Miss Panda, Boston, MAAge and Occupation: 26, Graduate StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: June 27, 2011Wedding Date: June 2013About Me: I love window shopping, cute animals, crafting, baking, and most forms of procrastination. I tend to be overly meticulous with choices to a point of complete and total indecision. Mr. PBear and I met and live in the amazing city of Boston. We are big nerds who love trying new foods, playing video games, and cuddling with our adorable hamster. After 5 years together, we are planning an intimate, DIY-heavy, vintage garden themed, nonreligious wedding in the city where we fell in love.
We finally finished putting together our menu for the big day and I am so excited to finally share it with you bees! It’s been a bit of a process, from randomly designing it with our venue, to going through the list with our family, just to make sure people had enough to eat. It was incredibly difficult to pick out foods that people would be able to eat, especially since we have vegetarians, no dairy folks, and people who are allergic to most things to a point where it might be easier to ask what they can eat. I’m not 100% happy with the menu, but I think it’s pretty good for now.
You know how I waxed poetically about how we *had* to have a family style dinner, instead of a plated, or a buffet style dinner? Well, turns out having family style is a lot more expensive, due to the addition of extra plates, extra food needed, extra servers and can be somewhat of a hassle. So, what are we doing instead? Did we finally stay with family style, or change back to buffet or plated?
The answer is we’re currently planning on doing all three. Does that just blow anyone else’s mind too?
Yup, talk about being indecisive. The current plan is to do a plated salad and soup courses, while moving to family style for the main course, and then moving to buffet styled desserts, best of every world.
Currently our planned menu has:
Five to six passed Hors d’oeuvres during cocktail hour including:
Mrs. Hippo, New York City/Dallas, TXAge and Occupation: 34, Event Planner for a Non-Profit Fiance's Age and Occupation: 35, Finance ITEngagement Date: August 8, 2009Wedding Date: March 2011Venue: Samuel Lynne Galleries and Marc EventsAbout Me: I’m a thirty-something bride living in New York City and planning a modern-ish wedding in Dallas, Texas. I love trashy reality television (Jersey Shore, anyone?), online shopping, Sunday brunch, Central Park, and random celebrity spottings on the streets of Manhattan. While I love NYC, I miss good Tex-Mex, my college friends, central A/C, and being in close proximity to a Target. I’m thrilled to finally be planning an event that’s not work-related and to be marrying my best friend in what I hope will be a unique and personal ceremony followed by a reception with plenty of good food, good drinks, and dancing (regardless if it’s good or not).
After some back and forth with our reception venue, we have officially decided on the menu for the evening. I am so excited about what we’ll be serving! This Hippo loves to eat, so just talking about these tasty offerings makes me happy. Want to hear what our guests will be noshing on? Just for full disclosure, these pictures aren’t from our venue, but I figured it would be a crime to not show pictures while talking food. Let’s just pretend that our food will look like this or even tastier, shall we?
First, the cocktail hour. Guests will be served two varieties of passed hors d’oeuvres and there will be two stationary hors d’oeuvres.
Passed Hors D’oeuvres
Petite Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes. Served resting in an ancho lemon aioli in individual bowls.
Mrs. Knitting, TorontoAge and Occupation: 24, Student Recruitment Assistant
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Neuroscience PhD CandidateEngagement Date: October 2009Wedding Date: December 2010Venue: University of Toronto Faculty Club
About Me: I'm a pearl wearing, etiquette book reading Toronto girl who loves cooking and baking, museums, charm bracelets, and collecting books on Jackie Kennedy (a lot). I've been known to spend Sunday mornings at the antique market, Wednesday evenings at sister sushi dinners, and any bit of spare time reading. After six and a half years of many late night walks, watching DVDs together in bed, travelling to places like New York, and Tobermory, doing Sudokus together on the couch, lots of Indian food, the occasional yoga class, moving in together and so much more, Mr. Knitting and I are planning a cozy Christmasy (it's a word!), vintage wedding in Toronto complete with many DIY projects (eek!) and lots of help from our amazing group of family and friends.
Menus were something I had never planned to do. I’ve never found them essential at other weddings and I figured they weren’t something we really needed. Our guests could find out what they’d be eating when it was placed in front of them (or if they read Weddingbee!). But then I realized that I love creating paper projects for the wedding and that making a menu would mean more fun for me.
Mrs. Thimble, NYC/PhiladelphiaAge and Occupation: 26, Actress & Costume Designer (+ day job)Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Lawyer & Techie WizEngagement Date: August 22, 2008Wedding Date: October 2010Venue: The Pearl S. Buck HouseAbout Me: I’m an easily inspired over-thinker delighted with the process of designing, building, directing and {dare I say} co-starring in the early-autumn affair I’ve been dreaming up. I’m a sucker for trendied-up comfort foods and old family anecdotes; I have an affinity for adjectives, alliteration, eyelet and earl grey; and I live for quality time with family and friends. I never guessed I’d marry my “high school sweetheart", but when it turned out to be my funny, techie, loyal Mr. Thimble I was committed for life. We’re both mid-career transition and ready to move back to small-townish TBD, PA in a pre-wedding flurry of all-good life changes.
I can’t believe I haven’t written about our menu yet. Food was priority numero uno for me, which is why we chose October for its hearty harvest comfort food options, and how we chose our venue because we could bring in our own caterer.
Of course, I met our caterers at an open house at our venue, so they have worked together before and it wasn’t a research-intensive task. But they were just one of many suggestions from Open Aire Affairs. We could choose the kind of folks who sold themselves as all inclusive, full-service (for this semi-DIY bride?); we could choose the local “best” who has the exclusive catering rights to two other popular venues in our area (red flag: several events in one day potential!); and we could choose the folks who didn’t give us a huge sales pitch—they just gave us their food, and it was phenomenal:
Mrs. Knitting, TorontoAge and Occupation: 24, Student Recruitment Assistant
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Neuroscience PhD CandidateEngagement Date: October 2009Wedding Date: December 2010Venue: University of Toronto Faculty Club
About Me: I'm a pearl wearing, etiquette book reading Toronto girl who loves cooking and baking, museums, charm bracelets, and collecting books on Jackie Kennedy (a lot). I've been known to spend Sunday mornings at the antique market, Wednesday evenings at sister sushi dinners, and any bit of spare time reading. After six and a half years of many late night walks, watching DVDs together in bed, travelling to places like New York, and Tobermory, doing Sudokus together on the couch, lots of Indian food, the occasional yoga class, moving in together and so much more, Mr. Knitting and I are planning a cozy Christmasy (it's a word!), vintage wedding in Toronto complete with many DIY projects (eek!) and lots of help from our amazing group of family and friends.
I (like many people) love food and have been very excited about choosing the food for our reception.
My love of food in action:
One of the reasons I loved the Faculty Club so much was that they offered such a huge selection of food options, whereas a lot of other places I looked at had set menus with very limited options. Interestingly, since we booked with the Faculty Club, they’ve come out with these set wedding packages and I have to say I don’t like them at all. I am very relieved that I am not stuck with one of those. The packages are good in that they’re very affordable, but they’re really not what I had in mind.
Our main goals with the menu were to make it delicious (obviously), simple, reflect our tastes and the season, and to have really good options for the vegans in our lives. Read more…
Mrs. Lobster, BrooklynAge and Occupation: 29, Finance GirlFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Finance BoyEngagement Date: July 25, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: Stage 6 Steiner StudiosAbout Me: I'm a New York-born, Virginia-bred girl who's found her way back to the big city. Mr. Lobster and I met in grad school and have been together ever since. I'm clueless about DIY but am an avid online shopper and love all things polka dots, stripes, and ruffles! When I'm not making wedding lists, you can find me looking for snacks, watching Gilmore Girls, or hanging out with Mr. Lobster and our new puppy Buddy! We are planning a fancy-pantsy Brooklyn wedding for a hot New York summer night which is sure to be a misadventure in the making.
Recently, we received our venue’s wedding menu packet in the mail. I was out of town at the time but when I came home, I saw that Mr. Lobster had gone through the entire menu and ticked off his likes (checks) and dislikes (big slashes). Ohhh, so *now* you want be all involved, do you, Mr. Lobster?
After much deliberation (and trading “I’ll give you a grilled cheese for a shrimp cocktail. Done.”), this is what we’ve come up with: Read more…
Mrs. Argyle, St. LouisAge and Occupation: 24, Project CoordinatorFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, PilotEngagement Date: February 15, 2009Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: Jewel Box in Forest Park and Windows on WashingtonAbout Me: I'm a true Midwestern girl (born and raised), lover of red wine, reality TV and the entire J.Crew catalog. I love to dance regardless of who is watching, and enjoy a good laugh with my girls. I have a soft spot in my heart for planet Earth, my two dogs and my fiance. Fall is my favorite season (which is why we are marrying in September), but I love a warm summer day and the Colorado mountains in the winter. We are planning a modern soiree downtown, with lots of bold colors, and fun, eco-friendly elements.
What happens when you schedule your food tasting and leave your camera at home?
You get to experience my super awesome Blackberry photos (apologies in advance!).
Last Wednesday, the Mr. and I headed down to Windows on Washington during our lunch break to taste out two of our options for dinner. We are doing a combo entree, which will contain two small portions of some sort of protein, so we would be tasting two different entrees, a side and two different salads.
So, what did we try?
Chicken Sonoma: Chicken breast with artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes and an herb wine cream sauce. Mmmmm…
Mrs. Cola, Mountain View, CAAge and Occupation: 27, Product Communications and PromotionsFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Managing Partner and Senior DesignerEngagement Date: March 5, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: The Mountain Terrace, Woodside, CAAbout Me: I’m a Washington State native, enjoying life in Silicon Valley California with my fiancé, our three kitties and one leopard gecko. I like reading wedding blogs, Photoshopping wedding design mock ups, making lists, and planning, planning, planning! I’m a bit of an anomaly, on one side I’m a very girlie girl, I collect shoes, I lay out my outfits 4-6 weeks in advance, and I’d never leave the house without my hair curled and makeup on. But on the other side, I’m a total tomboy, I love to go camping and hiking, play drinking games (hey, I’m Irish!) and most of my closest friends are guys. My fiancé and I are planning a DIY-focused wedding with a balance between easygoing (what he wants) and chic and stylish (what I want), and are tying it all together with elements in lavender, sage, butter cream and chocolate.
As a rather picky eater, with some food allergies, I tend to steer clear of buffets, or when I do eat at one (mainly in Vegas!), I stick to only recognizable foods. I’m just not adventurous enough to try new things, unless I know what they are, and it seems many buffets don’t think it’s necessary to label their food items.
So as a courtesy to our guests, I’ve made 4″ x 6″ framed signs for our buffet, so they will know what they’re eating. And I found the frames on sale at Jo-Ann’s for only $2.99 each! This will be a good alternative to a menu, since it really isn’t practical to have a menu at the place setting when people will be serving themselves, plus it’s an excuse for yet anotherprojectwithmybelovedpaper!
Mrs. Spaniel, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 28, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, PsychologistWedding Date: March 2010Venue: Calamigos RanchAbout Me: I'm a third-year law student trying to balance graduating with starting my career, keeping up a relationship, and, oh yeah, planning an Old World, multi-cultural, "mountain lodge" wedding for 180 guests! A South Asian Jewish girl getting ready to marry my handsome Catholic Dane, I'm hoping to blend our cultures in our wedding just a bit more gently than by providing samosas as appetizers and offering æbleskiver for dessert. (Although that would also be awesome.)
As you already know, Mr. Spaniel and I are pretty jazzed about our wedding menu. Unfortunately, we couldn’t fit full descriptions of every entreé on the RSVP card (they’re described in more detail on our wedding website, but I have little faith that many people will make it there), and we’d like to minimize people’s culinary surprise. Or something.
Enter the wedding menu card! (Cue music. Or the sound of chewing. Don’t eat the menu card, please; it’s not edible.)
Mrs. Ramen, PhoenixAge and Occupation: 26, Optometry StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Industrial DesignerEngagement Date: January 3, 2009Wedding Date: December 19, 2009Venue: Phoenix Art MuseumAbout Me: I'm an SF-born, Seattle-raised girl, transplanted to Phoenix where I'll be getting married, and planning all the way from Orange County where I go to school (yes, it feels as crazy as it sounds). I loooooove Yogurtland, am slightly very obsessed with all things paper, am heavily addicted to wedding blogs, deeply desire a puppy, thoroughly enjoy cooking, cry when I watch (almost all) movies, thrive on solo car-karaoke, can't stop being sarcastic, am neurotic about taking pictures of almost everything I eat before I eat it, and aspire to travel the world. My super-talented fiance and I are attempting to DIY a majority of our massive (~350 guests) "clean & modern, yet romantic, but completely unexpected, with a teeny dash of vintage" wedding, stay within our not-so-massive budget, and somehow get a really luxe (but still fun!) look/feel at the same time. In music terms (since we're both really into music) think Coldplay meets Motown meets Kanye meets Sinatra.
If only we had like 300 less guests (heck, I’d attempt this if we had 150 guests!), and if only I wasn’t in school, I would be ALLLLLLL OVER this project… maybe I can somehow incorporate this into something??? Somehow?? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Read more…
Mrs. Lightning, Cape Town Age and Occupation: 22, Journalist and Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Computer ScientistEngagement Date: December 27, 2008
Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: Hout Bay ManorAbout Me: I'm a young American living abroad in the beautiful city of Cape Town with a wonderful South African fiance and our crazy kitty Zeus. We're young, driven and madly in love. Together we're pursuing our wildest dreams including our biggest undertaking yet, a vintage retrospective wedding filled to the brim with DIY madness. I have an unnatural attraction to cake, a passion for blogging and a love of good design. While I might be an overly obsessive creative with too many ideas and nowhere to put them, Mr Lightning is my biggest fan and I can't wait to make my true love mine.
In one big effort, thanks to some help from a few faithful friends, we managed to finish our menu/programmes in 2 nights (it took 2 because we ran out of ink on the first night, which is pretty impressive on the whole, I think).
Mrs. Sunbeam, San Francisco/Grove City, PAAge and Occupation: 26, Grad Student & Office ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Motion DesignerEngagement Date: May 10, 2008Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: Harbison Chapel & The Maple Lane FarmAbout Me: Mr. Sunbeam and I are high school sweethearts. We both come from a small town in PA but are growing to love the California lifestyle. He loves wine and I love cheese... the perfect combination! When I'm not drooling over wedding blogs, I'm attending grad school, out being a foodie, or attempting to "walk" our cat at the park. Two things guaranteed to excite me are wedding cakes and breaking out my suitcase to travel. Mr. Sunbeam and I are personalizing our hometown wedding to celebrate our high school sweetheart status and PA roots with a few CA touches. After ten years of dating we couldn't be more excited to call each other husband and wife!
On my final trip home before the wedding, I had a tasting with our lovely caterer, Jody’s Pantry Catering. My family had done a tasting with them previously when we were in crisis mode to find a new caterer, but it’s always nice to meet, greet, and eat first hand, if possible. Without further ado, I give you our delicious menu which, as I said before, will be served small plate style: Read more…
Mrs. Mouse, AustinAge and Occupation: 25, Weddingbee Editor/AttorneyFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Civil EngineerEngagement Date: December 19, 2007Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: Barr MansionAbout Me: I just graduated from law school and will be taking the bar, getting married, going on a honeymoon with my guy, and then trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. I was born and raised in a small East Texas town, but I'm no country girl! I'm obsessed with British accents, fantasy (including Harry Potter, of course), and classic rock. My fiance and I consider ourselves both music and beer snobs---but every once in a while we love to hear a crappy band and drink a cheap brew or two. We're planning an eco-friendly, casual, English garden affair for the end of summer, and we can't wait for it to get here!
Last Friday we finally had our tasting at our wedding venue, Barr Mansion. In case you don’t remember, our venue provides the food (even the cake!), and it’s all 100% organic. So the Dude and I got to visit the place where we’re going to get married and have dinner and drinks in the Artisan Ballroom where our reception will be. A nice way to spend a Friday evening, if you ask me.
In one big effort, thanks to some help from a few faithful friends, we managed to finish our menu/programmes in 2 nights (it took 2 because we ran out of ink on the first night, which is pretty impressive on the whole, I think).
