Last time we talked about catering, I mentioned my dilemma regarding my idea of a true “brunch” reception—including both breakfast and lunch items. You guys were super encouraging!
Reactions from those I told outside of the hive were a little mixed. Some of my closer family members said they thought it was a great idea while others said it was weird and I should stick to one or the other. Ultimately, though, they encouraged me that it’s my wedding and I should do whatever I want—quirky or not!
I don’t always subscribe to the “do whatever you want, it’s your wedding” doctrine. I think input is important and you shouldn’t always do something just because it’s what you selfishly want! That being said, I don’t think the items you put on the menu fall under this category. In designing the menu I was focusing on a variety of items where everyone would have something to eat (including the health conscious and vegetarians). All that to say—I decided to move ahead with my brunch plan!
I did take a few things into consideration. First of all, I want the menu to stay portable and casual. This means no pancakes or steaks!
Image via wordsbyfionakyle / Photo by Phillip Shannon Photography
Don’t they look delicious? I’m a French toast person myself, but I knew that I wasn’t going to be including pancakes, French toast, or waffles on the menu. Delicious as they are, they don’t really fit a buffet reception, especially when we want to encourage people to mingle and walk around. I’m one of those “don’t let my food touch” people—so if I eat a pancake, I’m sitting down with nothing else on my plate. This applies to all kinds of “syrupy” or more involved foods that I was trying to avoid. Did I spend enough time over-analyzing pancakes yet? Thought so.
Image via lover.ly / Photo by Wolfgang Puck Catering
All right, so, steaks. First of all, I hate my steaks rare. I like them well done, and my favorite part is the charred edges. Total side note! But here’s my real point with steaks—and actually all foods in the typical “formal” reception menu—they don’t fit with the rest of the ceremony and reception. We’re in a casual room with a simple reception. Not really steak material—or crab cakes, or salmon, or…you get the picture. Although now I could really go for some grilled steak. Mmm.
So now for the inspiration pictures. Still a work in progress!
Image via lover.ly / Photo by Joielala Photographie
Image via lover.ly / Photo by Rachel Havel Photography
Confession, guys. I only used that picture of the donuts because they had sprinkles. Sprinkles on donuts just make them 10 times better. But anyway, that’s the first item—a mix of pastries, probably including donuts or scones, muffins, cinnamon rolls, etc.
Image via The Pioneer Woman / Photo by Pioneer Woman Photography
This picture is of a full-sized quiche, but I actually want to serve mini quiches. At our catering tasting we sampled bacon quiche, which I loved, but I want to have a vegetarian option as well.
Image via lover.ly / Photo by Brandi Welles Photography
I love fruit! When I see a fruit tray at a party or reception I get so excited for fresh blueberries and pineapple especially. The other option here would be a vegetable tray—but I think I’d go for a fruit tray over a vegetable tray for a brunch reception.
Image via lover.ly / Photo by Cyn Kain Photography
These sandwiches are a little daintier than I was thinking—this is more of a bridal-shower sandwich than a wedding reception. But I love the presentation!
Image via Multiply Delicious
I love my pasta salad with tomatoes and broccoli—the only problem with this is that so many people have different tastes when it comes to pasta salad! I want to serve something that doesn’t have polarizing ingredients (so I cut out mushrooms) but isn’t bland. Any suggestions?
Image via lover.ly / Photo by Kelli Hunt Photography
I wanted to include one more item. I’m thinking something along the lines of cheese/crackers/meat/other snackable, more appetizer-type items. They could be included along with the main meal as something to add that a lot of people enjoy.
So we have a mix of three “breakfast” foods and three “lunch” foods. All of them, though, are fairly casual and all except the pasta salad could be semi finger foods. For some reason I’m just stuck on the pasta salad!
Am I headed in the right direction? If you attended a reception like this, what would you think? Is there enough food? A good variety of food?
Honestly? I don’t think there’s enough food. You need some sort of other protein selection. I think I’d leave this wedding kind of hungry. There’s a LOT of carbs–love me some carbs, but that’s not really enough food for me.
I think you’re planning a nice spread of different food items. And quiche has many vegetarian options, like spinach – to just name one.
If all but one of the foods are finger foods, then I would probably go ahead and make all of them finger foods. I hate trying to mingle and hold onto my plate, my drink, AND a fork. I always drop one of them. Having said that, YUM. I love brunch. The food looks delicious.
@Lone Star: Hmm, good point. One thing to note is that there will be a wide range of sandwiches—real sandwiches—that would have plenty of meat. I think the picture is deceiving. I probably should have used a different one! Think of a spread of subs instead of delicate sandwiches.
@Miss Blue Whale: I’m struggling with that decision! The good news is that the menu is totally changeable right now. So if something doesn’t work out, no big deal. I can just switch out the items!
@Lone Star: I would have to agree… I am def. a meat-lover and it doesn’t feel like there is enough of it on your menu… bacon? ham? sausages? prime rib maybe?
My fav. pasta salad is with onions, tomatoes, and cucumber. But I agree, there are so many variations of pasta salad to choose from!
I think it all sounds perfect! I’m confused about what exactly brunch is if it isn’t a meal where you can get both breakfast and lunch! You’re doing such a great job of setting the tone for a fun, casual, mingling kind of event. We’re doing the same thing for our cocktail type reception, and I can completely commiserate about the pasta salad. All of our food are finger foods except one. But I just don’t want to leave out that one!
I love this! I am thinking of doing a similar menu for my wedding, no matter what time of day it is 
Definitely letting it fall under the “It’s my wedding” category, because SO and I both LOVE breakfast foods and go out for breakfast dates often. If you still wanted pancakes or french toast (my favorite too), I saw a wedding where they used small clear plastic cups and put a triangle of french toast balancing in the cup to make it portable.
Woohoo! Google images helped me find it: http://alowcountrywed.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/myrtle-beach-weddings-catering-1.jpg
I’m thinking of doing something like that so we can have our favorites.
As for the pasta salad, my family’s favorite recipe includes bow tie pasta, fresh broccoli and cauliflower, chopped colby cheese, italian dressing, and a teaspoon of a McCormick seasoning called “Salad Supreme.” We sometimes add mini pepperonis, depending on how we’re feeling that day.
Best of luck on your awesome menu!
Had one more thought on the pasta: make the basic pasta and dressing, and have an assortment of “mix-ins” that could include your broccoli, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc. Kind of a make-your-own station!
To me it doesn’t seem as brunch-y but I like the options you have presented. If the sandwiches are going to be bigger I think you’d be okay. Maybe add some additional veggies and maybe a soup.
@Miss Lemur:
just a thought as far as the pasta salad fork situation…it may be possible to serve it on a lettuce leaf or something similar so people could just take a bit/pop it in their mouth.
To me this seems more lunch like than brunch (since the “main” course in my mind here is sandwiches and you don’t really have any typical breakfast stuff besides pastry which to me are still dessert)
I think that the sandwich/pasta salad type stuff is a great idea though… maybe you want to continue with that picnic type theme?
another low/no carb option might be a honey baked ham or two that people could grab a few slices (w or w/o bread) and maybe a garden salad too?
I like the pasta salad bar idea! people generally love when I do that at my house (I do an amazing mac & cheese bar!) but I will say that it can get messy and slow so if you have more than say 50 guests it might be too much
Ooo, honeybaked ham is a good idea. Maybe a carving station? Or a presliced one, you can make mini sandwiches or not, and have a fancy array of mustards.
First of all–your pictures are making me hungry for Brunch!! (OK, well mainly the pastries). I will agree that you maybe need more proteins–all the brunch buffets I’ve ever been to have always had ham and/or prime rib carving stations along with the typical breakfast meats (sausage and bacon). Is any of that an option? Obviously, if you’re not doing the eggs/pancakes side of brunch than the breakfast meats might not fit in, but maybe the carving stations? If that’s an option? I do think the quiche, pastries and fruit mixed with the other things are enough to make it brunch though! Not EVERY brunch has pancakes and eggs
Wow I love all your guys’ suggestions! If I were to add some other kind of protein, what would be your choice, and what would you replace on the menu? For example, if I were to add sausage/ham to the cheese and crackers? Is that enough? Another option is adding a purely bacon/sausage option and taking out the cheese/crackers.
A couple things: we’re working with a pretty strict budget so I don’t want to have more than six or seven items total, although some can be combined. Also, I guess I eat very little meat—I do eat it occasionally, so I’m not a vegetarian, but it’s really only two or three times a week at most. So thinking about meat was not high on priority list, but I see it is for everyone else!
Make the pasta station DIY? Tossed pasta and three or four ‘addition’ ingredients.
@MissTzatziki: These are just the cutest ever! I would love to have those waiting for me at a wedding! Probably not in the cards for us, but one of those “if I could have anything I wanted” kinds of things 
@SuperDuperBrit: I love love soup but there’s a possibility that it’s going to be 90 degrees and humid… I know it’s an indoor wedding but I think I want to stay away from soup :/
I’ll definitely focus on making the sandwiches more substantial. Maybe I should add something more substantial to the “breakfast” side of it too. What about sausage and bacon? Some kind of breakfast biscuit maybe?
Could the caterer do mini bacon (or sausage) egg and cheese sandwiches? That evens out the lunch side, provides protein, and is finger food… I’m picturing tiny sandwiches on tiny biscuits….
@Lone Star: Do you think the meats need to stand alone, or is it enough to have a good array of types of sandwiches? (Like ham, turkey, maybe some kind of chicken salad.) I could do plenty of sandwiches and have meat available with cheese and crackers too… would that be enough?
A little from my perspective: I regularly eat just pasta with veggies (sort of like a pasta salad) for lunch and that’s more than enough for me! So I appreciate outside input
Mrs. Lemur, Greenville, South Carolina Age and Occupation: 22, Graduate Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 22, Security Officer Engagement Date: October 9, 2012 Wedding Date: May 2013 Venue: Pleasant Ridge Camp & Retreat Center About Me: I may fancy myself a doctor after too many episodes of House—but in reality I'm finally almost done with my degree in business administration (less than three months left!). My fiance and I met at school in undergrad hundreds of miles away from either of our hometowns and have been happily running and hiking together ever since. We're undertaking a long distance relationship as I finish school and we plan our casual wedding for a day after graduation—needless to say, it will be the busiest and most exciting weekend of our lives so far!
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