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Wedding catering menus to make everyone happy

Food may not be first on either the bride or the groom’s agenda during the wedding celebrations, perhaps due to nerves or being too busy mingling with guests; however, clever catering is probably one of the most important elements in keeping your wedding party happy and energized.

Wedding catering menus to make everyone happy

Dietary requirements

These days every other person has some specific dietary requirement. It’s important to find out what these are at the beginning of the planning process, when you send out the invitations.

Timing

The timing of when each course is served is important. While photos are being taken the guests will be hungry. Having a table laid out with cheeses and breads, and fruit, or waiters coming around with canapés is always a good idea. If there are children present, make sure that they are fed early on in the evening. Think about whether or not the wedding speeches will be delivered between each course.

Serving suggestions

You’ll need to decide on how you plan on serving the food to the guests

Wedding catering menus to make everyone happy

A la carte is always a popular option, but more pricey than other options. More affordable catering options include a family-style dinner – where platters are brought to the table and guests serve themselves – or a buffet. There are also more unusual catering options such as food and wine pairing, picnic baskets, and food vans.  Either the food vans serve all the courses and guests enjoy the novelty of choosing what they want, for free of course, or they only serve things like tea and coffee, and ice-cream.

Catering

Choose your caterers well. Try and keep the food simple but delicious. If you have the confidence to pull off complicated, go for it. If you pull it off it could be fantastic, if you don’t it could be a mess. Pinterest has many exciting recipes. Make sure to try them out before the actual day.

Here are some menu ideas:

Vegan menu

Vegan dishes that may even impress the hardcore meat eaters among your guests.

  • Canapés: Wild garlic and pesto snails, stuffed jalapeno peppers, vegan scallion pancake rolls, or spicy baked tofu nuggets with a ‘honey’ mustard dip.
  • Appetizer: Grilled Ratotouille kebabs, vegetable fritters, tofu bahn mi sliders, or rosemary infused wild rice stuffed mushrooms.
  • Main course: Vegan white mac and cheese
  • Dessert: Frozen chocolate mint leaves, or chocolate vegan cake pops.

Vegetarian menu

  • Canapés: Avocado pomegranate crostini, tropical mango spring rolls with avocado and a cilantro dipping sauce, or a goat’s cheese and thyme dip.
  • Appetizer: Peach salad with mint and pistachios.
  • Main course: Vegetarian spaghetti, mushroom ragout with fresh herbs, or penne with roasted asparagus and balsamic butter.
  • Dessert: Strawberry wonton cups.

The average carnivore menu

Wedding catering menus to make everyone happy

You want to make sure that there is enough to eat, you don’t want your guests to leave the party hungry. At the same time, you don’t want the food to be too heavy.

Seafood and steak usually go down well. To cut down on costs, have the expensive seafood in the starter so that you don’t need as much.

  • Canapés: Philo wrapped parcels, or chicken spring rolls.
  • Appetizer: Parma ham wrapped around melon, prawn cocktail, mussels, or gazpacho.
  • Main course: Fillet steak, chicken, grilled fish, or lamb.
  • Dessert: Chocolate mousse, créme brulé, a berry sorbet, or a cheese board. Your wedding cake can also double up as a dessert, or if you decide not to have a traditional wedding cake, then have a dessert table with cupcakes, macaroons and other bite size confectionaries.

Banting/ low carbohydrate menu

A banting diet avoids refined carbohydrates and sugars but includes plenty of meat protein and green vegetables. Bread is out, unless it’s made from coconut, almond, or some other substitute flour. For a canapé or appetizer, paté can be served with seed crackers instead of bread. Zucchini noodles are a great substitute for normal pasta and cauli flower rice can be used instead of average white rice. Swap potatoes for sweet potatoes. Fresh fruit skewers, double cream yogurt and banting brownies, or banting cheese cake make a scrumptious dessert. A banting wedding cake could be a  ‘cheese’ cake made up of different cheeses. Besides, traditional wedding cakes don’t seem to be as common any more.

You’re not going to be able to make all your guests happy, so don’t waste too much energy trying. Make exceptions where you can, but don’t let it put unnecessary stress on you. Choose a catering option that fits your budget and that you and your fiancé will enjoy.

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