Wedding Cakes & Food Forum — The Knot Community

BEER!!!

Starlet514 — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 19:01:05 +0000

I am working on finalizing my wedding menu and I get to choose any 4 beers!!! FI isn't a drinker - so he's no help!!

I have 2 brewery beers I am waiting to find out if they can get, I figured classic Sam Summer (it's a June wedding), but I need a classic "light" beer but don't really want "bud light" for the wedding... any ideas???

Thanks!!!

XPP: Tasting

hlvonb — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 06:09:36 +0000

So I had my tasting at the reception venue today (Sunday). My mom, dad, fiance and I went. We thought they would bring small amounts of what we want for us to try and that we would be hungry after but nope, they brought out HUGE servings of it all and it was absolutely delicious!!! Totally happy with the menu we're having. And we got all the left overs sent home with us too

Alcohol cut-off (XP to etiquette)

JasperandOpal — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 22:35:52 +0000

I was wondering if it is rude to have a point in the evening where you switch from serving alcohol to serving punch/ fancy water/coffee? I am hosting beer, wine, and maybe a signature drink and will host that until the reception is over if it is rude not to but was contemplating switching to serving punch etc. at a certain point, likely 1 to 1.5 hours before the end of the reception.

So rude/inappropriate or ok?

Thanks!

ETA: cross posted to "Etiquette" because I don't know where it would fit better. Hope thats ok!

Which night would you have a "rehearsal" dinner?

jenna8984 — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 16:56:01 +0000

Our wedding is on a Saturday afternoon. We are not having a rehearsal at the venue. But I'd still like to have a dinner just to spend time with the VIP's (I don't see my parents often).

Thursday- my parents and photographer arrive by plane at 1pm. I'm thinking to do the dinner this night around 7pm. Does that seem rushed at all?

Friday- we have no plans so we could do it this night, but I'm a little concerned about stuffing my face with pizza the night before the wedding. That probably wouldn't be so good on the belly the next morning.

Is it strange to not have any plans the night before the wedding and just relax?

Also, we didn't originally budget for this dinner. Is it ok for me to pre-order all the pizza, salads, drinks at the restaurant and not allow people to order for themselves? It's about 12 people.

Catering Advice

sarahufl — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 21:17:13 +0000

Hi All- appreciate your advice in advance. We are getting quotes back from caterers and are kind of....shocked.....by the prices. One of the caterers mentioned that our menu was kind of aggressive and I wanted to get a feel of what people provide for a buffet/cocktail hour. We have 4 passed apps (stuff like bruschetta, fruit and cheese, mini quiches, etc so nothing super fancy)

The buffet will include 2 meats (chicken and brisket), a cold salad, bread, potatoes, mac and cheese and roasted veggies.

Is this too much? What do you all think can be cut out easily. One of the issues we have is that a handful of our friends are vegetarian (probably less than 10) so we don't just want them eating a cold salad for dinner.

I would love to cut some food costs while still providing enough variety and properly hosting people. Thoughts?

Hiring "partial caterer"??

CrunchyHippy — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 23:33:34 +0000

Hi all,

So- for multiple reasons spanning from my control freak nature and our mutual love of cooking (bordering on obsession!) to a relatively limited budget, we would like to refrain from hiring a caterer. I was originally thinking of cooking myself, but I know I'm not going to be happy with that choice in the end.

What I'd really like to do is have a "day of" caterer to prepare the dishes we've prepped (e.g., heat things, cook the meat, etc.) but I am afraid proposing this to caterers will be offensive or a nonstarter. The idea of hiring (a group of?) culinary students was also suggested, but that too makes me uneasy.

Have any of y'all every heard of caterers that do something like this? Is it totally out of line to suggest that you don't want a caterer's food or menu but need them to cook YOURS? Or, do you have suggestions for how we can have more control over our food than we'd have with a traditional catering situation?

Thanks a lot for any insight you can provide!!

Hosting Properly?

smgold6 — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 14:32:56 +0000

My FI and I will be hosting the rehearsal dinner. I am wondering if we provide a full meal, coffee, tea, water and soda is this hosting properly? (The place we are having the rehearsal dinner offers a full bar and guests can choose to purchase alcohol) Is it rude for us to not provide alcohol for the guests?

Thank you!!

Starting to work out the budget - how many servings of cake should we anticipate?

KeptInStitches — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 01:51:41 +0000

We'll have about 50-55 people total. We were thinking of budgeting 60 servings - too many? Too few?

Cake Alternative - Cookie Bar

duhitsd — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 23:44:38 +0000

My FI and I are not really cake people. We've been thinking about doing a cookie bar with several different types of cookies. Has anyone else ever done this as their main dessert?

Scandinavian Catering?

VintageInez — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 16:07:48 +0000

We're on the hunt for a caterer who would be willing to do a Scandinavian/Nordic menu for a wedding. The wedding will be in the Boston area and the closest caterer we're finding who specializes is in NYC. Anyone got any suggestions of caterers who do Scandinavian food or caterers who would be willing to incorporate Scandinavian food into the menu? Thanks!

Gluten Free?

sassyfrass2014 — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:13:06 +0000

Hello everyone! This is an issue I've been tossing back and forth for a while, so I thought I'd take it to the boards and just ask.

I have Celiac Disease, and long story short, I have to eat gluten free, or the food will hurt me irreparably. Food is my medicine. I've recently discovered that my symptoms will manifest even if my make-up and lotions have gluten in them, so I have to be that much more careful! I was wondering if I could do my wedding gluten free, or if the people would revolt.

Gluten free entrees won't be hard unless wedding guests can't part with dinner rolls or breading for one dinner, but as for the cake, I'm at a loss. Gluten free baked goods are more dense and grainier tasting than "gluten-y" baked goods, so guests will definitely taste the difference. Should I do a whole gluten free cake and keep myself 100% safe or should I risk making the top of the cake gluten free so the FI and I can cut that, and save the guests from a cake they may complain about?

I feel like this should be easier than I'm making it out to be- popcorn

jenna8984 — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 20:40:45 +0000

I've been obsessed with popcorn my entire life and everyone knows I love my popcorn and do NOT share my popcorn lol. So I definitely want popcorn as an after dinner snack at the wedding. I had originally wanted to rent a machine but after looking into that, it seems like a bitch to handle and clean and I have no idea who would be stuck with those tasks since the venue/ caterers made it clear that they will not. So I think it would be more practical to just have pre-made baggies ready. I have found tons of the bags for sale on Amazon. But where do I get the popcorn already made? Walmart and Target usually have some big bags at their food court but likely not enough for me to just go there and buy. Would I call ahead and request it be made? Where else could you think of that sells it? Movie theater crossed my mind but they would probably charge me an arm & a leg for that much. I have 60 guests so I plan on making about 80 small bags. Any thoughts or ideas would be great!

Caterer sent us someone else's contract...and theirs is MUCH cheaper

moonmellyfish — Sat, 05 Apr 2014 15:08:44 +0000

We're at a loss. We had agreed on a menu and the caterer gave us a quote. It seemed pretty high, but they have great food and a great reputation so we decided to spend the money. Food is one of the things that is a priority for my fiancé, so he's the one dealing with the caterer. After she sent us someone else's contract to "sign and send back a deposit" he had a fit. First of all, it is totally unprofessional to send out someone else's information. Secondly, our quote is over $2000 more than theirs! He emailed her and said that he now feels like we're paying way too much and please send a new contract with OUR info in it and he'll call with a card number for the deposit. She didn't do that, rather left him a voicemail gushing about how sorry she was that she sent an old contract from four years ago...blah, blah, blah.... Now he's put out because she already screwed up once and then still didn't do what he asked. He works 60+ hours a week and wants it to be easier. He's ready to find new quotes. Does she seem shady or are we over reacting? This is a very reputable place with gourmet food, so I'm hesitant to look elsewhere because I'm afraid we won't find the same quality. However, if we're spending that much money I want someone who is honest and competent. Suggestions?

How Many Hors D'oeuvres Should We Have?

christinethebean88 — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 20:06:14 +0000

My fiance and I are having around 90 people to our September wedding and I'm not sure how many hors d'oeuvres to have for the cocktail hour. Cocktail hour will be a standard 1 hour affair as we are having the ceremony, pictures and reception in the same place and we're having a big buffet, candy bar, and cake as well. If we have only passed hors d'oeuvres, how many different kinds should we get to serve 90 people?

NY Wedding Cakes

megp922 — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 18:54:56 +0000

Does anyone have any good recommendations for bakers or wedding cake designers in the NYC/Westchester area?

Thanks!
M

Tasting

[Deleted User] — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 04:23:30 +0000

So we booked our venue about 8 months ago and our wedding is in 6 months. I reached out to my venue to set up a tasting so we can figure out what we want now to take 1 thing off the list. After talking to the venue they told me to tell them what I wanted to taste... I guess this through me for a loop because I have only been to a hand full of weddings and was expecting them to give me a list of items to pick from. So now I am hoping everyone on the knot can help me. We are expecting about 125 guest and having a buffet style. These are the only guidelines my venue gave me : chicken and steak and a vegetarian...sides can be potatoes-scalloped or mashed and rice plus vegetables-usually a mixture of seasonal. Thank you so much :)

Anyone with vegetarian guests? Hors D'Ouevres Question

MrsMarende — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 01:30:26 +0000

Our wedding will be fairly small 70 people. Of the 70 guest only have 1 vegetarian and I want to make sure she is hosted just as well as our other guests. We will be serving 4 tray passed Hors D'Ouevres at the cocktail hour. My question is how many of the 4 options need to be vegetarian? I am worried only 1 option is too little, but half seems like a lot considering all of the other guests.

There will be a great vegetarian option at dinner of course, just wondering if any of you ladies are encountering the same situation.

Has anyone had or been to a wedding where the food was tapas style?

[Deleted User] — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 17:11:14 +0000

We are planning on serving our food tapas style for our reception. We have 170 guests and we will be doing 2 passed apps during cocktail hr and everyone has a plated salad. The tapas are just small plates (3-4) bites per plate set up on different tables. We have 2 types of chicken, 2 pastas, 2 beef & 4 seafoods. I know it will be more than enough food for everyone and I LOVE that there are so many options. I have never been to a wedding like this so I'm just a little nervous how it will play out.

Catering recommendations?

dth239 — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 17:42:17 +0000

I'm currently planning a wedding for 2015 in Lancaster and am considering the following caterers: Plum Street Gourmet, JDK, Food for Thought and Accomac. It's important that we serve our guests a good meal. Good to us means plenty of well-prepared food made with high-quality ingredients. It's impossible for me to discern which caterer is better than the next because the reviews on this site and Wedding Wire are lacking in specifics. I also don't trust the reviews on these sites because, statistically speaking, they are way too positive. So, Community, I'd like to hear your thoughts! More than 50 percent of our budget is going to catering and I'd like to make the right choice. Thank you!

Split entree or single choice?

Jul649 — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 00:51:25 +0000

Our caterer ( Jeffrey Miller Catering) offers split entrees--which they call duet entrees--that provide each guest with the same two entrees. So for example, we could get a duet of glazed salmon and filet mignon and two sides. This allows food to be served faster and eliminates dealing with RSVP cards for entrees. We already went to a tasting and all the food was delicious, but I don't know...do you think people would prefer a choice? Please help!

Food for a large wedding

steffany0724 — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 18:06:40 +0000

We are inviting about 350 guests to our wedding reception. What is the best option for food? Sit-down, buffet, or food stations? I am worried that with a buffet it will take too long for guests to get their dinner and I prefer to not have sit down because I want it to be very casual, fun and want my guests to mingle. This is why I am leaning towards food stations, but I am still concerned that it will be too hard to feed 300 people this way. Any thoughts?

Should I get a wedding cake? Venue options.

behappy67 — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 20:33:26 +0000

My venue includes a desert with lunch. I'm not a cake person, neither is fiance. I'd rather serve cheesecake. Fiance would rather have cake there due to tradition, but doesn't care about having an actual wedding cake.

We don't want to do a whole cake cutting/feed each other cake thing. I'm thinking of skipping the traditional wedding cake altogether. Our venue has delicious cakes, and as part of the cost of lunch is a desert of our choice. They'd serve the cake already cut to my guests. Is there anything wrong with that? I don't want to have two deserts, and end up serving a traditional wedding cake on top of our desert choice from our venue. The venue does have an icecream option, so I played with the idea of picking ice cream along with bringing in our own traditional wedding cake.

Thinking of skipping the cake - kind of?

MrsMarende — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 23:24:06 +0000

FI and I attended a bridal show at our venue on Sunday, they had this AMAZING dessert bar with all "cocktail desserts"

Here are some pictures:

We loved it and would like to include it at our reception. This was obviously not in the original budget, but I started thinking about how much we would enjoy this and I think our guests would have more fun with this than just passed cake. Our cake budget is also very small and the cake would have been very simple, the bar is much nicer overall and provides options.

FI said he would still like for us to feed each other cake and is worried we will miss out on it. My idea was to have a very small tier made up just for cake cutting and we can feed each other the cake, the staff can cut it up and place the slices on the table with the cocktail desserts and open the dessert bar.

My worry is there will not be enough cake for each person to have a slice. I don't want to come off as rude by having something that not all of my guests can enjoy. At the same time the cocktail desserts will not be one for each person either. There is really no reason to have 80 of each type, I don't think anyone wants to have 4 desserts but there will be plenty for everyone to be able to try possibly 2 things and some can have cake.

Is this idea totally nuts?

What flavor is your cake?

majesty318 — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 16:47:21 +0000

We had the tasting this past weekend and it was all delicious. However, I didn't get to try any "exciting" flavors - just standard chocolate, red velvet, etc. The baker did say they can do others; they just showed us the most common ones. Our cake will be 4 tiers and we can have a different flavor on each tier so I am trying to get some more ideas. Tell me your flavors!

How much did you pay for your wedding cake?!?!

Sarah & Kevin — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 05:58:19 +0000

Just curious as to how much people are willing to spend on a wedding cake? I have priced around and have gotten anywhere from $400 to over $1,000. I have approx. 600 guest so obviously I need a decent amount of cake to serve. But is a cake really worth spending $1,000+???

Pasta bar

[Deleted User] — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 01:13:22 +0000

I'm helping a friend plan a wedding and would like some opinions on pasta bars. She wants salad, bread and water preset at place settings and then a few buffet style tables for the rest of the meal. She wants pasta but doesn't want people to have to add sauce and slow down the line (or splatter themselves with sauce).
We were thinking 1 table with Pasta Alfredo, Marinara, mac & cheese, and some Italian rice or polenta dish for gluten free people. Another table would have meatballs, sausage, roasted vegetables, potato & green bean salad.
Okay, I guess it's not a typical pasta bar but does it work?

Wedding Cake and Groom's Cake

nlh85 — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 00:17:57 +0000

I'm having an extremely informal wedding (and absolutely no idea how many people, since RSVP's haven't started yet -somewhere between 80 and 150, but there's really no predicting). I know I want to have a groom's cake, but I'm not sure what the etiquette is when serving two cakes. A lot of people are coming from out of town, including my FH and myself, so it doesn't make a ton of sense to have lots of leftovers because there won't be many people to take them home. Does etiquette demand I have enough of both cakes for everyone? That just seems silly. Enough of the official wedding cake for everyone, but a smaller groom's cake? I'm not one to get too hung up on form (seriously - very informal wedding), but I want to make sure I have what I need. Any advice?

When to finalize menu...

newenglandgal0802 — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 17:58:25 +0000

Hi ladies! My wedding isn't until Aug. 2nd of this year and I'm just wondering how far in advance you should typically be looking to finalize your menu. Our venue is a rustic inn that was bought out last fall after we signed our contract. The new owners are wonderful however, they do seem a little overwhelmed with taking on the ownership of the Inn and I'm a little nervous about finalizing the food. We are planning on doing a family style meal and we did meet with them to discuss our general vision however, this was back before the holidays and they stated they would let us know prices/menu options after the holidays. It's now the end of March. I don't want to seem pushy to them but I really want to have it figured out sooner rather than later especially since were going to order our invites soon. Is it still too early? I also want to get a more accurate cost per guest for budget reasons. When we met before they basically said with open bar and the food we were discussing to plan for $75-100 a guest but I'd really like a definite number. What do you guys think.

Food for rehearsal....

CamiSelene — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 21:01:58 +0000

So my Fiance and I will be getting married in a park by a waterfall and we were thinking about what we would like to do about our rehearsal dinner. We were thinking of doing the rehearsal in the early afternoon with our JP and wedding party while it is still light and warm outside. We don't want to do anything big for dinner so we were thinking of maybe bringing some blankets and doing a picnic late lunch in the park with sandwiches, salad, homemade dessert, etc. Just something casual, simple, inexpensive and easy to organize. Does that sound okay or should we be doing a big supper? I don't know how these things work so I was hoping to get some input. Thanks!

rehearsal dinner options

skyhigh27 — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 22:59:06 +0000

Our catering company has given us three, very different, choices. What would you prefer to eat?

Option One: wood-fired oven pizza; buffalo wing & more appetizer tray, margherita, bbq chicken, pepperoni, wild mushroom and side salads with brownie desert bar.
Option Two: bbq; antipasto appetizer tray, tri-tip, chicken breast, soy & ginger marinated pork tenderloin, with red potato salad, side salad, beans, bread and cookie bar.
Option three: comfort food; farmer's market appetizer tray, gourmet macaroni & cheese, veggie lasagna, chicken and/or eggplant parmesan, side salad, bread, and cheesecake bar.