Wedding Crasher

On Saturday night, I crashed a wedding.

Well. Sort of.

When I arrived, no one seemed to care that they didn’t recognize me. I was able to take in all of the decorations and admire the floral arrangements, point-and-shoot in hand, without anyone ever asking who I was.

painted rocks designated table numbers

fortune cookies at every place

the groomsmen wore Converse!
and walked down the aisle to Smashing Pumpkins “1979″ [the bride marched down the aisle to "She's a Bad Mamma Jamma"]

Unlike Vince & Owen, however…

…I wasn’t there to take advantage of attractive singletons.

No no, dear Smarties o’ mine.
I was there for the food.

So what, you ask, was I really doing there?
Duh. Crashing a wedding. I do it all the time.
[I am a rebel, can't you tell?]

OK, fine, you caught me. Here’s the real story behind the hijinks:

So remember when I got to hang out with a Heisman trophy and meet Earl Campbell? Well, Ron Parks, the fabulously fun (and talented) photographer who let me come play “assistant” that evening called me on Saturday night, wondering if I would fill in as assistant again. This time for a wedding near Lake Travis, at a venue called Vintage Villas.

All he had to say was “the food is amazing,” and I was pulling a dress out of the closet and on my way.

Besides, why not play wedding photographer on a Saturday night at a random wedding where the couple’s first dance was to the tune of a Foo Fighters song and we practically had to physically remove champagne glasses and cocktails from the wedding party’s hands in order to get a “booze free” formal photo? And then there were the small children under 8 years old who alternated between break dancing to the 80s-themed music and licking the chocolate fondue off of plates…

I was kind of obsessed with the cake above….and the one below. I’m not a Longhorn, but chocolate covered strawberries as garnish? Gotta love that.
Passed appetizers during the cocktail hour were focaccia rounds topped with mozarrella and some type of salsa. I didn’t actually get to try one of these since I was being a wedding photographer at the time, but Ron said they were yummy.
There was also an incredible array of fresh fruit (with chocolate fondue), cheeses, vegetables, and assorted crackers and bread laid out throughout the night.
The carrots and asparagus were very lightly marinated and had sesame seeds sprinkled over them. The veggies below had a very light drizzle of some sort of sweet dressing, but it didn’t cover everything. It was just a nice little “hint” of extra flavor.
Since most of the guests were slightly more concerned with their drinks and their dance moves, I was able to snag about 3 plates full of goodies.

Imagine the above x 3

Vintage Villas has their own in-house chef, “Chef Steve,” who does all of the catering for events there. Might I say…the food was delicious. [I'm sorry that my pictures don't do it justice.]

more hors d’oeuvres, above (pretzel bread with nut-encrusted brie topped with cherry chipotle jam and pistachios) and below (crostini with sun-dried tomato and goat cheese)

The dinner was a buffet, and I must say, it moved very quickly (which is always a plus!), and was not a let-down at all…for wedding food [or food in general really ] it was amazing.

I always love starting the line with a huge, veggie-and-feta-filled salad. Although it was a little heavily dressed, anything with praline pecans is a good thing. (Don’t you agree?)
I helped myself to a huge mess of salad, as well as one each of the hors d’oevres shown above…also on the menu: wild mushroom, spinach, and pepper quesadillas, angel hair carbonara with sweet peas (which I thought were capers before I bit into one!), and a baked pasta pomodoro with Italian sausage, mushrooms, peppers, and onions.
I think I’ve heard somewhere that serving pasta is the “cheap” option for catering large events. This may be so, but to be honest, who doesn’t love pasta? I know I was happier with this than a cold piece of dry chicken or tough meat.

And if you are springing for an open bar, carb-loading your guests is probably a good thing.

Oh yes…of course we must talk about that cake I mentioned before. You can’t go to a wedding without eating some cake!
The picture below does not even begin to show how enticingly fantastic both slices were (yes, there are two…it’s hard to see the white cake).
I don’t know where this cake came from, but both of them were to-die-for! The white cake was simple vanilla with a really light, whipped cream frosting, and the groom’s cake was the richest dark chocolate-y goodness. Those solid -looking layers weren’t just solid-looking…they were solid dark chocolate. [Also, I must have decaf with my cake.]