Story and Photo by Marc Glass

Audrey Schoenthaler ’06 doesn’t mind that her clients idealize her job. They’ve probably seen the 2001 film The Wedding Planner, she explains, and Mary Fiore, the exacting, highly organized leading lady played by Jennifer Lopez, made a lasting impression.

“She’s always wearing Gucci shoes, a Chanel suit, and a headset for orchestrating every detail of the perfect wedding,” says Schoenthaler. “Let me tell you, there’s no glamour to my work. I have to wash dishes later this afternoon.”

Schoenthaler, co-owner of Belle Fête Events and Catering of Brunswick, had a lot on her plate in preparation for another season of nuptials. She had to muster a seasonal staff of 60, order magnums of champagne, conduct food tastings with brides-to-be, and finalize reception contracts at the Brunswick Inn on Park Row, the Cliffside Lodge in Poland, and Loon Lodge in Rangeley, where Belle Fête (French for beautiful celebration) is the preferred caterer.

Nearly every Saturday from May to October was booked—and some were triple-booked—after the Portland Press Herald and Brunswick’s Times Record interviewed her. You see, Bowdoin College’s Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum commissioned Belle Fête to make a cake for the 100-year celebration of Admiral William Peary’s North Pole trek. And Schoenthaler’s creation, featuring a fondant-formed diorama of Peary’s base camp—complete with an igloo, Inuit guides, and sled dogs—caused quite a stir.

“We needed a centerpiece, something special,” a member of the museum’s staff told the Times Record. “It’s too beautiful to eat.”

Or perhaps the season was booked because of Schoenthaler’s recent television appearance on WCSH-6’s popular magazine program 207. Host Rob Caldwell invited her to share the no-longer-secret recipe for Belle Fête’s Dark Chocolate Amaretto Brownies. One taste prompted him to say, “They are rich, they are fudgy, and they are terrific.”

Schoenthaler and Belle Fête business partner Lori Kinkade imagined they might be hired for six weddings in their first season. After their debut at the 2008 Portland Bridal Show, they booked 26. While rival caterers offered crackers and cheese from their booths, Schoenthaler and Kinkade rolled out a bruschetta bar and elegantly decorated triple-layer wedding cakes inside a chandelier-adorned tent filled with antiques.

“We knew we had to blow the competition out of the water,” says Schoenthaler. “People kept coming up to us and saying, ‘Could you do a display like this at my wedding?’ We never advertised. The phone just rang off the hook.”

Among those callers were the organizers of the 175th anniversary of Maine’s Blaine House, for whom Belle Fête provided a formal dinner to honor five living former governors in the Hall of Flags. There also was the couple planning a Vinalhaven wedding, which, Schoenthaler says, was “breathtaking” in scale. For the big day, Belle Fête ferried over a refrigerated truck, replete with food and drink, a fully stocked kitchen, plus tents, china, glassware, linens, and their own antiques.

“We cook fresh on site,” she explains. “For a normal wedding, we always have plans A, B, and C for backup. When you’re on an island, you have plans A through G. If you forget something, you have to do without. My job is to make sure nobody knows if anything goes wrong.”

Rarely does anything go wrong on Schoenthaler’s watch because, she says, “the only way to do something right is to do it yourself.” Thus, in addition to decorating wedding cakes (“just another form of sculpture,” says the art major), she drives a rented 16-foot box truck to events, helps her staff unload and pack up, and does nearly all the on-site cooking.

“I’m trying to work my way out of the kitchen—slowly,” she says. “I’m having a hard time letting go and trusting people with my recipes.”

Popular with Belle Fête’s clients (most of whom, she says, grew up or summered in Maine and now live in Boston and New York City) are her appetizers of lobster cakes with citrus aioli, seared beef tenderloins served on crostini with horseradish sauce and fried leeks, and tomato bisque-filled shot glasses garnished with mini pesto-grilled cheese sandwiches. Typical Belle Fête entrées range from butternut squash ravioli to beef bourguignon and seared pork loin with apple chutney. Options abound, says Schoenthaler, so menus easily scale up or down, depending upon the budget. And as Belle Fête is a member of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, all of her recipes feature locally sourced ingredients.

“Fortunately, I’ve never had anyone who didn’t like the food,” says Schoenthaler, who was the head cook at Elk Mountain Ranch in Colorado during college summers. “Tastings can still be terrifying, especially when I’m asked to prepare family recipes for a wedding, but it’s an honor to be asked to prepare a meal the way a client’s grandmother did.”

Schoenthaler says that the romantic magic of a wedding never gets old, even by season’s end when all she wants is a weekend off.

“Once you start unloading the truck, it’s go time,” says Schoenthaler, who works upwards of 120 hours per week during summers. “The bride and groom are trusting you with their big day, whether it’s a plated meal for 175 on an island or a small backyard wedding.”

Regardless of a wedding’s size, Schoenthaler says the most important ingredient is a beaming bride.

“The truth is, every girl in a wedding dress is drop-dead gorgeous because they’re so happy,” she says. “And if she’s happy and having a good day, then everyone will have a good day.”

Learn more about Schoenthaler’s work at www.bellefetegroup.com/