Weddings, rehearsal dinners, reunions, and retreats
Bigger tables and longer weekends, cooked on-site.
Some occasions are bigger than a dinner party: a backyard wedding, the night before it, a family reunion in a rented house, a retreat where three meals a day need to happen without anyone in the group cooking them. I cook these on-site, in whatever kitchen is there, and scale the format to the group.
What I cook for
Backyard weddings and elopements
A seated dinner for the small wedding, twelve to thirty guests, plated or family-style, with printed menus at every seat. For an elopement, dinner for two or six after the vows.
Rehearsal dinners
Family-style is made for this: platters down a long table, everyone talking. Usually ten to twenty-five people the night before the wedding.
Family reunions
One big dinner, or the whole weekend in a rental house: breakfasts, a lunch spread, two dinners. Kids’ plates included.
Retreats
Wellness and corporate retreats where the group is working or resting and the food needs to appear on time. I have cooked retreat weekends in Northampton and in rental houses across the region.
Cocktail parties
Passed bites and a grazing spread for a standing crowd, twenty to thirty guests. A sample is on the sample menus page.
Bachelorette and milestone weekends
A dinner on the big night and breakfast the morning after, in the house you rented for it.
Some I have cooked this year
- A small wedding for eight in September: the couple, seventy and seventy-six, a plated four-course dinner, with one guest who could not eat red meat and another allergic to crab, so the menu was written around both.
- A bachelorette weekend for seventeen in a rented house in the Berkshires in July, family-style, dietary notes collected from the whole group ahead of time.
- A family reunion dinner in Centerville on the Cape, and a seventieth birthday for six in West Falmouth that opened with oysters and ran with wine pairings.
- A Marathon Monday backyard barbecue for twenty-five in Newton: barbecue chicken, veggie burgers, sliders and hot dogs for the kids.
- A week of lunches and dinners for a family of three at a house in southern New Hampshire, and a thirtieth-birthday weekend for thirty at the same house.
How it is priced
A seated dinner is priced like any other: $100 per person family-style, $125 plated, plus groceries at cost. A server ($250) is required for plated dinners of 13 or more and family-style dinners of 17 or more. Multi-meal weekends, cocktail parties, and anything outside the no-travel-fee area are quoted per event; breakfasts and lunches are priced by what you want on the table. Send the dates, the headcount, and the house, and I will send a written quote with the chef fee and a grocery estimate as separate lines. The cost guide has the dinner math; the chef vs. catering page explains where I stop and a caterer starts.
The kitchen
I bring knives, pans, an induction burner, and platters, so a rental-house kitchen or a backyard with a working grill and one counter is enough. For outdoor events I bring what the site does not have. Send the listing link or a photo of the kitchen with your inquiry and I will tell you what will work.
What is included
The menu, the shopping, cooking on-site, service, printed menus, cleanup, and leftovers packed. My tabletop kit (stoneware, glassware, silverware, linens, candles) is included at no charge for up to about twelve; for larger tables we talk through rentals. I don’t sell alcohol; I send a bottle list matched to the menu, and for a full bar I can bring in a bartender I work with.
Questions people ask
How many guests can you handle for a wedding?
Up to about thirty for a seated dinner with a server, and up to about thirty for a cocktail party with passed bites. Above that I recommend a caterer.
Do you cook multiple meals over a weekend?
Yes. Reunions, retreats, and bachelorette weekends often mean two dinners plus breakfasts and a lunch. Each is quoted by what you want on the table.
Do you travel for events?
No travel fee across Greater Boston, MetroWest, and Worcester County. The North Shore, the Berkshires, Cape Cod, Rhode Island, and coastal Connecticut add a travel fee, quoted up front.