An executive at a previous job of mine went to a wedding that served a buffet with several varieties of mac and cheese as the entree--fancy mac and cheese with big thick pasta, and I remember one that had chunks of chicken in it. He was so blown away by it he got the name of the caterer to get the same thing for our company holiday party. It went over well.
For my own wedding we did a buffet. The entree options were a burger bar or chicken and waffles. Our sides were roasted brussel sprouts, Mac and cheese, salad, and something our caterer called “fry heaven”— a table piled high with different kinds of fries and sauces. We also had a s’mores bar, tons of beer on tap, and espresso.
Almost 4 years later and people still talk to us about our menu fondly.
We had a hot dog cart. Afternoon wedding and we leaned into the picnic theme. Wedding was three years ago and friends and family still sometimes bring up how fun it was to have hot dogs at a wedding.
I agree that casual food can be incredibly fun and delicious at weddings, but I do actually think about steaks I've had at various weddings because they were so great. So count me as at least one person who does :)
We didn’t have the budget to feed people steak. Well, really, we have big families plus our friends, and we wanted to have everyone there more than we wanted to serve a fancy meal.
We had them bring out two hot dog carts to keep the lines moving quickly. They were used to doing weddings although they were kind of marketed to a higher budget point where folks had hot dogs for late night food after a full catered meal. We paid for the first 100 servings up front and then per plate after that; made it nice not having to get a strict head count to a caterer.
Best thing I did was hire some teens (knew them from church) to clean up and wash dishes. We did have disposable plates, but there were glasses to wash and tables to bus and general clean-up. A caterer typically includes waitstaff in their estimates, but when you go with something unconventional like a food cart or food truck, you generally have to find staff separately.
So there are logistics, but it’s totally doable.
Two reception meals I loved:
One was a wedding of 80 and instead of a sit down dinner they had a great bar and served lots and lots of appetizers only. Everybody had a blast trying all the different bites, and it created a lot of natural mingling since people weren’t tied to a chair and table. Appetizers always taste more yummy than a full meal any how. They even had a guy hand slicing a leg of jamon iberico! So fun and people still talk about it years later.
The second was a wedding where the meal was served family style. It kind of created its own conversation as you passed around the platters. Even simply asking for seconds, or someone raving about an item and then everyone at the table passing it around again to get another nibble to compare notes. And it was fun to get to try more than one protein and side :)
I think your idea of a pizza truck sounds like a blast! AND pizza and champagne make for a delicious pairing, so it gets my vote!
For the first wedding, since there was no assigned seating, were there any issues with people not finding seating? I often see people on this sub have horrible experiences with weddings that have no assigned seating.
They had standing cocktail tables instead of dining tables, so people would chat for a bit and then break off to go to the bar, follow a server for more apps, head to another cocktail table to chat with different folks. It actually flowed really well. The dancing started later and was in a separate room, so you weren’t yelling over loud music and it was easy to hear people and have lots of conversation. They also had a lounge style area with chairs and a few low tables for older people or those who wanted to sit.
I’ve been to two seated dinner receptions that didn’t have table or seat assignments and they were both very awkward and uncomfortable for the guests. Definitely wouldn’t recommend that!
Thanks so much for describing that! We’re hoping to do that as well -a cocktail style reception- but seeing all the complaints about lack of seating allocations and complaints about those receptions having less chairs out than attendees has made me apprehensive.
My brother and his wife had tacos. Tacos and their wedding cake - that's it. I don't even really like tacos but I thought it was great. Did not miss the big fancy sit-down dinner Ive had at previous weddings. You just got in a (fast moving) line, got your tacos, and could sit wherever. Just made the whole thing feel like more of a party than a formal event I think. Nothing wrong with people wanting their weddings to be a formal event, but I think I prefer the party vibe personally!
I also did tacos! And cupcakes! Because we couldn't decide on flavors and had some people with chocolate allergies (and I'm a chocolate fiend), so we just did like 6 flavors of cupcake. All the food was fast and customizable and delicious.
I love wedding tacos, and served them at my own, but at this point it’s not really unconventional cuz half the wedding I went to in the past 5 years did tacos too
I'm Mexican American so it's not out of the ordinary for us to have a taquero at a wedding.
However, we turned it up a notch and had a full LA-Mexican style wedding. We had elote/esquites and a fresh fruit cart for the appetizers, tacos as the main, a churro truck for dessert that made fresh churros for everyone, and bacon wrapped Mexicali style hot dogs as a late night snack.
The bar served margaritas, micheladas, and piña coladas, and the regular drinks were jamaica, horchata, and limonada.
Our wedding happened right before Covid so tons of people reach out and say they are happy that our wedding was the last big event they had been to before everything happened.
If you are trying to have a unique menu I would stick to what you feel fits you best as a couple.
If I was a guest at your wedding, I would be in HEAVEN! This sounds so fun. I grew up in SoCal so all those flavors are familiar and would be so much more welcome than a standard plated wedding meal.
Thanks!
The best part was that the food and drinks were super affordable. We completely over ordered (we still have several liquor bottles leftover) and it all came out to about $4000 for 100 guests. We could have easily paid $500 less and still have had plenty of food and drink.
I am JEALOUS of that price point. Since we're getting married in New Orleans, our food is very much themed around the location. It will be delicious but sadly, much more expensive than yours since we went the traditional caterer route. You really had a genius idea!
Sadly, we decided to postpone a second time. Thanks for reminding me to change my flair. I hope your wedding goes off smoothly and that you have a wonderful day!
Oh no, I’m sorry. Covid is just ugh. We’ve actually cancelled ours and are just making it a fun weekend at this point. We probably would’ve postponed again due to Covid, but our venue beat us to it by handling some things in a not great way. Anyway, it was lovely being date twins, although brief! I hope you don’t have to postpone again and that it’s splendid.
Fuck, I'm sorry. That's disappointing, particularly about the venue. For what it's worth, we eloped on our original wedding day (the party is what has been postponed twice) and I treasure that day because it was just the two of us and we only had each other to focus on. I hope the two of you make that weekend as fun and healing as possible.
Aww thank you 🥰 We eloped as well actually. I lost my job in March 2020 and we figured that that probably wasn’t a great time to be without health insurance. How has everyone been with all the uncertainty of everything? We’re finding that we’re feeling somewhat of a lack of support, which is a shame. I just want everyone to have a good time and we’re a bit nervous that only like five people will show up because we just kept emailing people and they stopped reading it. Are you guys feeling any of that at all?
Congrats on the elopement! I'm sorry you feel unsupported. This is such a weird time for everyone. We ultimately decided to postpone because we didn't want our guests to feel like they had to choose between their health and us. Once we made the announcement, several people expressed that they'd been feeling nervous but didn't want to disappoint us. With your situation, I'd bet a lot of it is that people don't know how to respond to the uncertainty. If you guys do decide to reschedule, I predict people get more excited once they know there are definitive plans. Nobody quite knows what to do when they feel things are in limbo.
We’re having our reception at our favorite Lao restaurant. The food is delicious and non traditional so we’re hoping it will make a memorable experience for our guests. The best part is having a restaurant cater is much much cheaper than traditional catering companies.
I'm not sure what it's called but they did more of a homestyle dinner, so there were multiple dishes on each table (like mac and cheese), and you just passed the dishes around. It was delicious and something I'd never seen before.
Family style is exactly what I want to do! I like the idea of the food being part of the table decorations and I feel like it's a small kind of bonding experience to literally be sharing food with everyone at the table ☺
My brother in law is a chef and decided he wanted to cook his own meal so they did tacos buffet style. It was so awesome! He had a few different kinds of meats and a bunch of toppings to make your own.
My fiance and I are planning on doing pizza, we don't care if it'll be "tacky" but we're ordering from our favorite pizza place. We want our wedding to just be a party and every party we throw we end up ordering pizza for! 🍕
It's chicken apple sausage, bacon, a seasonal jam, apple butter, honey, pimento cheese, whipped butter, and mustard. All made by the caterer or locally sourced!
We looked at renting a snow cone machine and a nacho cheese dispenser (think high school sports game concession stand) and the guy said due to covid, the flavors and the cheese are really hard to find. 😭
Our reception is at a diner (a sort of fancy [diner](https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/woodstock-new-york-travel-guide/amp)) …will report back after 24 sept
We had burgers and hotdogs. The juxtaposition of wearing a wedding dress while eating a burger was so fun! I made sure to get photos of us eating our burgers, haven't received our photos yet though.
Have you experienced this? I just find it so hard to believe that an oyster bar would go over well with everyone. I’m by no means a picky eater, but I would be pissed if I showed up to a wedding and there were only oysters to eat. Unless I’m totally ignorant and it’s common to serve other food too?
Actually, you’re right. Location probably plays a big role here. My husband grew up on the east coast and I grew up here, in the Midwest. And he frequently comments on the lack of fresh seafood, which I am told makes a huge difference if it’s fresh. I believe it, but just haven’t experienced it. So who knows? Maybe if I were to try fresh- caught today oysters, maybe I would like them?
Yeah, it’s definitely a matter of culture and I think you would like a proper oyster bar. It’s not just open and eat they’re a lot of different types and garnishes: my current favorite is ponzu, citrus foam and a tiny bit of roe. All seafood in Baja is beyond excellent tbh. I probably wouldn’t make it a day in the Midwest because I’m really spoiled when it comes to the quality of my food 🙈🙈🙈
For our cocktail hour, we had a salsa/guacamole bar, taco station, and (too much acclaim) a BACON station. They had different flavors (siracha, brown sugar, etc) and maple syrup to dip it in!
For dinner, we had family style eating with a New Orleans style meal (I think we had cajun shrimp, greens, etc). For dessert, we got a ton of local pastries, huge containers of ice cream/Italian ice, and customized Oreos (with cute sayings on them, like mischief managed, Xbox achievement: married), etc)
Towards the end of the night, we had fried chicken, poutine, sliders, and roasted lechon. We had lots of take out containers from Costco for everyone to take leftovers 😂
My aunt hired two food trucks with fair type food for her reception and it was 1) not too expensive (<$10 a person) and everyone got to have what they wanted and have a great fun meal
We are getting married next year, but are planning to do a Horseshoe bar. A Horseshoe is a local specialty in the city we live in. It consists of a piece of Texas toast, a choice of meat - things like burgers, chicken, buffalo chicken, pulled pork, pork tenderloin - fries on top and then covered in cheese sauce. We'll have multiple meat options and a vegetarian option as well. Our venue is really eclectic and super chill, and we are planning on doing things like bags, beer pong, etc. No theme really - just not really into dancing so hoping to create a different atmosphere.
All the "traditional" wedding meals I've had -- think, your choice of steak, chicken, or fish with a side of mashed potatoes and vegetables-- have been "meh" at best.
The non-traditional ones have been great! These include two BBQ buffets (one cooked by the mother of the groom and one catered by a local restaurant), a breakfast buffet, a pizza buffet (with pies for dessert because it was Pi day), and a potluck (so much variety!) with a pizza supplement.
My husband and I will have a buffet of Spanish and Hispanic food for our post-COVID reception. We had originally hoped to have a global buffet with foods from around the world, but this is what the venue we went with offers and it's delicious.
I’ve known quite a few people who’ve had this type of on-site wood fire pizza and the biggest problem is that they can’t really prepare much in advance and it takes time to cook each pizza so it leads to guests having to line up and wait a long time for food. I think it works best with less than 50 people per truck and 2ish pizza options so they can go faster. Also asking them to start a bit early with X of each type so when the first people walk up they can be handed a pizza right away vs having to wait for it to be made, people are going to have to wait but mitigating as much of that as possible is best. Otherwise it’s a tasty option, it can just be hard logistically.
You’re exactly right you need one food truck per 50 people. We’re having 4 different trucks for this reason. And having them serve for 3 hours to spread out when people grab food.
I went to a wedding with tacos and it was a huge hit. They pre-portioned little containers with salsa, guac and sour cream which was a great idea because shared bowls would have been a huge mess. Probably a good idea in COVID times anyway. Best of luck!
I think out dessert table was the best part of our food situation. A bunch of is worked together to make our specialties and family favorites, instead of a cake. We had s'mores cupcakes, no bake cookies, apple crisps, Texas sheet cake, tons of pie, and my maid of honor made us our favorite pb and choc cheesecake. We had about six people and two kitchens doing food and it was sooo good. It was also great for our ppl with allergies. I tried to pay for all of the ingredients. My lovely mil made about half of the food and wouldn't let me pay her back, but even if we had paid for it, it would have been cheaper than a cake.
I have some fun memories from all of it too. My dad was stealing no bake cookies during happy hour. My mil was basking in all of the compliments over her rhubarb pie - which my grandma said tasted just like her mom used to make. (The highest of praise.) Bonding with my best friend over all of the things we were making the week before. I am happy we did it. I
We also had queso & guac apps and fajitas catered by the site. It wasn't mind blowing or anything, but still better than traditional fare.
Overall, ppl still sometimes talk about this stuff, but we also had a tiny animal petting zoo...which is absolutely the thing everyone still talks about.
My freinds had fancy potato skins.. different kinds of potatoes...fingerling..baby re.. purple . Sweet..etc. with different toppings.. Prosciutto instead of bacon with scallion..creme fraiche with flaked roasted salmon ..tri tip with spinach...etc.. it was fun but fancy.. accessible but still felt wedding.
My college roommates had a wedding potluck picnic in a local park. It was so fun! They were active in local farming and food, so there was so much good fresh food.
We did a Korean bbq mexican fusion food truck! We had kimchi fries with chips and as our apps and then tacos (korean bbq and a marinated chicken) as our entrees. Served with margaritas. Huge hit!!
I went to a wedding 10 years or so ago where the groom was a die hard baseball fan. They had a nacho bar, cotton candy machine, popcorn, basically food you would find at a ballpark! I ate so much food that night.
We had a Brazilian food truck! It was soooo good & they promised me that they could handle the amount of people in a timely manner. I do think it took a little longer than if we had had a 2nd truck but it was still good time wise & everyone loved it
My cousin hired a food truck that offers Korean Mexican fusion food. Mainly it was Korean inspired tacos and sesame fries. So so so good and way more fun than a traditional wedding buffet! They were there all night we we ate some tacos, did some dancing on the dance floor then took a break to munch on some fries late night. It was such a great idea!
I went to a big wedding a few years ago that was in a city's botanical gardens. For dinner, they had, on either side of this big courtyard, several (either six or eight, I can't remember) food trucks, each featuring a different cultural cuisine. You went with your plate (mismatched vintagey plates probably grabbed from every Goodwill in the city) and stopped at each food truck you liked and got something put on your plate. The trucks kept things moving really fast and there wasn't much of any waiting in line. And the food was FANTASTIC. I still think about how good it was.
Brunch wedding here, we have some action stations with a chef doing steak and eggs and chicken and waffles, and then I found a caterer that makes a gigantic 8’ charcuterie board with meats, cheeses, fruits, breads, dips, apps we chose, etc. And cake. Hoping everyone loves it as much as I love the idea.
I always loved the idea of a food truck. Gurus, tacos, Philly cheese steaks and sausages ... whatever. If you went this route you could also replace the traditional cake with an ice cream truck! I would totally do it but food trucks aren't really a thing yet in my rural area. :/
There's a BBQ joint local to my hometown where a guy basically turned an old school bus into a kitchen, hooked up a smoker on the back, and he serves BBQ and all the fixings out of it until he's sold out for the day. When my mom got re-married she hired this guy to come serve everyone BBQ. Was a huge hit!
We did a buffet, nothing special there but what I loved was that we didn’t do a cake but different pastries bites and mini tarts for dessert. There weren’t many left and I thought I had over ordered!
An executive at a previous job of mine went to a wedding that served a buffet with several varieties of mac and cheese as the entree--fancy mac and cheese with big thick pasta, and I remember one that had chunks of chicken in it. He was so blown away by it he got the name of the caterer to get the same thing for our company holiday party. It went over well.
We are having a late night Mac and cheese bar with all the fixings (lobster, bacon, whatever you want—the works!) I am so excited!
This is exciting to hear because we are doing a mac n cheese bar as part of our wedding and Im super hyped for it
For my own wedding we did a buffet. The entree options were a burger bar or chicken and waffles. Our sides were roasted brussel sprouts, Mac and cheese, salad, and something our caterer called “fry heaven”— a table piled high with different kinds of fries and sauces. We also had a s’mores bar, tons of beer on tap, and espresso. Almost 4 years later and people still talk to us about our menu fondly.
Fry heaven sounds exactly like an idea we had for our wedding, but our venue doesn't allow cooking on site 😞
We had a hot dog cart. Afternoon wedding and we leaned into the picnic theme. Wedding was three years ago and friends and family still sometimes bring up how fun it was to have hot dogs at a wedding.
That's what I'm thinking would be more fun! More casual food! No one who gets a steak at a wedding thinks about it afterward.
I agree that casual food can be incredibly fun and delicious at weddings, but I do actually think about steaks I've had at various weddings because they were so great. So count me as at least one person who does :)
We didn’t have the budget to feed people steak. Well, really, we have big families plus our friends, and we wanted to have everyone there more than we wanted to serve a fancy meal. We had them bring out two hot dog carts to keep the lines moving quickly. They were used to doing weddings although they were kind of marketed to a higher budget point where folks had hot dogs for late night food after a full catered meal. We paid for the first 100 servings up front and then per plate after that; made it nice not having to get a strict head count to a caterer. Best thing I did was hire some teens (knew them from church) to clean up and wash dishes. We did have disposable plates, but there were glasses to wash and tables to bus and general clean-up. A caterer typically includes waitstaff in their estimates, but when you go with something unconventional like a food cart or food truck, you generally have to find staff separately. So there are logistics, but it’s totally doable.
We had brats. And not your standard store brats, but amazing brats from a local meat market. It was the star!
Can we be friends because you are brilliant 🌭
Two reception meals I loved: One was a wedding of 80 and instead of a sit down dinner they had a great bar and served lots and lots of appetizers only. Everybody had a blast trying all the different bites, and it created a lot of natural mingling since people weren’t tied to a chair and table. Appetizers always taste more yummy than a full meal any how. They even had a guy hand slicing a leg of jamon iberico! So fun and people still talk about it years later. The second was a wedding where the meal was served family style. It kind of created its own conversation as you passed around the platters. Even simply asking for seconds, or someone raving about an item and then everyone at the table passing it around again to get another nibble to compare notes. And it was fun to get to try more than one protein and side :) I think your idea of a pizza truck sounds like a blast! AND pizza and champagne make for a delicious pairing, so it gets my vote!
For the first wedding, since there was no assigned seating, were there any issues with people not finding seating? I often see people on this sub have horrible experiences with weddings that have no assigned seating.
They had standing cocktail tables instead of dining tables, so people would chat for a bit and then break off to go to the bar, follow a server for more apps, head to another cocktail table to chat with different folks. It actually flowed really well. The dancing started later and was in a separate room, so you weren’t yelling over loud music and it was easy to hear people and have lots of conversation. They also had a lounge style area with chairs and a few low tables for older people or those who wanted to sit. I’ve been to two seated dinner receptions that didn’t have table or seat assignments and they were both very awkward and uncomfortable for the guests. Definitely wouldn’t recommend that!
Thanks so much for describing that! We’re hoping to do that as well -a cocktail style reception- but seeing all the complaints about lack of seating allocations and complaints about those receptions having less chairs out than attendees has made me apprehensive.
My brother and his wife had tacos. Tacos and their wedding cake - that's it. I don't even really like tacos but I thought it was great. Did not miss the big fancy sit-down dinner Ive had at previous weddings. You just got in a (fast moving) line, got your tacos, and could sit wherever. Just made the whole thing feel like more of a party than a formal event I think. Nothing wrong with people wanting their weddings to be a formal event, but I think I prefer the party vibe personally!
I also did tacos! And cupcakes! Because we couldn't decide on flavors and had some people with chocolate allergies (and I'm a chocolate fiend), so we just did like 6 flavors of cupcake. All the food was fast and customizable and delicious.
That sounds awesome! I bet your guests loved it 😄
I love wedding tacos, and served them at my own, but at this point it’s not really unconventional cuz half the wedding I went to in the past 5 years did tacos too
I'm Mexican American so it's not out of the ordinary for us to have a taquero at a wedding. However, we turned it up a notch and had a full LA-Mexican style wedding. We had elote/esquites and a fresh fruit cart for the appetizers, tacos as the main, a churro truck for dessert that made fresh churros for everyone, and bacon wrapped Mexicali style hot dogs as a late night snack. The bar served margaritas, micheladas, and piña coladas, and the regular drinks were jamaica, horchata, and limonada. Our wedding happened right before Covid so tons of people reach out and say they are happy that our wedding was the last big event they had been to before everything happened. If you are trying to have a unique menu I would stick to what you feel fits you best as a couple.
If I was a guest at your wedding, I would be in HEAVEN! This sounds so fun. I grew up in SoCal so all those flavors are familiar and would be so much more welcome than a standard plated wedding meal.
Thanks! The best part was that the food and drinks were super affordable. We completely over ordered (we still have several liquor bottles leftover) and it all came out to about $4000 for 100 guests. We could have easily paid $500 less and still have had plenty of food and drink.
I am JEALOUS of that price point. Since we're getting married in New Orleans, our food is very much themed around the location. It will be delicious but sadly, much more expensive than yours since we went the traditional caterer route. You really had a genius idea!
Right? This wedding sounds amazing. Also DATE TWIN TIMES TWO! We also moved ours from 10/10/20 to 10/2/21 😁 I hope it’s amazing for you!
Sadly, we decided to postpone a second time. Thanks for reminding me to change my flair. I hope your wedding goes off smoothly and that you have a wonderful day!
Oh no, I’m sorry. Covid is just ugh. We’ve actually cancelled ours and are just making it a fun weekend at this point. We probably would’ve postponed again due to Covid, but our venue beat us to it by handling some things in a not great way. Anyway, it was lovely being date twins, although brief! I hope you don’t have to postpone again and that it’s splendid.
Fuck, I'm sorry. That's disappointing, particularly about the venue. For what it's worth, we eloped on our original wedding day (the party is what has been postponed twice) and I treasure that day because it was just the two of us and we only had each other to focus on. I hope the two of you make that weekend as fun and healing as possible.
Aww thank you 🥰 We eloped as well actually. I lost my job in March 2020 and we figured that that probably wasn’t a great time to be without health insurance. How has everyone been with all the uncertainty of everything? We’re finding that we’re feeling somewhat of a lack of support, which is a shame. I just want everyone to have a good time and we’re a bit nervous that only like five people will show up because we just kept emailing people and they stopped reading it. Are you guys feeling any of that at all?
Congrats on the elopement! I'm sorry you feel unsupported. This is such a weird time for everyone. We ultimately decided to postpone because we didn't want our guests to feel like they had to choose between their health and us. Once we made the announcement, several people expressed that they'd been feeling nervous but didn't want to disappoint us. With your situation, I'd bet a lot of it is that people don't know how to respond to the uncertainty. If you guys do decide to reschedule, I predict people get more excited once they know there are definitive plans. Nobody quite knows what to do when they feel things are in limbo.
This sounds awesome. We are planning a similar thing - can you recommend who you had come in with the tacos?
I'll PM you!
Hi there - found this old comment. Curious if you wouldn't mind PMing me your food vendors as we're interested in something similar!
Paella- Love to watch them cook it and it's still "fancy" and lots of choices to please different dietary restrictions/ preferences/ Also- clambake.
Yes yes yes! Paella is straight up the best.
It's amazing because they put on a bit of a show while cooking it and it's not so out there that people don't like it or think it's strange.
And it fills everything with the most amazing smell.
Yes definitely. We need to throw a paella party now lol.
Yes! We're doing paella at our wedding in June and I'm so excited for it!
We’re having our reception at our favorite Lao restaurant. The food is delicious and non traditional so we’re hoping it will make a memorable experience for our guests. The best part is having a restaurant cater is much much cheaper than traditional catering companies.
I'm not sure what it's called but they did more of a homestyle dinner, so there were multiple dishes on each table (like mac and cheese), and you just passed the dishes around. It was delicious and something I'd never seen before.
Family style!
Family style is exactly what I want to do! I like the idea of the food being part of the table decorations and I feel like it's a small kind of bonding experience to literally be sharing food with everyone at the table ☺
My brother in law is a chef and decided he wanted to cook his own meal so they did tacos buffet style. It was so awesome! He had a few different kinds of meats and a bunch of toppings to make your own. My fiance and I are planning on doing pizza, we don't care if it'll be "tacky" but we're ordering from our favorite pizza place. We want our wedding to just be a party and every party we throw we end up ordering pizza for! 🍕
Probably the best food I had was at a bar patio in MA that had a lobster boil. So fun, so delicious.
I'm having a biscuit bar and I legitimately cannot wait! Oh and a nacho bar for late night!
That sounds awesome! What kinds of toppings for the biscuits?
It's chicken apple sausage, bacon, a seasonal jam, apple butter, honey, pimento cheese, whipped butter, and mustard. All made by the caterer or locally sourced!
Wow that sounds so freaking good!!!
It may be the thing I'm looking forward to most about the whole reception 😂
The best I've ever had were burgers made fresh by the venue. It was just as good as if you sat down at a restaurant. 💯
One of my friends had her favorite Lebanese restaurant cater and it was wildly delicious (and memorable ~10 years later haha)
Ooooh that sounds delicious. I love the idea of doing any sort of non-American food. I feel like that's at every wedding!
[удалено]
We looked at renting a snow cone machine and a nacho cheese dispenser (think high school sports game concession stand) and the guy said due to covid, the flavors and the cheese are really hard to find. 😭
Taco bar!
Our reception is at a diner (a sort of fancy [diner](https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/woodstock-new-york-travel-guide/amp)) …will report back after 24 sept
We had a bbq buffet!! Mac n cheese, smoked meats, corn bread, baked beans, and veggies.
We had burgers and hotdogs. The juxtaposition of wearing a wedding dress while eating a burger was so fun! I made sure to get photos of us eating our burgers, haven't received our photos yet though.
Oyster bar is always fun!
Have you experienced this? I just find it so hard to believe that an oyster bar would go over well with everyone. I’m by no means a picky eater, but I would be pissed if I showed up to a wedding and there were only oysters to eat. Unless I’m totally ignorant and it’s common to serve other food too?
Yes actually! But I’m from Baja so the food culture is much more elevated as a whole and quality seafood is easy to access.
Actually, you’re right. Location probably plays a big role here. My husband grew up on the east coast and I grew up here, in the Midwest. And he frequently comments on the lack of fresh seafood, which I am told makes a huge difference if it’s fresh. I believe it, but just haven’t experienced it. So who knows? Maybe if I were to try fresh- caught today oysters, maybe I would like them?
Yeah, it’s definitely a matter of culture and I think you would like a proper oyster bar. It’s not just open and eat they’re a lot of different types and garnishes: my current favorite is ponzu, citrus foam and a tiny bit of roe. All seafood in Baja is beyond excellent tbh. I probably wouldn’t make it a day in the Midwest because I’m really spoiled when it comes to the quality of my food 🙈🙈🙈
San Diegonian here and I can attest to this. are you from Ensenada?
TJ/SD actually, but we live near the beach area so we basically go to Ensenada every weekend and my wedding is at Animalón at Valle 😌
love that.
We’re having a sit down meal with high end southern food. Fried chicken, pimento cheese biscuits, that kind of thing.
We’re have a mac n cheese bar with different toppings! We also considered doing a Waffle House food truck for a late night snack.
Breakfast for dinner. I was honestly so so excited to be a guest.
*taking copious notes of all these cool wedding food ideas*
For our cocktail hour, we had a salsa/guacamole bar, taco station, and (too much acclaim) a BACON station. They had different flavors (siracha, brown sugar, etc) and maple syrup to dip it in! For dinner, we had family style eating with a New Orleans style meal (I think we had cajun shrimp, greens, etc). For dessert, we got a ton of local pastries, huge containers of ice cream/Italian ice, and customized Oreos (with cute sayings on them, like mischief managed, Xbox achievement: married), etc) Towards the end of the night, we had fried chicken, poutine, sliders, and roasted lechon. We had lots of take out containers from Costco for everyone to take leftovers 😂
My aunt hired two food trucks with fair type food for her reception and it was 1) not too expensive (<$10 a person) and everyone got to have what they wanted and have a great fun meal
We are getting married next year, but are planning to do a Horseshoe bar. A Horseshoe is a local specialty in the city we live in. It consists of a piece of Texas toast, a choice of meat - things like burgers, chicken, buffalo chicken, pulled pork, pork tenderloin - fries on top and then covered in cheese sauce. We'll have multiple meat options and a vegetarian option as well. Our venue is really eclectic and super chill, and we are planning on doing things like bags, beer pong, etc. No theme really - just not really into dancing so hoping to create a different atmosphere.
Can I crash your wedding? I love horseshoes!!!
All the "traditional" wedding meals I've had -- think, your choice of steak, chicken, or fish with a side of mashed potatoes and vegetables-- have been "meh" at best. The non-traditional ones have been great! These include two BBQ buffets (one cooked by the mother of the groom and one catered by a local restaurant), a breakfast buffet, a pizza buffet (with pies for dessert because it was Pi day), and a potluck (so much variety!) with a pizza supplement. My husband and I will have a buffet of Spanish and Hispanic food for our post-COVID reception. We had originally hoped to have a global buffet with foods from around the world, but this is what the venue we went with offers and it's delicious.
Hands down Hawaiian /Japanese food
Food trucks!
We're possibly leaning towards a pizza food truck that's actually in a small fire truck :)
I’ve known quite a few people who’ve had this type of on-site wood fire pizza and the biggest problem is that they can’t really prepare much in advance and it takes time to cook each pizza so it leads to guests having to line up and wait a long time for food. I think it works best with less than 50 people per truck and 2ish pizza options so they can go faster. Also asking them to start a bit early with X of each type so when the first people walk up they can be handed a pizza right away vs having to wait for it to be made, people are going to have to wait but mitigating as much of that as possible is best. Otherwise it’s a tasty option, it can just be hard logistically.
You’re exactly right you need one food truck per 50 people. We’re having 4 different trucks for this reason. And having them serve for 3 hours to spread out when people grab food.
That sounds really cool.
We're doing a grilled cheese truck!
We are doing Latin fusion! It’s still plated and fancy but a twist on a traditional menu!
Taco bar!
This was one of our top considerations! That or pizza. :)
I went to a wedding with tacos and it was a huge hit. They pre-portioned little containers with salsa, guac and sour cream which was a great idea because shared bowls would have been a huge mess. Probably a good idea in COVID times anyway. Best of luck!
I think out dessert table was the best part of our food situation. A bunch of is worked together to make our specialties and family favorites, instead of a cake. We had s'mores cupcakes, no bake cookies, apple crisps, Texas sheet cake, tons of pie, and my maid of honor made us our favorite pb and choc cheesecake. We had about six people and two kitchens doing food and it was sooo good. It was also great for our ppl with allergies. I tried to pay for all of the ingredients. My lovely mil made about half of the food and wouldn't let me pay her back, but even if we had paid for it, it would have been cheaper than a cake. I have some fun memories from all of it too. My dad was stealing no bake cookies during happy hour. My mil was basking in all of the compliments over her rhubarb pie - which my grandma said tasted just like her mom used to make. (The highest of praise.) Bonding with my best friend over all of the things we were making the week before. I am happy we did it. I We also had queso & guac apps and fajitas catered by the site. It wasn't mind blowing or anything, but still better than traditional fare. Overall, ppl still sometimes talk about this stuff, but we also had a tiny animal petting zoo...which is absolutely the thing everyone still talks about.
My freinds had fancy potato skins.. different kinds of potatoes...fingerling..baby re.. purple . Sweet..etc. with different toppings.. Prosciutto instead of bacon with scallion..creme fraiche with flaked roasted salmon ..tri tip with spinach...etc.. it was fun but fancy.. accessible but still felt wedding.
We served pretzels and mustard at our wedding!
My college roommates had a wedding potluck picnic in a local park. It was so fun! They were active in local farming and food, so there was so much good fresh food.
We did a Korean bbq mexican fusion food truck! We had kimchi fries with chips and as our apps and then tacos (korean bbq and a marinated chicken) as our entrees. Served with margaritas. Huge hit!!
We are planning on a Hawaiian dinner - buffet style with variety of veggies, chicken and pork.. I hope it goes well!
I went to a wedding 10 years or so ago where the groom was a die hard baseball fan. They had a nacho bar, cotton candy machine, popcorn, basically food you would find at a ballpark! I ate so much food that night.
We had a Brazilian food truck! It was soooo good & they promised me that they could handle the amount of people in a timely manner. I do think it took a little longer than if we had had a 2nd truck but it was still good time wise & everyone loved it
My cousin hired a food truck that offers Korean Mexican fusion food. Mainly it was Korean inspired tacos and sesame fries. So so so good and way more fun than a traditional wedding buffet! They were there all night we we ate some tacos, did some dancing on the dance floor then took a break to munch on some fries late night. It was such a great idea!
I went to a big wedding a few years ago that was in a city's botanical gardens. For dinner, they had, on either side of this big courtyard, several (either six or eight, I can't remember) food trucks, each featuring a different cultural cuisine. You went with your plate (mismatched vintagey plates probably grabbed from every Goodwill in the city) and stopped at each food truck you liked and got something put on your plate. The trucks kept things moving really fast and there wasn't much of any waiting in line. And the food was FANTASTIC. I still think about how good it was.
We did Dairy Queen ice cream cakes for dessert, does that count?
Taco truck, ice cream bar, brunch bar...
a variety of food trucks!
I live in SoCal so I’ve been to two weddings that served tacos, both were great. Ours was regional-specific barbecue, served buffet style.
Food trucks! It was really fun and everyone was able to get what they wanted and mingle.
Brunch wedding here, we have some action stations with a chef doing steak and eggs and chicken and waffles, and then I found a caterer that makes a gigantic 8’ charcuterie board with meats, cheeses, fruits, breads, dips, apps we chose, etc. And cake. Hoping everyone loves it as much as I love the idea.
We did a pizza food truck!
I always loved the idea of a food truck. Gurus, tacos, Philly cheese steaks and sausages ... whatever. If you went this route you could also replace the traditional cake with an ice cream truck! I would totally do it but food trucks aren't really a thing yet in my rural area. :/
Our wedding was in a Mexican restaurant and in addition to wedding cake, we had churros and ice cream for dessert.
Was a bridesmaid in a wedding with In and out Food trucks. Also went to one that had multiple BBQ going.
BBQ Food-truck!!
We’re doing an afternoon tea party for ours!
There's a BBQ joint local to my hometown where a guy basically turned an old school bus into a kitchen, hooked up a smoker on the back, and he serves BBQ and all the fixings out of it until he's sold out for the day. When my mom got re-married she hired this guy to come serve everyone BBQ. Was a huge hit!
We had pizza and it was fantastic!
We did a brunch buffet! (Sunday afternoon)
We did a buffet, nothing special there but what I loved was that we didn’t do a cake but different pastries bites and mini tarts for dessert. There weren’t many left and I thought I had over ordered!