I was at a party where the hostess used a basket lined with a cloth napkin, with the 4 corners spilling over the rim. She steamed some asparagus spears and let them stand up, with the tips bending over the rim. She also had long spears of squash (yellow and zucchini) standing up. She used various greens as a backdrop. You could tip the basket on its side, but position the veggies so that no one has to pull out something from the bottom layer which will make everything else collapse.
I also saw a veggie platter using fennel (slice the bulb lengthwise, from tip to root, not sideways as if making onion rings. You'll get thin, wedge-like pieces that fan out from the bottom. Use the feathery tops for garnish (you could also stick those in your basket the way florists put greens in as a backdrop). Another vegetable people forget about is jicama - it looks like a big brown nothing (like a huge potato, almost) in the grocery store, but peeled and sliced (either into rounds or into sticks), it offers a crisp and mild-flavored addition to your platter. I've seen it used for Cinco de Mayo celebrations - white jicama, green and red bell peppers, made into the Mexican flag, with either black beans or black olives in the center representing the emblem in the center of the flag. You can also use jicama with strawberries and blueberries to make the American flag for July 4. (I know, it's July, so that doesn't help you now!)
For a "standard" veggie platter with hummus or dip, we've used multi-colored bell peppers (red, orange, yellow, green), cucumbers (either in wedges or rounds), radishes (make "flowers" by cutting off tip and root, slicing vertical cuts 3/4 of the way through, and soaking in ice water until the "petals" separate), squash wedges (zuc, yellow, couza), grape tomatoes - anything to get a variety of colors.
For a great fruit appetizer, take a half watermelon (any size), wash the rind and scoop out the flesh. Turn it upside down on a platter. Get long toothpicks, and put 3-4 different fruits on each one. Vary the order. Examples include the rest of that watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe, pineapple chunks, apples (soak briefly in lemon juice so the flesh doesn't yellow), mandarin orange slices, large blueberries, strawberries (whole & hulled, or halves, depending on size), blackberries, kiwi chunks. Make holes in the watermelon half with a skewer if the toothpick doesn't work, and stick all the toothpicks out of the watermelon half. Everything fans out like a sunburst and it looks really cool.
Your baguettes sound cute - you could garnish the creme fraiche spread with a tiny feathery sprig of fresh dill, or alternate with another herb (e.g. parsley).
Have fun!
