I attended a wedding recently at the Driskill and my table guests (all in the mid to late
20's) were not eating their salads. We had started a casual conversation earlier while
being served and they knew that I was a wedding planner. One of ladies nearest to
me said "You should know, so can we ask you which water is ours and which bread
plate?" I gladly helped them out and soon had the attention of more than half the
table. It surprised me that such a large number of adults wouldn't know which bread
or what was theirs.

My twelve year old is currently in Junior Cotillion to learn how to  handle this exact
situation along with proper greetings, dance steps, manners, etc. Of course, we
work with both our boys, but this gives him an opportunity to learn with his peers.
I think that perhaps in our fast paced lives, eating take out or not eating together at
the dinner table has a lot to do with learning where to put the silverware and napkin
even at home. We try to eat at the table together at least 5 times per week and now
I believe it has even more benefit than only family time. 

I always envisioned a box in front of me with my drinking glasses on my right and on
the opposite side was my bread plate. This technique seemed to help my peers the
other night, but I thought I would post this as a reminder or refresher course.






Hope this helps,
Barbara
www.barbarasbrides.com