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Local caterer, Party Waitin’ To Happen

HOME & GARDEN

PARTY WAITIN’ TO HAPPEN

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How a mother and son duo feed the community

BY MAYA MARTIN PHOTOS SUBMITTED

IIbby Morris recalls the moment a bride brought to her a banana pudding recipe. It wasn’t the kind you tear off the side of a particular wafer box, but a special and beloved banana pudding recipe that belonged to the groom’s late mother.

Party Waitin’ to Happen often recreates beloved recipes for weddings and as a surprise, the bride wanted to recreate the pudding in honor of his mother. “We made it and put the name of the mother on it and he did not know until he arrived,” Ibby explains. “It was really cool.” The story recalled by Ibby of Party Waitin’ to Happen is an important goal in the Oxford-centric catering business’ efforts to create memories as well as feeding the community. From serving as personal chefs in intimate, two-person dinners to grand parties and events, Party Waitin’ to Happen caters to your every culinary need with their wide range of dishes and flavors. Out of classic hor d’oeuvres, barbecue specialties and vegetarian dishes to list a few categories, Party Waitin’ to Happen has something for everyone. The popular catering business is run by Chef Wiley Morris and his right hand, mother Ibby. This small but powerful duo have serviced gatherings and events in the region for the past 21 years and have shown no signs of slowing down.

Wiley does not remember much about what started his love of cooking but he does remember taking a cooking class as a young teen. He and his mother drove two hours to Jackson to take the class, where he was the only male in the entire room.

Ibby has a longer memory than her son and remembers gifting to him a cookbook at the age of 8. Their neighbor at the time loved to have his help in the kitchen and she would let him cook whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.

Ibby’s love for food and cooking started

from a young age. Born the third out of four children and raised by a widow in Macon, Ibby watched as her mother managed to work and provide for the family.

“It was very interesting because when I was a little girl, mostly the people we entertained were family,” said Ibby. “Even though she worked all the time, she still put meals on the table for four children and family and it was fun.”

She learned that it’s not about the price of the food but what the food symbolizes to people.

“I learned early on it’s not the most important thing when you’re fooling with feeding people, it’s the interaction and service to the people,” Ibby reveals. “It’s not how fancy you can make it. It’s not how interesting you can make it, but the service to people is what matters the most.”

As Ibby grew older, her passion for entertaining grew along with her and she hosted many parties at her home that would require the help of her sons to move tables and set the stage for a party.

“That’s how the name ‘Party Waitin’ to Happen’ came about because we were always having a party and they were always working,” said Ibby. She calls herself dull as dirt because she’s all work but Ibby is a key influence in the catering business and the reason Party Waitin’ to Happen came to be according to her son.

Inspired by her son, Ibby attended the Culinary Arts Institute where a teacher asked what she planned to do with her new culinary skills.

“I said, ‘I think I’m going to go into catering,’” she recalled with a laugh. Soon after, Ibby called her son who was working at a restaurant in Aspen, Colorado at

that time and proposed starting a catering business to him.

In a later conversation, Ibby described Wiley as “the funniest of all her children” and hints of it show when he admits that he moved to Aspen to become a “ski bum” as he calls it.

Wiley had moved around the United States following high school and traveling to Texas before moving to San Francisco to attend California Culinary Academy. Through an internship opportunity, Wiley was able to go to the wine country every three months where he got to experience a different kind of cuisine from that found in Mississippi.

“In Mississippi everything is fried, or at least it used to be,” said Wiley. “You’ll go to California and everything’s fresh and farm to table. It was a totally different experience.”

He then followed his heart to the snowy slopes of Aspen and worked for two years before taking the chance to begin a life and business in Oxford.

Oxford was the perfect start for Party Waitin’ to Happen. Wiley grew up in a rural area and he wanted to explore his future in a place that would offer him the best chances. It didn’t hurt that he could run his business and enjoy Ole Miss football games in the same place.

“It’s a great community and they are very supportive of catering,” Wiley explained. “It has a small town feel to it even though it isn’t that small. Everybody looks after everybody.”

The Oxford community and those in the greater region supported Party Waitin’ to Happen from their small beginnings through the tough times to where they are now. Numerous businesses closed their doors forever because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Wiley and Ibby feel blessed to still have Party Waitin’ to Happen and a supportive community backing them.

“I realized when weddings went from over 100 down to 11 people and we still loved it that we were doing what we loved,” said Ibby. “It was rough but the things that we did, we loved doing. Fortunately we hung tight and this has been a year that’s really picked up. We’re real thankful that we’re able to do this.”

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