Sunday, February 16, 2025 · Dinner
Belle Meade Hunt Ball
Very slow start to Belle Meade this year. At about 6:45 we were still missing maybe 50 guests. The hostess claimed there was traffic backed up at the gate and valet out onto the main road (not true). Many people came in and immediately sat in the ballroom instead of cocktailing; since we preset the salads at 6:30, the majority of them were already eating. Around 7:15 we got everyone else officially sat and started on dinner.
In retrospect we should not have preset anything. Kids were sitting where they weren't supposed to, so there were salads in front of them. We ended up going back for a lot of salads.
The gluten-frees also got dropped unbeknownst to Marquitta or I so we had to ask for remakes of those as well.
Lots of people/kids trying to mix up their adult/kids meals. (Asking for what they did not have according to our sheet as per usual)
Moral of the story...highly advise against going this route next year unless they're all eating the same thing or children are all sat together at the same tables.
Once we got everything situated with salads and the kids meals all went well. Allergies went where they were supposed to and we wrapped up service in a pretty timely manner.
Maybe next year they could also go back to having seating in the loggia. We were kind of unnecessarily slowed down by how tight the tables were; literally backs of chairs touching each other).
All in all we got it done well and everyone left very happy!
\*\*\*I know this happens almost every year but it was nearly impossible to even set up for this event because of all the changes constantly happening. The host and another lady came in and changed half of the setup Thursday. Then earlier this morning we had at least 5 more significant changes.