Congratulations!!! You've made it through the most difficult section, preparation and moved on to presentation. This is the area that is featured by most people, but we believe good preparation leads to good presentation.

While it is important to consider the layout and presentation of the food serving area, we feel that some time should be taken to consider the overall appearance of your event area with the food starting out as the focal point. As you are undoubtedly aware, the serving area will become unkempt, therefore, it is a good idea to include the entire event area when working on presentation.

One point to consider is the style of the serving dishes. There are those who prefer the clear or colored glass type of serving dishes. Others prefer a ceramic dish. The choice is yours. Many people have told us they've picked up quite a collection of nice serving dishes over time from discount stores. Some have even told us of finds they've made at dollar stores. However, since this is an outdoor event, there is nothing wrong with using high quality wooden or plastic serving dishes. To make your picnic a little more festive and yet help with organization, you might consider a variety of colors such as red for meat, blue for salads, yellow for vegetables, etc. Of course, if this is a potluck style picnic, your guests who bring food will use their own serving dishes.

The next thing you might want to think about is the use of a center piece. While there is nothing wrong with this, we are of the belief that the food itself is the center piece.

Now that your guests have enjoyed the food that you have prepared, it is time for them to relax, mingle and talk with each other. A nice idea that we've seen to help promote conversation during the quiet periods is to place a few photo albums in an area where your guests can browse them. This is especially helpful if you have a group of people that tends to spend a lot of time together. As they flip through the pages they will recall bygone days that you've spent together. If you have children, maybe an album of kids photos as they were growing up. This may spark memories of their own children or even their childhood which can lead to some pretty interesting conversations.

Another idea we've been made aware of is setting out a conversation starter book. An example we've seen is a book that asks questions about Christmas. There were questions such as 'what was your favorite Christmas gift.'

Remember, even though you may be dealing with adults, they're still children at heart.

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