Veggie trays are a healthy alternative at parties.
Dress up a boring vegetable tray with decorative accents that highlight the theme of your event. How you arrange crisp pieces of celery, colorful carrots and cherry red tomatoes can enhance the overall appeal of your presentation. Put careful thought into how the tray looks along with the table and other decor and foods.
Garnishes
Garnishes add a bit of greenery or floral appeal to vegetable trays. Place colorful deep green and purple kale underneath vegetables on the tray and set the dip in the middle. You can also adorn the border of the tray with tiny ornamental cabbage heads, orchids and even roses if this flower fits well with the event. Choose simple garnishes for a basic party or really dress up the tray with colorful flowers.
Themed Trays
Rearrange the vegetables on your try and add an artistic touch. Create faces for a kids party or any other themed event. Make several faces in various spots on the tray and place dip in the middle. You can use chopped olives to make eyes and craft a mouth out of celery and carrots along with using cherry tomatoes for a nose. You might also want to create designs on the tray to match up with the theme of the party instead of faces. Use carrot pieces to make diamonds, squares and other shapes. Then put tomatoes and other vegetables inside the shapes. Color themes also work well on vegetable trays. Create rows of purple, yellow, orange and white carrots on one tray and put a few tomatoes in between each color to make the tray stand out. Carrots come in many colors, but you may need to special order certain types of carrots if your grocery store doesn't carry various species.
Mix Fruit and Vegetables
Not all vegetable trays need to only include veggies. Mix it up by combining your vegetable tray with fruits to go well with veggies. Feature half the fruit on one side and the vegetables on the other or make one row of pineapple next to celery, followed by carrots and then strawberries. When fruit touches vegetables this can leave a sweet taste on some of the veggies from the pores of the fruit. This is fine, and some guests may appreciate this if they have a sweet tooth. Placing nuts and other foods alongside the veggies can also work well.
Table Decor
Vegetable tray decor involves more than just how the vegetables look and what decorations go around the tray. Table decor directly on and around the table can also influence the decorative appeal of your presentation. Design a table that mimics the theme at the party. Choose a tablecloth that matches the party and decorate with figurines, balloons and floral centerpieces. Feature a colorful yellow or rainbow polka dot tablecloth for a kids clown, candy-theme or spring party. Tie bunches of colorful balloons or flower-shaped balloons on the back of each chair for a spring or kids party. Place Mickey Mouse figurines around the veggie tray, centerpiece and other accents on the table, if you're featuring a Mickey theme.
For elegant parties, showcase a white tablecloth with a rose floral centerpiece and rose petals sprinkle around the vase full of roses. Scatter fake gem stones or other embellishments around the vegetable tray, other food dishes and rose centerpiece. Select plates or elegant china that also blends well with your theme.
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