Tag Archives: catering

Young Life Banquet

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We are finally home.

It’s almost midnight and Cameron is still wide awake.

There are pots, pans, dirty plates and silverware, chafing dishes, coolers and left overs all over our apartment.

Tonight Jon catered a Young Life banquet.  We spent Saturday and Sunday shopping and prepping food and today was the big day.

Catering is a wild ride, but it’s what my husband loves to do and it’s his dream to have a full time catering business someday.  I know he will because he’s extremely gifted at cooking for large amounts of people and he’s currently in school learning about business.

It’s funny though, because we have yet to cater an event at a venue that makes sense.  Have you ever seen the show Dinner Impossible? Somehow all our events end up being a little like that.

But these crazy events make memories that I will never forget:

  • Rushing to the store when we forget something important
  • Forcing my husband to drink a glass of water halfway through the day so he doesn’t get a headache
  • Transporting big pans of food to the event site
  • Coming home and collapsing on the couch
  • Spending the next week washing and putting all the catering equipment back into our storage unit (actually, I really hate this part)
  • Seeing my husband do something he loves to do

The picture above is the only picture I managed to take today.  I was supposed to take lots of really good shots of the food with our nice camera, but as usual, once things got rolling I didn’t have a second to spare and taking pictures ended up at the bottom of the priorities list.

Someday I will have great pictures to share from Kidwell Catering, but for now they are just still-frames in my mind.

But trust me, the food was amazing!

How To Create A Stunning Table-Scape

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Photo by Amy Atlas

In 13 days Jon will be catering his first wedding for a couple of our friends from church.  Jon is taking care of the food aspect while I will be his right-hand woman; coordinating the helpers, answering questions so Jon can focus on cooking and my other task:  The snack/candy/appetizer table.

This final task is the one that has been causing me to draw a bit of a blank.  I’ve seen some pretty spectacular table-scapes – most of which have been featured on wedding blogs or at different events I’ve been to.  But I’ve never done one myself.  And with a budget of $75 for all the dishes and the decor, I’m gonna have to dig to find my best and brightest creative energy.

I’ve already been scouring the local thrift stores on my lunch breaks and drawing sketches of what the potential layout could be.  And I’ve been getting some inspiration from blogs – which sometimes backfires because some of the pictures are TOO perfect, making me doubt that I can pull off anything that resembles what they’ve done.  Take for example, the photo above.  Amy Atlas has designed dessert tables for Oprah, so don’t feel bad if you’re like me and it would take you a year to put together a table like that.

But nonetheless, based on my web-scouring, here are some of the most important things (according to all those other bloggers) to remember when creating a beautiful table-scape:

1.  Choose your colors. Your table should complement the color palette you have chosen for your event. Examples include bright citrus hues, pastels, or color combinations such as yellow and black. All items included on the table should fall within your color palette.

2.  Choose your theme. After choosing your color palette, choose a matching design theme for your table. The theme may be inspired by the event invitations. Examples include damask, a Moroccan theme, cherry-blossoms, etc.

3.  Design a background. Most tables look best when placed against a background that matches your theme. Backgrounds can be created using painted canvas, wallpaper, draped fabric and other resources.

4.  Design the table. Determine the layout for your table. Will a cake be the centerpiece of your table? Or a cupcake stand?  Will your table have symmetrical items? Will it be double sided? What color table cover? Will you include a table runner? Will you introduce flowers and other non-edible items? Create a mock-up of your table beforehand.

5.  Create height. Use vases, photo frames, jars, wrapped gift boxes, cake and cupcake stands and other clever tools to introduce height into your table.

6.  Add labels. Use coordinated stationary, chalkboard signs, handwritten signs, calligraphy and ribbon to create beautiful signs that describe table elements.

Ahh, my head is spinning!  Coffee break?

Here’s a few more pics I adore…

umm, wow!

Cute and simple desserts

Most Realistic

Oh Happy May!

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It’s Mother’s Day today!  So happy day to all you moms out there!  Since our moms live far away in Washington and Colorado,  Jon and I  celebrated by spending a great morning at church followed by a trip to Costco to stock up on the essentials.  My most exciting purchase: Chocolate Cheerios!  So delicious and not too sweet!  You should get some.

And of course we called our mammas on the phone to tell them how much we love and appreciate them.

Remember when I posted about all those wonderful, crafty Mother’s Day gift ideas?  Ha, well let’s just say my mother’s day gift didn’t really go as planned.  Today I’m feeling very thankful that my mother has a great sense of humor because when I told her that the package full of specialty dark chocolate bars I bought for her had completely melted in my car when the day I planned to take it to the post office hit a high of 90 degrees - she just laughed.

So I’m currently working on a bigger, better project for her involving family photos that I will give to her at a later time.  I’d say more about it, but my mom is nice and she reads my blog.

Other than my Mother’s Day project Jon and I are gearing up for some big and exciting things during the month of May…

  • May 29th is our 1 year wedding anniversay!  Wow!  So we will finally be devoring the cake that’s been taking up half our freezer for the past year.  Definitely looking forward to that!
  • On May 28th Jon will be catering his first wedding for our friends Robbie and Michelle here in San Luis Obispo.  Actually as I type, Jon is out ’n about price checking food at stores to prepare.  I’m sure I’ll be posting more about the prep and outcome of this exciting endeavor as the month goes on.
  • Next weekend we will be offically celebrating our anniversary with a mini-trip to a local getaway and dinner at Novo.  We’ve wanted to dine at Novo for the past 3 years now.  It’s one of the fanciest, best places to eat locally so I’m really, really excited!
  • And of course, Jon will be taking his first set of finals!  He really has been working so hard so it will be a great feeling of accomplishment for him to finish his first quarter of school.  Go Jon!