First Catering Tasting

Sigh...I love food. Especially when it is amazing and free! hahaha. No, for real Mr. T and I had our first caterer tasting and it was awesome. It was with Toast Catering owned by Sam and Kim Benham. We initially loved their menu which was inventive, but still familiar, with different takes on comfort food. The way they present their food is amazing as well. We also liked their quote which seemed totally reasonable compared to other ones I got from different caterers.

We started off by cracking open that bottle of wine we brought (it was a stressful week). And they gave us some binders of linens and rental stuff to look at. They then started bringing out the hors d'ouevres. First were the mini open faced pork tamales. AMAZING! Of course Chris couldn't say they were better than his grandma's but they were pretty damn close. By the way I abandoned my vegetarianism for this tasting so I could try everything and approve. Second hors d'ouevres were mini kobe beef sliders with truffle aioli and aged cheddar. These were also amazing and I hate hamburgers. Third was curried butternut squash shooters served in mini shot glasses. It was soup in a shot glass but I wanted a whole freakin bowl! So far we were totally impressed.

Next came out the salad. I love salads with greens, gorgonzola cheese, candied nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans, whatever), apple slices and some type of vinagrette. This was exactly that salad and I was in love. I ate the whole thing even though my belly was started to fill up.

For the main course we were given full plates of each of the three entrees we had chosen to try. My eyes got big because I didn't know if it would all fit! I didn't want to waste it and it was sooooo good. We tried horseradish crusted salmon over roasted asparagus and mashed potatoes, beef bourguignon over mashed potatoes, and butternut squash raviolis in a cream sauce. I am hungry now just typing this stuff out. We forgot to take pictures of the entrees :-(.
Finally we finished off with 6 (count them!) samples of cakes. We are still unsure what to do with dessert because the cake I really want is in Northern California and the bakery doesn't deliver or ship (not even down the street). Sigh. But these cakes we tried were pretty good. Our favorites were the chocolate macadamia nut mousse and the strawberry bavarian. yummmmm

Not only was the food amazing, but the owners Kim and Sam are very nice genuine people. We sat around for about an hour afterward and talked about non-wedding stuff. I could tell that they are passionate about what they do and would make sure our wedding was perfect. I think we may do a few more tastings (free food right?) and then make our decision but we are extremely sold on Toast Catering.
Toast Catering

Caterers

So the search has begun for a caterer. I had no idea that the catering portion of a wedding had so many small details to think about! I could see where one could get easily overwhelmed. Right now I have about 3 caterer options that I have narrowed it down to. We have our first tasting next week and I am super excited! It will also be with the company that I am most interested in. These pictures are from this caterers website. One thing I love about this company is the way they plate their food! No boring wedding meals for my wedding!

I cannot WAIT to try their food!

THE Dress! No pictures of my actual dress are in this post . Sorry Mr. T!

This post is coming a little late and after the fact, but we found THE dress and bought it! It all started with this one dress by a designer that I was "visually" in love with. I called many dress stores and no one in the state of California had this dress. Then I found out the designer was having a trunk show at a salon about 45 minutes away. Hoping he would have the dress I made an appointment. My mom lives about 8 hours away from me and the store, thinking she could drive down the day before I made the appointment for 10:00 am. She couldn't drive down the day before and ended up leaving at like 2 in the morning to make the journey (thanks mom!). The first thing we did was see a fashion show with dresses from the designer and a few others in the trunk show. The dress I was looking for was there! I was also taken aback by all the amazing beautiful dresses this store had to offer. Once the fashion show was over my consultant found me and we went to a room to talk. She came off a little pushy but I let it go for the moment to see what kinds of dresses she would pull for me. She let me walk around the store and pull some that I liked and I also told her I wanted to try on the dress I came for. I had a few things I knew I didn't want but not quite an idea of EXACTLY what I did want. Here is the exact list I handed to the consultant along with pictures from magazines:

Don't Like
-skirt pickups
-shiny fabric
-bubble skirts
-drop waists
-too severe mermaid skirts
-too much bling
-a straight across strapless
Want
-texture
-movement
-uniqueness
-something special
-a little sexy, a little chic, a little sweet


So I knew what I didn't want but my wants were foggy. On top of that I wanted a dress that hit the sexy, sweet, chic mark which is asking a lot out of one dress. The first dress I tried on was this one by Jim Hjelm.

I liked it. I liked the textured lace and the shape of it. I also liked that it moved. My mom did not like it. She said it looked like a country hoe-down wedding dress (well maybe not in those exact words but it was implied). She did say it looked like grandma's doily. oooook.
So I put on a few more dresses, all of which looked like the next one to me. I couldn't see any real differences or "specialness" in any of them.

Definitely not an ugly dress but it just wasn't enough for me. By this time I was getting a little bored and I was ready try on the dress I came for.

I was informed that the only sample they had was a size zero, which I am definitely not! They brought it in and it barely even fit on a mannequin (what kind of bride is a size zero?). I was truly disappointed and conflicted because I didn't want to buy a dress that I had never tried on. Plus I am one of those people that is obsessive about never buying something unless I try it on. I was then informed that this was the ONLY sample dress in the entire country. hmph.  So the dream dress had to go bye-bye.
Next up was another dress by the same designer that they did have in my size. I cannot remember exactly why I decided to even try it on because in the fashion show it looked like the kind of dress that a girls with boobs and an ass wouldn't look very good in. As soon as I put it on I felt special (despite it being one size to small and me being about two sizes larger than normal at the moment (love makes you fat yes?). We went out of the dressing room because I wanted to see it move. I walked down a long walkway that ends with a floor to ceiling mirror and they gave me a fake bouquet to hold. It is made out of gorgeous silk crepe and has the most amazing movement.  I always feel prettier in a skirt that moves! Well I can't describe it anymore without totally giving it away but this was/ is THE dress. I loved how awesome I felt in it.
The next day there was a little tension because I always get buyers remorse over big purchases. I kept thinking that we found it awfully fast, we hadn't even planned on getting a dress that day, we hadn't looked anywhere else, and there was one more dress by a designer this salon didn't carry that I wanted to see. After my mom got home she e-mailed me the pictures she had took of me in the dress and the stress went away. I looked awesome and I love the dress. I felt even better after my aunt called me to say how gorgeous it was and my co-workers were speechless. Now I have to wait until December to even try it on again! wahhhhhh.