A Parisian Affaire to Remember

I am super excited to share today's post with everyone today!  I had the pleasure of catering a fun and elegant Parisian themed bridal shower this past weekend.  Let me tell you...it was absolutely beautiful.  Karen, the auntie of the bride, lives in this beautiful home, with views of the Pacific.  There was a very nice breeze that blew in through the back French doors, circulating throughout the house.  And the day couldn't have been more perfect!  We actually got sunshine the whole day.  It was just beyond beautiful!  So, this event is a tad different from my past events.  I was actually able to do savory items on top of a dessert table!  Also, the majority of the savory items were vegetarian!...well, vegetarian as in no meat meat.  At our first consultation, I remembered when Karen said vegetarian, my jaws almost dropped.  I was thinking that all my desserts pretty much contained eggs!  Good thing it wasn't the case that the bride didn't eat eggs!  So, the plan was to have a table full of mini savory vegetarian items.  You know, finger foods.  We also planned on having a dessert table.  This was a good, maybe four months ago that we have been planning!  We wanted to have a perfect shower, with perfect food, and perfect sweets.  Well, that was definitely my intentions! And you know what?  I think it was!

Isn't this staging beautiful?  Karen has this wonderful artistic touch when it comes to staging!  I absolutely loved those Paris boxes and the beautiful mannequin!

There's our bride, saying hi!  She's next to the wishing tree I had my husband make for me.  Not too shabby huh?  I know, you've seen trees on this blog before...let's move on to the food!

This was the spread!  What do you think?  We had a yummy cheese platter, accompanied by fresh and dried fruits and roasted nuts, a variety of crackers and bread and some delicious Gruyere cookies, pureed carrot cold soup served in shot glasses, chicken salad served in fresh mini croissants (Karen's chicken salad was SO tasty!!), fresh cut fruits and vegetables (because a vegetarian spread isn't complete without cut veggies right??), watermelon squares with pecans and blue cheese, goat cheese tartlets, herb leek tarts, and yogurt parfaits served in individual shot glasses. Oh yeah, we had roasted red pepper hummus, garlic aioli, and a cream cheese with roasted chipotle raspberry sauce too.  Whew...was that everything??  Oops, forgot about those tomato poppers!  Those were last minute additions to the menu because when I was shopping for the food, I saw these perfectly round mini tomatoes.  And when I say perfect, I mean it.  They were slightly larger than globe table grapes...and each package contained tomatoes that were just about the same size.  So, what else could I do but buy them and figure out what to make with them?!  I ended up making mini Caprese salad bites.  They were a hit!  One delicious bite!

Don't forget about the dessert table!  Karen had told me that when she went to order her linens and serve-ware,  she had saw one of those plush velvet ropes (you know, meant to keep people from getting too close to whatever the ropes were behind) and was thinking of renting one...joking, of course.  However,  after we had set up the dessert table, we thought we really should have rented it!  Don't you think so?

There was all sorts of yummies that day.  Mini pink velvet cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, rock candy, old fashioned candy sticks, hazelnut madeleines, mini creme brulee, chocolate dipped strawberries, cake pops, white chocolate Eiffel tower pops, Parisian macarons, croquembouche (that became cream puffs), and sugar cookies.  OH the sugar cookies.  They were my pride and joy.  These cookies were so beautiful, I'm sure no one ate them (I hope that wasn't the case, but really, these cookies looked awesome!)

Marie Antoinette cookies!!!  Aren't they fantabulous?!? I am still in love with these cookies!!!

I made a small cake that the bride could take home with her.  It was chocolate with a vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream and fresh strawberry filling.

All in all, this was one fabulous shower!!  I had fun and I was just the caterer...I can hardly imagine how the bride and guests feel!!  There was more than plenty of food and desserts to go around.  The champagne was also free flowing the whole day!  Everything was just fabulous!  Karen definitely topped the standards, as far as bridal showers go!  I'm glad I was able to play a part of this!

Congratulations to the happy couple!