What's the worst meal you've been served at a wedding?

[Higgeldypiggeldy35]

I'm veggie so unfortunately have had my fair share of shitty wedding meals as the vegetarians often seem to get shafted but this one takes the biscuit. Fancy wedding, very expensive and exclusive venue, meat eaters had a feast and it looked amazing, I was served......a grilled mushroom, and it was cold. This place is probably £100 per head at the very least and the best they could rustle up for a vegetarian was a mushroom. So, make me feel better, what's the worst meal you've been served?
This is meant to be light hearted 🐱

@ThumbWitchesAbroad

OMG to the person saying "what did you expect if you're a veggie?"

Seriously, it's not that fucking hard to find a decent bulk vegetarian meal and make it at least reasonably well!

Mushroom risotto is a nice tasty option; I've even made a vegetable risotto (with lightly steamed cauliflower and broccoli to provide "bite", as well as the other veg).
I'm not vegetarian, I haven't catered for any vegetarian friends for many many years, but I'd still be able to come up with something better than one fucking cold mushroom!

It's either snobbery or laziness on the part of the restaurant/caterers to refuse to do a decent vegetarian/vegan/gluten free option (guess what - a decent mushroom risotto will cover ALL of those bases, AND dairy free too!)

I hate it when the gluten option is lumped in with the vegetarian/vegan option as mushrooms tend to feature heavily and I can't stand mushrooms. I know its cheaper/easier for caterers so it makes sense but its really not nice :( And not just mass catering, I'm seeing more and more often at cafes too - not spending 6+ euros for a small slice of gluten free/dairy free/egg free/taste free cake

[quote Lookingoutside]@Malin52

‘Given most tables will be sat M F M F Are you sure it wasn't this and it just so happened the blokes got pate?’

Yeah, the little menus on the tables actually stated ‘For the gentleman’ ‘For the ladies’.[/quote]
Oh. In which case then that can fuck right off!!!

@Natsku agreed. I quite often pick the veggie option when out but lately there has been a trend for vegan cheese to feature

Sorry off topic

Just after I met dh I went as his plus 1 to his cousins wedding. They aren't close and only sent an invite due to 'you can't not invite them' pressure.
From somewhere they got the idea that I'm vegan, I'm not, and that was what I was served. (I think one of DHs exs must have been vegan) Everyone else had a roast dinner and I had a stuffed mushroom.
It was an awkward meal anyway as SIL was pissed off she didn't get a plus 1 for her bf and spent all day with a face on, she really off with me, because I was there. When the bride and groom did their rounds around the tables checking on everyone she even complained to them and asked if he could come to the evening reception. They said no as they didn't know him. Mil then introduced me to them by DHs exs name.

@Natsku - fair play, if you don't like mushrooms then that IS rough.
Personally I love them - but can't have tomato. So my problem would be that many of the "alternative" options contain tomato.

And yes, I suppose if vegetarians are only ever accommodated with mushroom risotto it would get boring! (I still love it).

As well as being gluten free, I'm also chicken/pork/tomato free - which makes catering for me in mass settings like weddings rather tricky - unless they have fish or a red meat. If they don't, I get the vegetarian option - which usually contains tomato, as said. I don't really like wedding catering!

@Natsku - sorry, missed the other part - yes, this features heavily in airline food as well, that ALL the "special" diets are lumped in as one, so my meal will be GF/DF/EF/low salt/low sugar and mostly bloody awful!

[quote ThumbWitchesAbroad]@Natsku - sorry, missed the other part - yes, this features heavily in airline food as well, that ALL the "special" diets are lumped in as one, so my meal will be GF/DF/EF/low salt/low sugar and mostly bloody awful![/quote]
Urgh yeah. Though Finnair (which is my main option for travel now) at least doesn't lump all the diets in together, had a long list of different dietary need options to choose from, at least it didn't pre-pandemic but who knows what's changed now. Usually just take my own food though as so much cheaper and I know I'll like it.

I’ve been served fish as the veggie option, and more amusingly, tofu cut into a fish shape

I was veggie for 30 years and been vegan for 3, and I really don't mind if the thing I get given at events is boring or unimaginative. What annoys me is the total lack of care - if it's cold, or tiny because they've just taken the meat/dairy elements off the main and you're left with some broccoli. They're charging £££ per head for this, it's not much to ask that you provide what you say you are going to provide.

My brothers wedding where I was a bridesmaid and DD a flower girl plus DP & DS got nothing. The bbq buffet ran out!

My dad, who I don't talk to left saying he wouldn't even feed the food to his dog. He's an utter prick though. The food was fine, it was at the local golf club so perfectly except-able but there was nowhere near enough. I managed to get the manager to do a bowl of chips for the kids & we ate crisp & nuts which the bar ran out of!

They under catered by latest half

Lots of people starving at a function = smashed people arguing!

Urgh yeah. Though Finnair (which is my main option for travel now) at least doesn't lump all the diets in together, had a long list of different dietary need options to choose from, at least it didn't pre-pandemic but who knows what's changed now. Usually just take my own food though as so much cheaper and I know I'll like it.

That’s interesting. The only time I’ve flown on Finn Air, there was one “special meal” for everyone. GF crackers, olives and kiwi fruit!! Was pretty miffed until all the chicken eaters started throwing up!!

I'm not a vegetarian but at one wedding I attended the meain course was lamb and I hate lamb so I got the vegetarian option. It was the most delicious ravioli pasta in a cream sauce. I'm still thinking about it 10 years later

I've always enjoyed the food at weddings and have mostly been well fed.
The last wedding I was at in 2019 the serving staff did this kind of march around the room and up to the top table all carrying plates covered with silver domes. Then they all removed them in unison with a flourish. It was brilliant.

I don't eat red meat or fish so often have the veggy option. I've been completely forgotten about more than once or someone else on the day decided they'd prefer the veggy option and have been given someone else's meal!

The worst was one, like PP, that gave the men and women separate menus. The men getting a far better deal. Lots of swapping going on especially when I was presented with what looked like a mr Kipling jam tart artfully sprinkled with icing sugar whilst DP got chocolate pudding with ice cream.

My favourite meal was were the couple had hired the top floor of a lovely local restaurant for their 'wedding breakfast'
The restaurant gave them their weekday deal of 2 courses and a bottle of wine for £15 a head. Lovely food. The room had it's own, normal priced, bar and a lovely balcony. They'd moved the tables to one end leaving space to stand and mingle. Lovely and informal for the 30 or so guests.

It was a win win. Easy for the restaurant to cater for, especially knowing menu choices in advance, couple of extra staff on, restaurant as normal downstairs and making £££ on the bar from the many happy wedding guests.

Anyone planning a wedding, please don't serve your evening guests about 5 maccies style chips in a tiny metal bucket. It isn't cute and your guests will hate you.

@Cosmos123

Seems like you're the fool.
The venue doing the first lord of food said they couldn't guarantee they'd provide halal meat, so they went with the vegan option. That way, the meal was 100% halal.

[quote TheWoleb]@Cosmos123

Seems like you're the fool.
The venue doing the first lord of food said they couldn't guarantee they'd provide halal meat, so they went with the vegan option. That way, the meal was 100% halal.[/quote]
A vegetarian samosa does not need to be halal.

The went with a vegan option and they then provided meat curry.
Yes makes sense...
Clearly you have not attended many Indian weddings.
The ' sauce' you mentioned was a lassi . A drink made from yogurt that you certainly do not pour over a curry.

Chicken and mash both smothered in Parmesan 🤢

@Cosmos123

It was a different venue that provided the meat dishes.

The first venue couldn't guarantee halal so everything was vegan.

The second venue proved meat.

That's what the poster wrote. You just didn't read it properly.

I'm not that poster. I'm just correcting you calling her a fool over the halal thing, because she isnt. She quite clearly said that the first venue was vegan because they couldn't provided halal meat.

@ILikeBrie hardly their fault you don't like anything spicy, Indian or vegan... that sounds like lots of options for you to just eat plain rice

Worst for me was the Instagram appearance ready wedding in a barn. It hammered down with rain so the route from the car park to the barn was like a bad year at Glastonbury. Perfect for high heeled fancy sandals.

2pm ceremony. Cold, wet, muddy guests stood around in cold barn with the doors open until 6pm when called for food. Then the did the fucking speeches first.

Eventually fed an hour or so later with a trio of pork. Each piece being about an inch square, served with a single potato and two carrots.

Couple had provided fancy sweet trolley and freebies like flip flops and toiletries, but really scrimped on the food. Venue was miles from anywhere so no other options. Drive thru Macdonald's was required to get us home.

A cheese roll.
That was it. That was the veggie option.
Not even any cake. (But happily I had an emergency Mars Bar in my handbag)

I just think Pete Kay whenever I’m at a wedding, vol-au-vents, aunties and grandmas doing the bent over dance and Uncle Knobhead with his cig dancing to the Grease Mega mix.

Reading some of these times have not changed.

We got married 2 weeks ago, and I thought we’d gone waaaay overboard on food lol - it seemed to be a constant theme!

We did a 3pm ceremony, and then went straight to speeches and cake cutting so that people could grab one of the toast drinks we’d put on and have something to nibble on while we did photos. We had a ‘show cake’ which was really just for cutting (because I decorated a basic one myself - I refuse to have paid £££’s for a cake!) and put out Costco doughnut bites and brownies and some vegan cupcakes instead of cake slices which we had lots of positive comments on. We also did a crisp wall for people to help themselves to, and a goody bag with sweets in for while they were waiting for the ceremony to start. (Named ones for the guests who needed certain sweets for dietary needs, and we’d put a can of appletizer in for the U18’s to have something sparkly to toast with during the speeches)

We’d warned people beforehand that supper would be at 6pm, so to eat lunch before they came. Supper was a hog roast, and bbq chicken/burgers/sausages for anyone that doesn’t like hog roast. For our vegans/veggies there were plant burgers/sausages and tandoori veg kebabs. We ordered almost double so that people could choose a variety of both rather than having one or the other. We followed it up with an ice cream tricycle. Our caterers were fab at making various versions of salads and coleslaws so that all of our guests with dietary needs were catered for, and had a list of their names so that someone else didn’t accidentally take their portion, and there was a choice of vegan ice cream and sorbets for our dairy allergy sufferers too.

After all that, I’d figured people would be pretty stuffed, but DH insisted people would want bits in the evening too (all of our guests came for the whole day so they’d all had the supper) so we spent about £100 on various savoury and vegan platters from Morrison’s and put them out about 9pm… and to my surprise people were tucking in again to full plates!

Moral of the story… there can never be too much food lol! 😂

And I’m confused by the poster above who thinks risotto is vegan - surely risotto without butter, cream and cheese is just a tasteless slurry with rice in it?

Not if you know how to cook risotto (which never has cream added anyway)

You definitely shouldn't add cream to risotto! It is better with cheese in my personal opinion, but it can easily be made vegan and pretty delicious too. There is a Bosh recipe for risotto with ratatouille type veg in it. It's damned delicious.