When planning a wedding, one of the most important aspects is settling on a wedding menu. What should be on your menu, should you go the buffet way or the A la Carte way?
It can all be a bit overwhelming making all these decisions for your wedding, but Unicorn Events have put together wedding menu ideas to help you with this process
What Wedding Food Cuisine Should you Go With?
Should you go with traditional cuisine, something international or a combination of both? This will all come down to personal preference, but the following questions should help you narrow down on what you need.
- What is the composition of your guests? Is it only family and close friends or do you have a diverse guest list?
- What is your wedding theme and what cuisine will complement it?
- What will be your reception set-up, will guests be sited at tables or will it be an informal set-up?
- Are the food items that make up the cuisine you want to serve in season?
- What budget are you working with?
Choosing a Wedding Menu Type
Once you settle on a cuisine, the next decision will be choosing the type of menu you want to go with. Would you prefer an A la Carte menu or a buffet?
A la Carte menus are essentially ‘single item menus,’ where you’ll control what your guests eat from appetizer to dessert by coming up with a fixed menu. Buffets, on the other hand, offer variety and guests have the liberty of selecting what to eat.
As commonly seen, due to unorganized servings a large number of people rush in to get in line for the buffet and create a ruckus. In Kerala going the traditional way sounds better for the aged ones.
Yet again, the decision on what to go for will purely be a personal preference. However, the following should help you make this decision.
- How many guests are you expecting?
- Do you have guests with food allergies or special meal requirements?
- Does your budget allow you to offer variety?
- Will you have servers on not?
What should be on your Wedding Reception Menu?
Once you have settled on a menu type, next is actually coming up with a menu and deciding what will be on your wedding menu.
A wedding is a special event and you will definitely want to offer special food items that might not necessarily feature on your everyday menu. However, the basics of a balanced diet are still applicable and your menu should include proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
The next important thing you want to have in your menu is an appetizer/starter, main entrée, and dessert. Here is how a simple menu will look like:
- Appetizer-Soup, Vegetable or Fruit Salad
- Main Entrée-Meat/Fish/Chicken accompanied by Rice/potatoes and vegetables
- Dessert-This might be your wedding cake or a separate special dessert for instance ice cream bowls, sweets or baked treats
Hiring a Wedding Caterer
Selecting a caterer to work with should ideally come before settling on a menu for your wedding.
Going with a wedding caterer will make your life much easier, and plan for at least one tasting before the wedding to avoid disappointments and change any items that you aren’t happy with ahead of time.
Creative Wedding Menu Ideas
Every couple will agree that they want their wedding to stand out, including their wedding menu and how they serve the food. Here are a few creative wedding menu ideas that you can borrow:
- If you are serving soup as an appetizer, why not serve it in shot type glasses and have ‘soup shooters?’
- For smaller weddings, why not have chai latte or coffee topped with whipped cream for dessert?
- For a buffet, have Stations where guests can pick different food items. For example have an appetizer, entrée and dessert stations. This will also help with keeping lines short and allowing guests to mingle.
- Give your guests packed sweets as gifts to go home with. This is a personalized treat and who doesn’t love sweets?
Kerala Food for Your Wedding
Kerala food has acquired repute in culinary books across the world and it often features in most special events. It goes without saying that you will want to incorporate Kerala food in your wedding menu.
Some of the Kerala food that you should incorporate in your wedding menu includes:
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- Choru, rice that is par-boiled is often served with ghee and Paruppu (dal).
- Avial, a mash up of different vegetables that are cooked with curd, ground coconut and curry leaves.
- Olan, made in an Ash gourd with black beans, curry leaves, green chili and simmered in coconut milk.
- Kaalan, a tuber (yam) cooked in yoghurt mixed with spices including turmeric, red chili and curry leaves.
- Puliyinchi, the hot and sweet unique chutney/pickle is always a hit at events.
- Kichadi and Pachadi, made using only (kichadi) and yoghurt and grated coconut (pachadi) with fried okra or sautéed cucumber.
- Kerala Banana Chips are also a favorite for weddings.
We hope that with this information you are now steps closer towards putting together a wonderful wedding menu. Kindly share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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