Recently the question, “what is a charger?” has been brought up frequently in conversations in regards to table settings. I’ve seen a variety of table setting at weddings, from informal to formal. Depending on your wedding venue or caterer, you may need to supply some, if not all the items needed to host your wedding reception and serve your guests. Every venue/caterer is different, so you be sure to clarify with the representative which items are provided and which you must provide.
image from gearpatrol.com
Formal dinner
The tableware pieces that make up the setting:
- Salad Plate
- Charger (Service Plate)
- Bread Plate
- Dinner Plate
Silverware:
- Dinner knife
- Dinner fork
- Teaspoon
- Salad fork
- Soup spoon
- Bread knife
- Cake fork
- Dessert spoon
Crystal:
- Water glass
- Red Wine glass
- White Wine glass
- Cup and Saucer
image from gearpatrol.com
Informal Setting
At an informal setting, fewer utensils are used and serving dishes are placed on the table.
The tableware pieces that make up the setting:
- Dinner Plate
Silverware:
- Dinner knife
- Dinner fork
- Teaspoon
- Salad fork
- Soup spoon
Crystal:
- Water glass
- Wine glass
So, to answer our question what is a charger? It is essentially a decorative plate for a well-dressed table. The charger plate is larger than the dinner plate and salad plate that actually hold the food. In my opinion a charger is unnecessary at most dinners but it is nice to for the eyes to have a placeholder when in between course servings.
This is what I hate when attending formal events say in wedding reception because I don’t know how to use those things on the table, what fork to use, what glass to lift first and so on. And as I looked at the diagram you’ve shown it’s like uh oh.