Weddingbee Blog

My FI and I are not veggies, but my sweet-as-pie stepmom is (along with a few assorted cousins and friends.) We made sure that the veggie options were plentiful and yummy. There hasn’t been much of a fuss about vegetarian food being served. Most of the meat-eaters in our family will happily eat stuffed mushroom caps and spanokopita appetizers, even if they’re technicaly meat free.

I narrowed my caterers down to two and had tastings with both- they were both full service catering business, not restaurants. The caterer that I ended up choosing insisted on it, saying that I should not sign a contract before tasting the food- fortunately, it tasted great! I also had a crazy spreadsheet going, which helped me compare all the little costs- and helped with negotiating. My only problem now is that I need to turn one caterer down even though they laid out a lovely tasting for me…

We booked our wedding at a private country club that comes with the caterer - we have to use the club’s food for the wedding. That’s fine, saves me the trouble of shopping for yet another vendor. I have heard wonderful things about their food but the only thing that is frustrating to me is that if we want a buffet, we don’t get to taste the food ahead of time because the kitchen won’t cook up buffet items for a tasting for 4 people. If we want plated service, we will be able to arrange a tasting though, and plated service is cheaper, so we’re leaning towards that. The funny thing is though that they are really pushing for us to do buffet (it’s easier for the kitchen and requires less service staff) so we’re hoping to use that as a negotiation tool if they want us to pick buffet so badly. Maybe a price discount or a tasting.

I am semi-vegetarian (I eat seafood but no poultry or red meat), but my fiance is a pretty voracious meat eater and basically doesn’t consider his food to be a meal if there’s no meat. Food is really important to him at the wedding so he’s going to pick out the meat dishes that we offer. I’m a pretty easygoing veggie, so I ask only that there be at least 1 tasty veggie appetizer and 1 veggie option for each course at the meal (salad and entree).

I do think it’s a bit unusual to have a vegetarian-only reception, though it’s your wedding and if you don’t believe in supporting the meat industry then you shouldn’t feel you have to for a large event either. But be aware that your guests will probably be surprised (and not in a good way) that there is no meat. I think you have made the right choice by offering one entree option with meat, that should keep them happy.

She’s really a good person and I know she will attend even if I served french fries and Micky D, but buffets to carry a stigma for being cheap and somewhat tacky (think Hometown Buffet) even though we know that in many cases, these are $$$, grand and Vegas style.

Basically, in Asian weddings, guests typically give red envelopes (money) as the wedding gift–and that amount is usually enough to cover one’s plate. She doesn’t want to “pay” to have to serve herself. However flawed her reasoning is, I do understand why she thinks this way.

hm-wow. i think buffets are the way to go because plating and serving GOOD food for 150 people is difficult.

I’m a vegetarian, and my fiance doesn’t eat much meat. We also have quite a few family members that keep Kosher and won’t eat meat out of their home. We’re having vegetarian and fish options only - no meat. It’s an afternoon affair, so people can always get meat for dinner. I have a friend who is doing all vegetarian at her wedding. For the number of weddings that I’ve been to with no vegetarian appetizers and no real vegetarian entree, I think people can get over not having meat at our wedding.

Any caterer that wouldn’t let me taste the food lost my business immediately, no questions asked. Sorry, I want to taste the food.

Neither of us are vegetarians, but I keep kosher, and we agreed early on that there wouldn’t be any food there that I couldn’t eat (pork, shellfish, etc). That was never a problem, though. We also chose not to have beef, because we don’t eat a ton of red meat and don’t think it’s worth the cost to serve everyone steak. If they want to come visit us in Seattle some time, we’ll buy them steak - but at our wedding, they’ll eat chicken or ravioli.

I’m a longtime vegetarian but my fiance is an avid carnivore. We’re having a cocktail-style reception with passed hors d’oeuvres and a heavy buffet. Our compromise is that at least 50% of the food must be veggie-friendly.

You want me to pay you thousands of dollars, outrageous service charges, extra fees for linens, china, and liquor…. and you want me to tip you on top of all of that? Honey, you better fork over some food to prove WITHOUT A DOUBT that you’re the best I can do!

I would not even consider someone that told me I couldn’t taste it first. There are too many things to leave to chance and catering is such an integral part of a reception that bad food can equal bad karma for the rest of the night (do you really want all of your guests to leave early in search of the nearest burger shack because they would rather starve than eat food you paid way too much for?) Even something as simple as spaghetti can be made a million different ways. Why chance something so major?

wow. i hope my family doesn’t get too upset that our wedding is going to be all VEGAN too. hey we deserve it right. we are always the ones with the “special diet” and it will be our special day. so why not. i want to be able to eat anything there unlike every other big event.

and i figure it wont kill them if they eat a healthy meat-free meal for one night. and they will get to experience what our food is like.

im sure your food will be great