The Wedding Luncheon Fiasco!

by Joyce Lee
(S UT)

My Grandson taking a break from the car

I had an experience last weekend that I don't want to repeat! My Nephew got married and weeks before he did, I had offered to help him with the wedding luncheon (grooms responsibility) since both of his parents were not going to.
The wedding was in a city that is a 6 hour drive from me and since I couldn't go there till the day of, we tried to coordinate by phone exactly how to pull this off.
My nephew was going to have the Frozen lasagnas thawed out, salad ingredients in the refrigerator, and bread sticks waiting to be warmed. My daughter and I were bringing 130 cupcakes we had baked the night before and were going to quickly decorate on the spot.
The facility for the luncheon had 2 ovens and I brought 2 Solar Ovens to help with the demand.
Got up at 3:45 a.m. to get the garden watered and feed and water the chickens before leaving at 4:00 to meet at my daughters house. We loaded what we thought we needed as well as her 16 month old baby (we really did need him) and headed out on our adventure.
The baby slept halfway thru the trip and we arrived at the wedding with 20 minutes to spare. After the ceremony, we had 2 hrs to get to the place for the luncheon (20 min. away) and get it ready to serve. That's when it got intense!
On our arrival, we found the refrigerator full of FROZEN lasagnas! I had specifically instructed him how to thaw them so they would only take an hour versus 2 hours if frozen. The bread sticks were going in the Solar ovens and that part worked out but 2 regular ovens to cook 10 frozen lasagnas in about an hour and a half was not working! Found someone in the wedding party that lived fairly close to take 2 lasagnas to cook and bring back but still had 4 left.
We still had to pipe a quick dollop of frosting on the cupcakes (which turned out very good) and put the salads together also.
Sadly, things were so stressful and crazy that no one got pictures of our preps or the luncheon. It was full speed ahead! By 2:00 however, the buffet table was ready to serve (only 15 min.late) and it looked great but I got to spend most of the luncheon coaxing the last 4 lasagnas to hurry!
Not many people realized how we managed to always have lasagna on the table. I cut the done ones a little smaller so it would last longer while getting the others done.
We got everything cleaned up and decided we were too tired to stay for the reception since we had a long drive home still with a little guy who hates his car seat. Stopped halfway at a truck stop with a petting zoo to stretch our legs and give my grandson some relief from the car seat!
Sadly, that's the only pics I got of the whole day but they are the cutest I'm sure!