Sunday 5 April 2015

Behind the scenes! Janine and Liam's fabulous, noisy, chattery, beautiful day at Errol Park

The cake what I made. The flowers for it were left by the florist and I loved them

Janine and Liam's wedding at Errol Park this weekend was fabulous. And it was quite possibly the most noisy, most chattery, most 'cheering', most 'everyone knows each other really well' day that we have ever been a part of. At times it was difficult to serve food because guests were turning their chairs to chat to friends at different tables, to help themselves to beers from an old tin bucket, or wandering over to the top table to chat with the new Mr and Mrs. Totally totally wonderful.

Dinner was served in the barn upstairs. Evening reception was in the barn downstairs. The Ceremony was in Errol House itself. Roaring pit fires were in the circular courtyard - lit not just by the light of the flames but by the most beautiful full moon I have ever ever seen. (On the drive home, one of my lovely waitresses commented that the sky was like a holiday cocktail - dark blue at the top fading to yellow at the bottom ; and it truly truly was).

SO. We had fabulously chatty and mobile guests, lots of things going on in lots of different places; a space to cook that is where the pheasants usually hang; a place to serve upstairs with a crickety old sink and wobbly floors. Impromptu speeches by friends and family which put us well over time, and guests clapping and cheering and laughing for so long that we were even weller over time. (I know that's grammatically wrong but I have a theme going on and I'm in the flow!)  By the end of the day our feet ached and our brains were full. But goodness - what fun we all had.

My fabulous wedding manager Kasia was completely and utterly wonderful - managing all of the scenarios above with great humour and ease. Chef Tomasz stayed calm and served up an amazing beef en daube and the best potato dauphinoise I have ever tasted (he boils the cream down first of all with garlic, salt and rosemary and then ladles it over each layer of thinly sliced potato and bakes it in the oven until brown on top, and delicious in the middle). 

The whole point about Lazy Sunday is that our food is relaxed - it can wait if the sun suddenly comes out and you want to linger longer with the photographer. If the speeches over run our food will probably be even more delicious. Front of house we do our best to keep everything absolutely on track but are always conscious that this is YOUR day and the reason you choose the venues that you do, and the Lazy Sunday team, is that you TRUST that we'll run with the spirit of how you would like this once in a lifetime celebration (and probably the biggest dinner party that you'll ever throw) to be.

So, I was trying to think how to sum up yesterday and I thought that maybe some behind the scenes pictures might do it best. Because no matter how hard they work, the Lazy Sunday Team will always always ALWAYS enjoy every single second of it!

canapes

 
An Easter egg from Kasia to me




preparing canapes 


The inbetween times





preparing canapes -homemade blinis with smoked salmon with horseradish creme fraiche and dill

Wee arran and mustard squasages (my son used to call them that!)



 calvados and pork rillete with bramble jelly