For many people, the first time they will ever enjoy a full fine dining meal is at a wedding. For others, they may simply not know proper etiquette for the event. Whether you are planning your own wedding or you are a guest at someone else’s special day, you need to practice the proper etiquette throughout the whole event. Western fine dining etiquette can seem quite confusing to many people, so here are some rules that you must keep in mind.
You should always pick up your napkin first then unroll or unfold it and place it on your lap. You should do this as soon as your host or hostess does and you should never place it back on the table throughout the whole meal.
There may be several courses to the meal, including a soup, fish, meat, salad and dessert. Each course has its own etiquette rules:
• For the soup course, you will use the largest spoon on the right hand side of your plate.
• Some meals include a fish course and there will be a smaller version of the meat fork for this part of the dining.
• The host or hostess may serve the meat course directly to you.
• The salad course will have its own fork, slightly smaller than the one for meats.
You should never put too much food in your mouth at one time and never speak or drink if you have food in your mouth at all. If food is being passed around for serving, then be sure you only help yourself if the food is on your left side. If it is on your right, then it belongs to the person sitting there. If there are condiments or other items on the table, then you should never help yourself to them until the host or hostess has suggested it.
If you are at a wedding or planning your own, you need to know the proper etiquette for a western fine dining meal before the event itself
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