Mid-March, winners of the ACE awards took the stage at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. To enter, each contender was asked to identify the two events the company completed that it felt best represented the company, as well as challenges and favorite aspects.
Throughout the year, Catersource.com will profile the winners and nominees of the 2017 ACE awards. In part 2 of our series, we will place a keen eye on 24 carrots catering and events, who took the ACE award for Operations over $2 million in the West region.
Catering • West region • Operations over $2 million • 24 carrots catering and events
Marriage Equality at an Historic Airline Hangar
This same-sex wedding took place at a local air museum and active event space, which the couple embraced and utilized in their cuisine, bar menu, and décor, without feeling too cliché or over the top.
It was a fine-dining experience that reflected the couple’s aesthetic and story. Everything was purposeful without getting caught up in trends, and focused on the celebration of marriage. However, because one of 24 carrots’ goals is to innovate and collaborate, they did have some fun creating and elevating the grooms’ ideas. The menu had an airline undertone to it (hangar steak, airplane snacks as take-home gifts), but with the elegance required for an exquisite wedding. The team also surprised the grooms by serving their entrees on “airline trays.”
Challenges
Though we had accounted for our own power needs, says Vice President Laura Fabian of 24 carrots, the live band on site pulled more power than expected, blowing circuits and disrupting the flow of the event. With the end goal in mind, they all worked together to adjust the timeline and execute service, sound check, and final reception music by sharing one generator. Though it wasn’t an ideal situation for anyone, the guests and clients did not feel the shortcoming affect the overall event, which is always the goal.
Favorite
Our favorite parts of this event were stemmed from our collaboration with the grooms. They had a great sense of humor and wanted to embrace their location and not take it, or themselves too seriously. At their tasting we got into the topic of food puns, and once a “hangar” steak came up, they could not get over it and insisted that’s what the main entrée would be at their airline-inspired wedding. They had fun with the menu and wanted their guests to experience the same. As a surprise, the wedding coordinator collaborated with us in ordering specialty ceramic airline plates for the couple’s main course.
The second favorite aspect of this event was the play on “pretzels and peanuts” that we got to take. The client added this request on at the last minute, but gave us creative freedom. We were thrilled to be able to create some sweet and savory treats for their guests to take home!
Next week on Catersource.com: Cartewheels Catering’s Wanderlust Wedding
