What’s your strangest ‘wedding food’ related story

[CosyMosy]

Sorry, rubbish title! I was chatting today with a colleague about a wedding I went to last year. The wedding was at the church at 12pm and we were invited to a country club for the reception. We turned up at 1 to find the buffet laid out but not open. We were told it wasn’t opening till 4!! Everyone was starving and the only thing behind the bar was out of date crisps (that the bar was selling for 10pm cheaper because of 😅). When the buffet eventually opened at 4, the bride announced over the mic that we needed to make sure we only took 1 small plate each because it had to last for the night guests as well 😵‍💫. The takeaway down the road made a roaring trade that night

My colleague told me she once went to the wedding of her DH’s colleague, when they sat down for the wedding breakfast half the table were given menus with prices on. When they queried this, it turns out the bride and groom had made the decision to only pay for HALF of the guests meals and the other half were to order and pay for their own meal at the bar!

Something about weddings brings out the worst in people!

We went to one where the food was about 4 hours after the (very long) ceremony. It was served so so slowly and when it did come it was freezing and we had like a tiny bit of meat, one carrot and one potato each. It was terrible. And it was a really expensive wedding as well.

Because of this experience we massively over catered our wedding (and had a late ceremony and food practically straight after) had a hog roast and then a huge buffet. Was amazing. Was lots left over that various people took home.

I've only heard of this once, and that was with a B&G who tried and tried to cater to everyone's likes, dislikes, intolerances, allergies, etc, only to find that each time everything seemed settled someone else would "discover" something they couldn't eat

In the end they swapped for a high end served buffet with options which should have suited everyone, and fended off all enquiries by saying they'd left the choices up to the hotel

I went to a wedding where the bride and groom and about 8 guests were at the actual ceremony first and they had had a huge 5 course lunch, then 75 guests arrived at 3pm to find they’d not actually been invited to the ceremony and that there was no meal coming, only snacks as the bride and groom weren’t hungry so apparently that meant none of the rest of us would want dinner. DH and I left and had dinner in a nearby pub 😂

@PerkyMintDeer forget the cheese, I need to know about this edible sand.
Sand? Was it flavoured , how do you eat it ? Is it cooked, raw? No idea why I need to know so badly 😁

I got far too tipsy once when I was a very lucky champagne lover on a table full of people who didn't like champagne! 😂

I'm sure caterers usually cater for (or at least it's suggested the bride and groom only cater and pay for) a certain percentage of those attending to avoid lots of wastage? I could be wrong but I'm it used to be that way?

Went to a wedding “party” because the couple had already got married abroad, it was at a really naice country hotel.
They were on a budget so food was burger and chips which we queued up for. I was vegetarian so I can’t even remember what I had, there might have been a veggie burger there. The main focus was on partying!

Not anywhere near as bad as some of these, but one wedding I went to had sweetie cones as the canapés, and then afternoon tea for the wedding breakfast - so overly sugary cakes, tiny sandwiches and cups of tea. Everyone had a huge sugar slump in the early evening - not helped by hours of standing around waiting for photos to finish.

And then the evening buffet was the most delicious Indian spread - which would have been so much better as the main meal!

What if everyone turns up? Seems foolish

So many..

The wedding at 11 and the buffet opened at 7 ..nothing arranged in between so ended up going into pub where ( sober) husband had massive argument with a colleague. People were hoovering up crisps and nuts…when the buffet opened it was mainly crisps and nuts.

Wedding where we were on the top table ( Ex DH was best man). They gave us silver service and made everyone wait and watch whilst we got served before they would let the rest of the tables get up and queue

One where the father of the groom stood up and shouted “ The fish is off!” .

Afternoon tea served instead of wedding breakfast…people fighting over miniature cucumber sandwiches is not a good look. Then a pay bar where they ran out of booze.

I went to a wedding many years ago and the buffet was a really tall tower of different fruits. It looked spectacular but everyone was starving afterwards.

It was sand flavoured (tasted like when you get sand it your mouth - strong "beach" flavour), cold, as an accompaniment with some sort of lukewarm meat in a red wine jus, it had a little plastic "spade" sticking out of the heap of sand to eat it with. It sort of melts in your mouth but is initially gritty. Made of brown rice flour I think?

It was like...eating...sand...that's honestly the best I can do description wise.

Not food, but I went to a wedding a few years ago where the invite specified cards would be accepted at the bar.

After the dinner and the speeches, everyone headed to the bar to learn that none of the card machines were working and so the bar was cash only. It was a countryside wedding about a 20 minute drive from a cashpoint and taxi's would've had to be called to take you to an ATM and bring you back again.

The disappointment was palpable and the whole atmosphere was pretty awkward.

Went to one about 30 years ago and it was a buffet - but it was served to you, to restrict what you ate!! I had a small half of a baked potatoe, I piece of ham, sliver of quiche etc… when we dared to go up again, we were told “no, you’ve already eaten!! 🍟 Found out afterwards that this was a common theme at this quite posh venue - they kept the leftovers for their mates in the bar!!
The bride was horrified when she found out!
I learnt from it and made sure my wedding guests were well fed.

We went to a wedding that had a 'mens' and 'womens' menu. Women had a chicken roast and the men had a beef roast etc.

A lot of food trading happened at our table 😂

I'd say it is only recently that people have known about food in advance. In the 1980s and 1990s I don't think anyone had any idea what they would be eating at a wedding.
To be fair it was usually a buffet in those days and that's what people expected.

Now that so many people have dietary restrictions and allergies I can see it makes sense to be clearer about catering in advance. I just knew that I had a few vegetarians and one vegan and made sure that they were catered for.

Thanks for the info. If ever offered I’ll be sure to give it a miss. Weird, totally weird.

I have so many questions. What have you paid for before? How do you know her?

Friends DIY wedding. Curry was being served at 7pm. Wedding was at 12noon but there was a food van on site to buy food from if you wanted. It was a very "rustic" wedding (people camping etc) so people had brought picnics etc too. We didn't. Went to food van a bit later than planned, not accepting any orders as too busy. Left before curry was served (way after 7om as the wedding started about an hour late) as had decimated snacks and was BFeeding and starving.

Our own wedding, evening bbq. Caterer had put loads of food to one side for us, played up as it was served so a plate of the "meat" and plate of fries, a plate of one type of salad etc. Went to feast at about 2am after everyone had gone to bed to find all the meat gone (saw it all played up at the plate was still there with the wrap pulled back) Was drunk and starving I nearly cried as we never got to taste anything as we were too busy to eat. Our caterers were brilliant though and the next day dropped off some freshly made bits the next day, not BBQ but delicious anyway.

At my cousins wedding in a posh country house, we were served a tiny dinner. One slice of meat, one potato etc. My mother asked a waitress for an extra potato for my dad as he was starving. The waitress came back with one wrapped in a napkin, and whispered “please don’t tell anyone else”.
DH and another few people headed to McDonalds for a feed.

My other cousin (previous one’s sister) had hers in a hotel. Again the dinner was tiny….six at a table and person one had finished eating by the time person six was served. The evening buffet looked great, but was whisked away in just a few minutes. We found out later that there were four weddings in the hotel, and they seemed to be using the one buffet for them all!

We went to a wedding with a hot buffet, served by staff. They called up the tables one by one and could see them starting to panic about half way through.

One of the staff members ran off and came back after a 15 minute delay with a pile of baguettes which made up the majority of our meal as we were the last table. Hardly anything left.

That’s just for the buffet. Not for individual meals.

Too many bride and grooms forget that they're catering for their GUESTS not themselves.

Wonder if it was the same wedding I went to 😂 the one we went to was in the Yorkshire countryside although it was a tipi I think.

My neighbour's son invited us to his wedding.
The reception was held at a village hall and a fight broke out amongst some of the guests after the food ran out. They had seriously under estimated how much food was needed. It was all very embarrassing and we left as soon as we could,