For our wedding this past weekend, my new husband and I had a relatively intimate and memorable affair with all of our closest loved ones. Champions of the do-it-yourself school of thought, we decorated everything by ourselves and my mother and brother cooked the whole wedding menu. Beyond just saving us countless dollars, we also really enjoyed it. By far, the crowd favorite was the way in which we set our buffet tables. I had so many friends come up to me afterwards and say, "Your buffet tables were absolutely gorgeous! How did you do it?"
Although I never thought I would be giving lessons on how to set buffet tables, there I was–in a room full of women–revealing all my secrets. I told them that we tried to giveour wedding a natural feeling with nothing being too ostentatious or too contrived. We were able to achieve a quaint humility and charm with the pieces we added. I had gone out earlier in the month to purchase the quality dinnerware and trays we would eventually use and it took me only three days to find all that I needed. I didn’t go to the neighborhood Crate and Barrel; instead, I scoured various yard and estate sales for unique antique-y pieces. I generally tried to keep with a color theme but none of the plates or glasses had to be exactly the same. I hand-made all of the place cards that were quotes from both my husband and I on the topic of love and placed them throughout the buffets.
As for the food, we tried to showcase their beauty by adding varying height to certain plates. For example, by putting mother’s famous shrimp etouffee above the corn bread, we not only added a visual appeal to the buffet table but we also made it more practical for people who wanted easier access to more helpings of the cornbread. Another buffet table or sideboard trick to make your food look more attractive is to overfill your platters. Even if your guests don’t end up finishing it, it is always nice to have your guests able to eat to their heart’s content without worrying about eating too much of it.
