Valentine's Day Brunch

So...Valentine's Day. That day I'm really not super-fond of. The one I referenced here. It happened. It turned out wonderfully. We had such an awesome day filled with great friends, good food and hard work. Yes. Hard. Work. We fed 30 people from two different singles groups in my church. It was a hit, too. Enjoy the pictures:

I'll start with the invitations and a deep thank you to the incredibly talented Tricia-Rennea. She designed this paper and I've been holding onto it, waiting just for this luncheon to use it's most wonderfulness.

Then... there was the food prep. One suggestion? When you're cooking for thirty people and you don't know the food you've decided to serve? Make it first. The dishes I chose turned out yummy but one of them should have been labeled "this is a main course, not a side dish" because when I had the recipe computed for 30 people and then made it, it made enough for about 200 people when it was going to be used as a side... Yesterday I started making this dish at 11:45 AM. It was finished at 8:00 PM. Thank goodness it tasted yummy! It would have been oh so sad for it to have been a total flop. I didn't make it myself first because it was a 5 star dish per the site, with 178 reviews. I figured it had to be pretty good....

That, though, was the only negative in the entire day. Everything else was just plain perfect. A great time was had by all and I can't wait to start thinking about next year! February 14, 2011 falls on a Monday so it'll might be a bit tougher to find folks to volunteer to help but...I hope to figure something out! Maybe our high school kids (in the church) will help. Ah, well. I have a year to think it through!

It takes a lot of dishes to serve 30 people:

But they set a beautiful table...or two...or five...

I don't know if you can read the menu. It was fun coming up with yummy food to serve. I'm starting earlier on that decision for next year, though. Like... tomorrow.... Need a few great dishes that only contain a couple of ingredients! My index finger is still cramped from all of the cutting/chopping dicing I did Saturday!

My wonderful, wonderful volunteer assistants for the day. There is a reason we call our small groups Lifegroups. We do life together and yesterday, they sure did that! Every single one of them dove in and did whatever I asked, no complaining - nothing. They worked their tails off. I couldn't ask for better help. Or better friends. They are amazing people.

We plated a lot of food...


But the most important thing? Everyone who was able to join us seemed to have a great time!

And a gigantic, incredible thank you to the couple from our church who opened their home and entrusted it to me, allowing me to do this in the most incredibly beautiful setting. I'm almost sorry we've grown to so many people that we have to find a new location for next year.

Really looking forward to next year!