The big day for the Royal couple is nearly here and we know that many of you across these wonderful Yorkshire hills and peaks will be throwing open your doors, getting tables outside and street parties organised for what is the wedding of the year.
There are of course many things that you need to have had organised for the big day, and good old party catering is one.
Now, you can always give us a call and see if we can help on the day, we’re sure we could get something’s organised but failing that we wanted to give you a quick guide to some must have party catering preparation that we as professionals go through to make sure your street party isn’t a bust!
So Meghan and Harry, don’t worry, we’ve got Yorkshire covered, enjoy your Royal Wedding!
Planning
First decide on the kind of menu that you’re going to set with your street party co-chairs. These would be people that have come together to plan the event in the first place. Across Wakefield for the royal wedding we are expected to have good weather, a high of 20c with some clouds. It should be a really nice day.
It gives us a few options to work with. The traditional, summertime retreat is of course the BBQ. If you’re making BBQ food, then be sure to get your marinades organised and start preparing meats the night before. If it is a large street party, divide the meats and marinades between different households as trays take up a lot of space. Also bank on their being lots of kinds of meats as well, this will affect quantities and numbers in a great way.
If you wanted to go more traditional with salads, make sure that you have lots of variety. No one wants an iceberg lettuce marinated in some awful dressing. Get creative. You can mix hot and cold salads, you could use persian influences with pomegranate seeds or work towards a hot menu altogether which could be done in the house and brought out later.
The key to planning is knowing who is doing what, having a time plan pieced together and making sure that those who are meant to be helping know what they are doing as well.
That’s step one of royal wedding street party catering planning!
Preparation
Step two is all about getting it now prepared.
From your plan you will understand what needs to be made and what kinds of timescales. Tray bake pasta dishes and anything that has the title “pulled + meat” is going to take hours to prepare so you may want to start Friday night or even earlier if you need to buy lots of ingredients.
The key here is to stick to the plan that you have set out in the first stage of royal wedding street party planning.
Mobilise the troops
Short of actually getting any service people into the street to help, you need everyone to pull together to make sure the street party is fit for the Prince and future Princess.
In a time old honoured traditions of good Yorkshire living, community comes into play here. It’s a case of rallying the troops, children, parents and even pets to get things prepared outside. Bring chairs, tables, tablecloths, napkins, plastic cups and fill the ice buckets for what will be a moment of prosecco enjoyment later in the day.
You’re not alone in streety party catering, that’s the biggest tip we have!
Get your drinks ready
Everyone forgets drinks, well, make sure that you don’t for this occasion. You need to cater for everyone and not just your thirst for a glass of bubbly. That means make sure there is plenty of water and soft drinks available throughout the day; flavour water as well with things like cucumber, lemons, orange and mint if you want to jazz things up and cut back on sugars.
Remember, you’re in a public location with a street party so alcohol should be enjoyed responsibly but a glass of prosecco, champagne or cava to toast the nuptials of the royal wedding is completely a given!
If you’re looking to make a cocktail for the evening celebrations, then give our guide a bit of a consultation on five that you can try.
Finally, bring the party indoors
Before you do though, one tip, clean up outside. That’s right, mobilise everyone in the street to clean up after a day of celebrations. Furniture should definitely be stowed away rubbish placed in bags. Your community would thank you greatly for it. Moving on…
You will have over-prepared food, there will be drink flowing and music playing, and rightly so, but you will also have left overs which should be enjoyed on the day.
BBQ sausages and chicken should never be reheated but if they were thrown into a curry or salad for the night, you are cutting back on food waste and also making sure you’re not going hungry for the evening. When you’ve brought the party indoors, eat, drink, laugh and enjoy the good company. That’s how a royal party should be enjoyed.
To Harry and Meghan, congratulations and good luck!
