So we cooked our first paid wedding last weekend

My oldest son gave some good freinds of his our names as a possible source of food for thier wedding. Young couple, looking to have a fairly casual wedding outdoors on another freinds large piece of property.

We got together with them several weeks ago with some samples of our food, to talk over their needs and wants. They wanted a luau style theme, and the original agreement was for pulled pork, huli huli chicken, and 6 sides, a vinegar based slaw (to go with the pork) baked beans, a tropical sweet potato/coconut mash, Pasta Primavera, tomato, cucumber, sweet onion and mango salad, a tropical island rice dish.

About 9 days before the event, they changed it and removed the chicken and rice dishes from the menu, so we added more pork to our shopping list.

Fired up the 22" and one 18" WSM Friday afternoon and cooked up 12 pork butts, at about 9 lb. a piece. 8 in the 22" and 4 in the 18

We made the slaw Friday evening to let the flavors develop in the fridge, the rest we made fresh Saturday morning.

Took one of 2 bacon explosions I made 2 weekends ago at Westmont


Used that along with some chopped brisket and pulled pork in the beans

Don't have photos from the cooking phase as we were just too dang busy!

When we arrived at the site, we found that, instead of being indoors as we'd been told, the whole thing was in a tent outside, no running water or electricity!

We hauled the carlisles in to the tent and set it all up anyway, and it went great! They ended up only having about 90 of the 130 expected guests, but everyone seemed to love all the food, some came back 4 and 5 times!

Pics we have are below. We didn't do the cake but I took a couple of shots as I thought the whole Tiki thing was kind of cool! Mods, if the photos are too large, the link for the album is below

http://s300.photobucket.com/albums/nn21/2SkinnyCooks/Wedding photos/

Thanks Steph!

It was a little more work on our part, but not that bad. We'd hoped to have electricity and at least a water supply for the chafing dishes, but it all worked out.

Now maybe we can reinvest some of the $ in nicer chafing setups for next time! Was really nice having folks go out of their way complimenting the food and asking for business cards!:biggrin:

I think overall, I would prefer smaller crowds, as this was a lot of work for just the wife and I. But I would do it again if asked.

I have to say, as fun as comps are, it's a lot nicer getting paid than competing and hoping to at least break even. The cash for this was like getting a couple top 3 calls in a comp!

BRBBQ said:

Thanks for the info Jeff in KC, I also should include, how long does two cans last?

Click to expand...

Cans are supposed to burn 3 hours. We had food out for 3 but there was still fuel left when we extinguished them. As someone else mentioned, the liquid alcohol ones seem to work much better than the sterno, and you can adjust the heat a bit by pulling the wick out a little more. Sterno has only one temp.

We do hope to gradually switch over to the nicer chafers, but these work, and if a customer wants to keep them they aren't that expensive and can be priced into the order.

Looked like you guys did a great job with that party as well!

That was a lot of fine looking grub!