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 🐱

@IvysMum12

Vegetarian here. Had requested a veggie meal weeks in advance. Had to ask at the table, and half an hour later a collapsed "stuffed" pepper was dumped in front of me. Obviously just pulled out of the freezer and microwaved. It was revolting.

Christ yes! The pummelled pepper with nondescript filling

[quote Niffler92]**@Natsku* @DrCoconut and @Surewhynot* don’t worry us with dairy allergies and vegans feel the same about the gluten free stuff the insist on adding to the dairy free/vegan stuff.[/quote]
Don't blame you, can't be nice getting the gluten free stuff when you don't have to eat gluten free!

Pummelled pepper
Absolutely shocking thing to be presented with at a wedding, though!

I wonder how much they stung the bride and groom for that?

@ChocolateHoneycomb

I went to a wedding in the US when I was living there for a year. Strawberry Jelly with vegetables (peas, carrots etc) in was quite a strange starter.

Was the caterers name Rachel Green? 😉

@Fluffycloudland77 I’m vegetarian and I don’t eat meat ever, however good anyone else thinks it may look. It’s still a dead animal that’s been slaughtered. I don’t think the guests who ate meat are vegetarian, possibly just hedging their bets until they saw what was on offer.

They're all in-laws, they identify as veggie.

One has said to me, in all seriousness and no trace of irony at all “I’m vegetarian but I eat bacon”.

Whereas I’m not vegetarian but don’t eat pork or shellfish & stick to it.

Then there’s the “I don’t need alcohol to enjoy myself” as they look down their noses at my gin & tonic in restaurants but I know from their kids there’s always alcohol at home.

The one time they had to cater for my allergies they just didn’t bother as it was too much trouble & then did the faux-innocence “oh, I don’t suppose you can have any of this can you?” As everyone else tucked in. It was a dick move but it got me out of a lot of entertaining as Dh has my back 100%.

Which is why when it all kicks off & help is needed I stay in my house & leave them to it.

I'm sure the food was nice, but it was served as though it had been well stirred. Think of rather disgruntled dinner ladies serving it with a splat.

Pudding looked like Eton mess. It was actually meant to be pavlova

A friend's wedding that had a "ladies" and a "gents" menu.... put my back up even if the food was delicious. It wasn't though.

The "gents" got roast beef with all the trimmings followed by Bailey's cheesecake.
Us "ladies" got a plain chicken breast, 2 small boiled potatoes, and green beans.
Pudding was a meringue nest with raspberries, no cream or ice cream.

The "gents" all got served first.

No evening buffet at all.

It was in a marquee which was absolutely freezing cold too, I'd travelled several hours to get there, I think I nipped out to a motorway services part way through to warm up and get a Greggs pastie.

Vegan option as one v nice wedding: starter- salad, main- salad, dessert- fruit salad. Lots of wine on the table. I was very drunk!

Just a happy veggie story to add! Went to a lovely wedding recently where the meal was a South Indian vegetarian feast. It was phenomenal. Very fresh, spicy and plentiful. Delicious.

@notHarris

A friend's wedding that had a "ladies" and a "gents" menu.... put my back up even if the food was delicious. It wasn't though.

The "gents" got roast beef with all the trimmings followed by Bailey's cheesecake.
Us "ladies" got a plain chicken breast, 2 small boiled potatoes, and green beans.
Pudding was a meringue nest with raspberries, no cream or ice cream.

The "gents" all got served first.

No evening buffet at all.

It was in a marquee which was absolutely freezing cold too, I'd travelled several hours to get there, I think I nipped out to a motorway services part way through to warm up and get a Greggs pastie.

God I have been to alot of functions (not weddings, but we belong to a stupid social club that has aspirations for itself and they do loads of things) that do th same. Men get beef and women get chicken or fish.

DH is a teetotal vegetarian. So the number of times we have eben somewhere and my steak and pint has been placed before him and his risotto and sparkling water has been placed in front of me is something to be seen (although I giggle about it mostly).

It wasn't a wedding but we were invited to a 50th with only 20 odd people. I told the wife (who was taking the RSVPs) that DH was a vegetarian (only about 1 year in at that stage). he got served with we all got served with- filet mignon on a potato rosti with all the juices soaking in. DH looked at the waiter and gently asked about his vegetarian meal and the response from our friend was 'Oh, I thought you were joking'.

It seems that so many vegetarians and vegans are upset by the available options and truthfully, maybe it’s not that easy to cater to them.
Some swear by the super spicy Indian or Thai options which is great unless you can’t eat spicy food - so I understand why this isn’t the default option for vegan or veggie dishes.
Some like meat substitutes but many cannot stand them.
Some object to fruit as dessert (seriously if you can eat fruit, what is wrong with fruit?)

With so many combinations of allergies and preferences , there is no way to cater for large groups aside from combining “free from” options. Due to health conditions I’m gf and lactose free but some vegan dairy alternatives I find so dreadful they literally make me through up (vegan cheese) I cannot touch spicy food due to a chilli allergy. And a peanut allergy. And a berry intolerance. And a citrus fruit allergy.

So ideally meat and potatoes is perfect for me and I know starters and puddings are off the cards. It would be ridiculous of me to expect anyone to attempt to navigate my health issues whilst catering for 160 guests though so I will bring snacks.
I find the idea of expecting just the food one happens to like rather crazy.

I dont mind having just veg and potato, that's fine by me. But if I'm worth inviting then find me something, any bloody thing.
Soup with meat, NO
Roast with veg and potato covered in melted cow NO
just feed me, you will find most vegeterterians, vegans allergic people don't expect much but please feed us. Once went to a do (not wedding) pie and pea. Nothing at all for me, nothing unless I wanted just peas, how hard would have been to get a few cheese pastries

We said on the invitations that we would be catering for vegetarians and pescatarians as well as “normal” people.

At the time, that covered all lifestyle and religious choices for those present. We didn’t cater specifically for unusual allergies or intolerances as they weren’t at thing then. Guests contributed to the food mountain too, so I like to think that everybody got something they could eat, even if they brought it themselves.

Last month at The Corinthia in London. Was approx. £250 a head, I have never been to a ‘posh’ wedding before but was quite underwhelmed, perhaps was expecting something amazing.
Hors d’ouvres were very nice, DH said the champagne was fab, I think he had 6/7 glasses ! I can’t drink wine any more due to migraines but trying to get a soft drink from the waiters was like pulling teeth.
Starters were quite nice but tiny.
We ordered the beef and it came almost raw, like a miniature joint that was oozing blood and stone cold 🤢
People who had the fish said it was good but the veg was the same for both dishes, a weird stacked square of hard potato slices and celariac, the only thing I liked was the beetroot confection.
Desserts were ok, nothing spectacular. The cake was hideous, looked like stacked chunks of marble 🤭. Don’t know how it tasted, the pieces vanished from our table.

If that was a £30k wedding you can keep it.
The Bride’s evening outfit dress apparently was Balmain and cost £8k, it looked like something you’d swerve in Primark for looking too cheap.

Went to the evening bit of the wedding of one of oh's colleagues years ago. This person had specifically said to oh that there would be a massive buffet and to come hungry, so we did. It had been a very hot summers day, and when we went into the venue - a hotel function room - it was unbearably hot and stuffy in there and within minutes I was too hot and uncomfortable and felt a bit faint. There were hardly any spare chairs so sitting and relaxing was out of the question. After a couple of hours a shout went up as food was eventually coming out onto the buffet table. There was a complete stampede across the room for it, and by the time we got to the front there was nothing left except crisps. We left, sweaty, tired and starving.

I think it's a good point, actually, that weddings are hideously expensive per head and the food very rarely lives up to the price!
And the cop-out vegetarian options listed here - well, if that cost the venue £55 (cost per head at my wedding, for e.g.) then they've pocketed about £50 of it and not put it into the actual meal at all!
Disgusting.

Well, that took a turn...
Are you a caterer by any chance KAT234? 🤣🤣🤣

Cold salmon and salad after driving for 4 hours for the wedding and waiting 2 hours for food (buffet) table at a time & we were last. I'll never forget

I suppose you wouldn’t have both weddings at the same place if you re-married so their not bothered about repeat custom.

The last evening event we went to had people wetting their knickers about the venue but I couldn’t see the attraction of a converted barn.

@thumbWitchesAbroad I agree they make an absolute fortune. The only good wedding food I've had has been abroad where the whole day revolves around the food and it's what everyone looks forward to. If I had served my guests a mushroom atmy wedding (in Europe as husband European) I would have hideously insulted people!

@thebookworm1 I'm sorry but I completely disagree. There are so many options for veggie and vegan and it's incredibly lazy to just combine all dietry requirements into one dish. It's not hard for a restaurant to have premade options frozen such as a pie or flan or Wellington portioned out ready. It's just plan lazy unimaginative cooking

[quote Higgeldypiggeldy35]@thebookworm1 I'm sorry but I completely disagree. There are so many options for veggie and vegan and it's incredibly lazy to just combine all dietry requirements into one dish. It's not hard for a restaurant to have premade options frozen such as a pie or flan or Wellington portioned out ready. It's just plan lazy unimaginative cooking[/quote]
As someone posted further up thread, it’s actually incredibly hard to provide multiple options working in a small kitchen - especially when some of the requirements such as gluten or nut free actually require careful handling to avoid cross-contamination.

I find it really bizarre that rather than being grateful for food that respects one’s preferences, one expects one’s favourite type of food.
Would vegetarians feeling that way provide meat and fish options at their own weddings? Most would not, they’d expect all guests to align to vegetarianism for the day despite the diet being found bland by many and it being restrictive compared to their usual. Most guests would not complain.
So it seems the very least vegetarians can do to be “uncomplicated” in grouping themselves with vegans for group catering events. They just have the same slightly frustrating experience as when they cater for omnivores…. Not great but you pretend to enjoy it. It’s life.

I was very fortunate that for our small wedding, I was the only person with dietary requirements. I couldn’t properly eat my own main but chose what I thought the guests would enjoy most. I bought my own gf bread and own special milk with me.

I do think that people expecting bespoke catering need to consider the extent to which they’d cater for others. If they expect others to substantially sacrifice their preferences to align with their beliefs when hosting, then they should not expect that in return, these same people incur tremendous expense and inconvenience to ensure the full spectrum of their possible diet is fully exploited in what they’re presented with. It’s hard enough ensuring people with life-threatening allergies are not put in danger… and the bulk of effort needs to be focused there.

I find it really bizarre that rather than being grateful for food that respects one’s preferences, one expects one’s favourite type of food.

You have fundamentally misunderstood literally all the posts on this thread from vegetarians, vegans, coeliacs and anyone else with food intolerances.

We are not looking for our favourite dish, we’re looking for something we can eat which isn’t disgusting, won’t make us sick or spark an allergic reaction. As numerous people have pointed out, we provide our dietary requirements for weddings as requested. The issue is that either the B&G or the venue are unwilling to make the effort to cater for them. There is literally no excuse because these requirements are commonplace.

Tell me, do you really think it’s acceptable to be served half a pepper with some couscous in it as a meal?