“Welcome to the Luau, Y’all”
Here at Great Southern Events, your wish is our command. Anything that screams original or extravagant is our style. Recently, we had an event out on the Deck Bar that might have just topped the originality chart for rehearsal dinners.
I had never heard of a luau rehearsal dinner, but soon found out that it’s a wedding rehearsal dinner, Hawaiian style. And this one pulled out all the stops. When the planning stages of the luau began, intimidation continued to creep up on me. The father of the groom was the coordination king of the luau. Actually, come to think of it, he was more like the coordination drill sergeant for the luau; reminded me of a parent that you can’t “disappoint.” As the planning continued, the magnitude of the event grew and grew.
Before I knew it, I was on a scavenger hunt for three crucial elements of my exotic luau. The first was a freshly roasted whole pig. Oddly enough, this may have been the easiest item to find. Our kitchen crew here at the Fish House is awesome. Our food is always locally grown and perfectly fresh. I told our chef we needed a pig and before I knew it, poor Wilber was smiling sweetly on a spit.
Next item on the list: authentic hula dancers. Well, in the huge metropolis of Pensacola, bona fide hula dancers are hard commodity to come by. As I mentioned earlier, originality and extravagant is our style. If extravagant means hiring a plethora of tummy-twisting belly dancers to pose as Hula girls, grass skirts and all, then extravagant is my name.
Final item to top the list: a steel drum ensemble. Just as peas and carrots suit each other perfectly, it seems limbo and steel drums do the same. If I had to spend my salary flying in drummers from Jamaica to make this great, I would. Like I said, your wish is our command. We will go to great lengths to get it done! Luckily, my scavenger hunt never came to that.
Typically, at every party there are two kinds of people–those who want to go home and those who don’t. At this party, there were only the latter of those two. Judging by the bar tab that these families accrued, it’s easy to see why we had to escort them out hours after the restaurant had closed. I have no idea how anyone might have made it to the wedding the next day.
For me, the highlight of the evening came when drill sergeant dad sauntered up to me, Hawaiian drink in hand, and asked me to be his limbo partner. I’ve never seen a drill sergeant have so much fun…
Tags: Atlas, Atlas Oyster House, events, Fish House, local restaurants, party planning, Rehearsal Dinner, Wedding
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