Festive Favours!

The tradition of distributing wedding favours is an old one. The first wedding favour was said to have been known as a bonbonniere which is a small trinket box made of crystal, porcelain and/or precious stones. Sugar or delicate confections were given in these boxes which were a symbol of wealth and royalty. Sugar was an expensive commodity at this time. Luckily times have changed, and now there's hundreds and thousands of ideas out there for your own wedding favours...

We've searched high and low for the perfect festive favours for your winter wedding, whether it be this year, next year or any date in the future! On our pinterest board you can find the perfect favour for you from edible Christmas treats to miniature grow your own trees. http://www.pinterest.com/potkilnanywhere/festive-favours/

We know that in amongst all the wedding chaos, favours for your guests may seem like another thing to get your head around. But a lot of the favours we've included in our mood board can be easily sourced, or created yourself! Christmas cookies are a great, simple wedding favour and are extremely popular this year. They can be as unique for your guests as you like, you could even decorate them with your guests names and use them as a table names! If you're not a DIY kind of couple, Etsy is a fantastic place to source really unique wedding favours for your guests.

Beautiful wedding favours make a beautiful wedding table. But what's a wedding table without food? For the perfect winter menu for your Christmas wedding, head over to https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Pot-Kiln-Anywhere/273751529394166 and get in touch with us.

Christmas Party at Well Barn Estate

On Thursday we catered for a Christmas Party at Well Barn Estate. Deeply in picturesque countryside the shooting lodge boasts a large reception area ideal for weddings, parties and corporate dinners. The barn is decorated with a mixture of country, luxury and modern fixtures from all over the world.

The roaring fire set the Christmas mood perfectly last night, as the evening started with pink champagne and canapés which included devils on horseback and salmon gravlax on a bed of cucumber with dill. After the reception the guests were seated for their festive feast.

The food was served onto tables named after Christmas icons, including Santa Claus! Each of the tables were decorated with tinsel, Christmas crackers, holly, cinnamon and baubles.

Each guest had a choice of starter, main and dessert; with a festive choice within each course. This included a traditional smoked salmon starter, Christmas dinner with all the trimmings for the main course and Christmas pudding with custard for dessert. Other choices included a deliciously rich Chicken Liver Parfait to start and a Mandarin and White Chocolate Trifle for dessert. Delicious!

For those daring to shy away from the Traditional Turkey Christmas dinner, venison was on offer. If you feel that you don't know where to start when it comes to venison, The Full Venison Course at The Mike Robinson Game and Wild Food Cookery school will ensure you can to try something new in your kitchen. Visit http://www.gamecookeryschool.co.uk/our-courses/the-full-venison for details.

Clare and Dave's Big Day

Yesterday, we catered for Clare and Dave's wedding at Folly Farm in Brightwalton. The reception took place in a rustic barn situated in the middle of picturesque rolling hills.

The theme for the wedding revolved mainly around winter and Christmas; There was an enormous Christmas tree on the dance floor, covered in twinkling fairy lights, that really set the mood for the bar and evening entertainment. All of the table decorations featured festive pine cones and sprigs of fir trees. A country theme was also brought onto the table with pheasant feathers and jute string to tie the napkins together.

 Other winter decorations included the big stag heads that were featured on either side of the entrance hallway and festive blooms suspended from the rustic beams of the barn. Jane Lawrence Flowers did a fantastic job on decorating the barn, it looked breathtaking! Visit www.janelawrenceflowers.com to see her beautiful work.

 The food carried the winter and country theme as well as all being locally sourced. Canapés were circulated during the reception drinks; there were mini Yorkshire puddings with rare beef and horseradish, honey mustard sausages, carrot and cumin filo pastries, fish cakes with a chilli dip, lamb koftas with mango chutney and lime and garlic king prawns.

To start, the guests shared baskets of locally baked bread followed by a comforting winter meal. Our chefs prepared butterflied legs of venison with caramelized shallots, creamy dauphinoise potatoes with rosemary, bowls of buttered curly kale and braised red cabbage. It was a perfect winter warmer and there were compliments to the chefs all round! The guests had a choice of a hearty sticky toffee pudding or classic creme bruleé with homemade shortbread biscuits.

The evening food was a selection of cheese from the couples unique cheese cake tower, a range of breads, carving ham, game terrine, olives, sunblushed tomatoes and different chutneys. Pippin Doughnuts provided a range of chocolate, cinnamon and berry jam doughnuts which went down a treat! 

All in all it was a lovely event, stunning location, beautiful barn and friendly guests. Everyone enjoyed the food and drinks and had a wonderful time.

This Week's Winter Weddings

Today, we are at the wonderful Ufton Court, celebrating Sally and Lisa's big day.

This weekend marks the first of the winter wedding season and we're all very excited to be involved! Ufton Court have already decked the halls with a beautiful traditional Christmas tree complete with magical fairy lights and red baubles. Tithe Barn now has the perfect atmosphere for the perfect Christmas Wedding.

Check out our 'Christmas Wedding' Pinterest board for the latest Christmas Wedding trends; http://www.pinterest.com/potkilnanywhere/christmas-wedding/. You'll find everything you need from decor to dining so you can create your perfect day! Here is a sneak peek at what you can expect. 

Berries are very popular this winter, you can even incorporate them into your wedding menu, perfect with poultry dishes.

Sally and Lisa's menu is certainly not straying from winter themes! With the options including Rosemary Roast Chicken with Roast Garlic Mash, Winter Greens and Red Wine Gravy, followed by a comforting Apple and Blackberry Crumble with Madagascan Vanilla Custard. Winter comfort food executed with the upmost quality by our wonderful chefs!

Take a look at our twitter and website and browse through our favourite winter recipes and wedding breakfast menus to tantalize your taste-buds this Christmas. Ufton Court have posted a festive photo of today's happy couple and we're excited to post about tomorrow's winter wedding and our delicious food to be served.

August Update

The summer wedding season is fully underway so I thought it would be a good time to have an update on all the things that the PKA had been up to.

As well as beginning our tastings for 2014, we have been hard at work with a large number of weddings! The 3rd of August saw a 4 wedding weekend, with our first ever Chinese-style wedding. We also had two weddings at Ufton Court and a wedding over in Midgham, with a very impressive three-tier marquee!

Last weekend we travelled to Wick Bottom Barn to provide an afternoon tea and BBQ, which looked absolutely fantastic. We have another two weddings this weekend, three the weekend after and three again on the 31st! The beginning of September brings with it more charity days at the Royal Berkshire Shooting School, so for the next couple of months it's all go go go!

It's getting to that time as well when we start to talk Christmas. I know I know it's very early still! If you wanted to enquire about Christmas parties send us an email/a tweet/give us a call. We can provide catering at one of our favourite venues such as the cookery school in Yattendon, Ufton Court or Well Barn. We could also come to you and provide high-end dining in your home or office. Get in contact for more information and menus.

We look forward to hearing from you

The PKA team

A busy summer

Where do we start?!

This year has seen the PKA cater to some of our biggest and best events to date, and we are still going strong. The 6th July saw us cater for Daisy Peat, where we cooked up steak and chips with a variety of homemade sauces. Served on rustic platters, you could see the glee in all of the 180 guests' eyes as the food was produced. The next day we came back for a Wimbledon-final survivors BBQ, where those still standing were treated to burgers, sausages, prawns and salads.

We have also been hard at work at Ufton Court, providing our services from three course meals, cold buffets, hog roasts, BBQs, cheese towers and much more. We must not forget the HUGE amount of work we have been doing with the Royal Berkshire Shooting School, providing food for hungry shooters at corporate and charity events, which recently includes the Peter Jones foundation.

With the summer still going strong, we have a relatively quiet this coming weekend, before three weddings in the first week of August, and then non-stop until late October. Hurray for summer!

If you would like to speak to us about an event you would like us to cater for, please contact Chris or Ed at chris@potkilnanywhere.co.uk, or ed@potkilnanywhere.co.uk, or alternatively call 01635200200. We look forward to hearing from you!

PKA

The summer is finally here......fingers crossed!

It looks as though the wedding season has arrived with the sunshine this year, for now at least.

At the PKA we are celebrating the sunshine, as sunshine not only brings BBQ's, a good drink and lazy sunday's in the garden, but it also brings happy brides and fantastic wedding days!

June looks like a busy month for the PKA, with a number of weddings, corporate and charity events, dinner parties and birthday parties. It's all go go go so we are all releived to say the least about the sun!

The team have been preparing for the busy time of the year by catering for a number of corporate days at RBSS as well as a number of weddings. There was particular amusement when we were all treated to a day of learning how to make bread. I think we all know how did the worst.......

If you would like to book an event with us, please visit our website at www.potkilnanywhere.co.uk, or email our events director Chris: chris@potkilnanywhere.co.uk, or our events manager Ed: ed@potkilnanywhere.co.uk. Be sure as well to keep looking at our Facebook and Twitter for regualr updates.

Now.... GO AND ENJOY THE SUN!