Catering Through the Storm

 Serving love, carrying trays, dodging raindrops, and surviving cramps.

Hello, my ladies and babies. This blogger had an eventful but rainy Saturday, and I want to tell my ladies and babies all about it because I miss you and trust you. Are you buckled in? Have your umbrellas ready?

My lovely mother, who reads this and stalks my TikTok, has a catering business, and being her daughter—aka sous chef—obviously, I had to tag along. Someone else tagged along too. Not just her chef friend, Tony, but Miss Flow decided it was the perfect week to come into town. Miss flow won't stop this writer though. Lets get into the full catering weeding breakdown, Shall we? 

My mother, Tony, and I all worked together to make this catering gig run as smoothly as possible. It took a course of three days of prep and stress, even more hours of cooking, and even more ruckus while setting everything up—but it was worth it.

The menu was slow-cooked ribs, smoked brisket, and grilled chicken wings. Of course, we couldn’t forget the gorgeous sides of mac and cheese, green beans, cornbread, and potato salad.

Now imagine all this food stuffed into food-safe boxes and placed into a little car that drives us all the way to Nowhere, West Virginia. And that’s not even counting the décor needed to set up the tables and food chafers. Luckily, my aunt drove all of that down there before we arrived. Shout out to her! We arrived to the venue and it was gorgeous and huge. Flowers and view of the water, this gorgeous red barn we the food and drinks were being held. 

We immediately got to work unloading everything, getting things into the oven to keep them warm, and meeting the sister or wedding planner. I wasn’t sure of her role, but she was pretty and very stressed over things I didn’t understand because, well, I am the sous chef—not the bride.

We unloaded and placed our square and circle gold chafers and lit the Sternos. In this picture to the left is the grazing table before dinner. At first, it was outside, and suddenly it became windy. Plates, napkins, and raindrops were dropping and flying everywhere while the ceremony was going on, so we quickly and carefully picked up the table and moved it inside.

Such a shame, though, because it was cloudy and cute outside before the rain. 

Once everything was safe inside, I went outside to take in the view. But suddenly, I saw this pretty princess in white walking down the green grass aisle, and for a second, the world was quiet. Catering didn’t matter because two loving people were coming together on this day, in this rain, to prove their love to each other and their families. I've heard rain is good luck btw. 

I couldn’t bask in it for too long because it’s not my story or my time. So, I ran inside to help with the finishing touches for the grazing table and headed back into the hot but huge kitchen. I heard people coming in, and suddenly FOMO came in too. I was jealous that I couldn’t mingle, but the food was going fast, and my task was to keep replacing everything.

I felt bad because the violin player was right in front of the kitchen door, and people were recording him while I was behind him, refilling the grazing table. Not exactly the glamorous wedding guest experience I had imagined for myself. Grazing hour was over and the real task came upon me and my mom. 

I wish I had more pictures of the food instead of videos, but hey, the moment is gone.

The wedding planner knocked on the hot kitchen door and told us that at 5:45, it was time to start putting out the main course. So, my mom, Tony, and I were rushing to get everything out of the oven and into the hot food chafers.

I will say, the wedding planner gave us times for everything, but she was kind of rushing us. We would have one thing to do, and then she would tell us to do another thing, so we were rushing around trying to get so many things done at once.

And remember, this was also our first wedding gig, so we were bound to have a few bumps along the way. We were learning as we went!

I got everything out on time for the tables to eat, and suddenly, we were running out of things. People were in line, and I had to keep opening the kitchen door to put more food out. I felt terrible, and people kept asking me questions that I felt terrible about not being able to answer. Plus, Miss Flow was rearing her mean head, so I was trying to stay professional while also moving quickly so everyone could eat.

Some people had little accidents with the bottled sauces for the meats, but I quickly fixed them and tried to stay professional about it. But how an upside-down squeeze bottle spilled all over someone’s plate is beyond me. Okay?!

We fed everyone and made plates for the bride and groom to take home. We heard great things about the food, so our job was done. We were packing everything up when suddenly, someone knocked and asked if we could cut the cake for the guests.

But we’re chefs, not bakers! I mean, I’m trying to become one, but cutting a cake for a bunch of wedding guests when I haven’t even made one yet was shocking to us. We were tired and definitely did not sign up for that, but we did it with a smile on our faces.

Then we packed up—quickly. And I mean insanely quickly—and headed home because we lived 55 minutes away and still had to drag all of those food supplies and decorations back with us.

We left that kitchen better than we found it and drove home in the pouring rain. 

It was amazing to do but taxing on the body and soul. thank you and good night my ladies and babies.

Leave me comments below. I miss yall