Argh, caterer just cancelled. 5 meals for 35 people-
Dec 28, 2017 19:24:05 GMT
pattyraindrops likes this
Post by StephDRebel on Dec 28, 2017 19:24:05 GMT
I have a retreat planned for next weekend and my catering company just called to cancel. She said they were worried about the weather but I'm thinking they got offered a bigger job and bumped us. I am looking for other catering but it's going to jack the budget and that's if I can even find someplace to step in this late.
I'm waiting for confirmation from a couple of places, but I need to work on a backup in case it ends up being on me. Fortunately, I'm flying trainers in so I only have to do the opening and closing activities and can be in the kitchen if necessary.
So, 35 women who miraculously have no dietary restrictions aside from a few trying to stay low carb.
Dinner Friday (for probably 15-20, they'll be arriving at staggered times)
Breakfast Saturday
Lunch Saturday
Dinner Saturday
Breakfast Sunday
and they're off.
I'm getting ready to jump on Pinterest to get some ideas, I'm looking for tasty and EASY. Preferably something that I can just reheat. The more I can just buy at Sams Club the better off I'll be.
Hit me with your best ideas?
*UPDATE*
Sorry y'all. I've been seriously processing today and honestly kind of afraid to type it out because I'm exhausted and still a bit emotional.
The caterer cancelling ultimately ended up probably being a good thing. Thankfully I had things together and organized with spreadsheets so shopping went smoothly and meals were a breeze although the weekend was insane.
I checked in around 2 on Friday and my girls trickled in from 3:30 to 8pm. it was snowy and icy but thankfully the roads were clear. We did an opening training from 7-8:30 and then were planning to spend the evening hanging out and chatting.
While we were baking pizzas it kept smelling like something burning but it was a gas oven and it kind of smelled like burnt pizza so we didn't think anything of it Around 930 I was sitting in the living room by the fireplace with a small group of leaders and we realized that there was some smoke coming from the stone under the hearth.
It wasn't bad, just odd so I called the lodge owner thinking it might be something that they knew about and forgot to mention. I had a couple of leaders keep an eye on it and had everyone else put their shoes and coats on and move to a room with outside doors.
The owners got there about 10 minutes later and the smoke started to get a little heavier. her husband was a volunteer firefighter and said 'that's really strange" (that was my diagnosis)
There wasn't anywhere to send the team, so they stayed in the room where they were and my assistant and I kept an eye on things in the room with the smoke. They took the burning logs out and dumped them in the snow down the hill and pulled the grate out and tossed it out there too. The hearth continued to smoke and it started coming out of the walls. I felt around the area and it felt warm so I gently lost my shit on the owner and called 911. The fire dept arrived, poked around some, used the sensor to find hot spots and realized that there was fire in the floor under the hearth and in the walls.
They grabbed the sawsall (sp?) from the rescue vehicle, pulled the fireplace out and put the fire out eventually. Around midnight they got all of the places extinguished and we had found a hotel 30 minutes away with 17 rooms open. we literally got the last rooms in the building and my girls were able to get everything in the house packed up and into cars within an hour.
They loaded up and headed that way while my assistant and I did a walk through and then followed to make sure no one had any issues. it was 24 miles in a curvy country road but thankfully they were clear and no one had issues.
We got to the hotel, they had the room registration already done and one of my leaders checked the women in and paired them up. I made arrangements for a conference room and got to my room around 4am.
I slept for about an hour and then started training right after breakfast at 9am.
I thought we were going to end up sitting in the floors but I was pleasantly surprised when we walked into the training room and they had called the event coordinator in early and had us set up with tables, chairs, tablecloths, and pitchers of water. They were seriously exceptional. The rooms were decent enough and the staff was amazing. They gave me access to their kitchen and supplies and allowed me to use the breakfast room for all of our meals. They had a hot breakfast daily so I have a ton of breakfast leftovers that I'm going to donate tomorrow.
I overestimated what we would need for taco night and ended up feeding a hunting group too, but the weekend went smoothly enough that if you hadn't been there Friday you'd never know it wasn't planned at the hotel.
Saturday night the manager called and had the night desk employee give my assistant and I hotel snow globe because we were their favorite guests ever. I'm sure it's that they loved their weekend reports with 17 extra rooms and conference facilities but I'll take it. They seriously saved the event.
I'm so impressed with my team. It was a seriously stressful situation and all 34 of them seriously banded together. When they were waiting for me to find a place to evacuate to they talked each other down and somehow we made it through the whole ordeal without anyone freaking out. I had a couple that got emotional after we were checked in and safe but that's expected. Everyone woke up tired but with incredible attitudes and the feedback has been fantastic.
today, I slept after on my getting about 4 hours of sleep the entire weekend and I'm expecting for the full reality of the situation to hit at some point.
I'm completely freaked out that the smoke alarms never went off and that I had to get ugly and call 911 myself but so incredibly grateful that we were in the room, noticed what was going on, and that we hadn't gone to bed yet.
Everyone is safe and they never realized how bad it actually was. This could've been so, so, much worse.
Stepping back, it was interesting to see how each person handled the situation and reacted to stress, and supported each other. I learned some things about myself and how I handle situations, and the food was actually really good.
I've been communicating with the lodge owner and there was some kind of fault in the stone fireplace. She said that with the cold temps and the fires going so hard for so long that something happened and the embers started dropping into the floor under the hearth.
I'm waiting for confirmation from a couple of places, but I need to work on a backup in case it ends up being on me. Fortunately, I'm flying trainers in so I only have to do the opening and closing activities and can be in the kitchen if necessary.
So, 35 women who miraculously have no dietary restrictions aside from a few trying to stay low carb.
Dinner Friday (for probably 15-20, they'll be arriving at staggered times)
Breakfast Saturday
Lunch Saturday
Dinner Saturday
Breakfast Sunday
and they're off.
I'm getting ready to jump on Pinterest to get some ideas, I'm looking for tasty and EASY. Preferably something that I can just reheat. The more I can just buy at Sams Club the better off I'll be.
Hit me with your best ideas?
*UPDATE*
Sorry y'all. I've been seriously processing today and honestly kind of afraid to type it out because I'm exhausted and still a bit emotional.
The caterer cancelling ultimately ended up probably being a good thing. Thankfully I had things together and organized with spreadsheets so shopping went smoothly and meals were a breeze although the weekend was insane.
I checked in around 2 on Friday and my girls trickled in from 3:30 to 8pm. it was snowy and icy but thankfully the roads were clear. We did an opening training from 7-8:30 and then were planning to spend the evening hanging out and chatting.
While we were baking pizzas it kept smelling like something burning but it was a gas oven and it kind of smelled like burnt pizza so we didn't think anything of it Around 930 I was sitting in the living room by the fireplace with a small group of leaders and we realized that there was some smoke coming from the stone under the hearth.
It wasn't bad, just odd so I called the lodge owner thinking it might be something that they knew about and forgot to mention. I had a couple of leaders keep an eye on it and had everyone else put their shoes and coats on and move to a room with outside doors.
The owners got there about 10 minutes later and the smoke started to get a little heavier. her husband was a volunteer firefighter and said 'that's really strange" (that was my diagnosis)
There wasn't anywhere to send the team, so they stayed in the room where they were and my assistant and I kept an eye on things in the room with the smoke. They took the burning logs out and dumped them in the snow down the hill and pulled the grate out and tossed it out there too. The hearth continued to smoke and it started coming out of the walls. I felt around the area and it felt warm so I gently lost my shit on the owner and called 911. The fire dept arrived, poked around some, used the sensor to find hot spots and realized that there was fire in the floor under the hearth and in the walls.
They grabbed the sawsall (sp?) from the rescue vehicle, pulled the fireplace out and put the fire out eventually. Around midnight they got all of the places extinguished and we had found a hotel 30 minutes away with 17 rooms open. we literally got the last rooms in the building and my girls were able to get everything in the house packed up and into cars within an hour.
They loaded up and headed that way while my assistant and I did a walk through and then followed to make sure no one had any issues. it was 24 miles in a curvy country road but thankfully they were clear and no one had issues.
We got to the hotel, they had the room registration already done and one of my leaders checked the women in and paired them up. I made arrangements for a conference room and got to my room around 4am.
I slept for about an hour and then started training right after breakfast at 9am.
I thought we were going to end up sitting in the floors but I was pleasantly surprised when we walked into the training room and they had called the event coordinator in early and had us set up with tables, chairs, tablecloths, and pitchers of water. They were seriously exceptional. The rooms were decent enough and the staff was amazing. They gave me access to their kitchen and supplies and allowed me to use the breakfast room for all of our meals. They had a hot breakfast daily so I have a ton of breakfast leftovers that I'm going to donate tomorrow.
I overestimated what we would need for taco night and ended up feeding a hunting group too, but the weekend went smoothly enough that if you hadn't been there Friday you'd never know it wasn't planned at the hotel.
Saturday night the manager called and had the night desk employee give my assistant and I hotel snow globe because we were their favorite guests ever. I'm sure it's that they loved their weekend reports with 17 extra rooms and conference facilities but I'll take it. They seriously saved the event.
I'm so impressed with my team. It was a seriously stressful situation and all 34 of them seriously banded together. When they were waiting for me to find a place to evacuate to they talked each other down and somehow we made it through the whole ordeal without anyone freaking out. I had a couple that got emotional after we were checked in and safe but that's expected. Everyone woke up tired but with incredible attitudes and the feedback has been fantastic.
today, I slept after on my getting about 4 hours of sleep the entire weekend and I'm expecting for the full reality of the situation to hit at some point.
I'm completely freaked out that the smoke alarms never went off and that I had to get ugly and call 911 myself but so incredibly grateful that we were in the room, noticed what was going on, and that we hadn't gone to bed yet.
Everyone is safe and they never realized how bad it actually was. This could've been so, so, much worse.
Stepping back, it was interesting to see how each person handled the situation and reacted to stress, and supported each other. I learned some things about myself and how I handle situations, and the food was actually really good.
I've been communicating with the lodge owner and there was some kind of fault in the stone fireplace. She said that with the cold temps and the fires going so hard for so long that something happened and the embers started dropping into the floor under the hearth.
