My big, fat, elaborate, lavish wedding feast ...

[Gifted Gourmet]

The reception featured hors d'ouevres by celebrated chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, whose restaurant Jean-Georges is in the Trump International Hotel in New York. Guests were dining on steamed shrimp salad, beef tenderloin and individual Grand Marnier chocolate truffle cakes that mirror the towering 50-pound, seven-tier wedding cake topped with 3,000 white-icing roses.

story from the Sun Sentinel

All things considered, few, if any, of us will have our wedding meals catered by Jean-Georges Vongerichten, (nor are we all 'the Donald') .... which brings me to the questions du jour:

What did they serve at your wedding for the guests?

Do you actually remember the meal itself?

Would you have the same meal today after however many years of marriage?

If prices of food for such an event have escalated, would you scale-down the meal?

(Fresser, try this as a pre-nuptial exercise for when your 'big day' happens! )

[winesonoma]

The reception featured hors d'ouevres by celebrated chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, whose restaurant Jean-Georges is in the Trump International Hotel in New York. Guests were dining on steamed shrimp salad, beef tenderloin and individual Grand Marnier chocolate truffle cakes that mirror the towering 50-pound, seven-tier wedding cake topped with 3,000 white-icing roses.

story from the Sun Sentinel

All things considered, few, if any, of us will have our wedding meals catered by Jean-Georges Vongerichten, (nor are we all 'the Donald') .... which brings me to the questions du jour:

What did they serve at your wedding for the guests?

Do you actually remember the meal itself?

Would you have the same meal today after however many years of marriage?

If prices of food for such an event have escalated, would you scale-down the meal?

(Fresser, try this as a pre-nuptial exercise for when your 'big day' happens! )

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Take out pizza and Martinis and Martinis and Martinis as I recall. There were 5 of us having a really good time. Bride to be had just gotten back from the laundromat so we had clean sheets. Reception was a whole other story witch i will relate later and took place later.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Reception was a whole other story witch i will relate later and took place later.    

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Food details only, Bruce ...

[winesonoma]

Reception was a whole other story witch i will relate later and took place later.    

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Food details only, Bruce ...

←

Pizza.

[bloviatrix]

Blovie and I were talking about this last week. I have absolutely no recollection of the food at my wedding (and neither does he). I do know there was sushi. And that I told them to double the number of franks in blankets they were going to pass around.

Does anyone actually eat at their wedding?

[Gifted Gourmet]

My husband got up to dance with me for the first dance and the waiters removed his plate full of food ... ever the pragmatist, my husband took off for the kitchen to retrieve the missing meal ... since he spoke no Spanish, he was having a tough time communicating with the waiters ..

Oh, did I omit one salient fact? Yep! We had our dinner reception at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio across from the Alamo!

Truly a fact which we will never, ever forget!!

[Marlene]

I remember every detail..

French Onion Soup en Croute

salad with balsamic vinegrette

a lemon sherbert in between

Prime rib with twice baked potatoes

Chocolate fudge wedding cake

awesome

[Gifted Gourmet]

and some of that looks very similar to some of the exquisite meals you have shared with us here!

[Marlene]

well, I'm kinda repetative!

[Rehovot]

We had our wedding lunch at U Zlaty Hrozen (At the Golden Grape), off of Starometski Namesti / Old Town Square, in Prague....Walked from the wedding in Old Town Hall, about 2 minutes away......Picked the menu out the day before the wedding....... It was:

Kir royale

Consomme with a poached egg yolk (we had to succumb to Czech tradition and feed each other the first spoonful, yikes, but somehow my husband and I had momentarily great coordination and didn't spill a drop)

Caprese salad

Some kind of chicken with great sauce and roasted potatoes

Tiramisu

Lots of champagne

During the days before, everyone kept feasting on chodsko / Czech wedding cakes, and slivovice... We took the wedding party out to dinner at an Italian restaurant the night before......and then partied after the wedding at a pizzeria in my husband's neighborhood. Lots of beer.

All of it......was fantastic.

[binkyboots]

What did they serve at your wedding for the guests?

In the end my sister in law was in charge, we had standard scottish buffet food, ie, mini sausage rolls, potato wedges and dip, sandwiches, cheese on sticks, small cakes etc.... all freshly defrosted from Iceland.

It wasn't meant to be that way! I had it all planned then I took a raging flu three days before the wedding

Do you actually remember the meal itself?

Only vaguely, I remember swigging from the bottle of nightnurse and watching the guests munching sausage rolls.

Would you have the same meal today after however many years of marriage?

Unless I was very sick, no.

If prices of food for such an event have escalated, would you scale-down the meal?

Cheap 'n nasty then, cheap 'n nasty now.

[Varmint]

We had 4 different "stations" for there to be freshly prepared food. We had an "Asian" area serving satay and dumplings, we had a crepe station, a Mexican area, and one other one that I can't recall -- more traditional, I think. Our wedding cake came in 5 different flavors, something to please everyone. And we only served beer and wine (good beer and wine), but that reduced the number of drunks by 2 or 3. And yes, we ate!

[Fresser]

All things considered, few, if any, of us will have our wedding meals catered by Jean-Georges Vongerichten, (nor are we all 'the Donald') .... which brings me to the questions du jour:

What did they serve at your wedding for the guests?

Do you actually remember the meal itself?

Would you have the same meal today after however many years of marriage?

If prices of food for such an event have escalated, would you scale-down the meal?

(Fresser, try this as a pre-nuptial exercise for when your 'big day' happens!   )

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Suddenly a menu comes to mind for Fresser'' Fibrous Festivities:

Cruciferous Vegetable Appetizers

Roasted Garlic Hommous

Prime Rib with Onion Blossoms

Sauteed String Beans with Mushrooms

Oatmeal Cookies

And...

A BIG book of matches! Let the fireworks begin!!

[Gifted Gourmet]

There will actually be two cakes: the main cake and individual cakes for each guest patterned after the top tier. The main cake is orange Grand Marnier chiffon, filled with a light Grand Marnier butter creme. It will be covered with about 3,000 preformed white roses made of icing. It will be seven tiers, 32 inches in diameter, and weighing more than 200 pounds. The individual cakes are cupcake-sized, chocolate sponge with chocolate truffle filling and one rose on top.

Palm Beach Post

Did you have a big, elaborate wedding cake too?

And did you offer a piece to your new spouse with cameras flashing?

[Swisskaese]

Israeli weddings are all about the food Big surprise!

We are having the following at our wedding in April for 120 people:

Welcome Caipirinha

Waiters passing around chicken and salmon satay

Pre-reception:

Dates stuffed with lamb

Chicken liver pate with a blueberry sauce

several other things

Antipasti

Gnocchi (sweet potato and spinach)

Buffet Dinner:

Prime Rib with a wine sauce

Goose leg with a dried fruit sauce

Salmon with a pistachio crust

Various salads

Rice

Roasted vegetables

Dessert Table

Fruit Compote with forest fruits

Halvah parfait

Strudel

Chocolate lava cake

Coffee and Tea

Open bar

I know I have forgotten a few items, but that will give you an idea. It is not customary to have a wedding cake.

The price of a wedding in Israel is half the price of a wedding in the States. It is normal to have upwards of 300 guests at a wedding. Our wedding is considered small and there were only a few places to choose from for our "small" wedding. We are having the wedding in an old villa.

Edited January 23, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[therese]

Details fuzzy, but we did have very nice food for the reception---the only thing my parents paid for, so they went the extra mile. We have photos documenting me about to eat some sort of passed canape, so apparently I did eat something.

I do recall beef tenderloin and very large cocktail shrimp on the buffet. Our guests (somewhere between 60 and 70) said it was all great.

Three tier traditional round cake: almond-flavored white cake with raspberry jam between the layers, almond-flavored white butter cream on the outside. I do remember it being as good as I'd hoped (this was not a standard combo for the caterer's baker, and I had to do some talking to get her to make it).

Highlights of the wedding included arrival of the police.

[moira27]

We had a very traditional coutry wedding. The dinner was cold tomato juice, a full turkey dinner and strawberry shortcake. (it was July after all). Everyone seemed to enjoy and I ate about 1/2 of my plate. We had a plain very good pound cake., Iced in white with fresh flowers on the top.

[ladyyoung98]

for my first marriage many many years ago...the quasi recption is something i would rather forget....my ex and i didnt have much money and so his friends hosted a recption for us...at the local jack in the box..... ...nope would never do that one again

however the recption my fiance and i are planning will be more memorable...since the wedding itself is going to be seperate from the recption and we are catering it ourselves....i think it will be much easier to remember the menu and easier for us to be able to eat as well...right now the ideas are flowing since the recption is further away than the actual wedding..we have settled on a couple ideas thus far..but not many...i am looking forward to all of it

[Gifted Gourmet]

Highlights of the wedding included arrival of the police.

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aaaaaaand????

I guess not food related ...

[dknywbg]

My wedding (this past May) was catered by the restaurant I used to work for, so we had a lot of input on the menu. Sunday, early afternoon, fairly casual:

Passed hors d'oeuvres:

Swiss chard & shallot tartlets

Pigs in blankets

Vegetable dumplings with soy-ginger-scallion dipping sauce

Smoked salmon mousse on pumpernickel rosettes

Salad buffet:

Poached salmon salad w/fava beans, red bliss potatoes, chives, & lemon sea salt

Grilled vegs with lemon aioli & roasted red pepper dip

My mom's recipe--cucumber salad

My huband's grandma's recipe--caponata

Baby arugula, spinach, and radicchio with roasted baby beets & balsamic vinaigrette

Crispy sesame chicken skewers

Dessert buffet:

Chocolate-dipped mini-macaroons

German chocolate and double-chocolate brownies

Chocolate chip cookies from City Bakery (my absolute favorite)

And the cake:

Cupcakes!

I do remember eating a plate full of food, though I don't recall specifically what I ate--but there were an awful lot of comments about how wonderful it all tasted. And the best part was that there were six cookies left (and if you know CB's cookies, you know they're huge). We brought them on the honeymoon!

[Susan in FL]

At my first wedding, back in the day when spending over $250.00 on the gown was considered extravagant and only those rehearsing were invited to the rehearsal dinner, our reception was a party with finger foods, an open bar, and a band. I was so disappointed not to eat, being too busy mingling. I had so carefully selected all the food from a caterer. I remember thinking at the time, if I do this again, I will eat.

So the second time around, 20+ years ago, it was only 25 to 30 people, close friends and family... we had a big ol' Delmarva-style crab and beer feast.

[derricks]

What did they serve at your wedding for the guests?

That's an easy one. We gave our caterers a workout, though (they said) they had a great time with it because we really cared about it. When we did the trial run, they brought out a plate with the lamb and wouldn't put it down. The chef first said "Now you said you wanted it really rare, right? As rare as we could make it?" We got the plate once we assured her we were serious. My uncle said it was the best meal he had eaten (followed shortly by the rehearsal dinner at Oakland's Jojo the night before).

Do you actually remember the meal itself?

Yep. We set aside time just to eat. Of course, we didn't make it to every table as a result

Would you have the same meal today after however many years of marriage?

I think we'd have chosen different wine. We bought the wine before my love affair with German wine began, so I'd have done that for the white.

[Dana]

If there is a 50 lb wedding cake, and each guest has his own individual cake, who eats the 50lber?

We had only cake and punch - no food. We were very young and very poor.

[Gifted Gourmet]

If there is a 50 lb wedding cake, and each guest has his own individual cake, who eats the 50lber?

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I assume that the cake in the little boxes was just to take home and that the main cake was cut and served (by the staff, not the Trumps, of course!)

[Susan G]

It will be two years ago this May.........we had our reception at The Bishop's Lodge in Santa Fe.

I vaguely remember a plate of cold appetizers (all the passed hot ones had been eaten while I was in wedding photo-poses); but I do know shrimp, smoked salmon, and crab cakes were among the dainties I missed; The sit down dinner for 100 was roast lamb, garlic mashed potatoes, (vegetable napoleans for the non-carnivores); our wedding cake was a multi-layered chocolate cake with apricot or raspberry filling, decorated with berries. Gorgeous!

What I especially loved about the reception's location was the gorgeous old cottonwoods, the purple mountains in the distance, and the cost was 60% less than downtown Santa Fe venues!

(Oh, and I was treated like a princess by the staff there; not something I would have suspected I'd love!)