We have had a few interesting weddings up at Goldie. Usually for the weddings I serve appetizers,
clear dishes and drinks. The normal wait
staff stuff. It’s pretty easy and fun
work. But I don’t work every weekend, it
depends on how big the wedding is. We do
have weddings every weekend of the summer and a few in spring and fall. I think it is one of Goldie’s main sources of
income. And who wouldn’t want to have
their wedding on a beautiful vineyard, overlooking the bay, with their
wonderful selection of wine. I know I
would love it. Especially since I
started working the weddings, and Leslie’s food is just scrumptious as well.
We happened to have a wedding on the same weekend as the
first harvest, meaning during a cyclone.
This was much unfortunate for everyone involved because we had to move
everything inside. What a pain in the
butt. It took a lot of muscle and
rearranging to make everything look beautiful and be rain proof. In the end it was hardly necessary. The cyclone kinda pooped out and all it did
was a smattering of rain. :/ This wedding was the most expensive wedding I
had ever seen and it was being ruined by a not so fierce cyclone. They had two bands, one for dancing and one
with violins for ceremony and pre dinner.
The bride had also hired a makeup artist, wedding planner and florists. It was just over the top. Several unplanned things happened besides the
cyclone. One was one of the aunts got
super sick on the ferry over and stayed sick throughout the ceremony. We had to call an ambulance. Then, much later in the evening, half of the
guests had to leave early for last ferry (9:30). The last ferry was supposed to be at midnight,
but because of the storm they cancelled it early. You don’t want to be on a ferry when the
swells were as large as they predicted.
And the last thing that happened was the fire alarm went off around
11pm. I didn’t mind this last one, it
meant we got to go home earlier than 2am.
The guests and the couple seemed to take everything in stride, and no
one was too upset. I think it turned out
pretty successful despite all the surprises.
My favorite wedding I worked at was a gay wedding. This was not only unusual because it was
Goldie’s first gay wedding, but also because it was during the day and it was
local Moari and an American getting married.
They were a lovely older couple and their wedding was fabulous. The flowers were simple, but the ceremony was
rich. The Moari side of the family had
traditional dances and songs that it did before and during the ceremony. I loved seeing the people. They were all so happy and much more polite
than many of the other weddings I had served at. When everyone was done eating dinner drag
queens came on buses and whisked them all away for a surprise after party. The drag queens harried everyone a little
bit. They went through the kitchens and
surprised the cooks and then started their little show in the main hall. A couple of our staff were at their house and
had set up the party with more wine and bubbles and appetizers. They were to stay until 11, when everyone got
kicked out and the groom and groom could enjoy the rest of their night.
For the festival we had stage on top of the hill for the
ceremony and band that was going to play on the opening night. There were flags everywhere, sponsor signs
and candles. The festival opening
ceremony had music, opera, dancing, grape crushing. Of course the staff and volunteers working
the festival didn’t get to see anything.
We were preparing the bubbles and helping set up the mingle areas. I really wanted to see the grape crushing,
that would have been really cool. All of
the wineries on the Island donated 2-5 bottles of each kind of wine they
produced. All this sparkly stuff was for
the sponsors that were funding the event.
They were to be pampered up the wazoo.
So I had several responsibilities during this event. The main one was making sure that the Bubbles
at bottom of the hill were ready for when the opening ceremony was finished. This was only half successful. I filled the glasses all half way so I could
top off the champagne right before the ceremony ended to make sure it was
cold. But the ceremony ended early, so I
ended up giving away half filled flutes.
*shrugs* Something is better than nothing.
The other task I had was to run food all night. We served fried risotto balls, blue cheese caramelized
onion angus sliders, cucumber salmon dill crème fresh and feta and caramelized
onion tarts. On top of the apitizers
there were also cheese platters, antipasto platters (olives, pickles, roasted vegetables,
sun dried tomatoes, artichokes, salami, roast beef) bread, crackers and cheese
sticks set out. These guys had skipped
dinner, so they ate a lot. Some were
nice, like the bus drivers of the wine tours, and the other vineyard
managers. But you always have some that
are rude to the wait staff.
After everyone left the
staff got to hang out together with left over wine and food. We all needed a break after the craziness of
the night. It was nice to see people
let their hair down. Because of the
crazy schedules everyone keeps I feel like we barely get to hangout. The next day half the staff had to be at work
around 7:30AM, and we were a tired and hung over bunch. Nicky had a brilliant idea to take pictures
that day. To say the least, the photos
only kinda turned out.
No comments:
Post a Comment