Design a Wedding Food Table

It's the trickiest of balancing acts: designing a wedding food table that looks enticing, showcases a bounty of food and gives guests such easy access to serving dishes they never have to risk pearls falling into the guacamole when reaching for the bruschetta tray. Rather than spending a fortune on a pricey table designer, you've decided to tackle the project using a mix of common sense and creativity. The secret is to create multiple surface heights to showcase platters and bowls rather than cramming food-laden dishes atop a uniform surface.

1. Query the bride, the wedding planner or the caterer to ascertain how the reception area will be set up and, particularly, whether the food table you'll be designing is going to "float" in the middle of the reception area or be set up against a wall so you've an idea of how to build your wedding food table's infrastructure.

2. Obtain the measurements of the food table itself plus that of the largest platter that you will use to hold food dishes so that you've an idea of the width and depth of the boxes you'll need to build the food display. Sketch out a rough layout of the table, envisioning a city skyline so you've a good sense of how the food table will look when it's complete.

3. Tape closed a series of heavy cardboard boxes in a variety of sizes. Place the tallest of the boxes in the middle of the table if you're creating an island that allows wedding guests to replenish their plates from both sides of the food table. Arrange the largest boxes at the back of the food table that is against the wall.

4. Cover the table with a length of fabric and skirt it. Arrange graduated sizes of boxes atop the material until you're satisfied that there are plenty of individual surfaces capable of holding food-filled plates and trays. Toss additional lengths of fabric over the boxes and then drape, bunch and wrap the table, tucking selvages and raw edges underneath and in between the boxes so that no one can see them. Inspect the entire layout to make certain there are no exposed boxes.

5. Plug in and arrange strings of white holiday lights throughout the wedding table food display, using straight pins to secure the wires to the sides of the cardboard boxes. Fill in areas around the boxes on the wedding food table with greenery, silk flowers and live flowers---even fruit arrangements make great decorative touches, especially if the bride's theme color is in the citrus family.

6. Stack plates, utensils and napkins on one or both sides of the tabletop. Arrange plates and trays of food atop the boxes so that each of the dishes is easy to access from one or more sides of the wedding food table display.