The Mild Fiancée and I are getting to the point in the wedding planning process where we have to taste/sample some of the food. At the end of the day, you want to make sure that you like the food that's being served to you and your guests. Of course, everyone has a different definition of what tastes good (more on that later), so it makes good logistical sense to try the food. It's also one of the parts in the process that people look forward to, so I expected some laughs. I did not, however, expect some of the other shenanigans.
First of all, I should explain the general structure of the food tasting. For this particular venue, they do it in bulk. They open up one of the ballrooms, and invite dozens of couples. That way, they can cook all of the food, and have a big buffet. You try as much or as little of the food as you want, and you can go back for seconds or thirds of any items that you're unsure about. Well, that's the theory at least. If you're just flat out hungry, you can get as much of any particular dish and no one is going to judge you.
Now, whenever there's a buffet and lots of tables, the organizers let one table go at a time. It keeps the process more tidy that way. However, they had no good way of assigning numbers, so the DJ (yes, there was a DJ), decided to play a game. He would play a song that fit the wedding theme, and the first table to correctly identify the song would get to go next. Game on.
As it turned out, it was a good thing that there were other people at our table. One of the guys at our table immediately identified the second song played, so we got to go second. I high-fived that guy (I may or may not have been hungry at the time). As it turned out, though, that guy and his fiancée wanted to watch a football game. So, they nibbled on a couple of dishes, made a quick decision about a couple of the items (I didn't really hear what they said), and then they dashed out the door. We didn't really know each other for long, but thank you for your contribution to our table, good sir.
The other couple at out table, though, stuck around and made very meticulous notes about their food. I know because they had brought what looked like parents from both sides to the event, and everyone had an opinion. There was a lot of chatter, and it was hard not to overhear some of the commentary. This was where the differences in taste started to really show. They raved about dishes that we didn't like, and we liked dishes that they complained about. We all did our level best not to influence each other's opinions/experiences, but it was like a twisted game of Telephone. We were all trying to avoid twisting each other's words and opinions, only we could hear each other. It made for quite the amusing experience.
The other really interesting part was that there were quite a few tables, so there were still some tables playing the game by the time we sat down with our food. We didn't really have much incentive to pay attention, but by the end, we felt bad for the remaining tables. We were trying to help them out. In fact, everyone was. At one point, there were roughly seven people proclaiming, whispering, and flat out telling that table that the song in question was "California Love" by Tupac (and Dr. Dre). Mercifully, they realized that we weren't all lying to them, so they put forth the correct answer as their guess, and they were granted permission to sample the food. Who knew that knowledge of 1990's rap would save the day?
This whole Mild Wedding business keeps serving up the laughs, I tell you. I'm almost going to miss the process when it's done.
First of all, I should explain the general structure of the food tasting. For this particular venue, they do it in bulk. They open up one of the ballrooms, and invite dozens of couples. That way, they can cook all of the food, and have a big buffet. You try as much or as little of the food as you want, and you can go back for seconds or thirds of any items that you're unsure about. Well, that's the theory at least. If you're just flat out hungry, you can get as much of any particular dish and no one is going to judge you.
Now, whenever there's a buffet and lots of tables, the organizers let one table go at a time. It keeps the process more tidy that way. However, they had no good way of assigning numbers, so the DJ (yes, there was a DJ), decided to play a game. He would play a song that fit the wedding theme, and the first table to correctly identify the song would get to go next. Game on.
As it turned out, it was a good thing that there were other people at our table. One of the guys at our table immediately identified the second song played, so we got to go second. I high-fived that guy (I may or may not have been hungry at the time). As it turned out, though, that guy and his fiancée wanted to watch a football game. So, they nibbled on a couple of dishes, made a quick decision about a couple of the items (I didn't really hear what they said), and then they dashed out the door. We didn't really know each other for long, but thank you for your contribution to our table, good sir.
The other couple at out table, though, stuck around and made very meticulous notes about their food. I know because they had brought what looked like parents from both sides to the event, and everyone had an opinion. There was a lot of chatter, and it was hard not to overhear some of the commentary. This was where the differences in taste started to really show. They raved about dishes that we didn't like, and we liked dishes that they complained about. We all did our level best not to influence each other's opinions/experiences, but it was like a twisted game of Telephone. We were all trying to avoid twisting each other's words and opinions, only we could hear each other. It made for quite the amusing experience.
The other really interesting part was that there were quite a few tables, so there were still some tables playing the game by the time we sat down with our food. We didn't really have much incentive to pay attention, but by the end, we felt bad for the remaining tables. We were trying to help them out. In fact, everyone was. At one point, there were roughly seven people proclaiming, whispering, and flat out telling that table that the song in question was "California Love" by Tupac (and Dr. Dre). Mercifully, they realized that we weren't all lying to them, so they put forth the correct answer as their guess, and they were granted permission to sample the food. Who knew that knowledge of 1990's rap would save the day?
This whole Mild Wedding business keeps serving up the laughs, I tell you. I'm almost going to miss the process when it's done.
Comments
Post a Comment