D + G,
Nobody is going to care about getting this right the way family will. So here is my wedding gift, and I hope you'll let me give it: I want to feed your wedding.
Not a caterer's list you pick from. A menu built with the two of you, for the two of you – your people, your cuisines, the dishes you'd want at your table more than any other. I'll cook it all year, first at home in small batches until each dish is right, then in big batches for my tailgate crowd until feeding a hundred people is second nature.
Casa Lobo exists for one wedding and two people. Nothing else on the calendar, no other client, no add-ons. What it does have is a year to get it right and a South Florida network of preppers, cooks, servers and restaurant owners ready to help. On the day, a real crew runs the kitchen so I can stand next to my brother instead of behind a chafing dish.
This isn't a business, so it doesn't cost like one. Whoever covers dinner pays one fixed price for the food and the crew, set below any caterer's quote and locked in. Everything else, and anything you add along the way, is on me. Building it is my gift. You get more of me at your wedding, more memories out of the meal, and a better dinner than money can buy. Your planner and photographer will love the story. The moms and aunts will never stop talking about it.
Everything here is the plan so far, and the printed booklet has all of it too. The menu is a starting point – the moment you two weigh in, it becomes yours. We only get one chance to do this together.
Say yes, and let's build it together.
No dish on the menu belongs to one country. Each one takes two threads and ties a knot.
The brightness. Greek shows up in the salad on every table, the phyllo around the flautas, the lemon in the potatoes and the jus, and the honey and walnut in the baklava cupcake.
The comfort. Italy is the shell of the arancini, the rigatoni that vegetarians build their plate around, the way the pork is rolled and roasted, and the mascarpone on the tiramisu.
The heat and the colour. The Latin thread is the sour orange and garlic inside the porchetta, the sofrito in the stout-braised beef, the tortillas at the wrap bar, the crema, the queso fresco, and the tres leches soaking overnight. Where it points on the map is yours to tell us.
The warmth and the welcome. Ireland is the brown bread and salted butter, the colcannon inside the croquettes, the stout in the shredded beef, the smoked salmon on the board, and the whiskey in the tiramisu.
Where do these four come from for the two of you? A grandmother, a trip, a first date, a favourite restaurant? The story decides which thread leads.
The first taste comes to you over Thanksgiving weekend. Then every course gets cooked at volume for the tailgate crowd at the house, one course a month, and you're welcome at any of them. The second tasting is the sign-off.
Between tastings the menu changes as much as you want it to. Swap a cuisine, drop a dish, add your grandmother's recipe as one bite. Nothing is locked until you say it is.
The gift is the food. The reason you can relax is everything underneath it.
Casa Lobo Catering is registered with the State of Florida and licensed as a caterer, the same way any professional caterer your venue has worked with is.
A certified food manager on the team, food-safety trained crew, and liability insurance with The Wisteria named on the certificate. The venue gets its paperwork before it asks.
Nothing travels five hours. Everything perishable is prepared the day before in a licensed commercial kitchen near the venue and finished on site.
Load-in from ten in the morning, a written power and water plan, a clean breakdown by the end of the night, and leftovers boxed for the two of you.
A South Florida chef who does this for a living leads the kitchen with a professional crew, cooking the menu exactly as it was tested. Jonathan hands it over and goes to the wedding.
Answer the questions below. Come to the tastings. Show up hungry.
Answer by text, over dinner, or on the last page of the booklet. Every answer changes the menu.