Tips for Building a Garden Party Graze Table

We couldn't have asked for better weather to celebrate the sweetest little birthday girl. You all know her as my sidekick in several of my videos. She absolutely LOVES making YouTube videos and helping me decorate the house. This past Monday, Kendall Grace turned ELEVEN, so the weekend before, her mama, daddy, myself, along with all of those who love her worked hard to throw her the coolest birthday party! She's asked a million times if I'd do a graze table for her big day, so that's what we did.

There is sooo much color on this little table, and I love how it turned out. You can find the recipe for my cucumber slices with whipped avocado and goat cheese, topped with sun-dried tomatoes here. They are the perfect appetizers for Spring, so try them and let me know what you think!

For the rest of the table, I just filled in with all of Kendall's favorite foods. She loves all things fruit...blackberries, strawberries and lots and LOTS of pineapple. She also really loves when I make pinwheel sandwiches, so I had to include those! I'll work on some recipes for those soon because they're just too simple and too delicious not to try. Kids really love them, too!

Tips for Building a Graze Table

Start with a main dish: sandwiches (or pinwheels)
Add at least 2 types of fruit. I always have 3-4 when I am building a graze table.
Have a hard "safe" cheese like cheddar. Have a hard pungent cheese like asiago. Add some blue cheese if your guests are bold. Have a soft cheese like mozzarella or brie. Here's a super yummy blackberry baked brie recipe I made.
Add some veggies, but play around with them and don't keep all of them plain. I sliced some mini sweet peppers and stuffed them with whipped cream cheese and Everything But The Bagel seasoning for a wedding shower graze table, and they were a massive hit! For this table, I made the super yummy avocado cucumbers, and they brought a lot of life to the presentation.
Make a salami rose or two!! They're beautiful and easy to make.
Fill in with nuts, additional sides like pasta salad, assorted pickles and several different kinds of crackers and bread.
Add some sweets: cookies, cupcakes, candy...you can't go wrong with anything sweet.
Elevate some of your items with pedestal trays so everything isn't at the same level. This helps add depth to your tables. Then, just fill in ALL the gaps and leave no spaces. VOILA! You've got a beautiful graze table.