Some inspiring, and amusing, words from one of our popular and reliable caterers about the challenges of wedding catering.
Experienced Zest 4 Events regularly provide outstanding catering for our wedding receptions.
I find myself faced with many challenges these days, whether it be to design and execute a hot buffet for 100, based purely on gluten free dishes; or to pull off not one wedding in a weekend but three no less! The most recent challenge set for ourselves at Zest 4 Events is to sell 500 tickets to our fabulous (we hope!) Christmas balls, and as yet we still have no actual means for people to purchase tickets on our website! It’s now September as I write this, so whilst the words, or should I say sounds ‘eeeek’ and ‘arrrggghhhh’, spin hourly around my head at the very thought of this, I decide to adopt the attitude which has carried me happily through the last 10 tumultuous, heart stopping, exciting years of my outside catering career! That being: think positively…what’s the worst that can happen?!
Now I could write a blog on the worst things that could, and no doubt have happened over the years
Celebrate Christmas 2013 with Zest
(like last weekend at the beautiful Ashover Village Hall), however since the idea of this blog is to encourage potential clients to actually book an event with us, I will attempt to focus more on what great things have happened rather than the odd mini crisis! I regularly arrive at venues prepared both mentally and physically for any unexpected challenge, but this one at Ashover was certainly a first. It began with a call to my Dad, the fantastic Holloway based butcher, Robin Maycock, with the question…”Hi Dad how do I cut the head off this pig?!”
I should point out here that the ‘highs’ way out number the ‘lows’ and that the learning curve at Zest has been massive. Now-a-days it’s more about the comedy moments that seem to spring up at events, which have us looking at each other utterly bemused, bewildered or laughing hysterically. Such as recently when delivering a buffet to a ‘rustic’ wedding venue near Matlock we were faced with the usual set of obstructions trying to carry trays of food through the marquee. You know the sort…drunken guests grabbing at the sausage rolls, less drunken guests chatting in the narrowest of spaces right next to the buffet table; then there’s the band, small children, dance floors filled with wildly dancing guests, tightly packed chairs and tables and so on…you get the picture. Then there’s the occasional random one thrown in there to make us do a double take and wonder whether we have in fact arrived at the right venue – that one being the ‘goat’ yes you hear me a goat! That trotted happily between the scarily unfazed guests and the DJ, munching on the tufts of grass under foot…we did say it was rustic didn’t we!
So our challenges vary considerably, but all of them we face head on, shoulders back, happy to always give our all, and do it with a smile on our faces (most of the time!) Even the most recent challenge I have been presented with by my loyal, dedicated, determined and ever cheerful business partner, Natalie (yeah thanks Nat), which I have to say filled me with utter dread and horror. Yes, the writing of my very first blog; which has not been quite as terrifying as expected. Who knows I may even get inspiration this weekend from the charming Alderwasley Village Hall, where we will be cooking a pig, filling sandwiches, serving tea, mixing drinks, laying tables, hanging bunting, covering chairs, pulling pints and washing pots……and write another one.
Helen at Zest 4 Events.
Thanks for your words, Helen. We wish you plenty of inspiration to carry on writing blogs, and … better luck with the pig next weekend.