The first wedding at The Byre at Inchyra.

Hand strung flower garlands from the gardens of Pyrus hung like magic high above white clothed lines of tables and between the apple trees to the front of the Pavilion. The troughs were filled with clumps of mosses and wild flowers, as if they had grown there for ever. Caroline told me to go look in the walled garden, but she was cleverer than daft old me - wearing sunglasses to hide her genuine tears at the loveliness of it all. I, of course, burst into spontaneous tears at the sheer beautifulness of the simplest of transformations; and the colours; and the eye of glorious artists who happen to be florists who took what was already lovely and made it even more so. I knew that the day would be beautiful and that the sun would shine; that the stone bound lily pond would be the perfect place for us to sneakily perch and watch a ceremony that was full of song and words and laughter and Irish accents and French accents and Scottish accents. And love.

What you see here are the behind the scene shots because I know that the wonderful Zoe Campbell's photographs are going to blow you away. I hope that mine give you some sense of a day which all of us involved wanted to be perfect for a beautiful, relaxed and genuinely lovely couple, their family and their lovely lovely friends. These are in no particular order because I'm lacking a bit of energy today (can't imagine why!), but hopefully you might also recognise some of the purchases to which I have recently been alluding.

We served drinks to Eoghan and Mireille in the walled garden on a vintage writing case that I recently found. If you look closely at the calendar, you'll be able to see the date circled in pencil. I love this. A lovely verse from Alice in Wonderland was read at the ceremony.

The Pyrus team are incredible. They floated the simplest of garlands to create sets and frames. The one hung in front of the pavilion, (where the ceremony was to take place) reduced Caroline to tears. Me too when I saw it. I don't know why I was so emotional, except that I knew how much Mireille was going to absolutely love it.

This is the moment that Mireille saw her beautiful cake, made by her close friend. It was a huge talking point on the day - and possibly the most photographed . I'm deliberately not showing you the front detail - you'll have to wait for Zoe Campbell's photographs.!

The dessert was affogato with hazelnut liqueur. For a vegan option we created jam jar fruit cocktails with a dark chocolate and coconut sauce. We garnished with chopped pistachios and edible flowers. They were collectively pronounced as the simplest/best vegan dessert ever to be served at a wedding. Happiness.

We all kind of knew that the sun was going to shine. And boy did it shine! Mireille and Eoghan soo wanted to be married in the walled garden, and to have their post ceremony drinks served there as well. So before the ceremony was taking place in front of the pavilion we set out the champagne glasses around the lily pond. THE LILY POND! How many more perfect things could this wedding possibly have!

We couldn't obviously pour the fizz until the ceremony was over. So instead we quietly got ourselves organised and took the chance to watch the ceremony. Somehow this connects us all to the significance of the day and it is these quiet, behind the scene moments that I think we probably all enjoy the most.

 

We were excited to introduce the Lazy Sunday Ladder of Loveliness to the proceedings. Mireille and Eoghan wanted a very relaxed feel to their wedding afternoon, so once drinks had been served and the cake cut, guests were able to enjoy huge bowls of strawberries, pork rillete and smoke salmon pate.I think this worked really well, with guests able to return at their leisure. You'll note that my recently purchases old fashioned sledge also makes an appearance

Beautiful Mireille with her stunning bouquet. This dish of cheesy biscuits is facing the wrong way - turned round it has BUTTER printed. It's a huge and heavy platter. 
And I love it.

Through the eye of the Ladder of Loveliness.

I also recently bought a 50 year old surf board. Once oiled with rapeseed oil, it is the perfect food server! Nearly as perfect as lovely Ola, the daughter of my fabulous chef Tomasz.

bits and pieces that made me smile on the day.

This is the lovely Kasia - wife of my fabulous chef Tomasz - who occasionally comes to help out on the day. Here you can see her carrying one of our delicious tasting platters comprising venison and wild boar salamis, and antipasti style meats from Great Glen Game and Rannoch. WE also added some scallops, hummus dips and served a huge amount of breads to the table. The picture on the right is a little peek into the bit before service!

Mireille and Eoghan's wedding was a long time coming. All the way through a miserable, wet  and cold winter I looked forward to seeing the day come together. I remember meeting Mireille and Eoghan for the first time in Ikea. They were both passionate about the food they wanted served on the day, and determined that it should reflect the kind of simple, local and generous food that they most enjoy. Mireille was interested mostly in the creative detail; Eoghan with the logistics of the day. Together they make the most beautiful couple and I don't think it would have been possible for anything to have been more perfect for them. 

The Byre at Inchyra Team have created something unbelievably beautiful. Inchyra has heart. And  it has Soul. Owners Caroline and James care from the bottom of their boots to the tips of their ears and have paid attention to the kind of glorious detail that makes every single element a pleasure to be a part of. You can't really care more than that. 

Oh, and just for your information, there is something about an Irish accent that makes my heart thump!!!

Venue                The Byre at Inchyra

Food                  My lovely Lazy Sunday team

                         Starter - huge sharing platters of Scottish charcuterie

                         Main - Perthshire roe deer and canellini bean casserole with bashed buttery broad                           beans, wild garlic mash and orange spiced rhubarb jelly.

Florist                 Pyrus

Photographer      Zoe Campbell Photography

Lazy Sunday Rosettes - hand crafted by the fabulous Tori Gray Illustration.

SAYING NO TO THE SPEED FEED!

I've had a lot of enquiries recently to cater for weddings this year - and sadly I've had to say no quite a few times simply because I'm already booked. If a date/venue isn't set in stone then sometimes we can shoogle things around so that an alternative date can be found. This makes me happy.

However yesterday and today I have declined to cater for two different weddings - and both because I wasn't comfortable with the kind of food that I was being asked to serve. YIKES! Saying no to business is a brave thing to do. So how come I didn't feel brave?

But then I was thinking about this some more today and realised how important it actually is to me that I don't just 'do' what I do, but that I ENJOY what I do as well. Catering for a wedding is really really really hard work. Even with the addition of my fabulous new chef to the team, I'm typically on my feet from 6 in the morning until 11pm. Before this and after this (and not including the week's solid preparation before hand), there is the drive to and from the venue. The loading, the unloading, the setting up, the making sure you haven't forgotten anything, the checking of equipment, filling out of paperwork, briefing of staff - and that's usually before we've even started cooking. Sometimes the kitchen is downstairs and the dining is upstairs - I never understand why I'm not a size 6 doing this job - and then I remember that I like puddings a lot!! Or else there's a mile of corridors between where we cook and where everyone is seated. We typically cook for lots of people - draining and straining is a work out all to itself, not to mention the chopping and peeling and grating and every other physical element that makes you feel like you have run a 10K by the end of the day!!

What makes this fun for me is the brides and grooms and their families and friends first and foremost. Of all the suppliers on the day, I'm usually at the venue the longest - and therefore part of the wonderful drama of the day. And then there's my absolute favourite bit of all - the cooking: Menus can take weeks to finalise and I love this stage of working out with the bride and groom what kind of food to serve. People say that I've made a bit of a rod for my own back by not having set menus as such - but for me this is part of the fun - helping to choose food that reflects a couple's personality; their style; their own unique twist on dining that will have their guests talking about the wedding meal hopefully for a long time to come. 

So why did I turn down the opportunity to cater for two weddings this week. One venue had a fabulous commercial kitchen - a dream to cook in. Another was in the most stunning location imagineable and would have well and truly satisfied my wanderlust. Both the brides were lovely. Really lovely. But truthfully?  I just didn't click with their thinking around food. It wasn't wrong thinking. It just wasn't Lazy Sunday thinking - which is about generous local seasonal freshly prepared food served in a relaxed environment and in a style that reflects the couple we're cooking for. Does that make sense? I love the ages it takes to lay out a dessert table. I love piling sharing platters hi with delicious Scottish produce so that people go WOW when they see it coming to their table. I love that guests pop into whatever kitchen space we have to see what we're up to - one groom even licked the spoon: I know. Health and safety. (I washed it, if that helps m'lud!)

We don't really do stuffy, formal, silver service, 'eat your dinner quick because we need to get cleared away for the band' type cooking.  There. I've said it. YIKES!! For me, and for The Lazy Sunday team, food is not just about filling up empty stomachs or speed feeding so that the next bit of the party can commence. It's about pleasure and sharing and chatter around a table. It's about putting a not insignificant piece of who you are onto a plate and encouraging others to do the same. It's about trying out new tastes, mixing up local produce with flavours from around the world. It's about conviviality. I know I've said this before, but your wedding is most likely the biggest dinner party you'll ever throw. And then some. Are you out to impress? Or are you out to make your guests what I call  'food happy' - with bold flavours, relaxed eating and a huge great big slice of your personality thrown in. 

You'll have guessed by now that this blog post is in big part about convincing myself that turning down weddings on the basis of 'fit' isn't a really really stupid thing to do. And with relief I can say that I have persuaded myself that it was the right call. And to all my lovely wonderful brides who are the 'right' fit, I cannot wait to get cracking!! (no alluding to Easter pun intended!!)

An Autumn Highland Wedding in a special highland place.

“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.” 

― Lauren DeStefano, Wither

Heading north past Faskally and Pitlochry, in early morning mist and mizzle, foliage of red leaf and gold leaf and Indian mustard hues lingered on the roadsides and the hillsides and the lochsides. I drove slowly into Nethybridge, through Boat of Garten first where, when my children were small, we used to take the steam train to Santa. Then Abernethy. Autumn lined. Then Aultmore House  today, host to Louise and Craig's beautiful beautiful wedding day. 

 

 

 

The House is beautiful and the grounds the perfect backdrop to a truly Highland wedding. Louise and family and friends made almost everything that contributed to the loveliness of the day - individually made bark backed wedding invitations, miles of purple bunting, t'r'ee lights. And everything reflecting the setting and the seaon.

 

Louise's dress was beautiful. Laced. Figure hugging. Soooo lovely. And bridesmaids - in Indian silk in purples and gold.

 

There was a lady piper in sparkly shoes.... 


 

... a roller haired bridesmaid putting the final touches to the final touches...

 

and a big hearted kilted bar man...

 

Prosecco popping to toast and to celebrate 

 

Cullen skink shots with breadystick dippers

 

All in a magical beautiful Autumn gloried landscape that made your heart sing and thump and jiggle in your body

 

They feasted on generous flavours and food that had been cooking, slowly, all day long, in a glorious kitchen that made me happy - roasted parsnip and lemon grass soup, game terrine, venison casserole, chocolate, hazelnut and vanilla profiteroles. The kind of food that when you're in the glorious beautiful Highlands you really really really have to eat.


 

So, beautiful Louise. Thankyou to you and Craig for trusting me with your day. Happy as happy can be.

 

Genuinely. 

And to Aultmore House in its magical setting overlooking snow capped peaks and forrest trees and fountains and follies.... you are a very very very beautiful and romantic and special special place. Really. And of course, I got to work with the fabulous Cara and Nye of Lillian and Leonard again. I'll post the link to their blog and their photos as soon as they're live. Love these photographers. They make me happy too!

A little bit of food styling and some rhubarb love.

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb. Love it. Au naturel with sugar. Lightly poached in fresh orange juice and cardamon, or poached a bit more then folded through lightly whipped double cream and creme fraiche for a rhubarb fool.

So I styled up a food shoot recently for plain and simple rhubarb puff tart. Love the colours.

Lazy Sunday calendar

I'm so proud of this little piece of work. It's purpose was really a collaborative one - Blue Sky Photography, Platinum Graphics and Lazy Sunday working together to produce these little promotional calendars for our own individual marketing purposes and also to 'practice' occasionally collaborating together.

Lazy Sunday calendar images. Photography: Blue Sky Photography

The Lazy Sunday version of the 2011 calendar (and I know it's May and nearly half way through the calendar year, I know, I KNOW) is going to be sent out to my lovely brides and customers as soon as the re-branding has taken place fully (July 1st), with a little note explaining my thinking. 

So here's a little taster of our Tea Poached Salmon recipe:

Tea poached salmon with apple and fennel salad (photography: Blue Sky Photography)

Ingredients
6 fillets of salmon
1/2 litre apple tea
2 red apples, thinly sliced
1/2 bulb fennel, thinly sliced
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp chopped dill
2 tbsp olive oil
Fresh salad leaves


Method
Bring apple tea to boil in wide, shallow pan. Simmer salmon fillets in the tea for 8-10 mins
Combine apple, fennel, onion, dill, lemon and olive oil and serve with salad leaves and salmon.