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 Everyone was starving and the only thing behind the bar was out of date crisps (that the bar was selling for 10pm cheaper because of 😅).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!

Many, many years ago we went as a family to my cousin's wedding. The bar was free and busy. My dad got really irritated with my brother (18) as he would go and fetch himself a drink and not offer to get anything for the rest of the table. "I can't afford that!" Was his reply. It transpired that he was going to the other bar outside the function room as there wasn't a queue....because that was the public bar and he had to pay!

I’m always a little worried when reading these threads that I’m going to recognise my own wedding.

@Anonym00se I've learned to always make sure I'm fed as you just can't rely on gluten free food being available can you? I had a bowl of olives for dinner once at a holiday park run by a big chain. That taught me. I may come across as selfish or demanding at times but that's how it has to be

This is a totally true story.

For our wedding in 2011 I'd gone to Iceland and bought a chocolate and cream cake for only £5.00, it was huge so was worth the money, for the reception. I wrapped the entire thing in quite a lot of tin foil as the hotel chef said to drop it off to him before the wedding and he'll put it in their fridge until we go to the reception.

I'm not the sort for wedding dresses etc., we both worked on the buses, he as a driver and myself as a route learner so we married in our uniforms, so I was also wearing a navy top and navy trousers with black soft shoes.

In the car on the way to the wedding hubby was driving and myself in the front passenger seat I had the cake on my lap. Sadly it started leaking all over my trousers even though it was in the original wrapper AND my tin foil as I was trying to scoop it up I was of course getting it over my hands and top so there was cream and brown dripping on my trousers! We rushed it straight to the chef who also tarted it up, got married with me covered in cake, back to the reception.

Time to cut the cake! As hubby is right-handed and I'm left, I tried to cut the now-newly-cold non-dripping cake with my left but couldn't cut it so I tried with my right, still couldn't, because I've got both Rheumatoid and Osteo and couldn't grip the knife or press hard enough but while trying to cut it, the thing sort of squished in the middle!

Hubby stood in front of me and tried, and successfully cut it but as he stood back he accidentally stood on my right foot and I screamed in pain as 2 of my toes broke!

Once we were married and driving back we stopped off at Morrisons for a few final bits for the reception at our flat. I had this feeling something was going to happen so left a few quid in a secret space in our car. We got to the till, went to pay and he realized he'd left his wallet at the hotel reception! I painfully limped into the car leaving him at the till and grabbed our secret money stash!

Thankfully the lady on the till and the 3 customers waiting to be served were all laughing as hubby apologized for holding them up!

Then another dash back to the hotel for his wallet!

We alway make sure we have a plan B with regard to food now after once driving over 100 miles to attend an evening do and being offered nothing but wedding cake.

We also attended another where only a select few were invited to a meal after the ceremony. Everybody else was expected to kill time until the evening do four hours later. In fact, that has happened to us twice. The second time we were a lot closer to home so just left after the ceremony.

@Flumpie59 I like the idea that you both wore your bus uniforms to get married!

Thank you! Great fun it was too!

I went to a wedding at a registry office which ended at 11.30, followed by a reception at a nice hotel. Outside the registry office was a public park, and the couple had photos there for one and a half hours. Seriously. We all sat around in the park, or looked around the shops etc until the couple said we could go to the venue. When we arrived there were more photos and then the speeches! We sat down to eat at 3.30pm
They divorced 3 years later (probably not connected!).

When was this?

Went to a wedding where they opted to not hire in caterers. Total disaster.

The canapes were a few sausage rolls on the side.

Family members brought out pre made grazing boards. One of the guests at my table stopped eating it 'to save room for the main' we said that we didn't think there was one.... There wasn't.

They had hired in a pop up bar for the day but the wine that had been sat out on the tables for so long it was warm. I went to the makeshift bar to ask for ice, they didn't have any/had run out.

I've never seen anyone throw a wedding without caterers... there was no one serving, so if you needed water or anything you walked to the bar.

Weirdly, the couple did shell out on unnecessary expensive things which I've not seen at a wedding like magician, crepe cart and even someone to apply glitter/gems professionally for the evening. They did have a hog roast van for evening food which had a queue so long the dance floor was empty.

I couldn't understand why they didn't forgo the grazing boards, hog roast, magician, crepe cart and gem artist in favour for caterers, at least we would have had a meal, people to serve us, a real meal and actual plates/ cutlery..

I couldn't understand why they didn't forgo the grazing boards, hog roast, magician, crepe cart and gem artist in favour for caterers, at least we would have had a meal, people to serve us, a real meal and actual plates/ cutlery ...

Probably because caterers don't make for much of a picture on Instagram or whatever

At least you got some sort of canapes though ... at a cousin's wedding they found the manager had been replaced by some kid who fancied himself an entrepreneur and was bouncing around between venues he hoped to take on. Unfortunately he'd lost any interest in the wedding one, and let's just say the service reflected this ... like tthe evening buffet made up entirely of the cheapest possible potato wedges and sausage rolls

How lovely of everyone to muck in and save the day.

I've never seen anyone throw a wedding without caterers... there was no one serving, so if you needed water or anything you walked to the bar.

We didn’t use caterers. Family and guests provided the food, so they only had themselves to blame if they didn’t like it. However, it wasn’t a formal wedding and we did hire waiting staff.

@Illpickthatup what is it with giving you a toddler portion if you have any dietary requirements? I'm gluten free and almost everything is either spicy or tiny at events. It was the same with veggie options as well (I don't eat meat either). I remember one Christmas dinner at quite a posh place. Everyone else had to be rolled away from the table after, my dinner was a cereal bowl of tomato pasta with about 2g of cheese grated onto it. I'm going to a chippy later today though and they do adult size portions apparently 😬

Friend went to one this summer where the caterer had been arrested that morning....

The venue did the best with the food that had been delivered to serve stuff that didn't need cooked. Then, than god, there'd been a chip van ordered for a 9pm chip supper. She said they were starving by then.

This thread makes me want to reminisce about our wedding food. Ceremony at 12, then served twice as many canapés as caterers recommended for our day guests, 3 course meal at 4, wedding cake and table of cheese for picking at straight after the meal, hog roast in the evening.

My sister had to keep ducking under my dress to loosen my corset and I’m still gutted I didn’t have room for the hog roast! Staff and guests all went home with goody bags, including leftover wine and champagne. Over catering at it’s best 😄

Went to one at a big castle in the country and was really looking forward to what we expected to be a lovely sit down posh meal.

We got there to find we were in a marquee in the grounds instead, my heels sank into the grass as we tried to walk over to it but at least there was carpet inside the marquee, although the whole place smelled like rotting grass. Got there and waited and waited and then eventually B&G walked in together and announced they'd eloped and this was just the reception.

Food was a barbecue. Except it wasn't. None of the burgers and sausages had been anywhere near a flame. They were catering trays of them and they were soft and fell apart so I assume they were steamed or something as even oven-cooked would have put some sort of colour on the meat. It was one burger and one sausage each. I don't remember if there were even any chips. No starter and I think dessert was just the wedding cake.

Every time I see the Simpsons episode with the Steamed Hams I think of those poor grey soft burgers in those trays.

DH's work colleague got married. The whole team received an invitation to the evening only. No issues there. Except the food for the evening attendees was just cheese, rounds and rounds of it stacked up, and crackers, but no cheese knives. Cue colleague trying to hack a sliver from a huge wheel of cheese with a bread knife. My DH doesn't eat cheese and was dumbfounded when he saw the options.

Everyone left early and there was an impromptu work gathering in the takeaway up the road.

Strangest choice?
Dh & I went to a (lovely) wedding where the food was mostly seafood.
Lots of people ended up eating just the bread and salad or they picked at the prawns.
There was a lot of waste, seafood is not exactly the type of food you can pack up and take home for later. I can’t imagine it was cheap either.
A fair amount of people snuck off to get pizza/burgers later in the evening.

Best food at a wedding?
One wedding I went to had these big pans of comfort type food - there was Mac & Cheese , beef lasagne, moussaka and Lancashire hot pot, served with seasonal veg and chips.
It was a very successful set up actually, there were caterers there to help serve & you could go up for seconds, there was almost no wastage at the end.

Another wedding I went to served a sort of ploughman’s lunch with lots of cheese, posh pork pies, salad, grapes, fresh bread & butter, olives, ham. It was lovely.
They also had a dessert table which had lots of different types of puddings & cupcakes as well as the wedding cake.
In the evening, they ordered pizza for everyone, it was nice surprise!

@Cookerhood I went to a wedding where platters of canapés were the food but this was clear from the invitation and it was all run to a sensible timetable so not a problem. Your scenario sounds awful.

I don't really line fruit cake or sweet iced cake. My husband hates it.

So we had a stack of cheese rounds decorated with fruit and had it as pet of the meal after dessert. It was epic.

If we were doing a buffet we would have had a pork pie wedding "cake"

My own wedding. As advised we had ordered and paid for a buffet to cater for more guests than we had coming to ensure there was plenty. There was not.
I thought it would be a help yourself buffet but they made everyone line up and served it up. There wasn't enough and the guests at the back of the queue didn't get much at all and all I got was a handful of chips.

That's such a shame! Were the servers just too generous?

Best one I went to was a work colleague, she and the groom were from Yorkshire. Wedding was a decent time and then we all sat down to roast beef and yorkshire puds which were enormous and filling. Big pudding buffet and a massive stilton. We ate well that day.