This Little Piggy

I told Mr. Lion early on that I wanted him to lead the way with rehearsal dinner.  My lovely FMIL was generous enough to offer to host it, so I thought it would be nice for them to plan it together.  Unfortunately, my FMIL lives in Miami and the rehearsal dinner will be in Atlanta, so it looks like I'll be helping Mr. Lion with the planning instead of her.  We've kept her in the loop every step of the way, so she's definitely still involved.

Mr. Lion decided that he wanted to do a traditional Cuban pig roast, using a caja china.  A caja china is a box designed for barbecuing a pig.  It looks something like this:

Source: Amerilumber

You slowly smoke an entire pig inside this box for a very long period of time.  Once fully cooked, the entire pig is presented (in an apple-in-its-mouth kind of way) and dinner guests are treated to an absolute feast.  But Miss Lioness, aren't you Jewish?  Yes.  Yes I am.  And so is half of my family.  However, none of our wedding guests keep Kosher.  Most of my family actually really enjoys eating pork.  And most importantly, they love Mr. Lion and respect his culture.

The idea of using caja china did raise a few problems, though.  First of all, where would we put a box big enough to hold a pig that weighs hundreds of pounds?  Our little apartment was not really conducive to this idea.  Secondly, I believed that even the toughest of carnivores may not find the sight of an entire pig carcass all that appetizing.  Wasn't there some way we could serve it carved?  Finally, where would we find a caja china?  It would be one thing to make this idea a reality in South Florida...Atlanta was a different story.  Mr. Lion suggested that we take a little trip to Home Depot to find some lumber, then take a little trip to the Farmer's Market to find some bulk cumin for marinating.  This still didn't change the fact that we needed a pig.

After calling the few Atlanta Cuban restaurants that were deemed autentico (that is, the ones Mr. Lion approved of), we finally found a place that uses caja china for catering.  Not only that, but this restaurant was willing to let us reserve their entire space to accommodate our guests.  I suppose that's the thanks you get when you purchase an entire pig!  They also said that they would keep the actual caja china in the back and just bring out servings.  Phew!  No carcass.  The restaurant is called Coco Loco, and the best part about them is that they're within a mile from our wedding venue.  We've had their food before, and it is simply amazing.  It really made me feel like I was home again, eating maduros and staring off into the Biscayne Bay.

Mr. Lion decided that we should have congris (black beans and rice) to accompany the pork.  After thinking about the spicy reds and Caribbean blues that create a motif throughout the restaurant's artwork, I decided that our additional decor should follow suit.  Here is the inspiration board we came up with:

Sources (clockwise from top-left): Seattle Pig Roast, Folksy, personal invitation, personal photo of Mr. lion in a Cuban shirt (2006), artwork at Coco Loco, personal photo of Mr. Lion with a pork roast (2009), Tracy Matthewman, more artwork from Coco Loco, Dart Fine Art

How did you start brainstorming for your rehearsal dinner?  What elements of your cultures are you incorporating into your wedding weekend?