Have you peeked at the slideshow of wedding food from New York Times readers? No? It's worth taking a look! The Times put out a call for unique or homemade wedding food from their readers' weddings, to accompany their feature on "down-home" wedding food — the trend of serving local, seasonal, or more homey types of food at weddings. So they asked to see some of their readers' own choices, and we've picked out a few of our favorites.
Having thrown our own "down-home" style wedding last year, complete with a homemade wedding cake (two, actually), ice cream, and seasonal vegetables and herbed pork tenderloin served family-style, we can attest to the fact that this kind of food isn't a lot cheaper than the traditional surf and turf of a fancy wedding. But we do think there's something fun and rather satisfying about really putting your own ideas and preferences into a big dinner party for friends (it's what a reception is at its heart, after all), and we were intrigued and impressed by some of these examples from Times readers.
TOP ROW
• 1 A lobster bake on the beach in Massachusetts. (Image: Paul McEvoy)
• 2 Food made by the bride and groom! The bride and groom made nine sweets and nine savories as gifts to their guests. Candied bacon! (Image: D. Nguyen)
• 3 An entire roasted pig...as an appetizer during cocktail hour! In Seattle (Image: Photo Elan)
• 4 A pet hedgehog named Nestle rendered as a wedding cake in Seattle. (Image: Daniel Waugh)
• 5 Blue-colored lemonade in Mexico. Nice 4th of July idea: who needs blue-colored liqueurs anyway? Just dye your margarita blue... (Image: Patricia Pendergrass)
BOTTOM ROW
• 6 A homemade Roman oven! The bride's father built a pizza oven and served all the guests pizza in the garden. (Image: Susan DiManno)
• 7 A wedding "cake" made from lobsters with a plasma screen underneath running an aquarium simulation. In Virginia. (Image: Brian L. Lichoric)
• 8 Pumpkin soup served with pepitas and croutons at a kibbutz in Israel. (Image: Eliyahu Yanai)
• See all the photos: Readers' Wedding Food at The New York Times
• Read the article: With This Burger, I Thee Wed
Did you serve "down-home" food at your wedding? Have you seen any particularly good ideas for feeding a crowd creatively and in a nourishing way lately?
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
I just attended a wedding in Kansas and they served up some Kansas City style barbecue. This is my third wedding in KS and all three have served barbecue! And I'm not complaining! At this wedding the barbecue was catered but the appetizers were home-made and the cake too!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_chel/sets/72157620062256799/
I really enjoyed my brother's wedding rehearsal dinner. It was in the country west of Chicago and it was bbq but "grill style" barbecue, not the smoked and slow-roasted kind. The dinner was held at an old farm and as we pulled up, 5 B's bbq had already fired up their cinder block pit and were grilling pork chops, chicken and corn. The smell of the smoke was very inviting and comforting.
It was simple, casual and delicious. And the fact that they cooked the food on the spot made it special too.
view art's profile
We're having a sandwich truck cater our wedding. Portland is so full of food carts, so we wanted to take advantage of it. Our first choice was a taco truck, but we had so much trouble finding the perfect one (the truck actually ran, they had time, the tacos were good...). So, we're happy with the sandwich truck.
view brittanykate's profile
Wish me luck; our wedding is on Saturday. We're catering it, from our "food on sticks" appetizers (fondue, chocolate fountain) to family recipes for the dinner (rouladin, spatzle, salads, rolls, pasta) to the wedding cake (100s of hand-made fondant flowers, hand-made cake-topper (2 birds sitting in a nest of vanilla beans, etc). We're hoping it all comes off well.
We have gotten a lot of comments though from our friends saying they are excited. I guess it's a little somethign different and "us" than the typical catered food. It has made the wedding feel a lot more like it is ours, rather than just another event.
view Lawdesigner's profile
We had a catered BBQ picnic on a private farm for our rehearsal lunch. The guests loved it, and the food was only $300.
P.S. -- I initially felt some alarm upon seeing "a pet hedgehog named Nestle" in the food list above. I'm relieved that he functioned only as inspiration.
view heather77's profile
Those lobsters are hilarious. Possibly a Cake Wreck?
http://www.abreadaday.com
view eprewitt's profile
My sister just got married last weekend and they had two receptions - for the first one her husband's family smoked two pigs for several days for the main part of the meal, which was delicious! The second reception was picnic-style and our family cooked chicken and beef shish kebobs and boiled corn, new potatoes & onions (we called it bad year shrimp boil - everything but the shrimp). For dessert we had a table of pies and cheesecakes.
view Nikki_OK's profile
Here's a good-luck wish for you, Lawdesigner, and I'll ask the same! Our wedding is just over two weeks away, and we're self-catering, too.
I planned a buffet menu with that in mind, so we're going to have a combination of simple purchased foods (a mezze platter, cheese platters, fresh fruit, and so on) and a few more elaborate dishes that can be made ahead and frozen, to be baked on the wedding day by hired kitchen help.
We're nearly done with the cooking, and in the few days leading up to the wedding, we'll make trips to the cheese shop, the farmer's market, and the greengrocer.
This is tremendously satisfying, if a little nerve-wracking. We love to cook for our guests, and this lets us do it on a larger scale than we ever imagined.
view Elsa Macbebekin's profile
My brother in law is a lobsterman so when he and my sister got married, they stock piled a few lobsters every week (the crew are allowed to take a few from the last catch of the week) and froze them til the big day. It was quite lavish to have lobster casserole and baked lobster for her reception dinner...and for FREE!
view HelloChloe's profile