I do's and a present for you

I know this may be the longest post in the history of this blog....but hang in till the end.....there's something in it for you!


So, there was a major lapse in postings from me a few weeks ago, and I mentioned that I had been busy with a wedding. Boy was I ever! This wedding would be the biggest that I have ever done. A sit down dinner for one hundred an hour before the reception for seven hundred! Yes, I said seven hundred! I have never taken on an event of this size or grandeur. The bride, is the daughter of well known successful entrepreneur and farmer here in Utah. I was excited to have the opportunity to showcase their beautiful produce.

The menu for the dinner was:
Sweet spinach salad with bacon, pears, blueberries and poppy seed dressing
Fresh baci rolls with herb butter
Choice of Prime rib with fresh horseradish and au jus or Baked salmon with hollandaise
Lemon parsley fingerling potatoes
Medley of corn, tomatoes, zucchini, and sweet onions
Single chocolate dipped strawberry

The menu for the reception was:
Fresh baci rolls with herb butter
Herb ham with Dijon
Turkey with cranberry apple chutney
Roast beef with fresh creamy horseradish
variety of cheeses
fresh seasonal fruits
Sweet spinach salad with bacon, pears, blueberries and poppy seed dressing
Roasted corn salad with ancho chili dressing
Farm stand pasta salad with roasted vegetables and pesto vinaigrette
Trio of salsas: Fresh Peach, traditional Tomato, and Red pepper guacamole
Trio of baby cakes: red velvet with almond cream cheese frosting, Pineapple carrot with vanilla bean sour cream frosting, and White pound with raspberry chocolate frosting
Fresh berry lemonade

When we set the plans for the menu, it was January....and I hadn't quite considered the magnitude of this event, but as the months and finally the days neared...I have to admit I was panicking a bit. But with the help of my favorite business partner (mom), we pulled it together beautifully.
To pull the event off, we had to rent a refrigerated trailer to hold all of the produce and eventually all of the finished product.


This was the trailer after I packed it to head to the event.
we had to bungee everything in, due to the fact that the event was held on a mountainside and there was a steep incline.

We hired a staff of 12 for some of the prep and service. We prepared 150 pounds of roast beef, 150 pounds of ham, 150 pounds of turkey...I went through over 40 pounds of butter!!

We had to set up a makeshift kitchen in the garage in 95 degree weather (I think I lost five pounds that day. This is me hanging out in the cool refrigerated truck. I tried to look busy, but really, I was just cooling off...lol Getting out one of the trays of hundreds of cakes....these look like the White pound baby cakes...


My mother and I with our meaty handiwork.

My mother telling me "how it is" and me shutting up 'cause you know "how it is"

This is the site where the sit down dinner took place...I have no more pictures of this moment, because I was too darn busy to take any. I can tell you it was brilliant or should I say we were! I have been promised pictures to show off in the future.
Twelve tables set perfectly for dinner to be served at 4:40 on the dot!
So here are pictures of the buffet (in no particular order).
Fresh Berry lemonade......
Made with sparkling water.........

Rolls, crackers, and trio of baby cakes.....all in one area...how weird, I wonder why did that? I will explain in a moment.....

Chips and trio of salsas Sweet spinach salad with pears, blueberries, feta, and poppy seed dressing....

Variety of cheeses

more of those salsas.........

Beautiful fresh seasonal fruits......

Cranberry apple chutney

Ham, turkey and roast beef............

trio of baby cakes........

more cakes.........

more meat......

Spinach salad, (in foreground)Roasted corn, and Farm stand pasta salad...........

have you noticed anything interesting in any of these pictures?

Perhaps, like the guests are carrying around UMBRELLAS? AAACK!!!!

Five minutes before we set down the food, the heavens opened up and began to downpour...and of course...the food table was not tented! Thus the weird placement of the crackers, rolls, and cupcakes.

The rain did eventually clear, leaving us with a substantial temperature difference. The rest of the evening was a comfortable cool 75 degrees. look how beautiful the evening sky over the valley was after the rain.....
Oh, here is a shot of the strawberries....seen them before right? Mine were served on bejeweled soup spoons...so cute!

Terrible picture but you get the idea.

here is one of the few pictures I have of the main tent....as you can see, the weather ended up just beautiful.

Cute Megan and her friends.....

This is a shot of the candy table

Each guest was invited to take a little bag of candy away as a "Thank You".....

It was pretty cute...

One last picture of the main tent....

So did you manage to make it through my long slide show....I hope in the future to have a few pictures of the stuff I missed, because I was toooooo busy running around like a chicken with my head cut off!

But since you were so very supportive, I would like to reward you..... I am so excited that the CSN online stores contacted me and wish to give one of my readers a $40.00 gift card to be spent on a piece of Le Creuset! For those who do not speak French, we had better learn how to pronounce it first....it sounds like this....."Lay-crew-say". I love this cookware, and I am so excited that you get to have a peice....yes, I mean you...you know you want it! Look at just a few of the things below that you can spend your gift card on.

And to top it off, CSN is having a huge Le Creuset close out sale!

I was amazed to find how many amazing products the CSN stores have to offer. You can get just about anything from them. So are you as excited as I am?? Do you want to know how you can win?? I am going to give you endless opportunities to win.....Listen up here are the details:

First (Mandatory), visit CSN Le Creuset and shop. Then come on back here and leave me a comment and let me know what you can't wait to get your hands on.

Second, follow me...and make sure you leave a comment to let me know you do.

Third, link this blog post back to yours....if you do, I'll give you 3 more chances to win! Just make sure you leave 3 separate comments that you did.

Fourth, add me to your blog roll...if you do, I'll give you 2 more chances to win! Just make sure you leave 2 separate comments that you did.

And finally, visit any of the following blogs, and say Hi for me....if you do, leave a comment about who you visited.

Sweet Life

A Beautiful Mess

The Open Pantry

Survival...a mommas point of view

Cinnamon Spice

Giveaway will end Monday August 23, 2010 at 11:59 pm Mountain Standard Time. I will pick the winner a week from today (August 24th), by a random generator. So get busy...I hope you win...cause I love you like that!

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