Weddingbee boards

So we're in the process of coming up with a catering menu, but all our caterers are like "oh, we want to serve what you love" etc.  But it's so open ended that it's hard to respond to that.  We also want to do a mostly-vegetarian wedding, possibly with stations or a variety of cuisines that compliment each other.  We've thought about Indian food, Italian, Spanish, Mexican, etc.   

So far, I've thought maybe some kind of apple or pear salad, maybe with some brie as a salad, or maybe a pumpkin or sweet potato soup.  

As possible main dishes, some kind of vegetable lasagna or some kind of marianted tofu curry dish and maybe a salmon or shrimp dish...but I need more ideas!  

What flavors and styles are you going for for your wedding?  Is anyone doing stations?  How did you get them to compliment each other and not feel like a food court?

Wish I could help - we haven't made it to that point yet!

My fiance says that he and my dad are going to pick out the food. Lord only knows what that meal will end up looking like, LOL.

A wedding I just attended 2 weeks ago had a smorgasboard of food, literally everything you could imagine, Indian/Chinese/Mexican/Japanese food tables, cheese, cold-cuts, fruits table, sandwich table, pasta table, West Indian food table. It was like a food court, but I must admit, as a guest it kind of rocked....maybe this is because I will eat anything....

Good luck though - your ideas so far sound delicious!

We are serving vegetarian Indian food and Middle Eastern meat dishes.  So far we are trying to coordinate with two caterers to serve two rice dishes, two vegetable curries, yogurt-mint raita, Lebanese kibbeh, pomegranate chicken and a saffron-yogurt dessert.  My fiance is Indian and I am Lebanese, so we are trying to respect both of our backgrounds with our food choices.  

I'm a little bit grateful our venue gives us a menu to choose from.

I love the idea of food stations -- I was at one recently that was absolutely brilliant, lots of space around all the dishes and it looked lovely. You could theme by cuisine, rather than meat/veg or whatever, to give it more of a theme.

What we did with our catering proposals (we haven't selected our caterer yet - doing tastings now...YUM!) is tell them the types of food we like and then ask them to make suggestions.  We're looking at it as we love to eat, but they're the professionals.  Just make sure that you have things heavy enough to fill people up if you're going mostly vegetarian - I love the soup idea (we're doing it too).  What about a "soup shooter" station - perhaps with mini grilled cheese on the side?  You could also do this as a passed app.  Other passed apps like risotto balls, mini Caprese (fresh mozz ball, cherry tomato, basil lead), some sort of hot/brie tartlet, etc.

Are you also going to have a seated portion of the meal?  Is this a dinner?  If so, you may want to see if you can offer guests a choice - vegetarian or fish/chicken/beef main meal.  (And if the caterer fights you on it, there are plenty who won't...businesses aren't doing great right now)  If you go with fish, I'd probably offer either salmon, halibut, or talapia since those are fairly well-know fish that aren't too "fishy."  Unless you know most of your friends and family love curry, I'd probably stay away from it (just the smell often makes me a little nauseous)

We're definitely going with a theme for our catering menu...

As guests arrive for the ceremony they will be offered hot apple cider and apple cider donuts

Cocktail hour will have an international cheese station and crudite stations, as well as a smoked fish station, which will  include sushi and steamed mussels.

Passed apps will be harvest veggie risotto fritters, duck confit pasties with apple chutney and pot roast amuse bouche (shredded pot roast in a mini-phyllo dough cups with a veggie slaw on top). May add in the mini chicken pot pies they offer...sounds cute! lol

Dinner will be three choices:

1) Lamb shank with polenta

2) Crispy boneless chicken with a cranberry orange sauce and wild rice

3) Butternut squash ravioli with brown sugar sauce

Our cake is a will consist of three tiers...two tiers of spice cake with fillings of caramel buttercream and apple preserves on alternating layers and one tier of red velvet cake with chocolate truffle filling.

OMG...I am so hungry now!! lol!!

cocktail hour - basil bruschetta & peppercorn beef sirloin skewers

dinner - salad, parmesan crusted chicken, steamed veggies, garlic red potatoes

Passed appetizers-honey pear bruschetta, crab wontons, sliders

Salad-mixed greens, apple, cranberries, blue cheese, onions, maple vinegarette

Entrees- mint crusted rack of lamb, and grilled halibut with grapefruit buerre blanc, mushroom risotto

Fire roasted veggies, smashed red potatoes

Mmmm....

Hmm. Well, we're having a dessert reception. Cake, wine, little desserts and finger foods, featuring some specifically fall themed ones when possible-pumpkin flavor, chocolate leaf decorations.

One of my best friends had a late October wedding. They had punch in a pumpkin-literally, a real one. It was so neat! They also had butternut squash soup (very good) turkey, stuffing and roasted potatoes.