What was your wedding meal?

[pantsoffbing]

And what options were available for the evening guests?

I'm just looking for some inspiration because I have absolutely not a clue what I want for the day! All I know is that full bellies = happier people (and also hopefully less blind drunk people, because we know our friends! )

Now XH was a chef and he and a couple of friends/colleagues produced an incredible sit down buffet.

We had cold roast beef, ham, coronation chicken, salmon with various salads and baby new potatoes.

We bought in catering size desserts, I think it was something chocolate, something citrus and something with berries.

Evening buffet was glorified beige iirc…sausage rolls, spring rolls, samosas, baguettes and leftovers from the main meal.

My best mate’s wedding was fairly fancy and their evening buffet was a huge cheeseboard or the option of sausage or bacon sarnies, which I’d definitely consider if I got married again.

Our wedding was fairly short and small and not in the regular order.

We did a cocktail hour before rhe ceremony with lots of canapés. Couldn’t tell you what they were. I ate and drank and it was good.

meal was a salad with a cheese souffle, then filet, a green vegetable, and roasted potatoes.

dessert was chocolate wedding cake with raspberry filling

Then after dinner drinks in the library and the night was done.

This is my current fantasy wedding location 😂

loads of menu ideas

www.pondenmillweddings.com/ponden-mill

Cold buffet: Turkey, salmon and ham with lots of different salads. Ratatouille for the vegetarians and the vegan.

That was over 30 years ago. I'd do something similar today (but with more interesting vegetarian/vegan options)!

Buffets seems to have gone out of fashion which I think is a bit of a shame. I think it's much easier to cater well for lots of people with a buffet because nothing has to sit around keeping warm for ages. Like others, I have eaten lots of boring rubbery chicken with lukewarm veg at weddings.

We didn't have an evening do.

I was expecting that to be really expensive for what you get but it's actually quite reasonable. Our friends had similar at a venue like that near us and it was over £20k

I went to one recently that had a pizza van at the evening do. That went down well.

I think that would be my perfect menu to be served as a wedding guest tbh!

Spanish sharing boards to start
Paella with salad sides as main (a seafood one and a vegan one)
Wedding cake for desert (was sponge)

Had a sweets station for in between.

Evening was a cheese tower with oatcakes and sides or tortilla chips with pots of homous etc for vegans

Paella was good as it tailored to a lot of dietary requirements without having to have something seperate/long wait and was cheap per head.
Cheese in the evening was good for alcohol soak up.

Whoa. The venue suggested different food for men and women? Wowsers. I would have been so annoyed!

We aren't particularly foodies, we wanted everyone to eat well, but were more worried about everyone having a great party. So we didn't have anything fancy, but had excellent caterers who did everything brilliantly. We got a lot of compliments that it wasn't over fussy tiny morsels.

We had slow cooked local beef (farm in the next village) with dauphinoise potatoes and a variation of Eton mess for pudding.

We did hog roast in the day and then sandwiches for evening.

We had a Cream Tea after the 3pm ceremony and then a 3 course sit-down meal with the wedding cake as a dessert at 7pm.

We had:
Smoked and hot smoked salmon with leaf salad and foccaccio as starter
Main was rack of lamb and pork filet with new potatoes and potato croquette plus vegetables (I can't remember what kind though).

We had no vegan, no vegetarian, no allergies and just 35 people in total so no need for an evening buffet or anything.

We had a sit down buffet in a marquee in my parents’ garden.

Canapés with champagne or Pimms

Buffet of fresh breads, lots of salads, cold roast beef, several sides of salmon, big tats and quiches, a big ham.

Wedding cake for pudding.

Wine from a refrigerated van.

Later, a huge table of cheese and fruit

Ice cream van came after ceileidh

It worked for us. Fussy sit down wedding meals can be really bad. Lots of friends got married at their Oxbridge colleges, and while the food was always nice enough, it is always fussy. And they always gave the kids horrible different food, which they would refuse in favour of my rack of lamb.

The best sit-down wedding meal I’ve had was a kosher catered affair at The Dorchester. That was amazing!

It's always chicken

I actually can't remember what we had, but I do remember I specified NOT chicken!

We had around 85 guests and had a buffet style hot BBQ serving burgers/hot dogs/chicken and then pastas and salads. It was great and simple. For the evening my family helped make a cold spread of party food. Simple is best in my opinion!

Starters were. Fruit juice, prawn cocktail or soup

Main course Carvery. It was lovely but by the time everyone on the top table had gone up and finished eating the main and the dessert the last table was only just getting their main course.

Dessert can't remember the other choices but I know I had chocolate gateaux and vanilla ice cream

My DH is a chef so his restaurant catered.
We had plenty of canapés, including wagyu beef sliders and pizza oven with mini pizzas cooked to order.
Dinner was a cold/hot buffet. Salads, beef filet carving station, paella etc something for everyone.
Dessert was also buffet style, small bites.
Food and entertainment were high priority to us so we put most of our planning into this, the rest just came together.

Ours was sensational tbh!
We had a 3 course choices
Starters -
Twice baked cheese soufflé
Or
Confit duck leg

Mains -
Halibut with a Parmesan sauce and fondant potato's
Or
Beef fillet with a jus and dauphinoise potatoes

Puddings -
Sticky toffee pudding
Or
chocolate and strawberry tart

Then truffles / coffees

It's been a few years now and everyone still talks about it tbh! Much better than any (and more expensive) weddings we've been too.

@purplesky18 DH to be would love the idea of a BBQ buffet! Will run this idea by him!

Our venue included a sit down dinner. We chose
Starter : Red pepper and tomato soup

Main meal : Turkey and Ham
Vegetarian: Creamy Pasta or Curry
Vegans: Curry (was told it was delish!!)

Desert: Profiteroles
(our vegan friends had another option can't remember what it was)

Children: Chicken goujons and chips

Was a lovely meal!!

We had a lot of dietary requirements so tried to accommodate people as simply as possible

Loads of canapes so no starter

Sharing platters of roast beef and chicken, smoked salmon, green salad, green beans, roasted red and orange veg, roast potatoes, cous cous

GF brownies with strawberries and choice of cream or ice cream

Cake of cheeses instead of wedding cake, which was served with the port

We had our reception in a massive suite in a hotel in Las Vegas.

The buffet was EPIC and tons left over, no shortage of food (or drinks) at our wedding 😄

Chicken stuffed with haggis and a whisky crème sauce, chocolate orange torte for dessert (can’t for the life of me remember what the starter was but it was 10 years ago!) For the evening buffet we had sandwiches, bacon rolls, stovies with oatcakes and the wedding cake! Canapés during photos we had mini scones with jam and cream, macarons and shortbread. Bet you can’t guess what country we got married in 🤣

Oh forgot to add our evening food was then a BBQ with lamb, pork , roasted potatoes buns coleslaws and salads. I didn't taste any but it was apparently
very nice 🤣

American here so only one reception. It was summer and the weather was hot, although church and reception venue were air-conditioned. Open bar throughout, with champagne toasts before dinner. Cocktails were standing and hors d'oeuvres were a cold buffet with cheese and crackers, cured meats, dips, crudites, etc. Meal was seated and was green salad, lemon chicken, some sort of potato (can't remember) green beans, rolls and butter. Simple and designed to appeal to everyone. This was in the 1980s before veganism and food allergies were a thing.Today you would need to offer vegan and gluten-free at the very least. Seconds were brought around on a cart and included roast beef, roast pork and lemon chicken. Dessert was a dessert buffet with ice cream parfaits, little cakes, pastries, etc. We also has ice cream based alcohol drinks like mudslides, etc.