Now that you know who our caterers are, it’s time to talk about the style of food we want at the wedding. First off, it is an evening wedding, around dinner time, so we know that people will expect to be fed. Don’t get me wrong, we are happy to feed them!
It’s funny, but both Cinnamon Buns and I had similar thoughts about the food quite early on in our engagement. We both decided that we weren’t to hot on the ‘chicken or fish’ type of sit-down meal that a lot of weddings have. We said to each other, “Could we just have appetizers? So many appetizers that people could eat until they’re full?”
Grazing is one of my favourite ways to eat—cheese and a couple crackers here, a banana there, grapes now, rice pudding in a bit. It also means that there would be a lot more choices for everybody. I always think,” what if you’re a vegetarian, and the veggie choice of meal is roasted eggplant, but you hate eggplant. What do you eat then?” There would be no problems like that at a ‘heavy appetizer’ wedding. We decided to go for it.
I guess it isn’t as original an idea as I had thought—none of the caterers we contacted so much as blinked an eye when I started rambling about, “Appetizers, but enough to make people feel full, so they’re not running out to Dairy Queen…” We had been thinking of everything being displayed on tables, and replenished by the serving staff—every caterer we talked to suggested passing some around as well. I’m still undecided about this—it’s nice and adds some variety, but it feels a bit too fancy for the wedding we’re planning. Another suggestion a few of the caterers had was to have at least one ‘station’—say, a chef at a station that puts together the perfect mini-burger for you, or something. I don’t think Cinnamon Buns is so hot on that idea, but I think it is neat. Again, it adds interest, but wouldn’t create a huge line-up, because there would be lots of other food elsewhere.
We also like this idea because it means people will mingle more. We’ve taken to calling it a “tapas-style dinner” as hors d’oeuvre’s sounds too fancy, and even if you say “heavy appetizer dinner” people still just go, “Appetizers? They’re making us eat before we go?!” Tapas is the name for appetizers or snacks in Spanish. Out of interest, while I was writing this post, I checked to see what Wikipedia had to say about tapas:
The serving of tapas is designed to encourage conversation because people are not so focused upon eating an entire meal that is set before them. Also, in some countries it is customary for diners to stand and move about while eating tapas.
That is pretty much what we were going for! We want mingling, we don’t want people plunked down at table in front of a giant steak! I think everyone (especially me!) will enjoy the food more, because you can have a little bite of something cheesy, then try a veggie samosa, then a Double Smoked Bacon Potato Cake (that was on our quote menu and I can’t wait!)… with lots of talking and mingling in between.
One of the interesting things about this was the numbers different caterers quoted. Some said 14 pieces per person, some said 22! I came to realise from looking at menus that this was to do with the caterers’ style. Some do the very teeny barely a single bite-type of food, others do appys that take a couple bites to eat. It also makes things a little more flexible—if someone is completely blind, and brings a date when ‘+1′ wasn’t on the invite, t’s not like there will be no food for them because we ordered 65 plates of steak and 65 only. Also, I feel that if we have a couple of no-shows…their 28 appys will get nibbled away by the end of the night. Our venue also doesn’t have what I think is a very caterer-friendly kitchen. There’s a little kitchen in the staff room, and that is it. Appetizers must be way easier to transport pre-cooked than anything plated meal-wise? At least, I think so, but I’ve never worked in the food industry.
How do you feel about dinner “tapas-style” rather than just one big plate of food?
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