Unique Table Settings

Personal Candles

• Echo the light from the candles in your centerpiece by placing small votive candles in matching glasses tagged with each person's name. Old-fashioned juice glasses work well for this. Circle the glass with a wire and attach a card with the name of the person who's to sit there onto the wire with a ribbon. Write the name in script or with a colored marker to give it a more decorative touch.

Flowers and Fruit

• Many people gravitate toward a traditional centerpiece consisting of a burst of floral blossoms. If you'd like to keep the flowers in your table's centerpiece while still bringing something visually interesting to your table setting, make a slight variation on the normal flower centerpiece. Select some cut fresh flowers for your arrangement. Choose flowers with vibrantly colored petals such as roses, tulips or daisies. Slice some citrus fruit, making sure that the color of the fruit matches the flowers. For example, if you've chosen red roses, slice some ruby red grapefruit, leaving the peel. Make thin slices, and if the fruit is large, cut the slices in half so that you have half moon-shaped wedges. Fill a clear glass vase with water and drop the citrus fruit into the water. Add the cut flowers to the vase when you're done.

Mix and Match

• Mixing and matching your plates offers you one of the simplest ways to use the assorted plate patterns you have in your collection. To get started, you can either grab dinner plates from one set, salad plates from another and bread plates from a third. Another way to do this is to mix up the arrangement by using one plate from each of your three sets, alternating which plate goes where. For example, on one place setting, you might have a red dinner plate on which you place a floral patterned salad plate and top it off with a yellow bread plate. On the table setting next to this, start with the dinner plate from the yellow setting. Place the red salad plate on top of the yellow dinner plate and top it off with the floral patterned plate. Continue to mix and match until your table is set.

Individualized Napkins

• If you're planning a get together and know exactly who's coming to dinner, make each guest feel welcome with a personalized napkin. Start with a linen or cotton napkin that reflects the decorative motif of the dinner you've planned. Add a name to the napkin in embroidered script or with fabric glitter. Fold the napkin so that the person's name ends up on top.