6 Questions to Ask When Deciding on Your Wedding Menu

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Long after a wedding is over, guests will remember two things: how beautiful the bride looked and how well they were fed. You want your menu to be tantalizing and delicious as well as representative of the two of you and your personal style. Food and drink will probably comprise 50 percent of your wedding budget, so make it count. So this week we spoke with Ani Keshishian from Anoush Catering and she provided us with six questions that you need to contemplate as you decide on the wedding menu.

 Elegant table setting by Anoush Catering

1. Sit-Down Dinner or Buffet?

The first thing to decide is how you’d like the meal to be served. A plated dinner served at the table is more formal and provides more control over the timing of courses. A buffet allows people to make their own choices, but it involves a lot of back and forth for your guests, and could lead to waiting in long lines. Buffets can also be difficult for older people and require extra effort for parents of younger children. In any case, depending upon the capacity of your venue, it’s not usually a great idea to have a buffet dinner for more than 100 people.

A good middle ground between plated service and a buffet is to have the meal served “family style.” Not only do your guests get to stay comfortably in their seats and still make their own selections, but sharing from serving dishes on the table leads to conversation and a congenial sense of family.

Family Style Service by Anoush Catering

2. How Do We Decide What to Serve?

Take a cue from the kind of food you like to eat, and what you’d be pleased to serve to guests in your home. Think about both of your families’ traditions, cultural specialties, and feast foods. Consider the season; even if you’ll be indoors, especially hearty foods don’t feel right in the summertime and some airy dishes won’t feel right in the winter, particularly if they require out-of-season ingredients. Then think about your guests. Will it be a crowd that appreciates exotic choices or will most people be happier with food that’s more familiar?

If you’d like to combine two food traditions, consider how the flavors might clash or complement each other. So much of modern cuisine is all about fusion that there’s almost nothing that’s out of bounds anymore. If you and your caterer can’t quite figure out how to make it work on one harmonious dinner plate, this is where food stations or family-style service might be most appropriate. You could also decide to serve one type of cuisine during the cocktail hour and another for the seated meal.

Anoush Catering

3. Does Everything Have to Be Fancy?

Not at all! If you adore macaroni and cheese and want to serve it in place of risotto, go right ahead. President Franklin Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor once served hot dogs to the king and queen of England! All you should be mindful of is serving the best you can provide of whatever it is, whether that’s caviar or pizza.

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4. What About Guests With Special Dietary Requirements?

Not everyone likes to eat meat, or can. Include a delectable vegetarian entrée that guests can choose. It will suit people who don’t eat animal protein as well as those who have religious restrictions against pork and specific meat preparations. More and more children seem to have allergies to peanuts and some adults are also allergic to them, as well as to tree nuts like walnuts, pecans, and almonds. There are also people who cannot eat gluten. People with special requirements are used to being careful about what they choose to eat, but if your vegetarian choice is also clear of breading and of nuts — which could be passed on the side — you’ll be certain there’s at least one main dish that accommodates everyone.

5. How Many Hors D’Oeuvres Are Too Many?

Your guests will be hungry after the wedding ceremony, and if you’re having the typical reception, it will be at least an hour before dinner. That’s a long time to wait, particularly if people are drinking. You want a gracious array of hors d’oeuvres, but you don’t want people to be stuffed before they even sit down. Select items on the lighter side; no pulled pork sliders before folks head in for a full meal. Good choices are shellfish, canapés composed of seafood, cheeses, and vegetables. If there’s no place for it in the main course, this is the time to let guests sample exotic flavors or the Buffalo wings you fell in love over. However, be careful to choose food that doesn’t drip all over the place or is difficult to eat with one hand.

Family Style Service by Anoush Catering

Anoush Catering

6. Wedding Cake and Dessert Too?

Many couples are choosing to do more than just serve wedding cake. Either a plated dessert or a platter of small sweets can be served immediately after the meal, and the cake-cutting and service be put off until after people have been dancing for a while. Or plan for the cake-cutting to follow the entrée, and you can still have a display of two-bite sweets on a buffet or at each table for guests to nibble on throughout the evening.

Fig Anuse Bouche Anoush Catering

Anoush Catering, one of the top catering services in Los Angeles and Orange County, would love to help you work out all the details of your wedding catering plan. And if you have any more questions, leave a comment and we'll be sure to help you out

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