When you sit down for a meal with multiple guests, you reach for the bread and you realize “yikes, which plate is my bread plate?”. How embarrassing if you put your bread and butter on another’s plate (we have all done this at least once!). Your bread plate is on the left of your place setting, and your drink glasses (cup & saucer or wine/water glasses) are on the right. Another way to identify which bread plate and glassware are yours is to remember “BMW”.
You have probably already figured it out:
B for bread on the left;
M for meal in the middle;
and W for water on the right.