How you set your festive table is as important as the dishes you prepare to usher in the celebrations associated with any festival. Of course, menu planning isn’t an easy task, as you need to incorporate both traditional items as well as a host of hors d’oeuvres and fusion dishes to suit the palates of all your guests, but taking it several notches higher, with a table setting that is designed to appeal to the aesthetics of the guests, will take some doing. While the food could be catered from your favourite restaurant or a home catering service, it wouldn’t just seem right to get a party organiser to decorate your home and your banquet table for the feast. A little bit of planning and organising with some tips and suggestions from experts would help you do it yourself.
Here is a little guideline, sourced from décor experts, to help you get going for the big day.
Getting Started
First off, decide whether you want to have a formal sit-down dinner or a buffet where the food could be arranged along the corridor or one section of the room. Buffet set up will, of course, make your task easy as the chafing dishes will keep the food warm and guests could help themselves without you hovering over. When that is sorted, decide on the menu and make a checklist of items that could be prepared beforehand to avoid overworking on the banquet day. Alternately, you could get it catered from out and have a stress free festive lunch/dinner. When putting the menu plan together, do not forget to consider the food habits or concerns of the guests on your list. If there are any vegans/vegetarians or guests with specific food allergies, you could have a separate menu for them. Follow that up by sending out the invites and making personal calls to reconfirm the attendance.
Banquet Theme
Although it is a festive banquet, having an appealing theme for the event will add extra sheen to your home. The theme you decide on doesn’t have to be loud or garish with costumes and fancy dresses setting the tone. Simply opting for a particular colour to spread the joys of the feast would help. To enhance the spirit of the festivities, you could choose a lights and lamps theme, setting up your banquet area in traditional and creative lights. But of course, whatever is convenient and easy would help to get your home ready for the banquet. You could consider a gold theme, or even opt for the elegance of classic white as your banquet theme.
Table Accessories
Once you decide on the theme, accessorising the table will become so much easier. Even if you have decided to have a buffet, a long table or a few round tables for guests to place their plates or glasses are needed. You could rely on the materials available at home to take the theme forward, or buy the chosen colour of fabric from the neighbourhood shop. Even if you have planned on a gold theme, you could build on it with the basic white table cloth. Simply use gold tulle trimmings to create the effect around the table. Tulle is easy to crunch up and tie in bows around individual seats and even around vases and cutlery holders. Cut long pieces of the material to decorate the walls and the ceiling. Enhance this décor with candles. To keep to the mood of the season, you could pick up quaint looking lamps from the souq to adorn your dining table as well as the room where you would be hosting the banquet. Do not forget to have fresh cut flowers as a centrepiece on the table, as well as to infuse the festive ambience around the house.
Set The Table
If you are having a sit-down dinner with close friends and family, you could, of course, opt for an informal affair; however, there is no reason why you should hesitate from creating the right ambience by setting the table to reflect your flair for style and panache. As per the standard rule, the plate in the centre should be armed by forks (on the left) and knives (on the right), with the cutlery used first laid furthest from the plate; the blade of the knife should be turned towards the plate. Another rule to follow is the placement of liquid items (glass of water) on the right of the plate, and the solids (butter plate) on the left. Do not forget placemats, individual napkins and water glass, in addition to extra plates if you have salads and soups to go along.
Have a joyful festive banquet!