On 8th July we catered for our first wedding in Islington Chapel.
When you start a food company you get used to hearing a few questions. If you work with food you might be familiar with: “Why don’t you do Glastonbury?”; “Why don’t you sell [insert random food that has nothing to do with your brand]?”; “Have you thought about wedding catering?”.
In most cases these questions are very well meaning and to be honest there have been some really great suggestions along the way so I shouldn’t really knock the spontaneous sharing of ideas from outside of the foodie world. One of those ideas – wedding catering – was something that always sounded very professional and out of my league when I started out. All wet behind the ears in terms of catering logistics, I could not have imagined pulling off a sit down meal for twenty people, let alone one hundred!
Three years on – how things have changed!
When I was approached earlier this year by a really lovely couple who had eaten our food in Kerb Camden I was surprised and excited to have the opportunity to cater for their big day. What was most surprising, however, was that the bride to be had not a shred of doubt now that this was something that Maize Blaze could achieve and deliver to a high standard.
There was a bit of new menu costing and new systems to put in place which will still need refining and developing over time, but overall the planning process was rather painless and, more than that, very enjoyable. Even as I write this I’m gleaming with the excitement from memories of the wedding day: serving the canapés to the guests, explaining what they all were and making sure they all got to try some; setting the table with our massive seedy balsamic salads and cute little mugs of spicy salsa; running around looking for the Pimms fruit and then finding it by the front door just in time to prepare it; the lovely friendly wedding guests and how happy the bride and groom looked when they arrived in a shower of wonderfully aromatic lavender in the summer patio.
The main meal went off without a hitch and veggies, vegans and meat-eaters with low FODMAP diets were all munching away together under the chapel roof, glasses filled in anticipation of the speeches. And I, who had been on my feet since six am, took a moment to enjoy what we had helped to make a really special day for everyone involved, and, of course, for the bride and groom.
