If you fancy fish and chips, consider serving this elevated, all-in-one version at your shower. Here, the "chips" -- crisp potato wafers called gaufrettes -- are topped with smoked salmon and a dollop of sauce with dill and creme fraiche. A sprig of fresh dill completes the pretty presentation.

With a puff-pastry blossom resting atop a flaky crust, a miniature potpie makes a delightful and delicious first course at a shower. This favorite home-style dish is filled with a medley of vegetables, including asparagus, carrots, and pearl onions, and baked in a ramekin.

The classic English teatime elements are reinvented with ingredients from the sushi bar. This food is as decorative as it is delectable: Tea sandwiches combine the familiar (smoked salmon, poached chicken, cucumbers, dill, watercress, and cream cheese) with the unexpected (wasabi, shiso leaf, fresh salmon roe, black caviar, and black and white sesame seeds).

Homemade cranberry chutney makes a delicious topping for hors d'oeuvres and a sweet favor. At the shower, serve a dollop of the chutney, made with orange zest and walnuts, over a tiny turkey "sandwich." At the end of the event, you can offer a jar of the condiment for guests to take home.

Deep-red beets offer beautiful contrast to the bright-green spinach-pea soup and orange butternut-squash soup. If you prefer yellow soup, substitute golden beets for the red ones in this recipe.

Only a quail egg is tiny enough to fit atop this canape. It is deviled, dressed with caviar and dill, and affixed to a round of pumpernickel with a silky mixture of creme fraiche and Dijon mustard.

Salmon mousse cups are an elegant small bite, perfect for passed hors d'oeuvres at a shower. These appetizers are made even more elegant by serving them on a bed of cucumber peels in a basket-weave pattern.

Savory madeleines can be flavored with many varieties of herbs, seasonings, and cheeses. Some options are Gruyere cheese, fresh rosemary, and cayenne pepper.

For a finger-friendly take on classic beet and goat cheese salad, serve fried beet chips topped with a dollop of the tangy cheese and vinaigrette-laced microgreens. They make perfect hors d'oeuvres -- crispy instead of juicy beets means no one will be caught red-handed.

Light, delicate, and delicious, these crisp and cool hors d'oeuvres are elegant and perfect for a bridal shower or cocktail hour.

Combine the luxury of caviar with the simplicity of a soft-boiled egg in a delightful dish for a wedding brunch or shower. We used salmon caviar -- orange roe that is pretty, flavorful, and relatively inexpensive. Acknowledge Cupid with toast cut into hearts and arrows.

As if a golden maple leaf had alighted on a field of green, these savory crisps evoke fall. Shaped with a cookie cutter, the leaves are made from wonton wrappers that are seasoned with herbs and Parmesan cheese, then baked. Serve with a salad as a crouton substitute.

Topped with beadlike osetra caviar, stuffed phyllo purses gain luster.

Farfalle, or bow-tie pasta, becomes crunchy finger food when parboiled, then quickly fried and tossed with lemon zest, Parmesan cheese, and chives. Rigatoni and larger pasta shells are also good shapes for preparing this way, since they're a similar size and density.

Delicious and beautiful, this one-bite hors d'oeuvre has a little kick to it thanks to achiote paste. Serve as a passed hors d'oeuvre or as a starter at each guest's plate.

A great appetizer for a shower or cocktail hour, small halved potatoes are served with bacon, creme fraiche, and poached leeks.

A delicious and beautiful canape for a shower, the sweet pink flesh of a fresh fig wedge is striking on a circle of white bread thinly spread with pungent Gorgonzola cheese. Just a thimbleful of heady port glazes the fruit.

No shower guest would be able to resist this appetizer, which features roasted wild mushrooms that lie on a bed of Robiola, a mild and soft Italian cheese. Ribbons of flat-leaf parsley and a drop of white truffle oil perfume the whole.

Give your bridal shower a Mediterranean flair with these simple hors d'oeuvres. Balls of fresh goat cheese are coated with chopped pistachios; beds of baby spinach leaves make them easy to lift and eat.

Replace the boring crouton cubes in your salads with savory heart-shaped versions. These crisps consist of three layers of phyllo dough filled with Asiago cheese and ground pine nuts; the layers are seasoned with thyme, shaped with a cookie cutter, and then baked. They go well with any mixed green salad -- or even soup.

Introducing our Starlight Royale -- a delicious concoction of gin, lime juice, and Champagne topped off with a splash of grenadine for a pink glow (we dipped the rim in lime juice and fine sanding sugar for a 1-inch-wide band of sparkle). A halved hard-boiled egg, de-yolked and filled with caviar, complements the drink nicely.

When filled with sample-size portions of a baby Greek salad or a beet-and-radish pairing, kitschy disposable paper cups suddenly seem cool, and they make the perfect appetizer or small snack for a bridal shower.

Elevate the sophistication level of your shower menu with this ceviche -- a dish made with marinated raw fish (we added pink grapefruit in this version). This bay scallop ceviche will feel right at home served in a seashell, and you'll feel secure knowing that these particular shells are food-safe. White Irish scallop shells, Conch King.