option without a tablecloth, for example, to lay out woven napkins.
"And the dishes on and on ..."
Jokes are bad with appliances. Any student knows that they put the knife on the right and the fork on the left of the plate. But not every adult knows that there are a certain number of knives, spoons and forks for all occasions. However, in order to do without incidents, it is enough to remember that the forks (one for seafood, the other for game and meat), like knives, are arranged from large to smaller (distant devices are designed to start a meal), and above the plate, parallel to the edge of the table and dessert fork and spoon, âlookingâ in different directions, are placed to each other. It should also be remembered that the knife blades should be directed to the plate. As for the plates themselves, according to etiquette, they should be from the same service. Moreover, salad bowls, dishes and decanters should be combined with plates, and with devices, and with glasses. At a strict dinner, a large decorative or substitute plate is placed on the tablecloth, and soup is placed on it, on a napkin. In the process of dinner, the upper plate changes, delighting the guest with new appetizing and hot appetizers. However, our 21st century fully admits all sorts of deviations not only from strict etiquette, but also from all classical rules. So, whoever wants to - deeply studies all the serving wisdom, and who does not feel the strength to create an authentic atmosphere of an aristocratic dinner, read on.
"I wanted to have a ball, and I invited guests to my place."
How to decorate a table for a husbandâs birthday? The best way to arrange a holiday for loved ones with virtually no etiquette obligations is a theme party. Of course, first of all, a royal ball or a pirate revel will please the younger generation, but adults are not even averse to plunging into the game. By this birthday, by the way, itâs appropriate to come up with a quest or quiz, pick up the appropriate music, smells and lighting. Suppose a husband loves the hobbits. In this case, a canvas tablecloth, clay or wooden dishes, curved spoons for lentil soup and squat barrels with ale that will create the feeling of a complete absence of civilization in your room will help to decorate the table for your husbandâs birthday with your own hands. Of course, it will be necessary to drape the TV, arrange wax candles, and instead of the mobile phone signals, invite all guests to put Gollumâs creak âMy charm ...â. Paper napkins at such a dinner would be out of place, the best way out is the linen squares beautifully torn along the edges.
Wife crazy about provence style?
Please her with an embroidered tablecloth, elegant napkin baskets, plates with floral patterns and bouquets of live lavender on the table. The culmination of a lunch in this style would be nice to make a solemn takeaway goose in apples. By the way, we advise you to place small light sauceboats with homemade sauces on the table.
Attention: children!
A special case to which you need to prepare, thinking through everything to the smallest detail is a children's holiday. Children are very mobile, so no flowers in vases, candles and plastic cups. We choose the topic either along with the birthday person, or we are preparing a surprise. A win-win option is a holiday based on your favorite stories. From "Fixiks" to "Harry Potter", from "Wheelbarrows" to "Alice in ..." - the palette of names is inexhaustible. We look at the source and notice the details. In almost all cases, an atmosphere of joy will help create balloons, straws for cocktails, umbrellas, skewers and other colored paraphernalia.
How to decorate a table for a childâs birthday? Putting dishes for children who are going to have fun is a thankless task; it is better to stuff snacks with dough baskets and cook several dishes with canapes on skewers. At a marine-style birthday, skewers can be decorated with a sail made from a piece of ham or a leaf of lettuce. Cakes, rolls, fruits and, as a final chord, small cakes will definitely be appropriate for such a holiday. Napkins, like a tablecloth, in the children's version should be bright, and even a little intriguing, for example, with scraps of some phrases or poems.
Holiday for the geographer
If the birthday man is a serious person, fond of any science, era, or profession, then the whole surroundings of the holiday may correspond to this topic. Say, if he is a lover of geography, then a card may become a tablecloth, and you can attach flags of various countries on skewers. It would be great to make decorations for the room along with the hero of the occasion - to make garlands of flags or colored pompoms, to prepare riddles for each guest with a designation of his place at the table. Itâs a good idea to use pre-decorated juice bottles instead of glasses: they are more stable (the main thing is not to forget about cocktail tubes). By the way, the use of silicone baking dishes can be a witty way out when refusing to break dishes.
Party for the little ones
If you have gathered guests for the babyâs first birthday, then, of course, a candy bar, a table without a tablecloth full of pastries, sweets and berries and pieces of fruit, can be the best option for serving refreshments. Someone of the same age as the birthday boy is walking, someone is crawling, therefore, when a child is 1 year old, itâs not just appropriate to decorate a birthday table in the usual sense, but even dangerous.
In conclusion, I want to remind you that no one knows your loved ones better than you. So, the recommendations are not so important. The main thing is to show care and ingenuity in the preparation of the holiday.