Weddingbee Blog

I know that title isn’t nearly as sophisticated as it should be, especially considering our venue.

Image via My Chicago Wedding

The tasting was sophisticated and classy. But the food was so good, I just wanted to dance up and down and go, “mmmmmm, yummy.” In fact, I still do. So there you have it.

I don’t know where my camera is. I thought I’d left it at work and was kicking myself for not having it for the entire five days I was off (birthday celebration, woot!), but I’m back at work and still can’t find it. So all pics from here on will be taken on my super-cool new Blackberry that was a birthday gift to myself. I apologize in advance.

Mr. Kettle and I picked up Grandmother Kettle and drove out to Joliet for the tasting. There, we met Momma and Daddy Kettle, Mima and Poppa Kettle, and FSIL Grand. Yeah, we took eight people there. I tried to take pictures, but it was an afterthought.

Personal photo: Momma Kettle, Daddy Kettle, Grandmother Kettle

Personal Photo: Mima Kettle, Poppa Kettle, FSIL Grand

They brought us out the food and caused a bit of an issue with us that we got sorted out and hopefully won’t have problems with anymore. They had some clerical issues where they neglected to tell the chef we had eight people coming, not four. So they only had enough food for a tasting they normally do for four people. We were nice and shared, but we were all still starving when we left. The silver lining to that fiasco is that the entire family is on board with having a DOC now.

But on to the food, which was so tasty. We started out with an hors d’oeuvres platter. They brought two of each.

Personal Photo: Eight different options, with four different sauces

Then it was time for the entree selections. I’d chosen three options, and they all looked pretty good. Mima and Poppa Kettle cut all the entrees into eight pieces so we could each try a bit. The steak was really good, and so we knew that would be our beef option. We had to choose between the two chicken options. We really couldn’t decide!

Personal photo: New York strip steak

Personal photo: Chicken piquant

Personal photo: Chicken saltimbucco

Ultimately, I decided whoever was actually ordering the chicken for the wedding would choose. But almost all of us were getting the steak! Grandmother Kettle said she was getting chicken. Since she was the only one, we let her choose. She picked the chicken piquant. It will be so tasty. It has a lemon caper sauce. Yum!

Up next was the three options for cake. I forgot to tell them ivory buttercream, so they brought us pure white. Because this was my birthday weekend, I had a lot of icing. Hive, you were so right about the ivory buttercream being way better tasting. I’ll make sure I choose the right icing for the wedding. Our three options were red velvet, French lemon silk, and milk chocolate mousse.

Personal photo: I almost forgot to take a pic, but luckily it’s only missing one bite.

We all loved the French lemon silk. We thought the others were just OK. That was enough to make us check out another option for cakes. Yet another thing to add to my to-do list… Yay…

They have dessert-buffet options, so we tried out those. Lots of chocolate options. They also have a chocolate fountain. I want that chocolate fountain!

Personal photo: They had chocolate versions of everything!

Personal photo: I think there was even chocolate baklava!

They gave us wine and beer with the food. We were very pleased with the food. So now I can feel good about knowing that the dinner will be tasty and our guests will be happy.