Thanks Maddielee. About 35. I squished them together so that I can get all of them in the frame. (Hard to get an aerial view of the island with my height. yes, I’dlike to raise some of the dishes, but don’t know with what. Need something sturdy and stable so that it doesn’t topple when people are trying to get food.

I just did this at a holiday party. One of my colleagues is very artistic and set up our staff room for snack one day just before the holidays. I took a pic and blatantly copied her. A couple of take aways:

1. incorporate some height. She (and I) used short clear glass vases filled with cheese straws standing in them (she used fat pretzels). If you don't have anything like this on the menu, you could just put some cutlery upright.

2. grab some greenery. Cheap and easy from the florist, spread some floppy branches amongst the plates. I used cedar branches.

3. Sprinkle some colour. She used raspberries, I had a bag of fresh cranberries and piled and sprinkled them here and there along with some cut up persimmons and figs.

These suggestions are more for looks than practicality so might not answer your question, but thought I'd throw them out there. Lucky guests, it looks like you'll have some delicious treats!

ETA: looking at my pics from the party, I also filled a taller glass vase with cranberries and some green bits stolen from the cedar boughs and had some clementines sprinkled around, too.

Daisychain how can we blatantly copy you without a picture. :-). My nephew is coming to visit. A fairly large group of people will be here as it's been quite a while since he's been in town. I will be setting up a grazing table for the party so am following closely. Thank you for bringing up this topic.

Ugh. My pics are so bad. I do have this one taken as I was starting to set up but all the others are of guests with just a glimpse of table in the background.

You might use books or baking pans draped with tea or dish towels or cloth napkins as the bases for some dishes.

For raising dishes, use cake stands, pavers, bricks, books. Over the holidays we attended a party (contractor) who added his son’s Tonka trucks to his buffet setup and served out of the dump or flatbed portion. He also had a floral arrangement in a well used Tonka truck. Darling.

Oh books would be lovely!

Great suggestions, thank you! I used a small bonsai planter I have, filled it with some heavy polished rocks I had for weight and sbility, to raise one of the boards. Will look for some other items suggested above to create varying heights. Picking up some greenery and cranberries to spread around for color.

You can also use trivets or cutting boards to elevate some of the dishes. During the holidays I had food and beverages set out on several surfaces - the island, the server, the buffet and I had DH cut some scrap lumber into smaller rpieces that I could place under my platters. As carol mentioned above you can cover them with tea towels, napkins, placemats or fabric.

I really like the suggestion to add color with greenery and cranberries.

You could also set one of the bowls/plates right ontop of the greenery.

You can buy frozen banana leaves at Asian or Hispanic markets. When thawed and washed these can be a nice base layer for a grazing station. They can camouflage utilitarian risers, look nice with wood, stone, or metal serving pieces on them, and foods can spill over onto the leaves.

I got some gold glitter flat snowflake ornaments which I scatter on a holiday table. Adds a bit of festive bling. They come in silver and other colors too. Not sure you can get them still, possibly. They sold them in drugstores and markets around here. I guess too late for you this year. I keep mine along with a few random fake greenery bits for holiday tables. Works most of the winter since I don't have anything that screams "Christmas" for the table. I like the bling and leave the generic winter decorations up until at least the end of Feb.

thanks bunch for all the great suggestions! So, here is the update. It was a great gsthering, with people milling around or parking themselves somewhere comfortably, talking, laughing ...

As for the grazing table, it was mostly a success. I was seriously running behind and couldn’t do some of the nice finishing touches. The guests had started arriving and I ran to our room to change my shirt and put on a little make-up while my husband attended to the door. I wish I had a little but more time.

And I also wish I had taken good pictures. One of the guests was complimenting me on how pretty the food looked and was taking some pictures. I later asked her if she’d mind sending them to me. So, here are some pictures, not very good, and taken while I was still adding some food to the table, but It is what it is. The most important thing is everyone had a great time and overall the house looked beautiful and welcoming.

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Wowza! And more importantly--YUM!!

Looks delicious! Glad you had an enjoyable gathering.