The Decadent Dessert Table
Buy lots of bite-size, no-bake treats. Try French confections like petits fours, juicy candied chestnuts, and pistachio cookies. Blocks of bittersweet chocolate, with a knife so everyone can chisel off his or her own slivers, also feel appropriately rich.
Keep the look loose but luxe (no, not everything has to match). Use this occasion to bring out all your favorite things, placing pieces of wedding china alongside a flea-market candy dish. Display everything on cake plates and tiered stands. The various heights create visual interest and give you additional surface area for serving.
Best Specialty-Foods Sites
Heritage Foods USA: This Michigan company, which counts fresh-foods doyenne Alice Waters among its advisory-board members, sells organic raw meat, poultry, and seafood.
Fauchon: The destination for sweets that'll transport you back to the Place de la Madeleine. Try the "Afternoon in Paris" assortment of cookies, $20, and marrons glacés, $50 a dozen.
Frog Hollow Farm: Chef Daniel Boulud told us about this Northern California farm, his (now not-so) secret resource for organic fruit. In the winter, look to this site for dried peaches and plums.
The Help-Yourself Bar Cart
Set a pitcher full of blood-orange juice and an ice bucket with Prosecco on a side table, and you won't have to abandon the party to play Isaac the bartender. Guests can mix their own blood-orange Bellinis (recipe below). The seasonal hue and festive fizz make the drink special. Round out the bar cart with bowls of orange slices, Marcona almonds, and olives, plus a nonalcoholic option like mineral water.
Blood-Orange Bellinis
Fill each champagne flute about one third of the way up with blood-orange juice and top it off with Prosecco (or champagne) to within half an inch of the rim to guarantee a frothy head.
Best Drinks Sites
Acker Merrall & Condit: There is an astounding range of wines and spirits to click through at this 185-year-old merchant's online store, including Nino Franco Prosecco ($13 a bottle), but if you can't find exactly what you're looking for, someone there will hunt it down for you.
Chef's Warehouse: The best international mineral-water selection we've found on the Internet, selling San Pellegrino ($17 for 24 eight-ounce bottles) and Ulivetto ($8 for six 1½-liter bottles).
L'Epicerie: A fruit-to-nuts gourmet site, but the real finds here are the frozen drink mixers—delicious Boiron Blood Orange Puree from France ($11 for a liter) makes Bellinis just a little more special.
