It’s that time of year again, when the long cold winter days slowly start to become a distant memory and thoughts of outdoor events like graduation parties, birthday celebrations, family reunions and gatherings of our friends become forefront in our minds. We start cleaning up the back yard, weeding, raking, mowing and planting the latest trending annuals and perennials and sneaking a peek at the neighbor’s yard to get any cool new ideas for our own.
As the yard starts to show signs of life again, we start to think about what parties we need to plan for during the upcoming months. Whether it’s a birthday celebration, high school or college graduation party or just a fun summer get together, chances are you’re going to have a decent amount of people attending. The quantity and quality of food and drink you’ll need to have may suddenly become overwhelming, especially if you haven’t allocated enough time in between the planning phase and the actual date of the event. You may want to think about hiring a professional to handle the food and beverages to alleviate some of the stress so you can focus on other things for the event.
Smoky Mountain Pizzeria Grill has been handling catering in Boise as well as other areas throughout Idaho as well as Sandy, Utah for years. They understand the stress of these gatherings. They take a huge chunk of the worry away from the event hosts by delivering delicious, hot and beautiful arrangements of food. The hosts to are then able to enjoy the festivities instead of worrying if the food is going to be ready on time, if it’s going to get cold, or whether or not there is enough to eat and drink.
Below is a checklist to help with your successful catering event:
- Grab a pen and paper or tablet and stylus
- Make a list of people you want to invite
- After you determine how many people you are inviting plan the seating
- Figure out how many tables and chairs will be needed?
- Determine the décor: linens, tablecloths, napkins color and theme if any
- Count appropriate required of silverware, coffee/tea cups, plates (dinner and dessert)
- Fresh flowers at each table? Centerpieces of a different kind?
- Invitations (Print on your computer to save money)
- Figure out menu – hot and cold buffet style? Served? Choices of dishes?
- Cooking yourself? Bar-Be-Cue or Stovetop? Catered?
- Entertainment – music from speakers and iPod track or live music?
- Plan for weather changes – Tent or canopy rental or do it yourself, but have shelter for rain or hot sun in place, or be prepared for fast exit indoors if possible.
There are several ways to handle the stress of the big event, one way is to figure out where you might need to hire help. If you can handle the entertainment yourself and the aesthetics of the event, then think about hiring a caterer to handle the food portion of the event. That is the major focal point of most affairs, so alleviating that part of the overall equation to be handled by a professional can help make life a lot easier for the host or party planner. This is especially true for wedding and receptions. If you are having a close gathering of family you may even ask family members to each bring a favorite cold dish of their own, while having the hot dishes and everything else handled by the caterer. This brings a personal touch to the gathering and allows family members to show off a little. Same could be done instead of a cold dish, ask them to bring a favorite dessert they like to make. This is a slick way of making sure everyone at the party has at least one dessert there you know they’ll love!
Consider these other points about your hosted event:
If you are not too computer savvy and don’t think you are able to make your own invitations yourself and print them, you can simply order the invitations online by choosing pre-made patterns, or simply purchase them at your local card and gift shop.
Flowers for centerpieces are usually the norm, but depending on the type of gathering you are having something else might be more practical or more fun! If it’s a baby shower for example, a centerpiece on each table that is baby themed might be much more fun to see and talk about then just flowers. Or perhaps incorporate the baby theme by having little carriages as the centerpiece with a few sprigs of flowers attached. The ideas for any events are endless so let your imagination soar, it’s your party!
Too much sun or a sudden rain storm could be a problem for your outdoor event so you really should take that into consideration when planning any outdoor event. There are tent rentals available or a simple canopy could be put in pace to shield your guests from the hot rays of the sun or a rainy day forecast. If you have the room inside your home to accommodate the amount of guests you have invited, keeping the indoors available as a backup plan would be a good idea just in case.
Themed parties are always a ton of fun; it doesn’t always have to be a gathering for an actual event like a graduation or a birthday. If someone you know is moving to a different state or country, having a going away party for the person with the theme being the new location might be great fun. For example, if someone was moving to France you could have the entire party based on all things France with even a French themed dinner menu! However, if they’re just moving across town, especially Boise, then Smoky Mountain Pizza has you covered – haha!
The main point of any gathering of any sort is to enjoy quality time with family and friends, make memories and to have fun! If you spend all of your time worrying about the details, it could be a tough night. Taking the time to sit down and plan your event, giving yourself enough time to execute your plan properly is not only a recipe for a successful party, it’s going to ensure you as the host have a great time!
Allow us to make your night a little easier. Smoky Mountain Pizza offers many different options for your catering event. It’s true, we’re well known for the pizza, but we often serve gourmet hamburgers, pasta, salads, etc… to suit everyone’s taste. To top that, we even offer a gluten free menu. Give us a call. What do you have to lose?
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