Catering Your Wedding

Your wedding day is a special day. For years to come you will look back fondly at this one day. Many times when you ask people about a specific wedding the comments center around the meal - the quality, presentation, and friendliness of the serving personnel.

Choosing your wedding caterer can make a great deal of difference to your wedding day. Choosing a proper wedding caterer can take one worry off your mind.

As in most cases word of mouth is often the best guide. Ask your friends and acquaintances- at which weddings which they attended was the food exceptional? Ask why or why not?

The first step in is to figure out your catering budget before you begin to meet with your caterers. Have in mind the number of potential guests. Be careful – family demands can increase the number greatly. Have your wedding guest numbers negotiated with family members before meeting with the caterer. This way you can divide your total dollar budget by the amount of guests – to get a dollar figure per guest or meal.

The second step is to check with the venue where you will be holding the reception. As part of a booking deal some of these establishments may insist that you either use their facilities, most often in the case of a hotel, or they may even have their licensed or preferred caterers. It’s always best to ask before signing the booking papers.

Next call those caterers by phone or email. Note how long the response took for a reply. This is itself can be very telling about the level of service that you may expect from the caterer. Explain your wishes, ask about the booking date, and ask for general options.

If you like the responses and the meals fall within both your taste and your chosen budget ask to meet with the caterer's event manager in person. Ask to see the presentation of previous events and how your event presentation will be handled. What will the servers wear and what duties will they be expected to perform or not perform? Also at this time it is best to ask about payment policies. Is that deposit refundable within a reasonable time period of cancellation? Are there are any other additional fees?

It is best to involve the caterers in your meal choices. Remember it’s their business – they will know their strengths and weaknesses much more than you do, in additional to practical logistics of food, food preparation and serving. It’s your one wedding day. Take full advantage of their expertise in wedding catering.

The Simple Yet Elegant Vegetable Tray

In a bind about what to serve at your next party? A vegetable tray or vegetable crudites is a medley of fresh vegetables served either on a platter or your favorite display and often accompanied by ranch or blue cheese dressing. This simple hors d'oeurve can accent any appetizer combination or be served before the main meal. It is something that can be served all year long and is just as elegant and appropriate for a Holiday Party as it is for a summer affair.

The vegetables themselves often consist of easy finger foods such as carrots, brocolli, cauliflower, bell peppers, mushrooms, green beans, snap peas, tomatoes or any number of other raw vegetables. Color, diversity of size and arrangement are what make a vegetable tray stand out. Some ideas that can help your tray stand out are the display type (mirrors, tiered chargers, and designed platters are some good ways to help your display), vegetable color choices (greens, reds, and yellows accent very well in particular), and vegetable decoration (carved bell peppers, sculpted radishes and other designs can really add a fantastic flair to your tray).

How to plan a Birthday Party

You or that special someone is going to be reaching a milestone birthday. It might be 16, 50, 70, or 100. Here are some tips to make things easier:

1) Choose a theme that suits the B-Day. 1950's themed parties are always a hit with fuzzy dice and diner style themes.

2) Decide roughly how many guests you'd like to invite. Then try to make an educated guess about who is actually going to show up. You know who is most likely to come and who will not.

3) Knowing these two items you can determine a budget (which will help you make many of your other choices).

4) Pick a location that meets the needs of your party and the number of guests that you are having. During the summer a backyard Barbecue themed party can make a lot of sense. Formal affairs typically are best done at a community center or other dedicated venue (especially if your house is not suited for your guest count).

5) Begin thinking about what foods would make the most sense given your theme, location and guest preferences. Casual events might mean Hawaiian, Barbecue or light appetizers. More formal affairs might include exotic (or not so exotic) dinners or a heavy appetizer menu. Also don't forget dessert (especially cake)!

6) Whether you serve liquor or not can be a big decision when planning your party. Again keep in mind the taste of the Birthday person and guests when deciding. Will guests serve themselves, will you utilize a bartender, how much liquor should you provide your guests? These are all important considerations.

7) Activities can often be a great addition to your birthday party. Dancing, games and music are the popular activities and usually make a great addition to any birthday.

Event Location- Museum of the Oregon Territory

The Museum of the Oregon Territory's Tumwater room is a delightful venue for your next special occasion. The event facility overlooks the Willamette River and can accommodate up to 299 guests.
The Museum is owned by the Clackamas County Historical Society and all proceeds from rental of the facility go towards maintaining the museum.

Special items to note are that there is Free Parking, Coat Check, AV/Lighting, Sound Equipment, Gift Ship, In-House Catering or Outside Catering and alcohol is permitted. There are special packages for brides which include many options.

It's Party Time Catering is a preferred caterer for this event location. We invite you discover for yourself this delightful venue and hope that you enjoy it as much as we do!

Party Favors!

Party favors are an important element of weddings, birthdays, baby-showers and many other parties. Favors are often overlooked until the last minute because there are many other elements that one tends to think of when planning a party. But favors make the party your own and provide special keepsakes for you guests that they can treasure.

There are a lot of expensive ways to do party favors (just search online), however, most hosts have centered their budget around the venue, food, flowers and other elements of their party. So one great way to ensure that your party favors don't get ignored and are still affordable is to make your own.

Kristie McDaniel-Price has some great tips on how to make your Party Favors. She emphasizes planning your favors around a theme that is suitable to you. She asks you think about what is unique about the people hosting the event (or the event itself), what message would you like to convey to your guests, does the favor follow the theme of your event, and finally do you want your guests to keep the favor or just eat it.

So thinking along these lines, if you are doing a wedding and going to Hawaii for your honeymoon you could choose Hawaiian themed favors. Once you have a theme it's easy to start brainstorming ways to show that off. For example for a Hawaiian theme you could use silk banana leaves and tropical flower candles from your local craft stores such as Michael's or JoAnn's. If you were doing a baby shower you could use recycled baby bottles (with different colored tops), clean them out and print the date, name of the parents to be and so forth. There are a number of easy and cheap customized party favors that you can do with a color printer (or go to your local copy shop).

Focusing on these ideas should help you design and make your own affordable party favors.

The Importance of Colors

Before you make any important decisions about your event it's important to think about color. This is especially true for a wedding since your dress, flowers, centerpieces and party favors all rely on your colors. Even birthdays or other themed events such as a Luau party require some careful consideration of color choice.

So how to choose?

1. Think about colors that suit you or the occasion
2. Is anyone going to have to wear the colors (and how do they look on that person(s))?
3. Think about contrasting two or more colors as this adds more depth
4. Are you trying to match a specific color (this can be difficult and costly especially if it is a non solid color)
5. Use smaller linens for more exotic colors (this will help keep your price down)
   
6. How do you envision using your colors (shape can be very important)?
7. Are you or your guests going to be eating food that is of your colors

Following these pointers should help direct you toward find suitable color choices at your next event.

Champagne Chicken- Big on taste not on alchahol

One of the most popular winter entrees we serve is our Champagne Chicken. However, despite the misconception you won't be getting tipsy eating this delicious dish because the champagne is reduced until nearly all of the alcohol content is removed - leaving only the flavor.

Our Champagne Chicken is prepared in a four step process: 1) Breading plump breasts of chicken, 2) Frying the chicken, 3) Reducing the champagne and cream sauce, 4) Baking the chicken and reduction together. A hearty and tasteful dish at any time of the year, your guests will enjoy the cream and champagne gravy that goes so well with chicken or their favorite sides such as mashed potatoes or mixed sauteed vegetables.