Tía Kim and tío Tommy are FINALLY peacefully, blessedly, definitely done with their wedding duties festivities.
After we got back from Hawaii, your dad went back to work the next day while I relaxed for the rest of the week. Before we knew it, we had three days to finish planning and projects for their Chinese banquet at East Harbor Restaurant in our neighborhood. With work and wedding preparation, we were all stressed and frustrated trying to get everything done on time.
Weddings are fun, but for the bride and groom, the best part is the end of the night. To have it all start over again a mere week later is a cruel joke.
But that’s what happened.
So we cut, tied, punched, glued, taped, and STRESSED for three days straight.
The first task we tackled was their BBQ sauce favors. These were a nod to Tommy’s southern roots. They purchased several cases of BBQ sauce in bulk and stripped off the labels. I designed labels and printed them on label paper. We tied your grandma’s BBQ ribs recipe to each bottle using leftover raffia ribbon.
We were really happy to do this, can you tell?
Tía Mel tied recipe cards to each bottle and packed them neatly.
The favors came out really cute though. Cohen Authentic Southern BBQ Sauce – Oh, Taste and See!
Then, we made 100 cupcake flags. My heart punch that I used for the heart garland project broke (I’ve owned it for like 3 weeks) so I had to hand cut hearts from card stock. It was a sad, sad job. Not as bad as tía Kim who had the task of cutting and curling tiny strips of paper.
We decided that to purchase flowers on the morning of the banquet and arrange 11 small centerpieces, prepare flower petals, and prepare 2 small accent arrangements and one large arrangement. I thought it would be easy. It was NOT. Mad props to florists everywhere.
On Saturday morning, tía Mel and I drove over to a Key Food in Bensonhurst because I’d noticed they had a large selection of fresh flowers every time I visited Pastor Wing. Their selection that morning was okay – we purchased 3 dozen red roses, a whole bunch of yellow mums, 2 bunches of red carnations, and one arrangement of red spray roses from Shop Rite in Borough Park. The total came out to $70.
As soon as we got home, I turned on the AC so that the flowers would be as cool as possible. I stripped the leaves and removed ragged petals and soaked the flowers in water.
For the centerpieces, I knew that anything large would be immediately removed from the table. Chinese people have a reputation for not caring about anything but the food at a banquet. I am nothing if not detail-oriented and couldn’t bare the thought of bare tables so I bought 11 cube vases from the dollar store ($1 each) and tía Mel bought 11 memo clips from Michael’s ($1.25 each).
Tía Mel glued the memo clips into each vase so that it could hold a table number. Well, as soon as I added water into the vases, the glue popped off the glass. Boo.
I tossed the bad roses into a dish and Mel and ST stripped the petals. About half a dozen roses were more than enough to cover the guest book and cake tables lushly.
Then, I began cutting the blooms and placing them into each vase. ST actually created each arrangement.
There was a huge mess : (
Mel sprinkled each arrangement with water and placed them into the fridge. Side note: ST is appalled that I posted this picture of our dirty fridge.
The effort wasn’t too bad and the price couldn’t be beat – petals, 11 small arrangements, 2 medium arrangements, and one huge arrangement for $97. People seemed to like them since a lot of people took them home. Also, we now have a bunch of vases to use for future events.
After that, we relaxed and ate lunch. The madness that ensued after that is too traumatic for you. I will skip it.
In the end, we had a good time so I guess it was worth it. Your grandparents had a great time and it was basically their party, so mission accomplished.
Kim and Tommy were champs. They smiled and took pictures for hours on end and looked good doing it too! Side note: Smiling until you twitch is integral to a wedding.
Our lobster even came with smoke and LED eyes. Fancy!
ST was a silly old bear, of course. He is a walking party.
The cupcakes from Elegante Pastry Shop were delicious, even if the flags started falling apart. So sad but oh well. Side note: One of the ladies at the shop shamed Kim for 1) ordering her wedding cupcakes three days before the event and 2) ordering cupcakes.
Stupid me charged the battery on my camera and forgot to pop it back in so I went to the banquet with no battery in my camera.
IT’S FINALLY DONE. Now I get to plan tía Mel’s wedding. MUHAHAHA…
El Brooklyn Taco 