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Every special occasion cannot go off without food. People love to reminisce the old times or toast for love, health, and prosperity while eating. In weddings, the serving of food and drinks is always awaited by everyone. So, it is but necessary to have a careful planning of the wedding menu to ensure that everyone will have a good time during the event.
Food is one of the details that a couple and their guests take note of. Of course, taste matters, but how the food is served also says a lot about the wedding. It doesn't matter if it's chicken or fish because initially, it is the serving style that makes or breaks the appetite.
1. Buffet – This kind of wedding serving style is done by placing the different food and drinks on a long table or on several table stations scattered around the reception area. In this style, guests would have to stand up to get the food on the tables. This kind of style encourages socialization among the guests as everyone in the reception room would have to mingle with each other to get the food. This kind of style, however, is not recommended if the couple has a huge number of guests as people will have to wait a long time before they can get a share of the food.
2. Seated Meal – This is a kind of wedding serving style wherein a waitstaff is assigned to every table in the reception room. The waitstaff will be the one to distribute the food to the guests in their assigned table. There are three types of seated meal, namely, French service, plated service, and Russian service.
3. Passed-Tray - This wedding serving style is used for cocktail receptions only. In the passed-tray style, several waiters go around the place offering a platter of appetizers to the guests. A table filled with crackers, fruit, and other finger-foods may also be placed in the reception room along with the appetizers served by the waiters.
The food presentation is important, so is the serving style. Yet, nobody wants to eat a bland food, right? So to ensure the quality of food, it is best to carefully decide which wedding caterer to hire on that big day.
1. Ask your family and friends first – Before looking anywhere else, a couple should first ask their family and friends if they know a good wedding caterer. If they don't, the couple can also try asking their wedding band and the other people who are servicing their wedding. People involved in a business usually know other people who are also doing business in the same field.
2. Contact the wedding caterer – When the couple has made a list of their potential wedding caterers, they should call or email the caterers to ask for important details like their experience in handling a wedding catering, their asking price, the kind of dishes that they are accustomed to making, and their availability to cook for the wedding.
3. Experience matters – It is best to get a caterer that has an experience in catering weddings because more or less an experienced one already knows how to go about the matter. An experienced wedding caterer can also give some tips to the couple about what dishes or arrangements are popular in weddings.
4. Talk with the wedding caterers – A couple should schedule an interview with each of their potential wedding caterers to know more about them. Talking face to face will help the couple assess how they feel about each of the wedding caterers and it will help them decide who among the choices fit their preferences.
5. Let them prove their ability – A couple may have a hard time choosing who among the wedding caterers is fit for the job, but performing a taste test can make the decision easier. They can ask their prospect wedding caterers to cook a sample of the food they are going to have in the wedding, and from there they can determine who can come up with a food that they prefer.
What is served in the wedding also says a lot about the bride and the groom. Dishes presented in an extraordinary way, for instance, imply that the couple is inventive. Food served in the wedding also sets the mood of the people. If the food is delicious, people will all the more enjoy their experience of the event.
1. Consider your budget – Most of the time, half of the wedding's budget would be spent on food. This is exactly why a couple should make sure that the menu they are going to have would be worth every cent. If the couple wants to have more budget in getting quality meal, they could consider cutting the number of meal courses served in the wedding.
2. Consider the reception time - In planning for the wedding menu, a couple should also take into consideration the time of their reception as this will dictate what kind of dishes they are going to serve their guests. A reception at around 10 am, for example, may not need to serve 5 meal courses. The couple should also take note that a reception during dinner time costs a lot than a reception held in breakfast time.
3. Try something different – A couple should not limit themselves on the kind of food to serve during their wedding. They can try different combinations of food, serve something exotic, or make some kind of creative food presentation.
4. Think about the guests – Though it is always good to try something different in the wedding menu, a couple should consider the needs or preferences of their guests. If a guest has an allergic reaction to mushroom, then it is wise not to have a lot of dishes with that ingredient.
5. Let your wedding menu talk – Wedding menus can be made to match the ambiance of the wedding through its presentation. A Chinese-themed wedding, for instance, can serve food in bright red dishes with vegetables arranged in the form of a pagoda.
6. Ensure that the food is delicious – With all the thoughtful planning of making the food presentation unique, the couple should not forget that the dishes they are going to serve must taste great. They should not also sacrifice creativity with the quality of the food.
An engaged couple should not forget that planning the food to be served in their wedding is as essential as finding the perfect wedding dress, wedding ring, or wedding cake because people often associate their memories about a certain event or place with the food that they have tasted there.
