Wedding dinner: what is there to consider?
A lovingly selected and delicious meal at the wedding is sure to be remembered by you and your guests for a long time. But what suits you better? Menu or buffet? Hearty or light fare? Traditional or exotic? Our tips will help you put together a great meal for your wedding.
When it comes to good wedding food, Das Hochzeits, opinions differ. Some prefer traditional dishes such as the classic wedding soup – a clear meat broth with egg custard or marrow dumplings. The others rely on a Mediterranean setting with antipasti and fresh fish dishes.
Allowed is what you like – that’s not wrong as a basis. But a few additional tips can’t hurt. Before you start choosing the individual dishes, you should consider how the food will be served at your wedding.
At a wedding buffet, cold and warm dishes are served appetizingly. This has the advantage that your guests can serve themselves as they please and fill the plate several times. A wedding menu, on the other hand, underlines the festive character of the day. In addition, all guests can enjoy their food at the same time.
If you can’t decide, you should think about a combination of both and, for example, have the starter and main course served at the table and the dessert as a dessert buffet.
Depending on the time of day, you can offer coffee and cake in advance. Consider cutting the wedding cake at the same time. Alternatively, the time between the wedding ceremony and the meal can be bridged with bite-sized appetizers. The so-called finger food is available in many creative variants, so that it also fits into noble wedding concepts.
If all this is too ordinary for you, you can set a real highlight with a cooking station. The dishes, such as wok dishes, pasta or wafer-thin crêpes, are freshly prepared here in front of the guests. Or how about sugar-sweet temptation with a small chocolate fountain – a dream for all children and many a bride.
For food and drinks, as for all the essential parts of your wedding, you should plan a fixed wedding budget. Because especially when it comes to physical well-being, the costs can quickly turn out to be higher than expected. Here are a few more tips:
• If the wedding celebration begins in the afternoon, you can put together the cake buffet yourself or with the help of a few motivated helpers from family or friends. You can save a lot of money by baking or cooking yourself.
• Expensive delicacies are simply part of it for you? Then simply have lobster and co. served as finger food and not as an opulent main course.
• A “midnight snack” is often offered late at night. Here you can easily have leftovers from the wedding and cake buffet served up again.
What is there to eat at the wedding?
Mediterranean, Asian cuisine or German home cooking – on the wedding day, the bride and groom should taste it above all. For anyone who still needs a little help, we have put together a few tips here:
- With the exception of desserts, the wedding menu usually consists of cold dishes before hot dishes and fish before meat courses. In particular, the main ingredients of the dish should not appear again in the following course. So, for example, a mushroom risotto after a mushroom soup is rather unfavorable.
- Tastes vary, and with a large wedding party, you can’t cater to everyone’s preferences. If there are allergy sufferers or vegetarians among your loved ones, a special menu or appropriate dishes can be easily prepared for them. Even small wedding guests are often choosy when it comes to food. Instead of noble fish, you can make the wedding tasty for them with schnitzel or spaghetti in tomato sauce.
- The best way to prevent stress and mishaps is to draw up a schedule and go through it with those responsible for catering or the restaurant. Plan enough time for the champagne reception, because usually the guests only gradually arrive at the wedding location. Also think about when there are breaks for the wedding speakers so that they are not interrupted by clattering plates or the like.
drinks at the wedding
Not only the food, but also the drinks must not be forgotten for the wedding. How about starting with a special wedding cocktail that is served as an aperitif? In addition to classic sparkling wine, you can offer a sweet alternative that can certainly also be mixed as a non-alcoholic version.
If you are unsure about the choice of wines, you can get advice from the restaurant or catering service. “Red wine with dark meat, white wine with white meat and fish” is still a good rule of thumb, but the professional can best answer how heavy or fruity the wine should be with your main course. A little tip: put together a small selection and let the guests decide for themselves which wine they would like to drink with each course.
And of course other drinks – mineral water, juices, lemonade and beer – must also be provided at the wedding reception. If the drinks are billed via the restaurant or catering, you should definitely clarify what exactly the offer covers. What drinks are included in a package? Are there extra costs after a certain time?
If you take care of the drinks yourself, buying on a commission basis is recommended. Because you only pay for what was actually used and everything else goes back to the dealer.
You can find more tips and suggestions for everything to do with wedding preparations in our Wedding special .