How two people and a “family-style” dinner can bring everyone together.  Our team of Los Angeles wedding caterers pulled out all the stops for this beautiful wedding.

Francesca & Sean called on our Los Angeles wedding catering branch to help them create the perfect Eco-friendly wedding.  They came to the table with a lot of creative ideas.  Francesca and Sean wanted a location that would allow them to have the ceremony and the reception at the same location, while also giving them the freedom to express themselves.

After listening to their requirements, Michelle, the coordinator at our Los Angeles wedding catering branch suggested they have their wedding at Marrakesh House; a beautiful, Mid Century Modern home remodeled by documentary filmmaker, Chris Paine (Who Killed the Electric Car?). The house has been renovated with the newest gadgets and Eco-friendly systems, while still maintaining its simplicity and design.  They even claim to be, “the most environmentally friendly remodels in Southern California” and I’d have to agree.  The couple fell in love with the location.  As a Los Angeles wedding caterer we love seeing our clients get as excited as we do about certain venues in the Los Angeles area.

The couple wanted a family-style dinner and our Los Angeles wedding catering team was more than happy to accommodate.  It’s fun to see guests passing dishes and platters around the table.  It strengthens the family bond and makes everyone happy, and the dishes always come back to the kitchen scraped clean.  As a Los Angels wedding caterer, that makes us happy!

Our team of Los Angeles wedding caterers started everyone off with a classic Wild Arugula Salad: Fresh arugula, ripe peaches and nectarines, crumbled Point Reyes Blue cheese, and our House Apple Cider Vinaigrette.

The next course our Los Angeles Catering Company dished up was a platter of our Braised Short Rib with annatto, a hint of orange and garlic; a crunchy polenta crusted chicken with House made Lemon Herb Crème Fraiche; A bowl of Wild Mushroom Quinoa; Our deliciously rich
Gouda Mac and Cheese; last but not least, a dish of our
Grilled Farmer’s Market Vegetables (pictured above).

The Marrakesh House along with the carefully selected food and a jolly group of folks dancing poolside meant that Eco Caters had once again pulled off a flawless wedding.  We want to thank Francesca and Sean for inviting us into their family, sharing their most intimate day with us and for being such a fun couple to work with.  We here at Eco Caters wish you well!

WEDDING STATS:

Wedding Coordinator: Michelle Rodriguez of Eco Caters

Catering Company: Eco Caters

Location: Marrakesh House

Photographer: Sara Allen from One Love Photography

Bakery: Lisa & Mo Inc

Flouriest: Stephanie Elhayani of Seed Floral

Hair: Christine Crest of Chrome Salon and Spa

Makeup: Lynn Washington

DJ: Ian Gotler of Red Shoe LA

Rentals: Town and Country

Our Los Angeles wedding catering company is not only a catering company; we can also help you coordinate your event!

Eco Caters, our Los Angeles wedding catering branch not only catered Casey and Naomi’s wedding we also coordinated the wedding itself.   We worked intimately with them, listening to their needs, offering insightful suggestions, accommodating budgetary constraints and making sure we got all the details right.  Details matter to us here at Eco Caters and it shows in the quality of our food, the sustainable practices we hold ourselves too, and most importantly, the satisfaction of our clients.  Its something we pride ourselves on over another Los Angeles wedding caterer.

After a beautiful and tear-jerking wedding, the Smog Shoppe fulfilled its specialty, which is hosting fun events in a relaxing environment. Our Los Angeles Catering company put out a light spread of finger food: Antipasto with marinated artichoke, sweet peppers with arugula, marinated Cherry Tomato with mozzarella, and assorted olives.

Our friendly staff of Los Angeles wedding caterers tray passed grass fed organic Beef Sliders with smoked cheddar and caramelized onion, our popular
Mojo Shrimp with fresh pineapple and chives, and by special request a
Duck Confit Donuts drizzled with our sweet and tangy Jalapeno Honey Butter.

For our main event our all-organic Los Angeles wedding caterers plated up
wild arugula salads with shaved peach, nectarine, and our House Apple Cider Vinaigrette. Guests were then treated to a hearty buffet of braised short ribs bubbling in their own juices, a flakey Roasted Coho Salmon with garlic, lemon, black peppercorn and garnished with fresh parsley.  Our catering company also served up our rich Garlic Smashed Potatoes
along with our assorted seasonal Grilled Farmers Market Vegetables.

Casey and Naomi were such a fun and enjoyable couple to work with and we were happy they came to us to fulfill their wedding coordinator needs.  Coordinating their wedding was a special one for us here at Eco Caters and we wish them nothing but the best!

WEDDING STATS:

Wedding Coordinator: Michelle Rodriguez of Eco Caters

Los Angeles Wedding Caterer: Eco Caters

Location: Smog Shoppe

Photographer: Brides Friend

Bakery: Brides Aunt Wendy

Flouriest: Brides Aunt Wendy

DJ: DJ Tetris

Rentals: Town and Country

Our Los Angeles wedding catering team can add “Groove” to your wedding too by taking advantage of in season fruits and vegetables.

Sonia and her fiancé Todd came in on a bright sunny day to discuss how our Los Angeles wedding catering company could best plan their upcoming wedding.  Our coordinators Michelle and Dana hit it off so well with them that they asked Sonia if she would come back and work for us!  (After her wedding of course.) She did! Sonia brings her warm energy and passion for sustainability to our company.  She has been a wonderful addition to our team and we enjoyed coordinating her and Todd’s wedding.

More and more couples like Sonia and Todd are realizing the importance of using locally grown fruits and vegetables our Los Angeles wedding catering company uses of another Los Angeles wedding caterer.  The health benefits alone of using in season produce along are with considering.  Not only does Eco Caters, Los Angeles’s all organic catering company use locally grown and in season fruits and vegetables for sustainable reasons, we also choose them because they just flat out taste better!

Right:  Our team of Los Angeles wedding caterers created an assortment of cheeses, preserves, ripe strawberries, melon, and nectarines.  Our Los Angeles Catering Company also prepared a colorful Mediterranean Antipasto with grilled octopus, feta with roasted bell peppers, bright cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and mixed olives with crostini.

The bride and groom wanted their guests to taste our all-organic Artisan Pizzas during their cocktail hour and our catering team had some fresh in season ideas.  Since tomatoes were currently in season our Los Angeles catering company decided to top off each pizza with a different variety of in season tomato, each one adding its own rich and savory flavors.

Along with serving a festive table of Hors D’Oeuvres, our catering company also dished up straight-from-the-oven pizzas. The first of our three pizzas was a blend of anchovies, sweet onion, and Beefsteak Tomatoes-which is a large meaty tomato.  The second was topped with Buffalo Mozzarella, fresh basil, and Heirloom Tomatoes-a juicy, full flavored variety.  The last pizza was garnished with steamed artichokes; Hearts of Palm, wilted spinach, and Sundried Tomatoes-which added a lovely concentrated and salty flavor.

The wedding was a hit.  It was just the right culmination of fun people, music, a few cocktails, and the strong personalities of Sonia and Todd.  We thank them both for letting us coordinate their wedding and relying on us to pull all the other venders together for their special day.  We wish them all the best.  Oh! And I’ll see you at work tomorrow, Sonia.

WEDDING STATS

Wedding Coordinator: Dana Strommen from Eco Caters

Los Angeles Wedding Caterer: Eco Caters

Location: Marvimon House

Photographer: All photos used in this post are courtesy of Mark Brooke

Bakery: Sweet Lady Jane

Flouriest: Personal friend, Reza of Rezalution Fitness

Hair: Melissa McKensie

Makeup: Artist from MAC

DJ: Geoff Abbott

Rentals: Town and Country Event Rentals

Our team of Los Angeles wedding caterers  helped a couple turn their favorite dish into a crowd pleasing finger food.

What better place to tie the knot than on an island surrounded by yachts!  On a lovely summer day in August, Jimmy and Erin did just that.  With sand between their toes and a cool breeze coming off the surf the couple shared their vows with friends and family on the island of Lido Isle in the Newport Beach area.  Eco Caters, our Los Angeles wedding catering branch was on sight to help rain in their pacific coast wedding.

When Jimmy and Erin came down to visit our Los Angeles wedding catering office to do a food tasting with us, they fell in love with our chef’s Muffuletta sandwich.  (A traditional style muffuletta sandwich consists of a muffuletta loaf split horizontally and covered with layers of marinated olive salad, capicola, salami, pepperoni, ham, Swiss cheese and provolone.)  Even though the couple had already decided on their dinner menu, they just had to find a way to put these sandwiches on their menu.  So, our team of Los Angeles caterers came up with a clever way to server them as appetizer-sized sandwiches for guests to eat during cocktail hour.  They were a big hit!  As a Los Angeles wedding caterer these are the types of creative solutions we love solving for our clients.

For the main course, our Los Angeles wedding catering team worked with the couple and helped them decide on a buffet.  Serving a wedding buffet is a great way to save on wedding costs while also making sure your guests get exactly what they want to eat.  And the food is just as good!  We served up a nice grilled organic Hanger steak with fresh herbs and grilled shallots, our special Mojo Shrimp Skewers with chopped pineapple and chives on a bed of angel hair pasta, Wild Mushroom Quinoa (which has been a very popular summer menu item), and an assortment of grilled Farmers Market vegetables.

Thanks again to Jimmy and Erin for making Eco Caters your choice as your Los Angeles wedding caterer!  We want to wish you the very best.  Cheers!

Having a locally grown, all organic wedding couldn’t be simpler, thanks to our Los Angeles wedding catering team.

One of the event locations we at our Los Angeles wedding catering team cater frequent is the stylish Marvimon House, located just north of downtown Los Angeles.  The kitchen is large enough for our LA catering company and it has an open layout so guests can see our chef and seasoned staff preparing their food right before their very eyes.

Lauren and Chuck chose Eco Caters as their Los Angeles wedding caterer to cater their wedding reception and the two of them couldn’t have been happier with their decision.  Lauren and Chuck’s friends and family were so pleased with the flavors and colorful presentation of our food.

Our team of Los Angeles wedding caterers started off the evening with a delectable selection of tray passed appetizers.  The first appetizer our Los Angeles wedding catering team passed was our signature grass fed Beef Sliders: Miniature homemade buns, grilled organic beef patties topped with smoked cheddar and caramelized onions.  Our Sliders make for a hearty little appetizer and a true crowd pleaser for any event.

The second appetizer our team of Los Angles wedding caterers passed is one of our personal favorites, Seared Albacore with Orange Grapefruit Slaw.  We start with freshly seared Albacore tuna, garnish it with our Orange Grapefruit, which is a refreshing mix of shaved cabbage tossed with an assortment of citrus juices.  To add a little fun we present them on bamboo spoons.

For the main course our organic catering company plated selections of grilled grass fed sirloin steak with sides of roasted garlic smashed potatoes and a grapefruit scented asparagus, or, a juicy grilled salmon complimented with smoked chili, wild mushrooms and a side of summer squash.

Another thing we do as a Los Angeles wedding cater is make sure our guests know that we are vegan friendly.  We were more than happy to accommodate a few of the guests in the wedding party who happened to be vegans.  For them, we had the chef make something special: Grilled polenta cakes with fire roasted heirloom tomatoes and hand picked farmers market vegetables.

Lauren and Chuck had a wonderful wedding and close group of friends.  We thank them for inviting us to help them celebrate their special day and wish them the best of luck!

Why not join multiple gift registries into one “Amazing Registry!”

There are tons of great gift registries out there.  One of my personal favorites is Crate & Barrel.  Besides just having nicely designed stuff, they’ll let you run around their store with a barcode gun, tag anything you see, and its instantly added to your registry.  They also give you a generous 10% off everything in the store for a month or so after your wedding!

Amazon.com is another great one! You can add anything from any website and it lets you know who purchased the gift along with their address making it a breeze when its time to do those Thank You cards.  Oh! And don’t forget about Target and all that great camping equipment from REI, also a great one.

Now for the cool part!  You can combine all your wedding gift registries into one easy to use registry with a website called Amazing Registry! (www.amazingregistry.com) There are a few different wedding gift registries out there that allow you to combine registries from different department stores but none of them were as simple and easy to use as Amazing Registry.  It’s free and a breeze for your guests.

Simply sign up for a free account, give the login information from your other registries and your done!   It instantly adds your gift items and keeps everything updated as you make changes.  It will also show you the average price of all your combined gifts, total amount purchased and the number of items left to buy.  Amazing Registry will also let your guests know what items have already been purchased so you don’t end up with four of those blue pasta strainers your partner just, “had to have”.

Above photograph curtesy of Sara Allen of One Love Photography

When your backyard overlooks the coastline of Newport Beach, there’s no better to place to tie the knot.  Our Los Angeles wedding catering team was on hand to pull of this special occasion.

It’s July in Los Angeles and that means our Los Angeles wedding catering company is in the swing of weddings!  The Los Angeles area is rich with unique venues and hidden gems but none can be more special than a wedding at a family’s home.  Manny and Ali invited Our team of Los Angeles wedding caterers to their family home in Newport Beach to help them cater their wedding reception and a classy evening of cocktails in their backyard.

As the couple kissed and the sunset, the backyard came alive with music and cocktails.  Manny and Ali took a unique approach to feeding their guests and we were more than happy to oblige.  They wanted our Los Angeles wedding catering company to prepare little food stands in different regions around the yard, and it was so fun to pull off.  It made socializing a delight and everyone quickly became acquainted as friends and family meandered their way around the yard from one food station to the next.  These are the types of unique wedding ideas that we just love as a Los Angeles wedding caterer.

The first station our team of Los Angeles wedding caterers started was a mini burger and fried sweet potato stand nestled by the pool.  Guests were offered all organic beef and chicken sliders with caramelized onions with a nutty goats cheese.  They were complimented with a side of spiced sweet Potato fries and a side of our Aioli Duo Dipping Sauces or our smoky Chipotle Aioli.

On the far end of the yard our Los Angeles catering company prepared our build-your-own-taco stand.  A hardy spread of choice Carne Asada, grilled chicken and blackened Mahi-Mahi with sides of sweet onion, fresh greens, farmers market lime wedges, queso fresco flour and corn tortillas, our signature Salsa Trio and a creamy guacamole
with House-fried corn tortilla chips.

Meanwhile, our friendly staff tray passed fresh Hor O’ Dourves from the kitchen:  Slow cooked beef, wilted spinach, and fresh goat cheese, baked in a fluffy Empanada pastry with an earthy Chimichurri Dipping Sauce.  Guests also fell in love with our Shrimp Mojo. It’s a succulent finger food combining a few fresh ingredients: Pan seared prawns with fresh squeezed citrus and minced chive atop a grilled crouton lightly rubbed with bacon fat.   Mmm…

We want to thank Manny and Ali for choosing Eco Caters as their Los Angeles wedding caterer.  We truly enjoyed their one-of-a-kind wedding and wish them nothing but the best!

Here’s a fun wedding idea: Make your very own wedding website!

A few years ago it would have taken a team of dedicated I.T. nerds to build you a personal website, but today its as simple as click, click, publish.  In one or two evenings you can have your very own.

Having your own wedding website is a great way to share information with your friends and family.  Plus, it’s just fun!  It can become an interactive central hub for your guests and an easy way to keep everyone up to date.   Share photos, maps, itinerary, special hotel accommodations, a link to your online gift registry, or just a simple article to better express who you two really are.  It can also serve as an alternative to having your guests mail in their RSVPs.

In the endless sea of website templates and blogs that exist out there, only a few stand out as far as design and simplicity in my book.

The easiest rout is to create your own blog.  Tumblr and WordPress are two blogs that are very popular, free and extremely simple to use.  There are also countless templates that exist if you want to spruce it up, fit a desired style or just wish to incorporate your wedding colors.  You can also take it a step further and add a domain name!  For a measly $10 a year (godaddy.com), you can buy your own personal website domain name like, “www.jenniferandtoddswedding.com”, link it to your blog, and share!

If you want to take it a step further and give your website some graphic pizzazz I highly recommend Wix.com!  It is a very cool website builder with lots of high-end templates.  It will require a little more time to build but once you get the hang of their interface you will be blown away with the final results.

“But Eric, I don’t have a creative bone in my body?” No problem!  They have premade templates already designed and built for you.  All you need to do is swap out their text and photos for yours.   The hard part will actually be picking it out.

“But Eric, EVERY bone in my body is creative!” No problem! You can create a website from scratch and take advantage of all the bells and whistles the sight has to offer.  It’s a pretty powerful website builder for only $4 to $15 a month.

So, you built your website, you had your wedding, now what!?  Leave it up!  You will be amazed at how nice it is to invite your friends and family back to view your wedding photos and/or videos.  You can also invite your guests to upload and share the photos or videos they might have taken during your wedding by linking to sights like shutterfly.com or Flickr.com.  Write a few blog posts about how you’re growing together or moving into your new house.  The possibilities are endless.  It’s your website.

Above photo curtsy of Photographer Mark Brooke

The Marvimon House: The Perfect Los Angeles Wedding Location.  Our Los Angeles wedding catering company was there to help the couple create the perfect wedding day.

From the street one might think they’ve arrived at the wrong address.  But, don’t let the exterior of this inconspicuous old auto shop fool you.  The Marvimon House is a beautifully renovated super-loft able to cater the needs of the hippest wedding couple.  It served as the perfect wedding location for our clients Camille and Alex, and it’s also an event space we at our Los Angeles wedding catering team love to work.

Our Los Angeles wedding catering company dedicated to organic and locally grown food was hired to cater this special occasion.   We worked closely with the couple to help keep within their desired budget while also pulling off the wedding of their dreams.  Something any Los Angeles wedding caterer loves to achieve.

As friends and family arrived, they were offered our classic organic refreshments by our team of Los Angeles wedding caterers; mint infused water, organically brewed white iced tea, and a sweet mango lemonade.   Guests took their seats in the beautifully lush garden located in the back half of Marvimon House.

Following the wedding ceremony our Los Angeles Catering company set out a lavish spread of antipasto with house marinated artichoke, grilled sweet Peppers with arugula, red cherry tomato with fresh Mozzarella, and a mixed Olives Pork Rillette with Pain a l’Ancienne.  Our friendly staff tray passed grass fed beef slider with smoked cheddar and caramelized onion (always a crowd pleaser), a delicate potato dauphine with Crème Fraiche with caviar, and seared tuna with an orange grapefruit slaw.

After a relaxing hour of drinks, laughs and merriment, guests took their seats as our team of Los Angeles wedding caterers swiftly served our signature farmers market summer salad; wild Arugula with peach, nectarine, point reyes blue, and our tangy apple cider vinaigrette.  For our main course Eco Caters prepared a family style dinner with fall-a-part braised short rib with annatto and garlic, 
Rosemary Marjoram chicken breast finished with our Sherry Wild Mushroom Sauce, and sides of rich Gouda Mac and Cheese, and French style Beans with thinly sliced shallots.   Mmm…

We here at Eco Caters extend to the couple our best wishes and thank them dearly for making Eco Caters their Los Angeles wedding caterer.  You were a joy to work with and the entire wedding from start to finish was simply beautiful.