Shopping List for a Wedding Charcuterie Board

I am finally getting around to posting the massive
Charcuterie Board I did for my son's wedding this August.
I searched for ideas online about how much to purchase, 
but no one really gave exact amounts to guide me, 
so I am going to give you my actual grocery list 
and tell you what I had too much of and what worked. 

You may remember the massive table my son built 
me for my Witches in the Hollow dinner last year.  
Well, we didn't get it covered and the weather got to it, 
but the week before the wedding I had the inspiration 
to use it rather than folding tables, or renting a table.  
I sheepishly asked my son about resurfacing it.  I knew 
he would be busy the week before his wedding, but he 
said one of his employees would have the time!!!  
So he asked how I wanted it done, and I said I wanted 
it whitewashed.  Then he asked if I wanted the legs 
repainted gold.  Well, of course I did!  Now it 
would match the eight foot board he had made me that 
I planned to place down the center of the table to be 
the base for the layout.  

You can see the board at the front of this picture.  It is 
whitewashed with a gold base.  It sits on my kitchen counter 
all of the time and serves as a nice base for my counter displays. 

Since we were in the middle of Covid, I pushed for a 
small intimate gathering, but the mother of the bride 
went ahead and wanted a big event, so I had no idea 
how many to plan for. I planned for around 150, and 
that seemed to be how many we had.  It was held in the 
nice big backyard of a friend so distancing was possible. 

For drama, I knew I wanted height and size, so I gathered 
some of my whitewashed serving pieces like this 
cake platter. 

My splurges for the board were the large 
cheeses, which ranged from $20 to $60.  I got six of those.  
Each one had its own knife for slicing off some cheese. 
I love these knives I had purchased from Home Goods 
years ago.  

I purchased some inexpensive wooden boxes off of 
Amazon and painted those white and gold too.  They 
held nuts and breads and flatware.  
Rather than take the time to make my own macarons, 
I purchased ones from Costco and sprayed them with 
Wilton's Lustre Spray to dress them up.  
I also purchased fun Biscotti and filled cookies that 
we like from Trader Joe's. 

 

A little cut fruit and other fruits adorn the table to give 
it color.  Surprisingly people took the cut kiwis and 
ate all of them.  
Bread sticks, naan, pretzel rolls and sliced crusty breads 
plus crackers filled out the board.  

One end of the table was anchored by two lanterns, 
and the other was anchored by a tiered tray full of 
cubed cheeses.

I cubed four two-pound bricks of cheese, and 
of course, these were all gone by the end of the night. 
I also purchased 20 tongs off Amazon for serving. 

Nuts and olives are a nice addition to a board.  

I included olives, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Pesto, 
mustards, and hummus for topping the breads 
and crackers.  

A variety of meats were also served. 
Now for my shopping list!  I spent about $750 
for the entire board, but could have done it for about 
two-thirds, as we had a lot left over.  

SHOPPING LIST
4 - 2 lb. bricks cheese - Colby Jack, Hot Pepper, 
Sharp Cheddar and White Cheddar (I bought Tillamook)
6 quarter and half round wheels of cheese - Blue Cheese, 
Blueberry Cheese, Manchego Cheese, Smoked Gouda,
Parmesano Reggiano (the last 3 were from Costco)
4 pkg sliced salami and Prosciutto (Costco)
2 rounds Brie (Costco
2 large containers Hummus (Costco)
2 large containers Artichoke Dip ( Costco)
6 pkg Macarons (Costco)
1 jar Pesto (Costco)
4 pkg Pretzel Balls (Costco)
4 pkg mini Naan (grocery store)
3 pkg heart shaped crackers (grocery store)
3 pkg Parmesan flatbread (Trader Joes)
2 boxes Social Snacker Crackers (Trader Joes)
3 pkg. thin Breadsticks (Trader Joes)
2 pkg flatbread crackers (Trader Joes)
2 boxes Mango and Ginger Crackers (Trader Joes)
3 pkg Chocolate Biscotti (Trader Joes)
2 pkg chocolate meringues (Trader Joes)
2 pkg vanilla meringues (Trader Joes
3 pkg Lemon Biscotti (Trader Joes)
3 boxes Biscoff Cookies (Trader Joes)
2 pkg Nutella filled cookies (Trader Joes)
3 boxes Lemon Wafers (Trader Joes)
2 Lemon Curd (Trader Joes)
4 pkg green and red olives (Trader Joes)
2 Nut and Olive Mix (Trader Joes)
2 pkg sugared pecans (Trader Joes)
2 pkg coconut cashews (Trader Joes)
1 pkg. shelled Pistachios (Grocery Store)
2 specialty mustards (Trader Joes)
1 red pepper spread (Trader Joes)
Olive Oil with pouring spout (Trader Joes)
6 baguettes - 4 sliced, and 2 left whole (Grocery Store)
6 assorted crusty bread loaves, sliced (Grocery Store)
3 large pkg each - strawberries, raspberries and 
blueberries (Costco)
2 pkg red grapes (Costco)
3 grapefruits, cut in half
6 yellow kiwis, cut in half
4 green kiwis, cut in half

Of course, most of this could be purchased at any store.

My daughter and two daughters in law helped me put 
the whole board together in 30 minutes.  They have all 
done boards, so everything went together quickly.  We 
had such a large volume of food on the table that we didn't 
have to do much refilling.  

The other food offered was DippinDots - which you can 
order from their website - just be sure and order them 
in advance so they don't charge exorbitant shipping fees. 
They say they can't be stored in the freezer, but we found 
that we could put them in the freezer and then put them 
back in the cooler with fresh dry ice  and it gave them the characteristic hard, stick to your tongue texture. 

Do that an hour or two before the event.

 They also served Chik-fil-A's nuggets. 

 The bride and groom chose their favorite foods to serve.

How could I have economized?

I had twice as many cookies and crackers and 
bread as they consumed.  Admittedly, those are 
inexpensive and we could use them later.  
I could have cut back on the large cheeses, and maybe 
only done three.  I only needed one Brie, one 
Hummus and one Artichoke Heart dip, but we 
used them later.  We also had half of 
the fruit left.  All of the cubed cheese was consumed and 
all of the sliced baguettes.  The macarons were 
completely gone and we could have probably had 
more of those.

We didn't pay for the traditional dinner the night 
before, as her family was traveling in from out of state 
and they wanted to have a shower that night.  So 
in the end, even though I could have easily have 
done this spread for 1/3 less, I felt it was very reasonable.  

Hope this helps if you are planning a 
Charcuterie Board for a large group.
It was beautiful and delicious and impressive. 

And yes, we encouraged masks and distancing and 

had hand sanitizer on the tables!