As I write about setting the table I frequently find myself mentioning the cost of this or that item, meaning money spent, although cost can be reckoned in other ways too. (Time and effort have big price tags these days.) Miserly feelings often attack me as I finger some bit of stuff and wonder if it will work well enough to justify its cost. The ephemeral quality of tablesetting - at least as I practice it - means that items purchased today may be total mistakes or may never be used again, and something in me rebels at that. The old standard of acquiring "good" dishes and linens and using them for all subsequent occasions would at least prevent the dull disappointment and even shame I feel when something I just spent (too much) money on fails to fit into the design like I hoped. Another part, the one seeking visual satisfaction and expression of the moment, incessantly looks for new and intriguing elements to spark the table to life, cost be damned. The tension between the look and the price can be hard to balance.
How much should a table cost? Every table and occasion makes its own demands of course - there is no formula. Figuring how much time or money to spend on any given event is a calculation made in quicksand, loaded with concrete facts like the price of those blue napkins I saw in town and the number of hours 'til guests arrive, but more heavily influenced by feelings: those underlying the occasion, those of relative poverty or affluence, and the ever-strident desire to make something I think is pleasing. I am very aware that what I am willing to invest in a table would be considered completely excessive to some and paltry and weak to others. I can only trust that my feelings will show me a true path through the forest of considerations, resulting in a table that Goldilocks would find "just right".