pre-reception

How fun that my daughter and her husband were going to be in town for a wedding the weekend of their first anniversary. Turns out the ceremony they were coming in for was uptown at three and the reception downtown at six, leaving a bit of a gap. 

Lucky me that our new apartment happens to lie right in between. So my daughter and I decided to have a little post “I-do” get together at my place before they headed down to the reception.

And as the calendar fates would have it, I was at a conference all that week leading up to the party, which meant that once again I needed to get everything in place well in advance.

But look at the amazing flower arrangement I learned how to create from Bruno Duarte, one of the featured speakers at my conference. Can’t tell you how proud I was of myself that I actually wove that grass basket. Bruno truly was a teacher extraordinaire, and the ladies of the Country Garden Club put on one of the best GCA zone meetings ever!

With the wedding being black tie, I wanted my appetizers to dress the part. Nothing beats caviar and egg cups. These amazing Sijans crispy shells make them a cinch to create.

And I love Cavi-art. It’s made from seaweed, has super long shell life, doesn’t “bleed”, is super affordable, and tastes remarkably like caviar when used as a garnish.

Just fill with egg salad and a dollop of “caviar”.

Black tie ready in no time.

The asparagus and wasabi mayonnaise mayonnaise can be made a day ahead of time.

And is an easy and elegant way to incorporate a vegetable into your repertoire. 

And nothing beats having some appetizers ready to go in your freezer. 

Cover all of your baking sheets with heavy duty foil and/or parchment paper to make clean up a breeze.

Mushroom cheese crisps are a winner.

Just pull out, bake for 8-10 minutes and serve.

Croute au Fromage is another fabulous stow away.

Place and bake.

Nothing says you care like a hot canapé. 

Because it was going to be a quick turnaround, I wanted to make sure that the bar was all in place.

A line up of fun beers (thanks to my son-in-law from Reason Beer who helped me us pick out a good selection). 

Our “signature drink” was an Aperol Spritz. I had the bottles the Aperol, prosecco, seltzer, and orange slices ready to go.

I also “readied” some glasses.

Willie waited patiently at the door to greet our guests.

Such fun to have all of these wonderful people in our new abode toasting the newlyweds who were busy getting their wedding pictures taken.

And always a treat to co-host with this lovely lady!