How to Prep for a Wine Evening at Home | Affordably Hosting a Wine, Cheese + Snack...

Hello...

With March winding down, it seems we're finally on track toward spring and in honor of the warm days showing up, I thought it would be fun to spend a balmy evening hosting a relaxed wine night with friends.

I recently purchased a beautiful three-tiered marble tray and to be honest, I was just looking for an excuse to use it. After deciding it would serve as the focal piece, I created the rest of the tablescape around it.

Marble has such a calming aesthetic to it and if you stick with a cool, muted palette by incorporating soft influences of color and texture, you can't go wrong.

 

The menu was centered around the wine so creating a cheeseboard was a given. I envisioned small plates filled with an array of cheeses, grapes, crispy crackers and flavorful little appetizers. Since it was Friday during our Lent, we also wanted the menu to be vegetarian.

What we ended up with was an organized arrangement of the following items:

Caprese Salad 

A variety of cheeses 

Crackers in several flavors 

Grapes 

Raspberries 

Oven-roasted mini potatoes with Rosemary 

Peppers in oil 

Baguette bread in mini slices 

Sea-salted roasted almonds 

Pesto pasta bowtie crackers 

Kettle chips and French Onion dip 

Chocolate-coated butter cookies 

The wine choice was a crisp and refreshing Riesling called Snoqualmie, placed in a silver ice bucket (and plenty of stock already chilled in the refrigerator).

The decor was simple - small white plates, real flatware, faux succulent plants and grey napkins arranged on the table in useful folds. I stress the importance of using real flatware. This adds no cost to the total of your gathering and makes all the difference to the table setting as well as your guests. Whenever entertaining, always use real utensils in lieu of plastic especially when using actual glassware, plates and service pieces.

 If you'd like to see the table being set in real time, or take a sneak peek into how the entire set-up turned out, please click below to view the video!

Also, please let me know in the comments below what your tips are for entertaining at home - affordable tips are a bonus!