event ideas

For the Knot event, Selden created a next-level breadstick bar. Hand-rolled breadsticks were served with flavored dips like spiced butternut squash, curried cream, and ricotta and fava bean, along with carrot and ginger and truffled wild mushroom soups. "You'd never guess it's a less expensive option because of the abundance of food on the table," the chef says.

At a party celebrating the Toms for Target partnership in Los Angeles last year, colorful nonalcoholic drinks were presented in glass decanters.

Guests could get toasty (and tipsy) at the hot chocolate bar with alcoholic mix-ins, which was set up at a private holiday party, held at 26 Bridge in December 2014 and produced by New York-based event firm Rock Paper Scissors Events.

At the How I Met Your Mother holiday party in Los Angeles at Fox Studios in December 2013, the show's cast and crew ate and played at a gingerbread-decorating station set up by Marina del Ray-based Schaffer's Genuine Foods.