Special occasions, such as engagement announcements, anniversary and birthday dinners, and holiday feasts call for something fancier than the traditional place setting. Although today’s customs allow for more individual creativity than in the past, there are some basic rules, excerpted here from Sharon and David Bowers’s Home Ec for Everyone. Once you learn the rules, you can break ’em all you want.

How to Set a Table for a Formal Dinner

The Basic Layout

The place setting wasn’t devised as a puzzle or a test. It’s based on logic and grew out of rhyme and reason. Utensils to be used first are laid on the outside. Diners work their way inward as courses are served and cleared.

The main dinner plate is right in front of the diner. Glasses and stemware are placed above the dinner plate and to the right because the majority of diners are right-handed and glasses are reached for repeatedly. Bread plates are placed above the dinner plate and to the left. The setup makes it easy to eat without much movement, which could lead to spills and breaks.

1. Dinner plate

2. Soup bowl

3. Bread plate

4. Coffee cup

5. Forks and napkin

6. Spoon and knives

7. Glasses and stemware

8. Dessert spoon and fork

At the Center of It All

Nothing indicates the mood of a festive meal more than the centerpiece. If there’s a horn of plenty on the table, you know it’s Thanksgiving. With centerpieces, you are limited only by your imagination—and the height of your guests. Don’t stack anything on the table that might prevent easy eye contact during conversation.

Although you can buy lovely centerpieces at home goods stores, here are some fun DIY alternatives:

Floating the idea. Use fruit in a glass bowl or large vase. Try using lemons for a cheerful spring luncheon or create a tableau of plums, blueberries, and red grapes floating in water for a romantic deep-winter’s dinner.

Falling for flowers and leaves. Spread apart the leaves of small purple and green cabbages, and plunge stems of flowers into the centers. Or invert various sizes of bowls, drape them with ivy, fall leaves, or bunches of grapes, and place pomegranates or squash on top.

Stack it. Use a platter or plate with a rim, and pile it high with pinecones, palm fronds, or anything that suits the theme.