From intimate family dinners to large social gatherings, get professional tips to make party planning easier during the Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College Foundation’s 17th Home and Garden Symposium.
This year’s event will be held Tuesday, May 9, beginning at 10:30 a.m. on campus in the OCtech Math and Science Center.
Guests will enjoy a brunch by Buck Ridge Plantation and have an opportunity to browse the silent auction before the formal presentation at noon in Roquemore Auditorium.
This year’s speakers are Janice Hudgins, chef-owner of Little Miss Ha in Mount Pleasant, and Doris Hutto King, a Holly Hill native and popular Charleston event designer.
After taking a 10-year sabbatical from a career in sales to stay at home and raise four children, Hudgins began honing her passion for cooking and experimenting with new recipes.
“I was watching a lot of Food Network,” said Hudgins, the daughter of Vietnam immigrants and a College of Charleston graduate.
“I’d post on social media about how much I loved to cook for my family and trying different recipes for them, but I wasn’t cooking a lot of my culture’s recipes, my mom’s recipes,” she said.
Friends took notice of Hudgins’ enthusiasm in the kitchen, and one of them asked the at-home chef to prepare a private dinner for her daughter’s 16th birthday.
“It wasn’t until then that I even thought about cooking to get paid,” she said. “Her daughter loved Asian food, but they couldn’t find a chef for the party. I said, ‘I cook all of the time for my family and I’m very familiar with Asian food, so why not?’”
Soon after, she got another request – this time, to participate in a Transformation Table showcasing ethnic cuisines. That was Hudgins second paid cooking gig.
Her next job was catering a Christmas party.
“I kept saying ‘yes’ to all of these different opportunities. It just felt right,” she said. “My husband always says the hardest thing in restaurants is having that door swing open. I think that’s the same thing about having opportunities in life. You just have to say ‘yes.’”
The one thing Hudgins was adamantly against was having a restaurant. That changed when she was asked to join a food hall in downtown Charleston. A three-month commitment turned into a year.
“We were one of the most popular stalls,” she said. “We always had a line. We were able to test what worked and what didn’t.”
Around the time Hudgins was ending her run at the food hall, a friend was closing their restaurant in Mount Pleasant. They offered the space to Hudgins. And Little Miss Ha was born – just one month before the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020.
“We had to pivot every month to survive,” Hudgins said. Three years later, Little Miss Ha is preparing to open a second location in St. Augustine, Fla.
“It’s a lot of work, but we’re so excited,” she said.
Hudgins will bring a bit of Little Miss Ha to Orangeburg as she demonstrates preparing fresh spring rolls using herbs and vegetables many may already have growing in their home gardens.
A professional event producer for more than 35 years, you won’t find King’s Special Events of Charleston online. Her business began before the internet, and word of mouth kept it booming. Although retired, she continues to offer her services as a consultant.
“I’ve always been in the hospitality business,” said King, a native of Holly Hill and College of Charleston graduate who, in the early 1980s, joined independent restaurant owners to begin off-premise catering at notable sites like South Carolina Society Hall.
“We had to figure out how to do rentals and get tables, chairs, linens, china, silverware, bands, flowers – the whole bit for the whole party,” King said. “That’s when I learned all the pieces and parts to make an event. We didn’t have companies around here like we have now for rentals and things I needed. I had to get things from Washington and Chicago. I had to have people build things. We had different chefs to use in our restaurant conglomerate, depending on the type of event and what was needed.”
The more involved she got, the bigger King’s visions became.
“I started creating and thinking big – not just putting bows on the backs of chairs, but going bigger, making the stage bigger, making the arrangements bigger to fill these big ballrooms, so that whatever we were bringing in was equally as powerful as the 10 gilded chandeliers in the room,” King said. “That sparked my creativity to design and do.”
King began designing spaces, decorations and floral arrangements while subcontracting the rest. She built a portfolio of people and businesses she could call to help create masterful events.
“I’d hire myself to listen carefully to the client and produce what I thought they’d be happy with,” she said. “There’s just so much that goes into it. It’s more than placing cut flowers on tables. You have to know how to make the splash. An event of whatever size – 10 people at a private wedding or 2,000 people at the BOC Challenge around-the-world race – it doesn’t matter. It’s the same. It’s just numbers.”
King will present her best tips for intimate outdoor parties, corporate entertaining and everything in between. She will demonstrate ways to use what you already have to create inviting natural spaces in your yard.
Dozens of fabulous items will be up for bid in the silent auction, including a Smithy Ironware Co. dual-handle skillet, firepit filled with outdoor plants, a private walking tour of Charleston for 20 people by Two Sisters Tours, container gardens by local garden clubs, original art, housewares, flowers, gift certificates to area businesses and more.
This year’s Home and Garden Symposium presenting sponsor is SC Lawn and Landscaping. Signature sponsor is The Times and Democrat.
Tickets are $50 per person. Funds raised will provide support and emergency aid to students. Additionally, proceeds will support academic program development and curricular innovations to meet community and workforce needs. The event will also support professional development experiences for faculty to ensure they remain current in their fields.
For more information or to purchase tickets, contact Anna Padgett at 803.535.1246 or padgettam@octech.edu.
