200 person wedding

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Thank you all for your advice from your years of experience.  We did agree to do the wedding,and I never would have moved forward without all of your input.  Consequently, the wedding went off without a hitch.  We few 250, and got rave reviews.

 I smoked the butts over several weekends, vaccuum packed, and froze them.  I thawed them in the fridge for a few days before, and then brought them back to life in a few turkey fryers on Saturday morning.  I pulled them and put them in large roasting ovens for serving, and then added a finishing sauce right before service.  

We also did Dutch's Wicked Baked Beans, pasta salad, green salad, and coleslaw.  I had squeeze bottles of finishing sauce and bbq sauce on the table so people could adjust their sandwiches to their taste.

The highlight for me was when a man came in the kitchen and stood beside me.  Once he caught my eye, he said, "Son, I have spent 64 of my 67 years in North Carolina, and I KNOW BBQ.  That was one of the best sandwiches I have ever sunk my teeth into.  Fine job, son."  I couldn't say anything, I just gave him a hug!

Thanks again, everyone for sharing your experience, knowledge, and opinions.  There is nothing better than community!
 
Thank you all for your advice from your years of experience.  We did agree to do the wedding,and I never would have moved forward without all of your input.  Consequently, the wedding went off without a hitch.  We few 250, and got rave reviews.

 I smoked the butts over several weekends, vaccuum packed, and froze them.  I thawed them in the fridge for a few days before, and then brought them back to life in a few turkey fryers on Saturday morning.  I pulled them and put them in large roasting ovens for serving, and then added a finishing sauce right before service.  

We also did Dutch's Wicked Baked Beans, pasta salad, green salad, and coleslaw.  I had squeeze bottles of finishing sauce and bbq sauce on the table so people could adjust their sandwiches to their taste.

The highlight for me was when a man came in the kitchen and stood beside me.  Once he caught my eye, he said, "Son, I have spent 64 of my 67 years in North Carolina, and I KNOW BBQ.  That was one of the best sandwiches I have ever sunk my teeth into.  Fine job, son."  I couldn't say anything, I just gave him a hug!

Thanks again, everyone for sharing your experience, knowledge, and opinions.  There is nothing better than community!
 
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Grats on a successful shindig!

It's always nice when you get great feedback like that from the people eating the food.
 
Congrats on a successful event!!!

Question, what was your method for reheating them? Did you just place the vacuum sealed bags into a pot of water and brought up to temp?
 
I've actually been doing a lot of large events for friends and family the last 2 summers, and I just started smoking last summer.  for 200 guests, I would do 6 9-10 pound butts.  Plan you smoke to end 2-3 hours before serving time (even 4)  Then when you pull them, put them in the aluminum chaffing pans, 2 butts per pan, leave them whole, cover with foil, and store in a large cooler.  I also add 5 fireplace bricks that where heated up in the smoker, to the bottom of the cooler.  This makes the cooler a warming box.  I let the butts rest in there and bring the whole cooler to the event.  When its time to serve, I pull one pan out at a time and put it over a sterno on a rack.  at this point I pull the bone and pull the meat.  I do this right at the start of serving, and the meat is so juicy and tender it pulls in no time, toss some finishing sauce on and ready to serve in about 2 minutes.  When that tray is empty, do the same with the next one, and so on.

With my cooler, using this method, the pork stays hot for 6-8 ours from the time you put it in the cooler (warming box).  It's important though not to pull the butts till you are ready to serve.  This keeps them moist and juicy and also helps them maintain there heat.

Sadly, I don't have any Qview of my "Warming Box"  I'll have to get some next time I do a large event which is about 3 weeks away for church.

Good luck on the smoke,  Let us know how it goes, and don't for get the Q View...

;)
 
I've actually been doing a lot of large events for friends and family the last 2 summers, and I just started smoking last summer.  for 200 guests, I would do 6 9-10 pound butts.  Plan you smoke to end 2-3 hours before serving time (even 4)  Then when you pull them, put them in the aluminum chaffing pans, 2 butts per pan, leave them whole, cover with foil, and store in a large cooler.  I also add 5 fireplace bricks that where heated up in the smoker, to the bottom of the cooler.  This makes the cooler a warming box.  I let the butts rest in there and bring the whole cooler to the event.  When its time to serve, I pull one pan out at a time and put it over a sterno on a rack.  at this point I pull the bone and pull the meat.  I do this right at the start of serving, and the meat is so juicy and tender it pulls in no time, toss some finishing sauce on and ready to serve in about 2 minutes.  When that tray is empty, do the same with the next one, and so on.

With my cooler, using this method, the pork stays hot for 6-8 ours from the time you put it in the cooler (warming box).  It's important though not to pull the butts till you are ready to serve.  This keeps them moist and juicy and also helps them maintain there heat.

Sadly, I don't have any Qview of my "Warming Box"  I'll have to get some next time I do a large event which is about 3 weeks away for church.

Good luck on the smoke,  Let us know how it goes, and don't for get the Q View...

;)

He's already done the event but some nice tips
 
CTSmoking78, yes, after I thawed the bags in the refrigerator, I tossed the bags in a turkey fryer filled with water.  Once I brought them up to temp, the still sealed bags went in the cooler.  Several hours later, as I was still pulling bags out of the cooler to pull the pork, as I cut the bags open, they remained hot.  The bark didn't have the rigidity that it would have, had I served it without the freezing/thawing/reheating, but the taste was there.
 
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