Party planning can be exhausting and daunting for many, so I wanted to share some easy and budget friendly Galentine's entertaining ideas. For this blog post, I'll be talking about my simple Fondue Graze-Board, that's easy to assemble and requires little to no cooking. What I love about graze-boards is that food on the table is the real star, not your china nor your floral. Also, more is more for this one and you can't really go wrong!
Below I am adding helpful links to purchase everything for this party, but feel free to shoot any questions you may have! :)
Fondue Set
Mine was a present from a friend, but you can purchase the same one for under $40 here:
https://www.crateandbarrel.com/red-cast-iron-fondue-set/s307854
Table Mats
Instead of doing regular table mats or craft paper, I used heart shaped doilies from Michael's and just spread them around the table. These can be found for under $6 on Amazon as well:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006VDB28O/ref=dp_cerb_1
Dippers
You can use whatever you and your friends like with chocolate, but here is what i had on the table:
Strawberries cut in halves, sliced bananas, marshmallows, plain madeleines, key-lime biscuits and mini waffles. I bought almost all of these from Mariano's, but if you're looking for something more fancy, check the snack aisle at World Market. They have some unique and delicious options!
Plates
You don't really need to even have plates on the table, as the idea is for everyone to just dig in and the table itself serves as a giant plate, but i added some to give the table more variety and dimension ;)
The small marble printed paper plates are from Harlow & Grey:
https://harlowandgrey.com/products/goddess-marble-hexagon-party-plates-small
The pink lips are from Meri Meri:
https://merimeri.com/products/pink-lips-canape-plates
Glassware & Drinks
For the cocktail pairing, I asked my friend and amazing mixologist in Chicago, VivaMia Cocktails to create something that would go well with the Chocolate Fondue Graze-board and she came up with a Lavender Gin Gimlet. I served this drink in small, crystal glasses (normally used to serve tea in the Middle East) to go with this dainty, bite size table setting.
Lavender Gin Gimlet Recipe
.70 Fresh Lime Juice
1.5 oz of Lavender Syrup or @vidamiacocktails Lavender Elixir (see recipe below)
1.5 oz @TheBotanist Gin
Clean rose petal as garnish
Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Strain the liquid cocktail in a glass coupe or similar. Add a rose petal as a garish.
@VidaMiaCocktails Lavender Elixir
.85 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
3 tablespoons of dry lavender
Accessories
What's a Galentine's party without cute accessories? I got "xoxo" & "be mine" headbands from Wild Child Party
Hope you enjoyed reading and have a fondue graze-board party soon! ;)
xo,
Details.