draw me a place to sit.

Like most people I didn’t grow up with the perfect place setting at the dinner table. To no fault of my parents our nightly dinners tended to be a bit more like a frantic frenzy between soccer practices, homework, the buzz of the television and my mother’s pleas for us to finish our milk. The perfect distance between the salad fork from the dinner fork was just NOT something that EVER crossed my mind. Rather, I recall grabbing and using whatever utensil was either placed in front of me OR pulling from the drawer whatever was available once I lived on my own (yes, this definitely means that on more than one occasion I have been guilty of using a spoon to eat spaghetti or a knife to eat breakfast when I was too lazy to wash another utensil…yeah, don’t judge me).

What’s most hilarious about this is that I actually pride myself on being a person who loves proper etiquette and the appealing placement of props and details. Yet, I’ve never really cared to set my own table in a fashion that would live up to the standards of my grandmother’s generation…weird, no?

Now, my life is a tad different. As a wedding coordinator/designer I’m the one who is supposed to know where the salad fork should sit in relation to the wine glass in relation to the name card in relation to the bread knife. Thankfully enough for me couples are beginning to think outside the traditional box and having all sorts of diverse (in my opinion, incredibly refreshing) ways of setting the table. I rarely see a guest in a huff because their napkin was placed on the wrong side of their dinner plate.

Nonetheless, I figure it’s an important skill to have in my back pocket. Hence, if you’re like me and you grew up in a house consisting of paper napkins and on-the-go meals…the drawing above and below may be of benefit to you as well.

The super adorable drawings are by the uber talented amy borrell of CAKE WITH GIANTS, and I just couldn’t help but share it with you today. Cute, huh!

Happy traditional eating!

*JB