“How did this happen?” you ask. The secret is the organization, as the professionals do it, planning down to the last detail. I will tell you here how you can do it too.

This is how it started: a few years ago we were planning a wedding for our eldest daughter, a second marriage for her. She chose to get married on Long Island, where my sister and her husband have a beautiful beachfront property on a piece of land. What could be more beautiful than a wedding ceremony on a Sunday afternoon in July with the Great South Bay sparkling in the background?

So, among other preparations, we started looking for a caterer. The guest list was around forty, a manageable group. It is important to note here that I consider myself a foodie. I never want to eat a single calorie that is not up to my standards. In my opinion the menus from local vendors and restaurants were sorry and expensive for what they were. I quickly came to the conclusion that I could do just as well, if not better.

Now, this was possibly an exaggeration, since I live three states away in Massachusetts, but I’m not one to shy away from a challenge. I enjoy cooking, and equally important, other people enjoy my cooking, and I am not beyond hard work.

My idea of ​​what I wanted to serve was an elegant meal suitable for a summer evening. For me, that meant fresh, beautiful food, elegantly presented and served cold or at room temperature. This would be a buffet. I knew I could solve it.

figure it out. That is exactly what it is about.

Start with a nice clean notepad and a couple of sharp pencils. The first step is to design a menu: four categories, one page each. First, appetizers to serve with drinks. Second, the main course and third, the dessert that is sure to be a wedding cake and perhaps other goodies as well. The fourth page is drinks.

You don’t have to be a wonderful cook. Let me repeat it: YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A WONDERFUL COOK. You’ll come up with a dish that you do well and keep the rest very simple.

Let’s remember here the KISS rule. Keep it simple, stupid. What makes food served simply work is the PRESENTATION, that is the way it is served. For example, carefully sliced ​​tomatoes arranged on a pretty plate with a few sprigs of parsley is an attractive and dignified dish on an elegant table. But let’s get back to that list.

Hors d’oeuvres, starters, appetizers, whatever you want to call them is what people will eat cocktail party style with drinks or champagne, perhaps right after the ceremony. For my summer party, I kept things light, not the kind of food you’d expect at a Super Bowl party. Think shrimp. Tiny grape tomatoes in a bowl. An artichoke dip with good quality crackers. Make a 2-3 cheese cheese plate with some beautiful grapes or cut up fruit. Remember that cheese tastes best at room temperature; most cheeses are flavorless when cold. (A good thing in this case.) Use your imagination, but if you’re lacking in inspiration, consider looking in your cookbooks or on the Internet.

Write down all the appetizer dishes you like and solve later. Consider buying some ready meals. Then, you’ll write a new, clean list with your final choices. Just remember, you want to spend a minimum of time and effort on the wedding day, so your dishes should be chosen carefully.

Next, the main course. I wanted to have some beautifully done simple meats. Stuff sliced ​​cold turkey breast and a great side of poached salmon. (I’ll include my recipes and preparation methods at the end of this article.) The turkey and salmon were served on large, beautiful plates. The turkey was surrounded by grapes and served on the side on a nice little plate, a wonderful sauce my friends couldn’t quite put their finger on. It was Ken’s Fat Free Raspberry Pecan Salad Dressing. Perfect. The salmon was served with lemon wedges and dill cleverly placed around the fish. Simple? Absolutely.

But that was not enough. For my centerpiece, I created a large pasta dish that was served at room temperature and made just before the wedding party was to begin. It went into a not so large punch bowl and got better while waiting an hour or two before it was served. I suggest covering and hiding this beautiful plate so your family doesn’t take the top. All parts of the pasta dish were prepared days in advance and assembled from the freshly cooked pasta.

Also, I served some salads and a plate of sliced ​​tomatoes with buffalo mozzarella cheese, drizzled with olive oil and garnished with beautiful fresh basil leaves. Elegant baskets with cloth napkins were filled with fresh bread.

Go back to your list. On the course home page, list multiple candidates. You can choose whatever dish you do well, or perhaps consult with someone with more cooking and entertaining experience. Or ask a friend or family member for a recipe that he or she makes well and practice making it, or even better, have them make it for you!

Alternatively, you can buy your main course at a restaurant. It will cost more than it would if you did it yourself, but it may be worth the expense if this is a source of stress for you. If you decide to cook the main dish yourself, carefully consider and remove from the list those that will not work well. Choose a dish that benefits from pre-preparation and is the least last-minute work involved.

Next, the third page is the wedding cake. Be sure to order it well in advance from a bakery you trust. If you want you can also serve chocolate covered strawberries, pineapple slices, mangoes or whatever is available or traditional for your family.

Oven page. Coffee? You’ll need to gather a good-sized coffee pot, creamers, sugar, and Splenda packets.

You should also consider what wine, cocktails, beer, soft drinks, and non-alcoholic beverages you plan to serve. How about a few drinks after dinner? Since you’re going to be pretty involved with the food, assigning the drinks thing to someone else is a stellar idea. In the absence of a trusted friend or family member, you will have to assume this as well. I am lucky to have a husband who has had years of training (our previous parties) so I was able to leave this to him with confidence.

Let’s go back to that list. Now you have decided what exactly you are going to serve. This is where he will work like a pro and take the stress out of this big endeavor.

You should now have four lists: Appetizers, Entrée, Desserts, Drinks. These are your master lists that you will refer to even until the day of the party.

The next step is to make a copy of each recipe you are going to use, don’t count on your book, have a separate copy. All. This ensures that you won’t forget anything at the last moment.

Once you’ve decided what you’re going to serve, the next list is your shopping list. This is a separate sheet of paper. Or three. Review the ingredients for each dish on the recipe pages and make a shopping list. If you are going to more than one store, I went to Costco and a supermarket, have a separate list for each store. Look in your pantry for the things you think you have on hand and make sure they are fresh and you have enough. If a trip to the liquor store is necessary, this is a separate listing.

Let’s think about the serving dishes you’ll be using. On each recipe page, I like to put this information in the top right hand corner, writing the particular platter or dish you’ll be using and the utensils you’ll need (fork, spoon, maybe both, tongs, etc.)

On a clean sheet of paper, start another list for serving dishes. If you don’t already have all the plates or platters you’ll need, you can borrow, rent, or go to Target, TJ Maxx, Home Goods, or wherever you know you can get a good looking plate or two without breaking the bank. For me, this list was essential on the day of the party, and just as necessary when I was loading dishes, layered between towels, in my trunk as I prepared to drive to New York.

So, now you know what you will serve, what you need to buy in the form of groceries, and what exactly you will use under all this food.

Below is a timeline, working backwards from the wedding day.

First you must evaluate what your preparation will mean for each dish. For example, you won’t be slicing your tomatoes until the last moment, but you will be slicing the onions you’ll be using well in advance and will have stored them in a zip-lock.

Remember where I said that the pasta dish was assembled just before the party, once the pasta was cooked? Having all the components ready to use is called

ESTABLISHMENT. This is a French term which, when referring to food preparation, means that everything is prepared ahead of time and ready to go, just the way things are done in restaurants. .

Mise en place is a key step in making all of this endeavor less stressful. So you need to review your recipes and determine what you can make a day or two ahead of time, what can be made a few hours ahead, and what needs to be taken care of at the last minute. Let’s say your party is on Saturday. Your Thursday list might include chopping onions and garlic and packing each in airtight plastic bags. You can unwrap your cheeses and rewrap them, again in an airtight home like airtight saran to avoid the hassle of commercial packaging when you’re down to the last few minutes before your guests arrive. That cheese, by the way, should be back on your ‘a few hours before’ list to get it out of the fridge to come to room temperature.

As tedious as making this extensive list may seem, the work you do now is your insurance that panic won’t set in later on AND it will make it that much easier for anyone helping you!

Plan how you will place your dishes on the serving table. Do you know which table you will use? Maybe you should think about renting a table. You may need to rent several dining room tables and chairs. Also think about tablecloths and bedding. If you don’t want to use paper, fancy plates can be rented and returned dirty. I recently had a formal party for 20 and rented the items listed above for $150. Everything was beautiful – they collected, delivered, set the tables and then collected the next day everything in the price.

Will you be transporting your food from your home to another location? Here’s how to make it more efficient. Have a separate box for each dish with the prepared ingredients, the recipe page, and any last-minute notes and special cookware packed in each box. Liquor crates are ideal because they are large, small, and very strong. You can also add cold packs to each box near food items that are perishable like I did when I was transporting my wedding party food to New York.

Lastly, if it is a large group, you will need help. The best of all worlds is to hire someone to help you from about an hour before the party and throughout the entire process to clear tables and do dishes. This will ensure that your guests feel comfortable not having to be in your kitchen helping, and you will enjoy the party. You can check in from time to time.

The person you hire does not need to be a restaurant professional. You could hire a mature high school girl with common sense who knows the kitchen well for $10 or $15 an hour. Do what she can pay. If someone can’t be hired, you’ll have to rely on one or two family members to help you out.