Though we still have one more week of the internship, we executed our Farewell Luncheon this afternoon. We’ve been preparing for this day for the past month and we’ve worked with multiple chefs, managers, and advisors to make this event perfect.
Since we both LOVE Disney, we decided early on that we would want to follow a Disney theme. The rest was all planning! Overall, I’m extremely happy with how it turned out. There are so many people to thank who helped make this event possible, but some people in particular include Jenny, the catering manager, who was extremely helpful during this whole process. She’s the brains behind some of the creative assortments (like placing Ratatouille in little shooters!). She’s also the one that helped us with the room decorations and food arrangements! Rukiah, the marketing manager, also helped us tremendously by making our lovely animated invitation and posters for our event. Chef Pete, who worked with us for 3 days to cook and prep all the menu items.
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| Kristin (Russell from UP) and Denisse (Minnie Mouse) |
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| Our center table with all of the entrees |
Our entree table consisted of 4 different disney movies: Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, Toy Story, and Ratatouille.
Little Mermaid
This section included the Ursula’s Shrimp Scampi, Sebastian’s Cilantro Watermelon Salad, and Ariel’s Shell Collection (Asparagus and Spinach Pesto Pasta). We used light blue linen (the sea), fish net, and seashells to decorate this section. We also placed a white whale tale statue inside the shrimp scampi to symbolize Ariel diving into a sea of shrimp (we kept it white for food safety purposes(; ).
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| Ariel diving into a sea of shrimp scampi |
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| The little mermaid station with the Citrus Cilantro Watermelon Salad |
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| Shell Pasta with Asparagus and Spinach |
Peter Pan
Our menu items for this section included Pirate Pilaf (Rice Pilaf), Foccacia Bread (Treasure), and Neverland Paninis (Grilled Eggplant Paninis). We used little sword toothpicks for the paninis, cut upon and lined a treasure chest pinata to hold the bread, and bought green and white confetti to act as Tinkerbell’s fairy dust across the table.
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| Grilled Eggplant Paninis with the cute sword toothpicks |
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| Jenny helped us make this treasure chest box out of a pinata! |
Toy Story
Our menu items for this section included Rex’s Dinosaur Kale Salad and Lemon Basil Roasted Potatoes. We used cowboy hats, a red handkerchief, and mini toy soldiers to adorn this section. My favorite were definitely the little toy soldiers. They held up the menu placards, how cute!
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| Lemon Basil Potatoes in the Toy Story section |
Ratatouille
Of course, we had to include Ratatouille on our menu! We also had chicken pomodoro (Gusteau’s Chicken Pomodoro) and roast beef (Remy’s Signature Roast Beef). For this section, we found a large eiffel tower statue that had been used in a previous catering event and a chef hat.
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| Ratatouille - the granite was kept hot with a sterno underneath it |
Dessert Section
Our dessert section followed a “princess theme.” Our decorations included the cloth cupcakes, large glittery princess crown, and princess-themed confetti on the table. Fun fact: if you stand in front of the princess crown, the mirror cubes make it look like you’re the princess!
The two desserts we offered were pink chocolate covered strawberries and assorted cupcakes with strawberry frosting.
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| The princess-themed dessert section! |
Beverage Station
The beverage station was our “Fueling Station,” and thus Cars themed. We adorned the station with a Radiator Springs sign (like in the Cars movie), a mini retro gasoline station, and red and black striped paper straws (to look like a racetrack!). We offered water infused with strawberry, cucumber, lime, and mint (“Antifreeze”), Sweet Tea (“Motor Oil”), and Lemonade (“Fuel”).
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| Cars themed beverage station |
Photobooth
And of course, a party wouldn’t be complete without a photobooth! After Rukiah taught us some basic photoshop skills, we went ahead and created a bunch of fun props.
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| Rukiah helped us make the large backdrop for the photobooth |
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Table Arrangements
Our table settings followed a “Beauty and the Beast” theme. The table linen was light yellow and we had dark blue napkins. Our centerpiece for half of the tables was a rose encased in a dome glass case with black rocks on the bottom. For the others, we placed a little glass bowl with a floating candle in water.
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| One of the centerpieces, made to resemble the rose in Beauty and the Beast |
Overall, the whole process of preparing for this luncheon has been such an incredible experience and I’m so grateful for all of the support we got from our coordinators (Peggy, Kelly, and Sandy), and all of the people we met with along the way. I had so much fun being creative with this event and it has definitely been a “dream come true.”
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| With our program coordinators! |
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