Depending on your event, you may place the dinner plates on the charger plates as the meals are being served, or you may set up the dinner and charger plates together. To help you plan your event or , here are several services that may use charger plates.
American: Guests look through a menu and choose their meals, and then the meals are prepared and served to them in a timely manner. Now, your guests may not look through a menu at your dinner party, but you may want to wait until dinner time to serve all food.
Butler: If you are not serving a sit-down dinner, or if you want to serve appetizers before dinner, consider a butler service. You are going to place the appetizers on a tray, so the guests can serve themselves. Place the serving plates and bowls on the charger plates, or hold off on the charger plates until dinner time if applicable.
English: The English style of service is usually found in private dining rooms, so this could work for a private event. A server individually serves each guest from a platter of food. You can serve your guests for a small dinner party, or you can hire servers for events such as a wedding reception.
Family-Style: Guests choose from a platter of food, but there are servers to help set up and clean up the table. For your party, you may have the food arranged banquet style on your counter, and your guests may choose what they want before returning to the table.
Russian: If you are adapting a Russian service, you are going to carve the food in front of your guests, but this is also done in the kitchen. Afterwards, you are going to place the food on the dinner plates, which are on top of the charger plates. It creates a more personal atmosphere for your holiday dinner.
Regardless of which service you choose, you can easily incorporate charger plates into your event.