The Wedding Menu
Getting married means two people now decide to live together as a family. Getting married also means that you now have a wedding to plan and get off the ground. Planning a wedding is not as easy as it seems. There are lots of things that have to be done and there are some who take a year or two to prepare for the wedding. The entire process of setting up a wedding means there are choices to be made and things to be decided to mutual satisfaction. You could hire a wedding consultant to take care of the nitty gritty details but that does not take away your participation in the planning process.
Most couples will hire a caterer and leave the food aspect to them. They will be party to only the bigger decisions to be made like the dress and the venue, the cake and the guest list, the gift registry and the dates. But most couples do not realize that the menu selected for the reception can play a big part in the overall success of the wedding.
What most people do not realize is that while there are some food choices that would be very appropriate for a wedding reception there are also some choices that would be absolutely wrong. Yes, it is true that not all food is appropriate for receptions.
Weddings are unique in their own ways. The guest list is always the one thing that makes your wedding different from another’s. All families are different and some come from culturally different backgrounds. Now if your friends and family circle has a diverse mix of people from different cultures then the menu you decide on must cater to these people’s tastes too. It should not be that your choice of food is inappropriate for some cultures and so they are not going to be able to eat. For example if your guest list has people from the Jewish community then pork is a no-no. Similarly there is no point on having a non-vegetarian menu if even one-third of your guests is vegetarian.
If you do serve meat then make sure it is not some wild game meat which may not be quite welcome so ensure that you select the right kind of meat. Alcohol is yet another area where if your guests have very religious views then they may not be comfortable with the concept of drinking at the wedding. You may have non-drinkers and you may have those who are off the wagon and the drinks at your wedding may get them back where they started.
Think about this, you serve onions and garlic laden food at your reception and your guests come kiss you as a mark of their affection with garlic on their breath. Oh no! That would not be very nice so remember to avoid food that could cause bad breath.
And last but not the least, decide how many courses you plan to serve. Just one or two may not be difficult to handle but if you are planning on many courses then ensure that the first courses are light foods so that everyone is not stuffed by the time the other courses are served.