no. 155: how to assemble a wedding grazing board

BUTTER, BUTTER, AND BUTTER.

Last weekend, I had the honor and privilege to not only attend my friends’ Becca and Pete’s wedding Sebastopol, California, but they asked me to do a grazing board for the cocktail hour.

Because I am an attention-loving maximalist and because Becca is literally the founder of Fishwife (!), I really had no other option but to go completely balls-to-the-wall on this one.

This particular catering gig was slightly out of the norm for me because, for starters, it involved no cooking. At no point did I turn on the oven or stove. It also relied heavily on props and styling—I am no stranger to cute platters and serving trays, but I definitely put a lot more thought and effort into the styling of this job as opposed to most of my other dinners and events.

Couldn’t have made this board without her!

You can see what I did on my prep day and then watch it all come together on the day of the wedding. I truly had so much fun making this thing. Making a giant snack board for 100 people? Sign me up.

I think a lot of the magic in this board was really in the details. Here’s everything you need to know.

THE PROPS

Months before the wedding, Becca came over to my apartment for dinner and we scoured Pinterest and Instagram for inspo. We ordered coupe glasses, seashells, trays, serving utensils, and tiered stands. Becca also scooped some rustic produce crates from Facebook marketplace. We also rented a few silver cake trays and oval platters. The vibe was SILVER and RUSTIC.

We set the grazing table with a linen from Blockshop and zhuzhed it up with a couple small floral arrangements and one large centerpiece arrangement. Julie Martin (the groom’s sister!) illustrated an adorable menu, as well.

THE CHEESE

We had a lot of cheese on this board. I feel like selecting the varieties of cheese for a charcuterie/grazing situation can feel intimidating, but I feel like it’s mostly a matter of choosing a nice variety of textures/flavors, and sticking to the stuff that you like. Is that too obvious? Here’s what we had:

• Cypress Grove’s Midnight Moon Aged Gouda and Humboldt Fog

• Marin French Cheese Triple Creme Brie (truffle, jalapeno, and classic)

• Point Reyes Fennel Blue Cheese and Toma Wedge

• Beehive Cheddar (Barely Buzzed and Seahive)

THE BUTTER

Here’s the thing—Becca loves butter. And so do I. And so does literally everyone. I knew this thing had to have an over-the-top butter moment. I bought 10 pounds of Kerrygold butter (maybe next year my invite to the Kerrygold cow farm won’t get lost in the mail for the 10th year in a row?).

I whipped half of the butter with a touch of milk to lighten it up a bit, then served it piled high on a cake tray with flaky salt and fresh produce. It looked insane in the best way.

I used the other half of butter to make a radish butter terrine, inspired by this thing I saw on Pinterest. I used a variety of shapes and colors of radishes to make a jewel-like visual. TBH, I was rather obsessed with how this thing turned out.

The table was positioned in a shady spot which allowed the butter to stay nice and soft without completely melting.

THE FISHES AND MEATS

It should hopefully come as no surprise that this board was covered in tinned fish. We put out Fishwife’s salmon, trout, mackerel, and spicy tuna. I also spread some of the whipped butter in seashells and topped them with anchovies.

Aside from the fish, we also had a leg of Campo Grande jamon iberico, which was legitimately unreal.

THE PRODUCE

I did a majority of my shopping at the Berkeley Bowl in Oakland, and my god, did I have fun in there. I bought a ton of radishes (some for the terrine and also just to style around the board), berries, grapes, and stone fruit.

I also bought what we’ll call “produce props,” which I used to add some fun dimension and color to the board, though they weren’t necessarily intended to be eaten. We’re talking heirloom tomatoes, baby artichokes, blood oranges, heads of radicchio and endive, and funky mushrooms. Just beautiful items of produce that are fun to look at, you know?

THE REST

To tie it all together, you of course need some starchy vessels for all these goods, so we had some local sliced sourdough baguettes and loaves. We also had plenty of Firehook crackers and some ridged potato chips, for good measure.

It’s not a complete board without some condiments and olives, and lucky for us, Divina hooked us up with everything from spicy fig jam to sour cherry spread to whole grain mustard to every olive under the sun. It was heaven.

One of my favorite components on the board was the HONEYCOMB from Savannah Bee company. I think it made all the cheese look extra elegant and beautiful.

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER!

There was no real rhyme or reason to a lot of styling of this board. I put bread and grapes and potato chips and top-on radishes and carrots on the tiered stands. On cake stands, I did a tall pile of whipped butter and large, tower-like arrangements of cheese, jamon, and honeycomb. I sprinkled berries and radishes throughout to add color to everything. I felt like I was doing arts and crafts all day long.

My one CHEESE TIP is to always break into the cheese. If a piece of cheese looks completely untouched on a charcuterie board, I find that guests feel less compelled to dive into it and it just looks too neat. LEAN INTO THE RUSTIC MESS!

A couple people have asked me what we did about flies. Becca and I went back and forth on whether we wanted to get these fly fans but we ultimately decided not to. While they are effective, they’re also ugly and just kind of a vibe killer, IMO.

Look, we were in the middle of the woods with a table full of tinned fish and honeycomb. Yes, there were bugs flying around, but it wasn’t anything unbearable. If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t change a damn thing.

BTW, my dress was from Nuuly (use my Nuuly code!!!) and my tank top is obviously from Old Navy. Have to keep my brand strong, always.

This was SO MUCH FUN. Truly. Congrats, Becca & Pete!!!