do it right.

I appreciate this. I really do.

But it’s not right.

In no particular order, here are the things which strike me as being off (without checking Emily or Amy):

• The silverware is misaligned. There is an imaginary horizontal line that just touches the bottom of the dinner plate. The bottom of each piece of silverware should be on this line.
• The pieces of silverware on either side of the plate are too spread out in relation to one another. Too much space between each. They should be close but not touching.
• Napkin should also be a bit closer to the salad fork.
• There is no soup bowl, thus no need for a soup spoon. A place setting should have only the items needed.
• The butter knife should be parallel to our imaginary line and placed at the top edge of the butter plate. You should not have to move the knife to put your roll on the plate.
• Further, it is not a bread knife, it is a butter knife.
• It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the red and white wine glasses appear to be the same size. A red wine glass should be larger than the white.
• Dessert spoon/cake fork. Which is it going to be? Or will there be two desserts served? (See soup spoon, above.)
• Cake fork/salad fork also appear to be the same. A salad fork is differentiated from a cake of dessert fork in that the tip of one of the tines (I think the left-most, but I’m not positive) has a piercing shape, almost triangular so that the lettuce leaves, once pierced, cannot fall off.
• What to say about the place card? I just don’t know.

This is just my opinion, but I would dispense with the dessert utensils and the coffee cup. The whole setting is too cluttered. If I’d be serving dessert and coffee, I would put the dessert service on the buffet or other sideboard along with the dessert plates (or bowls) and if practical, the dessert itself. And if I would be serving an after dinner drink (cognac or a dessert wine) I’d include the stemware for that on the buffet as well.

Also looks as if we’re not having a fish course–but that’s being too picky. And I like chargers, but that’s just me.

Brought to you by Powerline’s The Week in Pictures!

Oh my God! Is that a paper napkin? Please!!