by Sandy Hemphill

Created on: November 20, 2007

"It's like you read our minds!"

Two important questions that lead to four important answers. That's the basic formula I used when I was planning a wedding menu in my job as an event planner for a busy catering company.

My two important questions that I used every time to create a memorable wedding menu must have worked. I quickly outsold even the owner of the company who hired me. I'd been a chef for many years but health reasons took me out of the kitchen and into the conference room but I would have used the same formula as a working chef.

The two questions?

Question #1 - What are your favorite foods?

Question #2 - Because this is the biggest day of your life so far and you can have anything you want and anything you don't want, what are the foods you absolutely, positively hate so much you don't even want to see them on this very important day of your life?

Question #1 always brought two quick and easy answers - the bride's favorites and the groom's favorites. There was never much thought needed for these questions. The answers to these questions actually seemed to me to be a bit rehearsed.

Question #2 was always my favorite. So amusing! Again, one answer from the bride, one from the groom. Question #1 brought the quick and easy answers but Question #2 gave me answers that came even faster. With enthusiasm. Passion. Pantomime, even (yuck! bleck! gag!).

Once I had the four answers to my two basic questions, planning the wedding menu was easy. And I made it a point to make each wedding menu as unique and personal as the bride and groom themselves.

Planning these joyous events, including the wedding menu, was a delight to me. Seeing the well-fed, smiling faces on the newlyweds, the wedding party, and all the guests was, essentially, the icing on my cake.

The only aspect of planning and orchestrating these one-of-a-kind wedding menus was getting the feedback from the happy couple after the honeymoon. The response I heard most often was, "It's like you read our minds!"

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