We will tell you a story…..
Be very careful about the mistakes made… you are questioned at the end of the story!
The story
The story takes place in Singapore, during the month of March, at the home of our friends Kate and Jeremy who are hosting their friends Cristina and Brian, who have just married on Saturday evening.
These couples of friends know each other little in fact, and this is the first time that Kate and Jeremy have received them. They met through Paul, a friend of Brian’s.
It is precisely 8pm, the time scheduled for dinner, and the bell rings. What punctuality!
Kate and Jeremy welcome their friends very warmly, they have had the delicate attention to bring a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a very beautiful bottle of wine to their hosts.
Once their personal belongings have been removed, Cristina and Brian are invited to go to the table for dinner and place themselves on a cross so that the eyes can be mixed.
The two couples sit together and immediately place their towels on their lap.
The table setting is beautiful and Kate has even decorated the napkins with white feathers, delicately presented in the centre of each plate.
Jeremy proposes to do the drinks service, starting by offering Cristina water because she had warned him, she is pregnant and only drinks water.
Jeremy went to get a bottle of water and, at the same time, the bottle of wine he had specially chosen for dinner. He serves each of the guests, starting with his wife since he is a gallant man!
He keeps the bottle of wine at the table close to him, ready to serve again.
Kate will then get up to cut the delicious French bread she had specially ordered for dinner, knowing that their friends love French cuisine.
The evening will go wonderfully well. Mary, their delicate helper, will have done the service and allowed them not to interrupt their discussions.
Cristina and Brian enjoyed themselves, especially at the cheese tasting, Brian’s gourmet peach. In fact, Brian will have had a refill.
What a joy to share such a great moment of friendship and to honour your guests!
It’s getting late and Cristina is offering a digestive to her guests, which they gladly accept, especially Jeremy, he will leave the wheel to Kate.
The evening ends then, Brian will greet his guests warmly and Cristina will walk them to the door.
They should meet again soon, they are already talking about receiving them in mid-October.
Did you find the 20 mistakes made at this dinner?
Here are the answers in order:
- Paul should have been invited because it was through him that the couples met.
- Cristina and Brian arrived at the time they were invited. During a dinner, the rules of the etiquette invite you to arrive 15 minutes later, so as not to surprise the guests and give them time to make the final preparations.
- It would have been more delicate for Cristina and Brian to have a bouquet of flowers worn on the morning of dinner because bringing a bouquet of flowers that same evening causes the mistress of the house to do extra work.
- Kate should have immediately put the flowers in a vase and presented the flowers as a decoration near the table.
- Cristina and Brian being a young couple, married for less than a year, this is an exception to the principles of table placement. They should have been placed side by side and not crosswise.
- When everyone sits at the table, the men must pull the woman’s chair to their left to invite her to sit down.
- Guests should only sit down when the lady of the house has given the signal, by sitting down herself.
- During a dinner, the napkins are presented in a rectangle on the left of the plate.
- Water must have been served in the water glasses before guests sit at the table.
- The water must be presented in a decanter and not in a bottle.
- Jeremy should have served the wine brought by Brian, to honor him.
- Jeremy should have served his guests before serving his wife, even if he wanted to be courteous.
- The bottle of wine should not remain on the table, it should be placed nearby.
- The bread should have been cut before the guests came to the table and should be presented in a basket. It can also be placed in a small bread plate placed at the top left of each guest’s plate.
- The bread service is the responsibility of the host, so Jeremy and not Kate.
- The cheese should not have been offered again, the cheese service only takes place once.
- When Cristina proposed digestives, Kate and Brian should have declined and taken time off. It was a kind way to give the starting signal to the guests.
- Escorting guests to the door is the responsibility of the host, so Jeremy and not Kate.
- Cristina and Brian shouldn’t have issued a new invitation so soon, they should have sent a thank you message first and then returned the invitation
- As this is a first dinner, the invitation must be returned within the following month. Proposing dinner 7 months later is far too long.
We are looking forward to your stories and comments !
