a Catered event

I was asked to decorate and cater a luncheon for the women who run kid zone during the MOMS group that meets at our church. The inspiration was a country elegant picnic. Now at first I thought those were three separate styles and how would I ever get them to mesh? We narrowed it down to shabby chic and that was my jumping off point. A few days before the event I asked if I was only in charge of the tables and was told they would love something on the stage to bring in the theme too.

I thought a box lunch would be a great idea. My vision would be a cute box decorated with paper and ribbon.I began the preparations a few days before with baking. In addition to baking off the bread I bought and the desserts, I had a pie to bake for Nick's birthday celebration. Everything was going smoothly until my red crystal light spilled all over the counter and my cookbook. I had to interrupt my process to clean the counter with lemon juice and salt and to lay out the cook book pages to dry.

Lunch would be a turkey and havarti sandwich with mayo. Only no plain mayo would work-this needed cranberries, tarragon and parsley.

A container of rice/orzo/vege salad. I chose a 4 oz. quilted canning jar to put the salads in.
An apple and a dessert. Dessert was a lemon poppyseed cake made in mini bundt cake pans.

Oh and I needed to add napkin, utensils and a wipe to complete the boxes.

Some of the salad ingredients~

Mayo with cranberries makes PINK mayo~

Sandwiches lined up ready to go~

Oh they look like fun in a box~

To fancy up the site, I collected card tables and covered them with white tablecloths. I got a floral curtain at the thrift store and cut it up for place mats. At the same thrift store I bought some silver trays for centerpieces. On top of the trays we arranged books, old cameras, tea cups, old photos and flowers from my yard. (using leftover vases from the wedding)


For the stage I brought my garden bike and filled the basket with flowers. Amy's picnic basket was set along side with a tablecloth and watermelon. I also brought paper flowers leftover from Gabriele's shower to put on the stage too.
I felt a little something to take home would be good too. The family helped me fill pint size jars with cookie ingredients and cutify the jars.
When we returned on Saturday to pick up all our stuff I was asked to cater next year's luncheon again-guess they thought I did okay. It was a lot of fun to work on this event...