Steph's Wedding

   

Went to the wonderful wedding of a friend of mine over the weekend where we were all treated to a wonderful meal.  Aren't these nice plates?  Love the flower.  Have no idea what it was. It almost looks like an orchid blossom but it can't be. Wouldn't orchids be too expensive to use as garnishes? 

The chicken was fantastic, pounded thin and with a light sauce on it, extremely tender.  The pork loin was good, if a little tough, but the cranberry cherry sauce was dynamite.  The green beans and potatoes seem generic but they were seasoned very well, the potatoes tossed with bleu cheese--yum!

We did laugh at this though (because let's face it, what's the fun of going to a wedding if you can't make fun of the catering, right?:

 

While Ashley ended up with the ginormous portion of pork at the top of the page, Chris, obviously a guy, ended up with the Mini Me portion in this pic. That's exactly how the plate was placed in front of him (he had just moved the flower though).  Hmmmm...somebody in the kitchen wasn't paying  attention, huh?  Little bitty portion, great big white space...and then the server set it in front of a man.  But don't worry, Chris didn't starve.  Ashley shared her manly man plate.

I have a serious question on catering though.  When I was a convention planner all through the 80's and early 90's, we would NEVER have pre-set iced tea at an upscale banquet like this.  We would have pre-set water but we would have served iced tea and coffee to the guests.  The last several banquet/catered meals I've been to the iced tea has been sitting on the tables watering down when we arrived in the room even if the meal wasn't scheduled for an hour because of a cocktail reception.  Is that happening everywhere across the country or are the caterers in my area getting lazy?  Anyone been to a banquet lately?

Comments

[Auntie M]

Those are the same orchids they use to make leis. They're so plentiful in Hawaii, they can export them by the thousands at a surprisingly affordable rate. It would almost compare to us exporting dandelions. Wedding looked lovely and the orchids do dress up the plate, don't they?

[Glenna]

Oh yeah, that totally makes sense!

[Rachel]

Totally with ya on the iced tea. I went to a banquet at Tantara resort in August with pre-set iced tea. It was so watery and the table cloth was wet from the condensation. I'm glad I wasn't the only one that thought stuff like that is weird.

[megan]

My SIL is a caterer and I just helped with a wedding last week. In fact, I'm the one that set the tables for 200. You didn't find any ice tea on my tables. Just a water goblet. I dont know when the water was served but I know it was poured by the servers AFTER the wedding!

[Glenna]

Reachel--Sucks, doesn't it? I hate sitting down to watered down, warming up beverages. It's unpleasant and you have to drink the whole glass full before you can fresh tea and ice from the pitcher.

Megan--Yay! That's the way it should be!

[Fruittart]

The orchids make a nice splash of color in an otherwise dull (color-wise) plate. And yes, the watery tea, even if you didn't *want* tea! It's happened to me at the last two big dinners I've attended.

[Glenna]

Thanks Wendy!