Have just got back from Sunday brunch over at Slowfish. As I sat and waited for Courteney and Rick to turn up on their bikes to meet me - they'd left home at 7am to ride a mere 100k before breakfast, as you do - I took in the beach and surrounds, and mused over how much we take what is on our doorstep for granted, when, we are in fact, incredibly lucky to have such easy access to such gorgeousness.
We'd done a wedding last nite, which was the main reason I was a little later than planned arising this am, and rather than 'doing' the Mount, I'd driven over to meet the rest of the family, and had arrived early, hence some fill in time, sitting on a seat, indulging in a spot of people watching.
Courteney's been home for the weekend - she had a club Time Trial on yesterday, as a result of which she arrived fashionably late to help us with the wedding... before deciding she was surplus to requirements and headed for home to do some work on an assignment. Priorities she knew her parents wouldn't quibble over too much...
We are almost at the end of our wedding season, and one of the highlights for us this year, has been the discovery of 2 new venues where we can go in as outside caterers. Tauranga lacks wedding venues - and becos we prefer not to do them at the restaurant, since it would mean we would have to close too often for normal dining custom, we are dependant on other venues. Most of the functions we cater are for people we know, and as a result alot end up being in peoples homes - and usually in marquees in beautiful gardens.
Rick and I got married at my parents home, and home weddings can retain a degree of personalness that is very special. They do however involve conspicuous cost and effort for the people involved - becos usually absolutely everything, right down to extension cords - needs to be hired. And then there is the months of effort to bring gardens up to a full display of gorgeousness, and the attendant demands that goes with that.
Not everyone is up to that kind of pressure, which is why quite often they prefer to look for an away from home site, when they can turn up, enjoy and then walk away at the end of the nite. Something I totally understand. So these 2 new venues that customers of ours suggested to us this year, have increased the range of possibilites that we can discuss with clients, and that is always a good thing!
One is Ambiance, which is up Pyes Pa Road. A marquee, in a lovely, expansive garden setting, but with a concrete base for the marquee, ( which has all sorts of positive connatations when the weather turns inclement!) Sonja is a consumate professional, and we worked with her for Juliets wedding and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Juliet is an old staff member, who we love dearly - and her wedding was always going to be special becos her parents and a couple of the guests had been in France with us - and we wanted it to be a happy day for her. Something we were helped to achieve by the fact that Sonya is a perfectionist, who understands all the little issues that go towards making an event run smoothly. We were impressed and have recommended her to another good customer who's daughter's wedding we will be catering in 2010.
And then last nite we had the somewhat odd - at least initially - experience of rocking up to the restaurant at Morton Estate Winery, to do another wedding for good customers. Odd, becos our association with Morton goes back to our earliest days at Somerset, and we hadn't realised until these clients started talking about it as a possible venue, that the restaurant had in fact, closed down, and it was available for hire. I was out there initially by myself in the morning, just unloading some stuff from the car, and getting my bearings for the day - and I fully expected to see John, or Steve or Warren come round a corner with a boisterous greeting. But no - they are long gone, and the restaurant sits there empty - but not quite forlorn. The winery staff gave it a burst of care for the wedding and I have to say it scrubbed up rather beautifully.
In fact it was the perfect location for what was a unique and very special wedding - there was a point late in proceedings when I suggested to Lyn and Trice that they come out of the kitchen and have a look - the evening sun was streaming in thru the vineyard, bathing the pools of people sitting around various tables in that golden light, and it all just had a lovely feel, quite buccolic in fact!
Being supremely organised, I forgot to take my camera out! - so regretfully didn't get to take any photos to prove my point, but Bill, who organises the hireage, can be contacted at the cellar door of the winery , if anyone wants to have a look.
We think it has all sorts of possibilities...
And when Rick and I were having our usual wedding debrief - ie. an exhausted chat over a bowl of rice ( rice flavoured with kecap manis and seasame oil, I might add - a flavour combination that I truly love), as we collasped on the couch at home, having upacked everything - he made the very telling comment that having a commercial kitchen to operate out off, with a fantastic walkin chiller, made what he does a huge amount less stressful. Which possibly contributed to the general feeling of relaxedness that emanated thru the whole day... A few more benches would be useful though Bill! Its a small kitchen and I don't think it was designed to have quite as many bodies in it as it did yesterday - but we all get on well, and we coped, as you do!
