When I began my search for a caterer for our special day, I had one thought in mind - a foodie. We intended to have a non-traditional, elegant cocktail party with excellent food and live music, following a special intimate ceremony overlooking the ocean on the patio deck of my fiance's parent's vacation home in Shelter Cove, in the middle of the winter... I am a perfectionist, and incredibly anal, and I'd been "dreaming" up this wedding for two years... I knew exactly what I needed and wanted, and given my background with event planning, knew that I'd be picky about who we trusted to help execute our perfect day.

When I first contacted Yvette at Sweet Basil Catering in Humboldt County, her enthusiasm and knowledge about catering and food completely impressed me.

Through every step of our wedding, she was working through the details, she understood that food was not just another part of our wedding day, but rather the CENTER of our day. We wanted our guests to enjoy delicious treats like fresh oysters on the half shell, crab, shrimp, lamb-sausage stuffed mushrooms, and we also wanted a few of our own personal favorites - such as buffalo wings and brie cheese.

Mind you, my husband and his father are both avid fishermen, with a fishing retreat/lodge in Alaska and a love of delectable crustaceans. The seafood needed to be fresh and perfect...I ordered a custom ice display for the center of the table which would showcase these treats...Yvette went out of her way to find a place that she could pull live oysters out of the Pacific NorthWest ocean bay, just hours before our guests would enjoy them.

When I informed Yvette that we wanted a French Cruller Donut Display instead of a cake - she immediately took to the challenge, almost as if she were on Cupcake Wars or a show on television. She contacted me throughout the process about the blue glaze and silver powder dust, and how she was perfecting the eggy recipe.

Through the weeks of planning, our love of food made us more than business partners- I just enjoyed talking with her. She truly is an inspiring woman with incredible talent.

We didn't do the traditional "wait to feed the guests until after the photos" we let them dive right into oysters, crab and shrimp while we were busy capturing the moments. She busted bum all evening to keep all the food overflowing. Did I mention her staff? An incredibly warm group of people who love their job and take it seriously - we had a lot of "custom" drinks for the winter wedding - like blue iced champagne drinks for the sunset over the ocean (which was socked in, in romantic mystic fog), and eggnog with brandy (for chilly guests to sip while they waited for the bride to arrive)...they nailed it- finding custom glasses and displays to perfectly accentuate our "Dr. Suess whimsical" meets "Chronicles of Narnia" themed December Ice Wedding.

She and her team, are true professionals, who take food seriously. She went out of her way to help us (at the eleventh hour) get our ice sculptures from Eureka to Shelter Cove without melting, personally using her ole Taurus to make the trek.

Our guests are still raving about the food at our wedding, as we've already run into many of them at my brother's wedding - and our friends weddings... we hear "the food is good, but nobody can beat the food you had at your wedding."

In looking back, Yvette and I laugh about how the glaze didn't work out quite right on the donuts, which was just fine, because my husband was in charge of building the "cake topper" a DC-17 (I wanted a little bi-plane) mounted on a custom metal display and he lagged until the last minute...so in essence the donuts tasted AMAZING, but the display looked exactly as my husband and I are - just a little whacky and kinda goofy :)
Didn't matter, the guests dove in anyways, and as they left for the evening, retreating to their seaside hotels, they stole care packages of buffalo wings and donuts.

As for us...She gifted upon our journey for our honeymoon (since we'd just gotten back from Ireland, we opted to jaunt down Pacific Coast Highway 1 through Fort Bragg and spend the weekend lounging at a spa retreat in Bodega Bay) with a care package of in-room picnic treats to enjoy while we spent a few days tucked into a down comforter together... Every item in her picnic basket was locally made, and absolutely wonderful.

I can't say enough about her ability to deliver an elegant, delicious display of food for any event...and as I wrap this letter, I feel myself salivating...off to the kitchen now to see what snacks I can drum up. The gorgeous wedding photos were supplied as a courtesy by Jennifer Wilson of Delightful Eye Photography, whose raving review is coming next.

Thank you to everyone involved in making our wedding a magical mystical moment in our lives!