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As a single girl until I was 34, I have been to a LOT of weddings and eaten a LOT of wedding food. Fancy stuff, weird stuff, surprises and failures.

Worst: a vegan wedding feast that was served outdoors from steam tables. Nothing against vegans - I admire the hell out of them - but vegan vittles fare VERY badly sitting in steam tables for hours. It was a disaster. 99% of their guests and family were NOT vegan, but the bride insisted, and it was a disaster. Think: dry, bland lentil loaf with mushroom gravy and overcooked spinach with canned garlic. It was loathsome and the heavy winds that day gave every dish a nice dusty mouth-feel.

Best: my brother and his wife are scout leaders and had their wedding at an Upward Bound camp facility. The meal? Simple sausage lasagna and veggie lasagna, garden salad, toasted garlic bread and brownies, prepared in the camp kitchen and served on picnic tables. Wonderful, easy, crowd-pleasing.

At the last wedding reception I went to, in Alabama, barbecued ribs were included in the buffet, along with little wipes. It was great.

(The cake was good, too.)

My own!

I had my kitchen staff prepare and serve everything including the cake. I helped up until the day before the wedding.

The rehearsal dinner was spaghetti and meatballs served family style.

Before the ceremony we had passed hors d'ouevres and the meal started out with a chopped Italian style salad and lobster bisque. Then the main meal was a buffet. Dessert was wedding cake and fresh fruit. Simple, delicious and plenty of time for dancing, drinking and having fun. I think the last wedding I went to there were only 45 minutes for partying because the multi-course dinner lasted sooooo long.

my friends just had piles of finger food on several tables around the hall. there was no formal dinner, but there was enough food that everyone could eat a dinner-sized amount. there was a good variety, so everyone could have something they liked. about halfway through, they cut the cake and set out similar plates of tiny cakes, mousse, cookies, brownies, etc. it was perfect.

also, it was nice to be able to graze throughout the night.

It was my own, I have to say! We chose to have our (luncheon) wedding at a lovely restaurant my family had enjoyed for years. We insisted on a really good vegetarian entree, since that was what we'd be eating, and got a fantastic roasted vegetable lasagna. The chicken and fish dishes were also fantastic. It was a point of pride for us!

We had barbecue from a great place in Ames, Iowa (it really is some of the best barbecue north of the Mason-Dixon line. George Battle, the founder of the restaurant, was from Texas and settled in Iowa and it is still one of the best-hidden Midwest secrets!). I think we had brisket, ribs and pork. The rest of our catering was done by the Des Moines Art Center's chefs and it was all really good. My favorite part were the individual cheesecakes from Cosi Cucina. They were gluten-free (pretty much the whole meal was, except the rolls) for my godmother, but you couldn't have noticed there wasn't a crust if you tried. To quote a friend, they were the best cheesecakes we'd ever had.

My own wedding, which was actually at a (now defunct) catering hall. The entrees were stuffed portobello mushroom, jumbo shrimp stuffed with crab, chicken florentine, and a NY strip. We had over 100 guests with widely ranging appetites and EVERYONE was happy, especially us. The captain noticed we were having a hard time sitting down to eat, so she had the kitchen put together a tasting for us. Mini versions of everything the guests had. It was really wonderful.

I'm glad I'm not the first to say that I think the food at my own wedding was my favorite!

We used a caterer that also has a gourmet shop in Philadelphia, and is used to making very tasty massive amounts of food. We had a big green salad, roast pork tenderloin (which wasn't dry at all- a huge fear of mine), polenta casserole with grilled veggies, roasted sweet potatoes, sauteed green beans plus hors d'oeurves. (our wedding was in October, thus the heavy food.)

Instead of wedding cake, we had our foodie friends bake cakes and bring them, so we had about 8 different delicious cakes, all with stories behind them and not at all dry. The caterer brought us a mini chocolate cake to cut, so we wouldn't have to choose one of our friends' cakes over another.

I couldn't have been more happy with the caterer. They were so accommodating, affordable and the food was spectacular. I also have to admit that a lot was left to chance: other than the hors d'oeurves, we didn't do any tastings and just trusted the caterer when she said that the pork wouldn't be dry.

The last wedding I went to had greek food. Total surprise, as the bride's not greek, and neither is the groom. But it was DELICIOUS! I was so excited as I was going through the buffet; tzatziki, hummus, gyro meat & chicken, roasted veggies, pita, rice, falafel. Not what you'd expect for a wedding in KY!

Buffalo carpaccio, baby greens salad, and cedar plank salmon. Not only was it the best wedding food I've ever had, but it was one of the best meals I've ever had.

has anyone seen Indian wedding food? just wondering, as i have not, but i love indian food. the strong colours and spices might be challenging for spills, though.

i saw a beautiful spread of artisanal breads, pastas, cheeses and crudites in a country wedding photograph--it may have been a martha stewart spread. very pretty, fragrant with herbs.

My husband and I made our wedding meal. I'm still amazed we managed to pull it off. To my husbands credit, his timing and menu selection was the real magic. We went for a classic, timeless, traditional, and whimsical feel.
We had:
Prosecco
Brie and crusty French bread
San Pellegrino
Roasted fingerling potatoes
Fresh spring vegetables-primarily peas
Prime rib
and apple pies for dessert

My favourite wedding food was a "cocktail dinatoire" instead of a sit-down meal, so there were passed hors d'oeuvres as well as stations of cheese/fruit, desserts, and "verrines". Some of the one-bite-things were fig with salmon mousse, tuna with wasabi-mayo, magret de canard with onion grelot, poached quail egg with caviar and sour cream, pastry-wrapped sausage, brochettes, melon and proscuitto, etc. And cupcakes from a local one-woman bakery instead of a traditional wedding cake.

Photos that were taken of the food:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sfllaw/sets/72157601941545107/

Avianmission - my boyfriend says the best wedding food he ever had was the food after a Hindi ceremony. Huge spread of delish Indian food that even the bride was totally impressed by (the caterer wasn't a traditional Indian chef or anything) - and it was in Texas! I wish I had been there for sure!

Art -- would love to hear more about the items on your buffet and your cake...

The best wedding meal was at a very small wedding (there were only 20 or so of us) and it was in a restaurant -- German/Austrian. There was spaetzle (light, delicate, homemade) and schnitzel in mushroom wine sauce - perfect.

The best wedding cake we've ever had at a wedding was one that we baked for friends (who were only going to have sugar pie). It was 2 cakes in one -- 2 tiers of whipped cream cake and 2 tiers of underbaked chocolate ccake, all covered with 2 textures of chocolate ganache (the whipped cream cake had raspberry buttercream and raspberries in the middle). All the guests swarmed the kitchen to finish off the chocolate ganache by dipping strawberries.

A friend of mine is a chef at one of the top restaurants in NY. They catered his wedding.

One of the best food I've had at a wedding was Mexican fajitas. Not exactly normal wedding fare, but it was delicious and it matched the bride and groom perfectly.

My brother had a crab feast (he lives in Annapolis). THere was a lot of other suff like corn, clams, fish, chowder, etc, but it was simple, messy food and everyone loved it. Eating crabs is communal and fun, and it was chepaer than a catered deal.

I wish I could say my own, but to my continuing shame and frustration I can't. Oh well.

The best I ever had was at the very casual wedding (by the lake in Ithaca) of an old roommate, who had been a bartender at Veritas for a couple years. The sous chef and his girlfriend made the food: Several room-temp salads, including a great one with frisee and duck confit, then they grilled tuna and steak. So simple, so, so delicious, and they had a new puppy running around the picnic site, to boot!

If anyone is having a wedding in the St. Louis region I really recommend Russo's Catering. Their food and staff were excellent and the pricing was affordable. We went with a stations set up instead of a regular buffet at our wedding. My husband is vegetarian and I wanted there to be good veggie food but to also keep my picky family happy. Everything turned out so delicious and I know from our tasting event that they have even more great choices. Here was our menu:

Passed Appetizers
Spinach & Artichoke Mousse Pastry
Grilled Vegetable Pinwheels
Salami Horns piped w/cream cheese

Appetizer Display
Fruit & Specialty Cheese Display

Salad Selection
Garden Vegetable Salad w/Ranch or Balsamic Dressing & Asiago Lavosh

Carving Station
Herb Marinated Rotisserie Turkey: with Assorted rolls & Orange Cranberry Chutney

Hot Hors d'oeuvres
Prosciutto & Asiago Stuffed New Potatoes
Sesame Chicken Skewers w/Thai Peanut Sauce
Feta Cheese & Sundried Tomato in Phyllo

Chef Station
Cashew Chicken Stirfry
Moo Shu Vegetable Stir Fry
served over Jasmine rice with crispy wonton strips

I know it sounds like a weird mix but everybody loved being able to pick and choose and everything was super tasty! Our cake was hands down the most delicious thing I've eaten. We had a chocolate/white swirl with chocolate ganache and buttercream icing. I could have eaten the entire thing by myself. In fact we managed to eat a whole cake top between the two of us during the honeymoon. (They gave it to us as a gift for my husband's birthday, which was 3 days after the wedding!)

@Monika1,

We did an Italian American style buffet. I thought the guests would appreciate it. We had Vesuvio chicken, beef tenderloin, rigatoni, vegatables...

The cake was red velvet with buttercream frosting.

Everything was simple, comforting and delicious!!

I also have to say the best meal I've had was my own (and we hear the same from a lot of friends!)

We had a casual wedding at a summer camp and the reception was buffet style. The caterer was amazing and even made special versions of our dishes for all of the food allergies. We basically just put together dishes from all of our favorite tastes. We had passed apps - jalepeno cheddar empanadas, veggie potstickers and chicken lollipos. The meal - sweet potato soup in a bread bowl with creme fraiche, apple stuffed chicken, gruyere bread pudding (which was the highlight for me!), lemon asparagus crepes, spinach salad with pecans, cranberries, goat cheese and a maple vinaigrette and a summer heirloom tomato salad. We had an ice cream sandwich bar, along with a very simple cake (chocolate with almond buttercream).

For our rehearsal dinner, our friends made incredible fajitas and everyone pitched in which made it even better!

Food and love go together for me and, as cheesey as it sounds, you could really taste the love in the food.