New York Reception

Last night, my husband's parents hosted a post-wedding reception for us at their home in New York (western, not NYC). His mom decided to have a "Mexican theme," which I was a little bit wary of, because, umm, people up north don't always "do" Mexican well, but the party was great.

Lots of my husband's relatives came over, so did his friends from high school, as well as friends of his parents. We had tacos and beef and chicken fajitas. My husband made the beef fajitas, and I made some guacamole, so we had a few things that registered as spicy for us (because we tend to see mild salsa as tasting like ketchup), and some delicious mock-fried ice cream for dessert (roll the ice cream in crushed up corn flakes mixed with cinnamon and sugar).

After everyone ate, my FIL almost set himself on fire while setting up a pyrotechnics show in the yard behind the house. Luckily it had rained that morning, because several of the shots had showers of sparks falling on the roof.

A good time was had by all, except for my husband, the best man, and me when one of my husband's five-year old cousins a couple removed made me play "I Spy" with her. I blame the candy (form the pinata) that she was eating at 8 in the morning.

Later today we're going to make the last leg of our journey over to NYC (6-7 hours with the in-laws and our dog in their truck - some prayers might be needed).

Police Involvement - Reception Drinking

While my husband and I are visiting his parents before we head over to NYC, we've been talking with them about everything that happened at the wedding and reception. They were somewhat mortified at the amount of drinking that went on at the wedding. I was not - my family is Irish Catholic, my friends know how to drink, and so do my husband's.

The worst that happened is that my brother and brother-in-law were doing shots, so they were, as we say in the biz, hammered. They both had rides home, though my brother had the keys to my parents' car in his hand when he went outside so was stopped by the security guards/police officers. I think my husband's parents were more embarrassed by the fact that the best man fell down the grand, curvy staircase (only about half of it - and after we left). In my eyes, this is tame.

Let us review the facts from my sister's wedding that led to the police being involved three times:
1) After the rehearsal dinner, everyone was at the hotel hanging out at the pool having some beverages. This apparently intimidated the desk staff, so at 10:00 they called the police to come and tell us that the pool area was closed.
2) Also the night before the wedding, one of my second cousins had been drinking and then went to the casino down the block (wedding was in St. Charles, MO). One of the police officers at the casino decided he was too intoxicated to make responsible gambling choices (MO watches out for you when you gamble and will cut you off). J mouthed off to the policeman and was escorted downtown to be bailed out by my dad and his uncle.
3) One of my brother-in-law's relative's car was stolen out of the hotel parking lot (including the two car seats for his kids). (Not really scandalous police involvement, but a black-and-white appearance nonetheless)

The Reception Hall

What happened at the reception hall was clearly the biggest snafu of the wedding day. When my mother met with the on-site coordinator at the reception hall, she asked what time we would be arriving at the hall. When you reserve the hall, you have it from 10 am until 2 am the next morning. Since we were paying for it, we decided that I would get my hair and makeup done at the reception hall, and we would need to get to the hall at ten in the morning.

Fast forward to the week of the wedding, when the on-site coordinator has called all of the vendors to tell them they need to be at the hall by 10 am.

Fast forward again to 10 am, August 8, 2008.

9:55 - My dad drives my sisters and I to the reception hall. The doors are locked.

10:00 - My hairdresser and the makeup artist show up.

10:05 - The other hairdresser (for the bridesmaids) shows up. Some guy who introduces himself as an architect getting ready to do work on the hall shows up.

10:10 - an employee of the reception hall shows up to the hall, but left her keys inside with the setup crew, that has since left, and we are all locked out. She starts calling people. Meanwhile, the other bridesmaids show up (only late because the hotel shuttle driver is a "recent appointee to the position").

10:15 - the employee tells us that "someone" with a key is only ten minutes away and will be there shortly

10:20 - my hairdresser hops into the car with me and the girls, which is idling in front

10:25 - the person with the key still isn't there

10:30 - the architect walks to the back of the building, shimmies open a window, sets off the alarm, and unlocks the front door so that the employee can turn off the alarm

10:35 - we're finally settled upstairs getting ready

Guest Count

This post is for all of you who are where I was a year ago. I thought I desperately wanted a smaller wedding, with maybe a hundred people in attendance. Ha ha. Such a wedding was not in the cards, and my fiance and I watched as our guest list went from 200 to 250 to 300 to 370 guests (picture me with eyes popping out of my head). My parents and I guessed that we might have to accommodate 250 - 275 people at the most, which narrowed down the venues quite a bit (while my fiance protested that not even 200 people would come). Another factor is that the church is Prince of Peace, which is located out in the suburbs of northwest Houston.

When we went looking at reception sites, There were three in the original group that would have held everyone without breaking fire codes, but one would involve a large tent and portable air conditioners (bye-bye budget) being erected. The other we shied away from because we didn't want my fiance's relatives to think we were complete Texas fanatics and there happens to be lots of Texas "paraphernalia" on the walls. The third was the Chateau Polonez, which not only fit size of the wedding we might have, but is also gorgeous.

Months went by and we sent the save-the-date cards to everyone, and then months went by again, as we sent invitations out to all 370 guests (which was really 350 guests, then 20 more as the "declines" came in. And here we are, with 19 days to go, and a guest count that is currently going to be around 150, as many of our friends and family apparently have better things to do with their lives than witness our nuptials (I know it sounds bitter - shocking - but it's not, they really do, like go on mission trips to Africa and move to Madrid - and yes, they're not bad excuses, they're real, I checked).

The moral of the story is that my fiance is right. No, no, that can't be it. The moral of the story is that everything works out for the best. Even though I considered eloping, the guest count is actually close to what I had envisioned, and if we hadn't thought that we were going to have 275 guests, we probably wouldn't have even thought about the Chateau Polonez as a venue, and it really is fantastic.

Selective Amnesia

Last venting post for a while, I promise (and by promise I mean, unless it gets really bad, because venting is fun and the people who read about venting think it's funny or at least get to experience shadenfreude).

My mother has developed selective amnesia when it comes to planning the wedding. Specifically, I have two points that will perfectly illustrate my point.

1) When I was researching to try and find a caterer, my mom put me through the ringer and kept telling me to call her to get references, even though I had heard/seen nothing but good things about her. Like all of the vendors, we also had to run her through the Better Business Bureau website. Despite all of this, when there was confusion as to which menu she signed the contract for, and when she didn't remember, she also said she had not made a copy of the contract. Boo.

2) The reception site sent a form to us a few months before the wedding asking us the basics of how we would like the event set up (linen choice, how the bride and groom would be served, did we want coffee or tea). My mom made a big deal over making sure that she got to keep a copy of the form at the house. I also called her while I was filling it out online. Yesterday, at the on-site meeting, our on-site coordinator went through the list, and my mom thought that it was so great that she just knew all of this information.

Yargh

Frustrated with the Reception Site

Here is the sequence of events that has made me greatly dislike my reception site (ladies don't say hate):

June 3: I email the reception site to set up the "big meeting" which is supposed to take place about a month before the wedding (August 9). I ask to have the meeting on June 13 (since I am planning on traveling to Houston that day).

June 4: I get a response saying that June 13 is much too early; I won't know a lot of the little details (no indication what those might be).

June 17: Having returned from previously mentioned trip, I try again to schedule the meeting, this time for June 27th. Now that I have found the perfect part-time job, I only have Fridays available to go to Houston, and I have two other appointments scheduled for that day.

June 17 (after arriving home from work): I am told that the month of June is extremely busy for them (duh) and they have many Friday weddings. I am given a list of days and times when we can meet. Of the 10 or so days, one is a Friday (July 11), which happens to be the day of the bachelorette party. The coordinator expresses that she understands that it can difficult to plan a wedding from out-of-town, and maybe I could send someone else. At the meeting we will go over the timeline, the table setting, and other details.

I, upon reading the email, become irate. 1) I could have had the timeline ready for the last meeting. 2) How can I entrust such a meeting to my mom, who was flustered at the florist when asked her opinion of the bouquet? 3) Yargh.

After 15 minutes of venting/fuming to my fiance, I decided to ask my sister and my mother to go and they can call me if they have questions.

What I Hate About My Wedding

OK - let me lie down on the couch, doctor. There is one thing about my wedding that I can't stand, and it is really starting to bother me. Really. What am I talking about, you ask? The fact that my mother won't stop worrying about whether or not we need to provide the hairdresser with bobby pins? While that is a rather pressing issue, I am not referring to hairdresser woes.
I am referring to "the gap." Not the store, though I have been disappointed with them for a while, but the fact that there is a gap between the ceremony and the reception.

I don't know what to do - I know that many people have posted their dissatisfaction on Knot message boards, but it just can't be helped. Even though my fiance and I talked to our deacon about the date 14 months before the wedding the time we wanted (4:30) wasn't available. We had our choice between 2:00 and 7:00. I blame the Catholicism. If there weren't so many of us getting married at churches, there wouldn't be this cafeteria-style ceremony line up at the church. Yargh.

We realized that a reception starting at 8:00 pm wouldn't be super friendly to our older guests, so we decided to have the wedding at 2:00 pm. We also realized that a reception that started at 3:00 or 3:30 would not be any fun - who wants to dance and drink (or for that matter, eat dinner) and leave in the daylight? So, we have "a gap," from whenever the 2:00 ceremony ends (it's a Catholic non-mass, so it's vague - somewhere between 40 minutes to an hour) until the 6:00 reception.

My sister also had a gap at her wedding. My parents reserved a meeting room at the hotel and had sodas, beers, and snacks there after the ceremony and until the reception. I don't know if that's in the plans for this wedding, but it's very distressing. Everyone keeps asking me what they're supposed to do between the wedding and the reception. I need to think up a good answer. Maybe there's a 3:30 movie across the street from the hotel. A quirky comedy would be perfect, people would be out by 5:15.

Procrastination Central

Despite having promised my self that I would not post until after finals had ended, but I can't do it, I just can't leave the blog unattended. Luckily, I have a topic for a post that is related to this sort of procrastination.



Our vendor list is due to Chateau Polonez in a couple of weeks, as they ask that they be able to screen out any "undesirable vendors," I guess. So as to avoid any issues with the timing of my submission (as we did with the caterer), we asked our contact at the Chateau what criteria the vendors needed to meet. Luckily, the venue just wanted to make sure that they haven't had any bad experiences with the vendor before.

Unfortunately, I am beginning to feel a bit nagged. We have everything arranged. Really, we do. We got the original form a couple of months before it was due, because it was sent with one of the bills for the deposit. Then, I got an email saying that I could fill out the form online. Then, a few weeks later, I got an email reminding me, again, that we could fill out the form.

AHHH. Do they not understand that I have finals, and if I am going to procrastinate, I am not going to procrastinate by doing something else that I could be procrastinating on?

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere

The next thing that was on the list for a Houston trip was a trip to the florist, but how does one find a florist? I was trying to find a florist relatively close to the church and the reception site, which are twenty miles outside of Houston. One of my friends suggested it, as she had a friend whose florist who had forgotten one of the bouquets for the bridesmaids, and had to drive all the way back in town and back out to the site and was almost late for the wedding. The other main reason was cost. The flower shops down in town (unless you’re on Fannin) seemed to be pretty expensive, and flowers were not assigned a large part of the budget, so I didn’t want to go that route. Our reception site was absolutely unhelpful, as it doesn’t keep a list of recommended vendors (obviously they don’t have a kickback set up like the caterer).

My sister tried to help. She did a search of flower shops with some internet site and pulled up several that were in the area then sent me their numbers and websites. I scouted them out online and found that they looked okay, but all of the websites looked the same. They had different headers, titles and side things, but they were all pictures of the same bouquets. I called her up (at work J ) and asked what she thought.

Her: “Well, we can just go visit them and look at the flowers they have on display. If those look pretty, then they’re a good florist.”

Me: “That’s a horrible idea. I don’t want to spend all day driving around to florists and then judge them only by what they have out.”

A list of nightmarish possibilities ran through my head. The caterer could take the deposit and run, she could show up with not enough flowers, she could show up with the wrong flowers, or she could show up at the wrong spot. Not something to gamble on.

Then, a light bulb came on (actually, an email came in from the MBA student association notifying us about some networking event). I would use my networks, and the most powerful network of all is the Catholic Church. I quickly shot an email to the marriage coordinator at the church and asked her if the parish had a florist that worked well or often on the weddings in the church. Not five minutes later had gone by when she emailed me back with a name. So-and-so is the parish’s regular florist, and he will bend over backwards for you, especially if you let him know that you’re a parishioner. Bingo! I called the shop and set an appointment for that Saturday afternoon.

More Catering (Are you full yet?)

As I put in the last post, we had experienced a successful tasting with the caterer I had found. I decided to dig out the requirements that the reception site has for any outside caterers, which don’t apply to their “preferred” caterers. Some of my favorites are:

• Caterer must supply a $500 check as a deposit, which will not be deposited unless damages are discovered after the event.
• Dishwasher is reserved for washing glasses, and any other Chateau Polonez supplied items. This will be taken care of by a Chateau Polonez employee.
• Floors and counter tops need to be cleaned, mopped, and wiped dry.
• Kitchen should not be used to cook the entire meal. It may be used for rehaeating, and items needed to be cooked fresh.
• Caterer may use kitchen equipment for reheating, etc. Do not use equipment if you do not know how to use it. All equipment is powered by gas. DO NOT BLOW OUT THE PILOT LIGHTS!!!!
• We assume you are a complete idiot. Please do not use anything in the kitchen that might be of actual use to you. Even though your client is paying us an additional $1500, none of that fee is allocated to the cleaning of the kitchen, please let us know when you are done scrubbing the grout.

No, that last bullet wasn’t actually in the contract, but it did bring up another point about which I can get indignant – over the time span of 4 weeks, they increased the outside catering fee by $300. I’m not entirely sure it is not a scam, but if it happens again, I’ll sic my lawyer fiancé on them.I gave the requirements sheet to the caterer and asked her if she would mind faxing it to the reception site the Tuesday after the tasting (the reception site does not operate on Mondays). She readily agreed (she is so easy to work with).

I called the reception site manager on Tuesday to make sure that she had received the form, and to make sure that we were all set with our “alternative caterer” in that she had met the outside requirements.I received an email later that afternoon stating:“The approval process begins with the outside caterer arranging a meeting with me. The outside catering agreement in your packet was just a sample to you of our requirements of them. To become an approved caterer, xxx needs to call me and setup and Outside Catering Appointment before your due date of xxx. ”That’s funny, because I had initially requested that she sent me the requirements for outside caterers, and no mention of said appointment had been made.

I was irate; we had less than a week for the caterer to receive approval before our deadline. Dismal thoughts flew through my head. We were going to miss the deadline, I was going to have to deal with the difficult “default” caterer, AND pay her exorbitant prices. AAAAAAH.

I tried not to panic, and called my caterer to see if she would mind meeting with the site manager. She said she would call and set everything up (did I mention how easy she is to deal with?). A few hours later, she called to tell me that she had made an appointment for the next week, but that she had convinced the site manager to extend the deadline for the meeting. Hurray! I love my caterer! I’m going to name our first-born after her (not really, but it’s a nice sentiment, right?).

The Catering Saga Continues

I realized that I had not recently provided an update as to the condition of our catering plans for the reception, so here goes:

We were under the gun. Our reception site (as previously mentioned ) had imposed a 60 day timeline on us to find a new caterer, or suffer the exorbitant costs and inflexible scheduling requirements of the site’s “preferred caterer.” We had one weekend in which we could make the trip to Houston to meet with the alternative caterer.

I emailed the caterer and, feeling like a complete dork, asked her if we could have a conference call to talk about her requirements before we came to Houston. She readily agreed, and so I set about getting super-prepared for the meeting. I emailed (noticing a trend?) the reception site coordinator and asked her what the “approval requirements” were for an outside caterer. I received an email later that afternoon with a three-page list of demands, which seemed extensive and a little over the top. The one that really set off bells was the requirement that the outside caterer place a deposit with the site. I thought that one would do us in, I really did. The call went well, we went over the list, and the caterer thought the deposit was odd, but didn’t make a fuss. We set a time for the tasting for the weekend we were coming into town, and we were left with the task of choosing the menu.

Mistakenly, I assumed that the process of choosing the menu would be somewhat simple. My fiancé and I would review the list of entrees, sides, and appetizers. The MOB weighed in, of course, “Well, I wouldn’t pick out anything too crazy, or else no one will eat it, but maybe you should choose something you two like for an appetizer. I mean, you want to remember what you eat at your own wedding.” What a lovely sentiment (yargh).

We proceeded to choose a beef/seafood entrée and, of course, a chicken (the Chicken Divan Supreme – it sounds cheesy, but delicious). Then I called my dad, to find out that no, he didn’t like peppercorn sauce. Who doesn’t like peppercorns? They’re just pepper. Everyone likes pepper. Then we hit a snag with the appetizers; my mom doesn’t like feta cheese – it tastes funny. A grown woman told me that she didn’t like something because it tasted “funny” (double yargh). We finally whittled down the menu to some choices to give to our caterer for the tasting.

Day of the tasting:

My dad insisted that we play golf in the morning, despite the fact that when we finish we have to hurry to drive into the city for a 2:00 pm tasting. When we get home, I have an email from the caterer asking if we can bump back the meeting, since the church is having a meeting in the room she was planning on using. Church? This was the first time I had realized we were meeting at a church; I had assumed we were meeting at her house. I responded that we could bump the time back, thinking that the last thing we want to happen on our wedding day is for the caterer to bump things back.

We arrived at the church and found the caterer waiting to direct us into the gathering hall, where she had a table set up just for us. She then brought out the appetizers, including the spinach and feta triangles, which I snuck onto the tasting list. My parents loved them! We loved it all; everything we tasted was delicious. At first we were a little wary of the beef tenderloin; it looked a little dry on the outside, but the inside was one of the most tender pieces of meet you would ever taste. Huzzah! We found a caterer! Now all I had to do was submit her information to the reception hall and we are good to go. Or so I thought…

More tomorrow - off to class.

Green Weddings (or - I'm a Bad Person)

My fiance sent me an article yesterday that he saw on MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19054513/). The article describes how couples can plan their wedding ceremony and reception to be “green.” I understand that we should conserve energy, reduce pollutants, and try to use sustainable resources, but I keep hearing this nagging voice in my head, “It’s your day - the one day you are excused from saving the earth...”

Some of the ideas seem doable: having your reception during the day outdoors, catering with organic meals, and having your guests carpool. I feel like those measures are normal, feasible, as I said a second ago, doable. However, there are some “different” ideas, such as “mak[ing] a group activity of trash time, throwing plates made out of sugar cane and utensils made from potato starch or corn plastic into compost piles.” Right. When I envisioned my wedding, I pictured my grandmother sorting her dinner remnants into compost piles.

Another point might be completely moot is the one in which they recommend you not use disposable dishes. I think most people choose their dinnerware based on affordability, and if they can afford it, they use china. If they cannot afford china, they would probably use disposable dishes, but most likely not the “plates made out of sugar cane and utensils made from potato starch or corn plastic,” because those sound expensive to me.

The Catering Conspiracy

I’m convinced that there is some sort of wedding-site mafia operating in Houston, and if I don’t post tomorrow, will one of my friends let my fiancé know what may have happened to me?

As I said yesterday, I was feeling guilty about going over the budget for the caterer, so I wanted to at least try and do my homework and find another caterer that might be less expensive. One thing I had to keep in mind was that the reception hall would charge a $1500 “surcharge” for using an outside caterer. That’s right, there is a surcharge for going with an outside caterer, along with a 60 day limitation. Not 60 days from the date of the event, which I could understand, or even 6 months from the date of the event, 60 days from the day you sign the contract, whenever that may be (and the outside caterer has to go through an “approval process” within that time frame.

I tried to work with their “in-house” caterer for a while, I really did. I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt after the extreme delay in response to the initial quote request. I had sent her a menu selection to get the quote, so I asked if we could do a tasting the next time we were in town, which happened to be a weekend. I asked her if we could schedule a tasting for the upcoming weekend, as we were coming in from out of town. Her response:

“This weekend is not good for me, as we have an event. Actually, weekends are never good, because most of our events occur on the weekend. Let me know what other time works for you.”

I didn’t reply, because I had told her that I couldn’t meet for a while on the weekends. I do understand that most of these vendors will not usually want to meet on the weekends, but most of them have been very understanding, once I explain that we are planning the wedding from out-of-town. One reception site vendor even came in early before the morning reception started out. So, to summarize 1) reception site charges extra to use other caterer, 2) other caterer proves very difficult to meet with, and 3) I only have 60 days to find another caterer.

The Catering Question

Recently, I tried to get in touch with the “default” caterer for the reception site. I was less than hopeful, since while we had been deciding between the two reception halls, we had gotten quotes on the catering, and it took 4 days for the woman to get back to me, and from that point, it took another 5 days for her to get back with a quote. What a quote it was, the per-person rate was pretty high. We had thought that one way to bring the cost down was to offer a fruit and cheese display instead of a traditional appetizer. She actually priced that as higher than an appetizer.

We were also somewhat disappointed in the actual selection in the menu choices. Seeing as how this caterer was pretty pricey, we were expecting a nice list. The list of dishes was pretty good, but it basically broke down to we have this many sauces, and we’ll put them on chicken, steak, seafood, or duck.

I decided to at least do my homework to see if I could find a better caterer. So, I found a wonderful website, where I could put in my contact information, and caterers would call me if they were available for the date of our wedding. I put in my information, and not 15 minutes later, the chef/owner of a catering company in Houston called me. She talked about what kinds of foods my fiancé and I liked, and later that evening had faxed me a 5 page menu and 6 different package prices, all of which were less expensive than the “chosen” caterer.

Next Time: My Conspiracy Theory

Demanding Reception Hall

We finally chose a reception hall!

We convinced my parents to stretch the budget a little bit, and we were able to book the reception hall that we wanted, and it only took a week to get the contract signed.

Step 1: Have "discussion" with mother to decide who will call the site to get references, as they are not listed on the Better Business Bureau.

Step 2: Phone call with reception site manager to tell her what references are, since she sent a list of "recommended vendors" the first time.

Step 3: After the weekend, call mother of bride who previously held a reception at the site.

Step 4: I receive an email forwarded from my mother with a copy of the contract with instructions to show it to my fiance, a future lawyer.

Step 5: My mother meets with the reception site manager (finally). Thank you, mom! :)

Step 6: Receive email with scanned copy of signed contract.

Step 7: Realize that we now have 60 days to exercise the option to use a caterer other than the one that the reception site has an "arrangement" with.

Step 8: Laugh as there is a clause in the contract which says we have to warn little children to not jump/swim in the fountain on the grounds.

Step 9: Pop a bottle of champagne to celebrate having the perfect receptions site.

Reception Site Scouting

When we started looking for reception sites, I learned 2 very important lessons.

1) Never underestimate the power of a picture on the web. If the reception site looks like crap on the website, it will not look better in person. Ignore the little voice in your head that says it might look nice if you visit in person. That little voice is an idiot. I listened to that little voice. We went to visit one reception site that looked not good in pictures, but had a very nice price. It also had a very nice woman who offered to meet my group in the morning on a Saturday, since we were coming in from out of town. Nice ladies do not matter, though (I've actually found the opposite - more on that later). Things that do matter:

• outdoor reception sites should not be covered with rental-type tent covers
• those covers should not be moldy or have holes
• the groom should not hit his head on the ceiling in the reception areas
• faux flowers in the outdoor area are a no-no (especially dirty ones)
• plastic tableclothes - the coated kind that your grandma had in her kitchen

I don't want to go on a rant - but, you probably don't want to waste your time going to a place that can't even put up respectable pictures.

2) Do not take cranky bridesmaids with you to look at reception sites. While it might be unreasonable to think that everyone can be in a good mood all of the time, you certainly don't want to take a sourpuss. My particular sour puss was my sister. We went on a whirlwind tour of 4 reception halls in one day - including the one she suggested (which, by the way, she only liked because they had a potato martini bar*). The one she had chose was going to be a tight squeeze with the number of guests we anticipated (and now would be too small with the ridiculous guest list), but would be cool. The second to last site is the one we chose, and it's absolutely gorgeous. One of the things I was really looking for in a site was a place to take outdoor photos - the gardens at the site are gorgeous - and still green in August (quite a feat in H-town). The site is a mansion, specifically built for wedding receptions, so it's quite large enough - room to spare, even.

My sister complained the entire time we were there. As soon as the site representative left to get the information packet - "Ewww, the walls are peach" (not really - they're stucco) - "But the chairs are pink, they won't match" (I love the chairs, they're a lovely rose color with dark wood, and they will too match :) ), and all other sorts of nonsense. Not really what you want to hear when you're picking a site. Actually, maybe it is - you need someone to point out all the flaws that you see. Or, maybe, you just need to take an honest friend - who's not in a bad mood.

*Potato martini bar - The reception hall serves mashed potatoes in a martini glass, at a bar where all the toppings are lined up for you - which strikes me as a little gross and awkward. Why would you want to eat mashed potatoes out of a tall martini glass? It might be cool during a cocktail hour - but then, why would you serve mashed potatoes during the cocktail hour? I don't get it.