Catering tips for your wedding

Feb 3 2009 By Chester Chronicle

RIGHT, so you have to make sure auntie Mary isn’t sitting at the same table as uncle John, and everyone knows Phil and Tommy don’t see eye-to-eye.

Then there’s the vegetarians, and cousin Sylvia’s a vegan, isn’t she? There’s people who hate eating beef and some will only drink white or rosé wine; mind you, others won’t drink wine at all.

Ah, it can seem like one potential pitfall follows another when planning a wedding reception.

However, enlisting the assistance of a good caterer can take an awful lot of the headache away from you, leaving you to concentrate on other matters.

Budget dictates the options available to you regarding menu and the amount of guests invited. The best advice seems to be to try and please as many people as possible with your choice of food.

Therefore a dish of good quality, with a nice quantity of food upon it, will go down better with most people than a small fancy dish of expensive nosh.

Most people make a choice between whether to splash out on the food and drink budget or to hold something back to put into the bridal gown, entertainment and decorations.

The right venue is all important, of course. You may be able to eat, drink and be merry in the same place you were married, if a civil ceremony, but otherwise there’s no shortage of halls and hotels (and many other types of venue) with plenty of experience in hosting such events.

If there’s one thing a guest will remember about a wedding they’ve attended it will surely be the food. To that end, many people organising a wedding choose a theme for their menu.

It could be something simple like an Indian banquet or an Italian meal. Some people decide to opt for a traditional and fun meal like fish, chips and mushy peas or bangers and mash. How about a hog roast for some messy fun? A carvery roast dinner is also a popular option.

Drink wise, a glass of sparkling wine is usually offered for guests arriving at the reception and then a choice of wine is often left on the different tables, during the meal.

It’s up to you and your budget whether or not to offer other choices of beverage and how much money you’ll place behind the bar.

In England, the meal at the wedding reception is usually referred to as the wedding breakfast. Perhaps this is traditionally because it is the first meal that the couple enjoy together as a married couple?

Whatever the reasoning, for most weddings the breakfast usually takes place in the afternoon meaning that guests who remain all day, will start to feel peckish again, perhaps around 8pm or 9pm.

For that reason, it is usually a good idea to provide some sort of light buffet or snacks for the evening reception.

If you have opted for the fun and traditional English theme to your party then you could offer your guests bacon and sausage sandwiches or, maybe, baked potatoes. The hog roast or a barbecue could work well for summer weddings.

So, now you’ve got the food sorted, it’s time to work on that seating plan...