Etiquette for an Informal Dinner

 A Table Set for Eight

In this diagram the large circles around the edges of the table represent the plate at each place. The oblong in the middle of the table is the centerpiece, and the four circles with the black centers are four candlesticks. Salt and pepper are represented by the four pairs of small circles between the candlesticks, with the pepper pot to the left of the saltcellar. This table is set for eight people; if there were four, the places to the right and left of both host and hostess would be removed.

WHAT MAKES A DINNER INFORMAL

These are the hallmarks of an informal dinner:

1. Guests are usually invited verbally, either face to face or by telephone.

2. Guests and hosts may wear either evening dress, or day clothes, depending on local custom or the hostess' decision, but men and women must dress with equal formality. If the women are in evening dresses, the men wear dinner jackets; if the women wear afternoon dresses, the men wear dark blue suits.

3. The table is set more or less simply, depending mostly on the menu.

4. The food consists, as a rule, of not more than two or three courses.

5. The service may vary between one extreme and the other. For the purposes of this book we have called “informal” any service in which the family or their guests co-operate. But although every dinner with informal service must be called informal, not every informal dinner must be served informally.

For example, if six or seven people are dining together before going to a hockey game, and if there are two people waiting on table, the service may be as complete as that of the most formal dinner; but, the dinner is most definitely informal because hosts and guests are in afternoon clothes, the food and table arrangements are simple, and the invitations were given verbally. On the other hand, an elaborate buffet dinner, where there may be twenty guests in evening clothes, is always informal because the service is not handled completely by the staff.

6. The hour might be any time between 6:30 and 8:00 P.M. 

— From “Vogue’s Book of Etiquette,” 1948

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