Wedding Menu Poll

[Girls-best-friend]

Here is my menu let me know what you think. It will be a served dinner.

Cocktail hour

Hot Entrees
swedish meatballs
pepper steak w/rice
roast turkey breast

Hot side dishes
baked cheese lasagna
eggplant parmigiana

Meat/cheese platters
roast beef
baked virginia ham
corn beef round
salami (genoa)
pepperoni
american cheese
swiss cheese
provolone cheese
sliced cheddar cheese

Salads
sliced tomato and lettuce platter
macaroni salad
tri color pasta
crudite platter
spinach dip


Hors D' oeuvres
grilled garlic shrimp
coconut shrimp
mini franks in blanket
mini egg rolls w/duck sauce
mozerella sticks w/marinara sauce
grilled chicken fantasy
mini crab cakes
Assorted puffs
scallops wrapped in bacon
jalepeno poppers

Other appetizers
baked stuffed clams
mini crossiants stuffed with salads ( chicken, seafood)
jumbo shrimp cocktail
hot crab dip
cheese basket with crackers
fresh fruit platter

Rolls, rye bread, condiments pickles, olives, and a variety of beverages


Dinner Menu

Entree choices

Roast chicken
Roast sirlion of beef with gravy
Roast baby loin of pork
Jambulya w/chicken, sausage, shrimp
Tortellini alfredo or Cheese ravioli (haven't decided which one yet)

Side dish choices ( they can choose 3)

Rice pilaf
Green beans
Roasted red potatoes
Vegetable medely
Corn
German potato salad

Salad choices

Tossed green salad variety of dressings
Caesar salad

Dinner rolls, variety of beverages


Dessert ( sweet table)
Strawberry shortcake w/ sauce
Black forest cake
Cheesecake (from the famous Juniors in Brooklyn hmmmmm!)
Assorted mini pastries
Brownies, Blondies, Carrot cake squares
Lemon and strawberry Cupcakes
Banana pudding
Peach cobble
Apple Pie

Fruit Table
Fruit kabobs
Sabayon Fruit sauce
Chocolate fountain

variety of beverages


Thanks!

 

[AGBF]

Never mind the poll, I wish I could eat at your wedding! I haven''t been to a wedding in years, but I know I *never* encountered a menu like this. It sounds fantastic!!!

Deb

 

[abradabra]

GBF,

I think that all that food does sound fantastic--I''m definitely with ABGF on this one. That being said, it''s a lot more than I''m used to seeing at any wedding I''ve been to. These are just the rules of thumb that were told to me in planning a reception menu...

Cocktail Hour Hors D''Oeuvres
- About 5 pieces per person in passed trays
- One or two displays of food (shrimp, cheese, sushi or the like)

Sit Down Dinner
- Appetizer (This course is often omitted--I''ve never had a choice here)
- Salad (Never seen a choice here)
- Entree (Usually a choice between Meat and Vegetarian or Meat, Fish and Vegetarian)

Dessert
- Usually just wedding cake is offered or an assortment of maybe 3 or 4 desserts instead


Obviously, if you have a buffet, more choices are traditionally offered, but not that many more.

That was what I''ve seen as normal and what was dictated to me as the status quo. Do most weddings you attend have that many options? If so, then that''s what your friends/family would expect and you don''t need to worry about it.
I don''t think offering your guests more options is a bad thing, as long as it isn''t too expensive for you or a paralyzing number of options for them.

In short--do what you want, but you definitely don''t have to offer to that many options.

 

[ame]

Date: 5/23/2005 1:41:24 AM
Author:Girls-best-friend
Here is my menu let me know what you think. It will be a served dinner.




Dessert ( sweet table)

Strawberry shortcake w/ sauce

Black forest cake

Cheesecake (from the famous Juniors in Brooklyn hmmmmm!)

Assorted mini pastries

Brownies, Blondies, Carrot cake squares

Lemon and strawberry Cupcakes

Banana pudding

Peach cobble

Apple Pie


Fruit Table

Fruit kabobs

Sabayon Fruit sauce

Chocolate fountain


variety of beverages

Cripes. Can I come?!


We are serving two different salads, one with an italian dressing and one with something more like a ranch dressing. The entree''s are Chicken Modiga and Chicken Alicia and come with garlic cheese mashed potatoes (to die for) and grilled seasoned veggies (also REALLY good). The wedding cake should be good, well the icing. Im stuck using probably St. Louis''s absolute WORST bakeries so Im doing all I can to not make my cake taste like gravel. As long as they make it according to explicit directions it will taste like the ganache icing. If it doesn''t I won''t be eating it.

Mine is also a sit-down.

 

[MelissaSue]

You definitely have too much for cocktail hour. I''d have maybe a few passed hor doures..(hot ones).. and a couple displays..maybe veggies and cheese.. I don''t think the meat is necessary. (We are skipping the passe hor dourves all together..)
Having a lot of choices for dinner is fine.. but not neccessary.. but if it doesn''t cost a fortune.. why not?

I like the desert table. I like lots of options

 

[JCJD]

I think it sounds great, but it''s way too much overall. My caterer told us (we''re having hors d''oeuvres and dessert only) that if there is too much choice, people will take one of everything to try it all and you''ll end up running out of the crowd favorites fast. I''d narrow down your cocktail hour selections especially, since you don''t want to fill people up with all your choices before dinner OR waste the food and service because people are saving room for dinner (wasted food, aka MONEY!!). Unless, your cocktail hour is from 3-4, and dinner isn''t until 7.... Then you should try to have more quantities of fewer choices.

If it were me, no hot entrees, no hot side dishes, no salads, no rolls and bread, and narrow down your hors d''oeuvres and appetizers to 5 choices each, including at least 1 vegetarian or even vegan option each (IMNSHO). The meat/cheese platter is fine I think.

Dinner: #1 - THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR OFFERING A VEGETARIAN OPTION!!!!!!!!!!!!! That must stay, IMNSHO

I think the number of choices is a bit much, but as MelissaSue said, if it doesn''t cost a fortune....

Dessert - Same as the hors d''oeuvres - too much choice can be a bad thing. Are you serving wedding cake too? Then try to find 1 or 2 desserts that will compliment your cake and/or 1 or 2 alternatives (i.e. if your cake is a rich chocolate ganache, then apple pie and cheesecake would be good alternatives). However, if the dessert table is your "cake", I''d narrow it down to large presentable choices (shortcake, black forest, cheesecake, apple pie, and peach cobbler), or to all serving-size choices (mini pastries, cake squares and brownies, cupcakes, banana pudding). Fruit table sounds awesome!!


Of course, this is all just MHO, but I think you have a great list to work with! Awesome choices, and it sounds like your caterer has a lot of experience and will be able to help you a lot in finalizing the menu.

 

[Strawdermangrl]

Mine is a sit down as well (if all goes as planned....

) We are having Chicken Wellington with a whipped garlic potatos and asparagus.... we are having fruit and cheese passed.

Yours sounds amazing, everyone wiill have quite a selection!

Yummers....I am hungry!

 

[jlc0604]

I think it seems like too much of everything! There seems to be so much food and also so many different types of food (italian, jambalya, roasted meats, etc) that it could be overwhelming for guests. I think it''s better to keep it simple and offer, like others have mentioned, a couple of veggie/fruit/cheese trays and some passed h''or dourves at the cocktail hour, and two or three entree options at the dinner. I also don''t think all the dessert is necessary, again a few choices would more than suffice. It''s always better to have too much food than not enough, but I think you''ll probably end up wasting food/money if you have so many options. Also, the more options, the more complicated and the bigger chance that something can go wrong!

 

[flopkins]

i say waaaayyyy too much for the cocktail hour, i would cut everything except a few platters and 3 or 4 HD. dessert seems like a lot too, i would cut down half of those items, unless you love them all! just MHO though!

 

[kanne]

Hmmm. These are the choices from the caterer right? They do this in NY too (sigh) so much food! Wait! Are you in NY? And if you want less food, they look at you like you're nuts. Also, I apologize, I haven't been following closely, is your wedding formal/informal indoors/outdoors? Morning, Afternoon, Evening? All these things will help you make the choices. I agree that you should think about narrowing down your cocktail hour selections... scallops wrapped in bacon sound fabulous! but pigs in blankets and mac salad are maybe better for a BBQ. Unless of course you are having a BBQ style reception.... I'm sorry, i'm not being helpful.

If you can, maybe try to edit it a bit. Maybe 3 hot stations for cocktail hour, an antipasto and 8 different passed trays?

Are you having a wedding cake?

hope this is helpful

Strawdermangrl: that menu sounds really yummy!!!

 

[elephant]

I think that you definitely have too much food. Unless you have an unlimited budget (which may be the case?), I definitely think you can do less. Here are my thoughts (feel free to take or leave them): First, I think you have too much cocktail hour food. I would really stick to things that are truly "hors d'oeuvres" (sp?) -- I feel like some of these are entrees themselves. The cocktail hour seems like what you would do if you were ONLY having a cocktail hour and no sit down dinner. (I go to a lot of functions for my job and that seems to be what they have when it's just a "standing reception" without dinner.) Here's what I would keep: Swedish Meatballs, Meat and Cheese platters, the spinach dip and then the apps course. I guess I would try to keep it to finger food. I find it very difficult to navigate with just a bread plate and a glass, much less then having to juggle silverware. Although, that wouldn't really apply if your people are sitting..... Food for thought (no pun intended. ) But, all in all, I would keep it to more "piece-y" apps. Does that make sense?

Ok, dinner: You are going to give yourself a headache trying to sort out five different courses and then have them choose their side dishes (unless it's served family style?). As someone else suggested, I would do a Meat and a vegetarian option or a meat, fish and veggie option. Otherwise you could have chaos, trust me. I would choose one salad. People aren't that picky. Plus, if you plan to do something during dinner like speeches or a prayer beforehand, then having your waiters try to get this sorted out could be disruptive.

Obviously, none of this applies if this is a buffet?

As someone with a an enormous sweet tooth (and thighs to match. Sigh.), I LOVE the dessert table -- that sounds scrumptious. Love the idea of a chocolate fountain. DEF. love the idea of sabayon. My fav!

My concern here is that your caterer/event planner is overloading you on stuff that you don't need. I really think that less is more in this case, esp. with the cocktail hour and entree selection.

Just my two cents! It sounds delish. Good luck!

ETA: Although, I am not familiar with the NY Wedding scene, so take that into consideration.

 

[Buena Girl]

How long is your cocktail hour? I went to a wedding this past summer where the cocktail "hour" was approximately 1.5 to 2 hours long and they probably had nearly as much food/choices as your menu for the cocktail hour. I thought it was great! I love lots of choices!! I don''t remember if they ran out of anything? Most people ate within the first hour and then mingled until we were called to go into the ballroom. Then it was at least another 2 hours before we ate dinner, so most of the food we had eaten during the cocktail time was digested or nearly so. If your cocktail hour is going to be 1 hour or less, then you might want to consider less choices of food.

I agree with everyone who said there might be too many entree choices. Maybe cut it down to 2 meat choices and 1 vegetarian choice.

Love your dessert ideas!!!

The dessert buffets at weddings I have been to have been wildly popular!

 

[AGBF]

I had no time to plan my wedding and was clueless about wedding planning as well! My daughter is so young (12) that I cannot live vicariously through her. When I turned 50 I gave myself a party into which I put some thought...not days of thought but more time than I gave my wedding! I had a small party for close friends, family, and girls who were close to my daughter plus their parents. It was definitely a child-friendly party. I am bringing this up because I *really* wanted some specific items available as dessert choices that night although I had a cake. (I certainly had nothing available for dessert besides cake at my wedding!) I remember asking that creme brulée be available. I believe I also asked that cannoli be placed on platters. There was more. Dessert is definitely a treat!

Deborah

 

[Girls-best-friend]

Thank you all for your input. I haven't made this caterer a definite go yet only because I haven't done the taste test. If the food is good they are definetly a go!

To answer a few questions. I would consider the wedding to be formal. Not black tie with cream and white invite formal but an up to date type formal. It will be an outdoor tented ceremony and reception. Cocktail hour will also be outdoors.

I don't think the caterer is all that expensive as wedding caterers go. (Especially in NY) Around $54.00 pp. All the food execpt for a few items on the dessert list and the corn on the dinner list are all included.

See we are kinda cheating when it comes to the served dinner. Since the reception will be under a tent we will be having a seperate tent for the kitchen and since no guest will be in there we are ordering the food as if it were a buffet and then setting up the kitchen buffet style and as the waiters come in we fix up the plate and serve it out. Who will know execpt us and well..... now all of you of course! shhhhhhh don't tell!! With a little over 200 people I can't really see doing a buffet with lines.

I am going with three of there buffets two of them offer things that can be added to the cocktail hour hence the large selection of items. Like the minipastries, browinies, blondies and carrot cake squares are all included with the cocktail hour buffet so I am just shuffling it over to the reception dessert table. The dinner buffet offers some of those appetizers so I am just doing the shuffle again and adding it to cocktail hour. I kinda doing a mix and match thing.

As for the wedding cake. I found a cooking student who is going to make us a fake cake for the photos with just the bottom layer real for the cutting. ($150 for 7 tiers) I really wanted variety when it came to dessert instead of just cake. The puddings, cobbler ,pie and cupcakes ( which I have to have because I saw the cutest picture with cupcakes and each had a tiny bride and groom on it) will be made by a friend of a friend who will be charging us only half the price. And the other cakes I can get from our local baker who's cakes are so good! They aren't that expensive either. I figure with so much variety it won't be like I have to order enough of each thing per person. Most people are going to go straight for what they really want first off. I will get plenty of cheesecake that stuff is to die for!


I was thrilled to have found this caterer because I realize that although the ceremony and the vows and the decorations and all that may be appreciated by the guest those are really for HTB , myself and our family. The important parts of the day for guest other than sharing it with us will be the music and the food. People always talk about how bad the food was or how good. So I wanted to really make that as special for them as I could by offering more choices and lots of food overall. Our friends are so different and where some are going to love the scallops and shrimp others are going to go straight for those moz sticks, jalepeno poppers and mac salad.

I wanted the menu to reflect all of my guest instead of some symbol of what the food should be like at a wedding. I personally am not a shee shee foo foo type but HTB is, I would be one of those moz stick people. I like full plates of food not nicely decorated ones with sprigs and such with little food on it. ( I suffer through those meals with a smile anyway though when HTB wants to go out to a restauant like that) I also wanted to offer something for the vegies they kinda get left out at weddings sometimes.

The jumbalaya I chose just because it was different. Not your typical beef, chicken or fish. LOL. That particular buffet offered four choices so I went with it. They offer all of these dishes seperately if I wanted to just order it that way too. I think its about $33-$45 for an 18 portion tray. At anyrate the food isn't really going to put much of a dent in the budget. Hence the extras like the chocolate fountain.

The dinner like I said will be served and the invites will come with a menu card where they can choose what entree they want and since I am making my own menu cards too I plan on having that preselected meat/vegie choice already printed on the menu with their name and table name so they will just have to check of which side dish and salad they want. Then the sweet buffet can be a free for all.

I suppose I could redo the menu by not choosing the buffet set ups they already have and just pick out the items I want from the list and order by the portion trays. I just figured if it wasn't going to really cost all that much then why not go with all they are offering and give the guest all the food they could want. I plan on donating any food that is left over to a homeless shelter so it won't go to waste.

Overall despite the poll results it seem like most wouldn't mind having all the food Yes?( from a bride point of view too much, but from a guest point of view who isn't paying or sorting it out yeah bring it on! ) I 'll have to discuss it with HTB. Maybe work up a new menu from there seperat list. See how much that comes to. It might be cheaper depending on how much of which thing each persons selects from the menu card. If you can believe it I actually I wanted more food

Thanks all and please do keep voting!

 

[Girls-best-friend]

Oh I forgot. The wedding will be late afternoon early evening. Cocktail hour will be about 1 hour maybe 1 1/2 hours long. I was worried that people would fill up at cocktail hour and not be hungry at dinner. Hmmm.....I'll have to go over it all again.