The end of the Fourth of July celebrations mean the beginning of the one month countdown. In just one month the wedding that you have been planning for months will finally be here. The bridesmaids dresses have arrived, you have the final fitting for your gown, the hotel rooms for your special guests are reserved, and with just one more meeting with the caterer, you have almost finalized the menu for a wedding reception.
If you are working with special event catering services, you understand the importance of making sure that every detail has been considered. From making sure that your guests have some snacks available while they wait for the wedding party to arrive at the reception to having a menu that the wedding couple and the parents are happy with, the process of setting a menu for a wedding reception takes careful attention. Whether or not you know anything about the catering business, it is important to make sure that you are working with a group that comes with the best recommendations from family, friends, and or other brides.
Consider some of these unique and popular approaches to a menu for a wedding reception today:
- The wedding day can be very long. From hairstylists in the morning to pictures in the afternoon, by the time the end of the reception and dance roll around many guests may find themselves hungry again. For this reason, more brides and grooms are opting to serve a late-night snack around 10:00 pm. Some popular late night snack bar offerings include a sliders bar or local popular pizza options.
- A Great Gatsby inspired wedding, with tea sandwiches, champagne towers, and champagne cocktails are current popular trends.
- Some decor, table arrangements, and food presentation can also be offered by today’s catering specialists.
- Trends for wedding cakes are moving away from tiered cakes. Instead, an increasing number of couples are opting for less expensive alternatives, such as cake pops, cupcakes, crepe cakes, pies, and macarons.
- Your wedding menu should reflect the foods that you like, so make sure that you voice your opinion early in the planning stages.
- Dessert bars are popular alternatives to traditional wedding cake only offerings. Having an ice cream table with all the toppings available for the guests as they await the arrival of the wedding party is one popular option. Soft serve ice cream machines allow guests to serve themselves.
- Estimates indicate that there are approximately 321,400 U.S. men and women working in the catering and food service management industry.
- Considering a day time wedding can help you safe some money. In fact, the less expensive day time weddings are rapidly growing in popularity. By offering brunch menus with mimosas, bloody Marys, omelet stations, and other creative choices, caterers are rising to the occasion of this growing trend.
- In most cases, heavy cream sauces, fatty double pork chops, and deep-fried appetizers are less popular. Instead, many couples are opting for lighter offerings. For wedding cocktail hours, for instance, little antipasto skewers with a grape tomato, a ball of mozzarella, and an olive drizzled with fresh basil oil are great options. Another popular menu for a wedding reception cocktail hour can include lettuce wraps with chicken in a savory Thai peanut sauce.
- Staffs of cooks, servers, cleaners, and dishwashers, should all be managed by the catering company. In addition, the catering staff should ensure that their team is aware of schedules, place settings, serving customs, as well as food safety regulations.
- Increasingly popular, make your own food bars, such as salsa and guacamole bars, taco bars, slider bars, and sundae bars are more and more common for weddings and formal events.
- Organic and sustainable ingredients are becoming easier to access, so many brides and grooms want to have at least one green course on their wedding menus.
- No one wants to eat a meal that is cold, so make sure that the caterers pay careful attention to the timing of the food service.
- Seasonally driven menus are always popular options. Capitalizing on the fresh fruits and vegetables that are available guarantees that you are focusing on some of the best tasting foods.
The best wedding menus are created by checking the selections of several catering services and finding the ones that most suit both the wedding couple and any parents who are involved.
