While I agree with getting rid of the raw platter and the shrimp cocktail (that pile of shrimp always grossed me out), I don't see the problem with carving stations. And as far as fake cake goes, sometimes there are other reasons beyond budget. We did a fake-ish cake for our wedding. The bottom two tiers were styrofoam covered in fondant and the top tier was real for us to cut. We had a full dessert buffet with all sorts of goodies that was included in the price of our meal, it didn't make sense to add cake on top of that but I just couldn't imagine not having a wedding cake to cut, so there you go.

Unfortunately most of the items they listed are all you are offered if you are getting married at a venue that does catering as well. We were married at a golf course and you were not allowed to bring in your own caterer.

Lastly - cheap wine does not equal bad wine!

....I think chocolate fountains should be banned period.

And I LIKE chocolate.

NO CHOCOLATE FOUNTAINS. Nothing grosses me out more than a bunch of people sticking their collective fingers into a recirculating mess of chocolate. *shudder*

It's my wedding anniversary. I can happily say none of the above was served (but we had our reception in a Tuscan restaurant, not a catering hall). I think the biggest challenge facing couples hiring a traditional setting plus caterer is that there is A Way These Things Are Done that has more to do with the venue's/caterer's profits than celebrating and taking good care of your guests. I know people get charged more just for Different. Never mind if Different is actually cheaper--it's not on the standard menu, so you will be charged accordingly.

I'm not going to sneer at someone for having veggies and dip, or cheese and crackers. After all, having the wedding you can afford is a lot more important than impressing the food snobs at Bon Appetit. Also, no, wine/other alcohol is not highly important at a wedding. Is it nice to have? Yes, but I've been to a lot of dry weddings that were a lot of fun. Weddings are not a chance to get drunk on someone else's dime.

(Side note to the folks at Bon Appetit: Just call them mini-burgers. "Sliders" is a derogatory nickname for White Castle mini-burgers, and the joke is that they're so greasy they'll slide right through you. Not appealing.)

Pasta. Pasta pasta pasta. Pasta should be banned from weddings. Sadly, when dealing with a caterer it's often the pat "vegetarian" option (wooo, primavera! mushy crap farfalle! veggies from a bag! my meat-eschewing heart sings!), but it cannot be upsized for the kind of service a wedding often needs.

When my caterer suggested pasta primavera for my wedding, as I knew they would, I remained calm and redirected the convo.

I am fine with chocolate fountains in general. Just make sure the dip-ables are pre-stuck with wooden spears to keep everything sanitary. However, I avoided it at the only wedding I went to with one because I didn't feel like having to clean the inevitable splotch of chocolate off my clothes.

It makes me sad that people are so judgemental about the food at weddings. Damn. People usually serve the best they can afford. If the bride wanted a ranch dressing fountain and that's not your cup of tea, you don't have to have any. No need to be snide.

While I've been to my share of weddings that have served many of these items, I've never been offended by them.

To me, if there's great food at a wedding then it's a bonus but I never expect it since I know there are many challenges for both the caterer and the happy couple to overcome (budget, venue, banquets, trying to please everyone). I'm there for the people who are getting hitched and the fact that they make the effort to feed me is appreciated.

And if there's an item that poses a hygienic concern, such as a chocolate fountain, I steer clear. However, the looks on many a kid's face when seeing a chocolate fountain is always entertaining so it seems entirely forgivable.

Now that I've read the article, I'm happy I don't know the author or I can imagine the earful I might have gotten about my own wedding. Since I keep kosher and our wedding was almost entirely vegetarian, we avoided most of what she dubbed "passe" but I'm sure she could find things to complain about. The whole article was written in the same tone as that person in a music store that rolls their eyes at whatever you select and only listens to music that "you wouldn't have heard of."

I like cheese and crackers. But you can do it better than wheat thins and bulk cheddar. Make it interesting.

We were dead set on having a full meal at our wedding, so we made sure guests knew to come hungry! We had an outdoor wedding at a public park with a fun bbq picnic theme. Our "caterer" was from within the family, and he cooked us up the best bbq pork/chicken sandwiches, along with all the sides that go with. We had apple pie as our "cake" and for dessert. People are still talking about it.

No finger foods for me! If I have to sit through a long formal ceremony and then wait for photos to be finished before eating, I am not a happy camper when all I get is finger foods!

Snarky, snarky, snarky. Just exactly what kind of food would please these people?

I don't think they should be banned as long as they're well prepared and people like them.

It seemed to me like the article was more about complaining about the "caterer version" of a given food, not that food itself. Most of these things are really yummy when you make them at home, but don't scale up to wedding size very well.

PLEASE stop with the chocolate fountain! Aside from hygiene issues, they make a huge mess. Everyone drips chocolate all over the table. If you were gung-ho about having it, why not real fondue at each table?

I agree about the "Veg-All" steamed veg, cheap wine & the fake cake (what??). But the rest of them...if someone wants to feed me shrimp & oysters at their expense, who am I to argue. I trust the caterers to serve it safely and have never been harmed consuming those items at group events.

I also think Bon Appetit could do a non-snarky list of things they think SHOULD be served.

Bon Appetit sounds like they have a giant stick up their...well, you know.

Everyone has things they dislike but come on. I've been to tons of weddings with a carving station (sorry if its to passe for the Bon Appetit crowd) and sky high bowls of shrimp because that's what the couple wanted and I didn't hear any complaints from guests.

For our wedding we wanted the focus to be really good food and hospitality so we planned for a (pricey) sit down dinner at an amazing restaurant. And it was perfect for us and our guests loved it. So sliders, cheese cubes and chocolate fountains weren't really in my mind, but that's not to say someone else doesn't dream of that. I have friends who had amazing weddings complete with burgers, fries and pinkberry at the end of the night.

It's a wedding to celebrate 2 people coming together, not a personally planned 5 course meal for you as a guest. Enjoy and be grateful or don't go.

Oh, the one thing I will say though having been a professional cake decorator- don't do the fake cake with a sheet cake off to the side. It just looks silly and the cost isn't really any different. The ONLY time I thought this was ok (but still kind of goofy) was when brides demanded a 7 tier cake for 100 guests (way too much) so they wanted the bottom tiers real and the top covered styrofoam. It looks fine and its a real cake to cut but if you're having a small wedding, get a small cake to go with that. A big wedding, go big. It really does look out of place to have a tiny wedding and a towering cake.

I get tired of people telling everyone what a wedding SHOULD be. I don't see anything wrong with doing or eating whatever you want at a wedding as long as you gave it some thought. It's an important moment and it should be just what the couple wants it to be.

Is the point of a wedding to eat a perfect, non-tacky meal, or is it to celebrate with the couple? I think if the bride and groom like a chocolate fountain or shrimp cocktail, or can only afford simpler crudete or cheese and crackers, then who cares? It's not your wedding, you were cordially invited to join them to celebrate, not to criticize their menu choices!

I can see why a lot of commenters disagree w/Bon App here, but as a wedding photographer I have to say that I have seen more than my fair share of most of the items on this list. I guess the frequency with which you're faced w/the same buffet over and over again has a lot to do with how overdone these foods seem. But I do agree with above comments in that I wouldn't judge your wedding bc of mediocre food, it would just be a nice surprise to find something different.

Wow! I thought weddings were to celebrate the love and commitment between two people, not demand gourmet food. At our wedding, we had pigs-in-a-blanket as one of the appetizers because my husband loves them, so as "low class" as they may seem, we had them because it was our day and we were going to have what made us happy. We also had a fake base tier on our cake with the rest of them being real because the design I liked had a fifth tier, but we didn't need the extra cake, and having a decorated styrofoam base saved on our budget.

I appreciate wanting to think about things like food safety, but being so snobby about someone else's choice for their day is downright rude. And I would question why you're going in the first place--are you there to celebrate two people you care about or complain about the food? If it's the latter, just stay home and make something that's more to your liking.

Fall weddings should be banned.
There's football people!!!
I'll see you in January.

How rude to be a guest and complain about your meal! Geez! I'm planning a wedding right now and find this list a bit unrealistic - I might prefer most of their alternatives, but am finding that the "cliches" can be both significantly cheaper AND more crowd pleasing. Maybe some people have mostly foodie relatives, but others of us have families who wont' eat anything that looks "weird." To many people, sliders are still exciting and different.

Same for crackers and cheese and crudites vs. queso fundido and vegetable tamales. I would prefer the second, but a lot of our guests would be happy with the first. Also, the first would actually be significantly cheaper, and the poitn of them is to keep people from starving, not blow the dinner budget.

Also, whining because you got hot, juicy meat at a carving station, rather than a dried out pre-cut piece on a plate, or the wine provided to you was not fancy enough is just RUDE! Seriously? Really?

"Something different" can be nice, but when you can't afford it, or a large portion of your guest list would be put off by the unfamiliarity, you just have to do your best to please the most people and realize that it's not going to be perfect. I think people don't realize how ridiculously expensive catering is.

(The only thing on the list we probably will do is have cheese and crackers...but I really, honestly see why people would choose all the other things as well. Can't make everyone happy.)

What weddings are Bon Appetit attending? I would give my heinie to be invited to a wedding with a raw bar. I'd eat the shit out of some oysters!

Ugh. Bon Appetit are being snobs about the faux wedding cake, the cheese and crackers and cheap wine. If they had said 'bad wine', I'd understand, but cheap does not equal bad -AT ALL-.
They would have done better pointing out that yes, anything truly time sensitive or potentially unhygienic is a bad choice and then staying away from snobbery.

I wish their tone had been a little jokier if they were going to go all out snark, and made fun of themselves some too...

My issue with weddings is that the sameness of "tradition" breeds low quality. Crappy plastic favors, balloons, "formal" plated dinners that taste like hospital food, bad music, etc. I feel like a lot of people give in to these kinds of things because A) it's expected of them and B) it's easier than coming up with something tailored to your own beliefs, needs, and wants. Don't do the Chicken Dance unless you LOVE the Chicken Dance!

And I have to say, as Bon Appetit says about carving stations, I don't really like lines, but I don't like getting cold, pre-portioned food either. And a good coordinator (or even a take-charge relative) can have tables go through lines in stages, instead of everyone getting up all at once. So I prefer buffet-style eating. There's more variety and you don't have to pay as many servers (if any).

I just think there is a way to do a wedding that is affordable (I'm talking like $5,000-$10,000 for 100 people, not $50,000) while still having quality food and ambiance. As someone else said and I'm paraphrasing - just because it's cheap doesn't mean it has to suck!

I miss the weddings of 30 or 40 years ago. They were simpler, less expensive and seemed much more intimate.

I work for a caterer and we do a metric shit-ton of weddings, and almost all of them request crudites and cheese and crackers. The trick is do cut and plate in a beautiful way. Turn the cheeses into lovely centerpieces. Serve tarragon and saffron aiolis instead of ranch (gross). Offer water crackers, not Ritz. Simple things presented beautifully!

I have to agree with others that it's the couples' damn choice if they want to serve "cliche food" and if you're a guest you should just suck it up. If you're afraid of what you might be served, eat before you go.
On the other hand, BA has every right to complain about crappy wedding food. It's their opinion--let them speak it.

I feel like I read that slideshow and got annoyed. So what exactly are people supposed to serve at weddings? You are limited (at least in my area) by the number of caterers within your budget, right?

I think my biggest problem with chocolate fountains is that they turn out tasting kind of gross. You have to add a considerable amount of vegetable oil to the melted chocolate to produce the desired effect and it comes out, in my experience, pretty bland and a little, well, oily.

what on earth is so horrible about fake wedding cakes? The wedding cake is pretty much just something pretty to look at, and to stack that many tiers it has to be a dense and heavy cake. Not to mention how sweet it is with all the various layers (even if the fondant is the yummy kind!).

I can guarantee that the real wedding cakes sit out just as long as that "sheet cake that's been hiding in the back room for a day".

At least the sheet cake can focus on flavour rather than looks and stability.

And what's wrong with cheap wine? I think maybe the writers haven't had cheap wine for a while. It's all I'll drink and I think it's quite lovely, especially the sparkling ones.

@melle, you could make a wedding cake out of angel food cake if you wanted to. The way a wedding cake is stacked, there's supports throughout that hold the weight of the tiers on cake boards. No cake is holding up any weight. The cake inside a real wedding cake will taste just as good or better than the sheet cake (most shops don't want to waste time with the side sheet cakes so they get thrown together quicker with less care since who is looking at it.)

Agree with most of what's been said here. I'm getting married next summer, and for so long before we got engaged I vowed never to serve crappy catering hall food at a wedding, to be the cool person that had the wedding with the really good food. Now that we're planning, I'm realizing how hard that is. We're vegetarian and found several of our fave NYC veg restaurants to cater -- but the prices were out of control; one wanted $20,000 for 75 people. When I looked at places local to our venue (upstate) which are much more run of the mill caterers, and I'm sure a lot of mediocre food, everything all of a sudden seemed more reasonable. And in the end, I'd rather have so-so food and be able to afford to invite everyone I know and love than splurge on catering and have to cut my guest list. So...yeah, like everyone above said...judging people on their wedding food is just tacky and snobby.

Good lord, that was a snooty list. Let people serve what they like and what they can afford. The wedding reception is about celebrating with those you love -- good food is a bonus, if you ask me.

(and in a small town, half of the "preferred" options proposed by Bon Appetit just aren't available)

We had a carving station, plus crudite, cheese, and crackers. We also had cheap wine because we were also paying a $15/bottle corkage fee. Our cocktail hour appetizers also included fruit, but they weren't centerpieces. I must have failed in some many ways according to Bon Appetit. It's too bad that everyone at my wedding raved about the food and have even brought it up a year later. Even generic ideas can be done in new and interesting ways. And my cheap wine was awesome. We also had kegs of Guinness and Widmer Hefeweizen.

I like to think that abundance of chocolate fountains are due to the fact that its not really something you can justify in day to day life. If an occassion calls for a piece of machiner/decoration spurting out chocolate, what better occassion than a wedding? If the bride or groom wants it, more power to them. And whilst chocolate fondue pots are a good idea they aren't nearly as celebratory, or at least dramatic, as a chocolate fondue. I am amazed at how many people steer clear of them for hygiene reasons. I feel 'hygiene' has become a little over the top lately. Live life! How many people have actually gotten sick from a chocolate fountain? I know nobody.

But I agree that cheap wine doesn't equal bad wine, and I love any wedding that has prawns (Shrimp).

i don't get the privilege of attending many weddings with american menus. so anytime i see a mountain of shrimp and cocktail sauce, i get very excited.

with that said, it's very possible to have a large wedding on a small budget. my husband and i hosted our friends and family (mine vietnamese immigrant and his multi-generation midwestern) to a lovely chinese-style banquet. a meal for almost 200 was about $8000, and our amazing cake was less than $400. thankfully, the restaurant let us bring our own liquor and we were able to sauce up our friends for about $500 (and bevmo lets you return what's unused!). and thanks to rented clothes (seriously, you don't need to own the dress), and amazing deal on the photographer, we were able to have a beautiful wedding for less than $15,000.

but i still would have loved some shrimp cocktail. :-)

Chocolate fountains gross me out, but if it's your wedding then serve what you want. The best wedding I have ever been to didn't even have a sit down dinner, just tons of savory mini options followed by even more bite sized treats...and an open bar.

I laughed all the way through the slideshow, because I both work for a caterer and am a bride-to-be (44days!). As we planned our reception menu, I knew that I didn't want the standard wedding fare. But then the families started chiming in. "you'll need chicken tenders for the kids" (why the hell are children allowed to live off fried chicken strips?) and "what about some finger foods to save money?" I wanted to do maybe italian stuff (bruschetta isn't as abused at Southern weddings) because everyone likes italian.

And then my hubby to be and I had lunch with a groomsman. We had been fighting over the menu for a week. Hubby wanted cheap as possible, I wanted some panache. Then our friend said the smartest thing I've heard during wedding planning. "Just serve the food you love to eat." So we decided on a barbeque buffet because servers are expensive and we both love bbq. And yes, we're ordering some chicken for the no-red-meat-please people and i'm going to make something special for my vegan-trucker dad, but in general we picked the food we love.

Because it's our wedding.

I think these people should get their heads out of their asses. It's not _your_ wedding. If you don't like the food, don't go!

i love the carving station. if you don't like lines, then don't wait on it... i myself love a juicy steak, and if that means waiting on line and talking with a friend for 10 minutes, i'm all for it. plus, it works up an appetite!

Haha, I have always hated the food in martini glasses! Every caterer seems to offer it, too.

getting married on September 3rd and according to this mag we will not be serving any tacky food! we are vegan, and self catering an etheopian buffett, making our own cake, and getting a keg.

the keg is probably pretty tacky.

I just read all the Bon Appétit recommendations, and think people have misjudged the article. It is aimed at caterers, and tries to challenge the rather uninspired and lazy offerings, not the brides and grooms who offer them. I happen to agree with everything except the carving station.

I've been to weddings in France, and have to say the food is a whole heck of a lot better. People are no richer than in the U.S. (actually, they have lower incomes), but it is easier to find good food because people are used to good food, demand good food, and there is a culture of good food.

This author is just saying that we can and should demand more, and should be getting more. Caterers can and should be doing better, but because we are settling, they don't have any impetus to change. There is nothing wrong with serving cheese at a wedding -- in fact, it can be a very elegant option. As a poster who works for a more enlightened caterer remarked, it is all about HOW you do it. Little squares of cheddar and saltines? No thanks. But interesting trays of a variety of local artisanal cheeses, with homemade cheese straws, lovely grape varieties (champagne grapes perhaps, or muscats), fresh figs, pain au levain... divine!

And as for the point about wine, it is well taken. Caterers and venues make a lot of money off the sale of wines; try to find a place which doesn't gouge you, and force you to serve lower quality wines because of their greedy charges. I know many, many inexpensive and excellent wine; the issue is not the cost of the wine per se.

Maybe the author should have made these points more clearly, but that is what I got out of the article. And I agree with the points.

I thin

I think most couples try to choose food they enjoy, so Bon Appetit's opinion is largely irrelevant.

As ceblanier points out, couples also are concerned with pleasing their guests, and wedding guests often come from a different, shall we say, demographic than does the engaged couple. My husband and I like great produce and interesting flavors and have several friends who won't touch U.S. beef; yet my father in law and a good friend of my Dad's would have gone hungry without their red meat and starch. So we had a leg of lamb carving station that I never even saw, but I was reassured that no one would have to stop at Burger King on the way home (as I have known them to do at other weddings). Meanwhile my husband and I had seabass or some such, bok choy with shiitake mushrooms, an amazing salad full of fresh berries and rice krispie treats and bananas foster for dessert - oh my goodness, I remember that meal so fondly!

I agree with the article. I've been to weddings with the oyster bar, the stations of roast beef, etc., and everyone was lining up. It felt odd and institutional when it should feel festive.

we're self-proclaimed foodies, but for our mid-july brunch wedding 4 years ago, we had a mix of tea sandwiches, homemade (a friend's grandmother's recipe) chicken salad, cheap wine, expensive champagne and tons and tons of fresh fruits & vegetables.

for us, even though the food wasn't fancy or expensive, it was important that it was fresh, local and utilized family and friends recipes, as part of our 'save the dates' was a request to submit a recipe for our first cookbook.

the best part was that it was all so filling that we had lots of leftovers to share.

We got married last September in Seattle - my husband had been in the catering business for a few years and had some insight into what went into catering/what foods would hold up best, which proved very helpful in our food planning. In Seattle you are half expected to serve salmon, and I've only experienced ONE wedding salmon that held up and was cooked correctly (Olympic Sculpture Park $$$$). The key is to think of foods that get better with age and can handle sitting for about an hour then reheated, because really, unless the kitchen is huge no one is firing off plates in the back to order. His advice was to go buffet all the way - plated food is plated far in advance of dinner and is less likely to be fresh. Buffet presentations do not have to include giant chafing dishes! Generally your caterer is open to talking about presentation, they are used to special requests. Also, it didn't cost us much more to deviate from the menu or to make adjustments to recipes on the menu.

Oh, and based on the comments above and my own personal experience, don't tell anyone in advance of the wedding what you intend to serve, there will be opinions a-plenty and that's just more stress than you'll need. Go with your gut, if you like to eat it, they'll enjoy it too.

We once attended a wedding in which the vegetarian entree was a giant steamed onion, carved into a flower design, plus a little serving of vegetables on the side. Uh...? The carnivores were served some fancy chicken and beef.

When we got married 6 years ago, we served (almost) nothing on this list, and had great and affordable food. Of course, the main reason we were able to do this is that the wedding was in my parents' backyard (gorgeous), and so we weren't bound by a caterer's or venue's rules. We realized pretty quickly when looking at wedding venues that your choices are pretty limited, and very expensive. And not everyone has a backyard that would work well for such an event.

All that being said, we had a cocktail party-style reception, with food stations set up around the backyard. There was both a carving station and a chocolate fountain, but our wedding planner had a server working the chocolate fountain so people weren't dipping stuff themselves and contaminating the whole thing. Because of the style of the reception, there wasn't one long line for the carving station, as people moved from one station to another freely throughout the night. We also had a gorgeous bread/cracker and cheese display with a variety of nice cheeses, a lot of finger foods that hold up well (smoked salmon, mini caprese salads, etc.). Most of the food ingredients and the alcohol was purchased at Costco, and made by the wedding coordinator and her staff in my parents' kitchen the day of the event.

Like I said, I realize we had this flexibility because of our location and our amazing wedding planner, and I'm so grateful for it. People STILL talk about the food at our wedding.

Some of the worse food I've ever had was catered and looked beautiful.OK....maybe not beautiful,but well presented.I think this article has missed the point with catering in general.You get what you pay for and most people do not have an array of options to choose from.

It costs a ton of money to have someone take apart your wedding cake and plate it for your guests.I've noticed most guests don't eat the cake.Who cares if it's fake under those circumstances.Likewise it costs even more money to have table service.If the bar is free nobody notices little things like that either.

The best food catered wedding food I have had has been provided by hotels with full kitchens and small informal gatherings.Hotels are extremely expensive per person and informal requires diligence on the part of the hosts to pull it off.

Most of what's served at weddings is because it's cheap and easy.Anytime you try to satisfy the masses you end up with mediocre.

The article made me sad. There are so many restrictions with weddings. You have to find a place where you can do the best to get the most of what you want within your budget. Sometimes for some people having an elegant reception site is worth skimming a bit on the food quality. That said I do wish that wedding caterers could do a bit better at thinking of some more creative vegetarian entree options. The last wedding I was at I was served Stouffers veggie lasagna. Seriously out of the box. I hate to think what they dared to charge the party paying!

I really hated the tone of that article. Weddings are a celebration that you have been invited to, presumably out of love and affection for the parties involved.

Yes, it is nice when the food is fresh and lovely, and the wine expensive and good. But I've enjoyed many a wedding where the food wasn't so great, because the joy was bountiful.

Being petty takes the fun out of life.

As someone with a shellfish allergy I appreciated adding oysters, shrimp and crab to this list for the health reasons at least, even if they weren't listed in the article. It is extremely frustrating going to a wedding with shrimp and crab based appetizers and entrees. And many times the waiter staff is not involved in food prep and does not even know what is in an h'orderve let alone how to handle it safely so as not to harm someone. I now have my husband taste anything I am offered first after several waiters misidentified the food they serve.

Talk about taking yourself way too seriously. "Cheese feels too familiar, and not in a good way"? What a snobby piece.

@Kay McCurley Very well put!
I think I'll go write an article about other wedding trends I'm over. White dresses? So very obvious. The whole daughter-dad dance? We've heard enough "My Girl" to last us a lifetime. Smiling for photos? HELLO, SEARS.

we had a pig roast and picnic wedding..... salads, beans, bread. Wedding watermelons instead of cake. Kegs of beer in a HUGE galvanized tin water trough, lots and lots of cheap flavored wine that everyone chugged down. We had lots of music, a firepit later on and hundreds of people who said it was the best party (let alone wedding) they'd ever been too...we finally kicked that last guests out at 5 am....
my take- do what YOU want. Eat what you want. Make your own traditions and have fun. It's not the wedding that makes a marriage.

I think my favorite wedding I ever attended was for my favorite high school teacher [after she had retired and I was almost done with college]. On the invitation it was requested that you do not dress up, and do not bring gifts. They just wanted family and friends to be there and have a good time. The "reception" consisted of everybody going to a local cafe after the church ceremony; where you bought your own refreshments if you wanted them. It might turn some people off, but these were two people who had been previously married [and divorced] and of course knew that everybody attending wouldn’t care, we just wanted to see the bride and groom happy!

Wow. How mean. Sorry we can't all afford gourmet chef's to cater our weddings. No one's ever forced anyone to eat anything at the weddings I've been too. Of course I come from a small town in the South. I've been to weddings where everything was made by aunts and the older ladies at the church. Everyone still had fun. What do these guys know?

Yes, yes, yes. I have been to so many weddings with sub-par food. I think the point of BA's article is that caterers also serve the same stuff - and it's not that good. I am hoping for a small wedding so I can serve really good food. Def. italian. Antipasto, two different choices of pasta (pumpkin ravioli and something else) a few choices of salad, meat, and a pie table. I know the pie table is not italian, but I hate cake. And I want to have a fall wedding so, all my favorite fall pies will make an appearance. With whipped cream and ice cream, of course.

PS lorijo, that wedding sounds amazing!

After reading the article, I'm having a hard time figuring out why people are annoyed. I took it to be aimed more at catering companies than anyone else. I can't count how many weddings I've been to with sub-par cafeteria food -- which is why I was downright ANGRY when I was planning my own wedding and found out just how much caterers were charging for said sub-par cafeteria food! Seriously? Yes, weddings are a celebration of the couple, and no, guests don't have much of a say-so when it comes to what food is served, unless there are specific dietary needs. But for the prices the couple (or whoever) is paying, they should be demanding more... creativity, and more practicality (there ARE some foods that taste fine both made in advance and in mass quantities), and overall food served with a lot more thought than what's usually given. What's so snobby about that?

And for the record: we had an "international cheese platter" and cheap wine at our wedding. They also didn't look or taste cheap.

I whole-heartedly agree that chocolate fountains should be banned. I think it's tacky, but also quite icky when you see grubby little kid hands all up in there! Ew!

And, I am a chocoholic!

I actually agree with this entire list. While cheese and crackers and crudite platters are fine for small, relaxed get togethers, I find them far too overused for parties. Often just a default option.

I feel a wedding deserves something more original than your average ho-hum platters. Get creative using veggies that aren't expected and delicious gourmet dips. Or replace the raw veggie platter with a platter of balsamic roasted veggies (red peppers, red onions, etc) that hold up well and taste ever better at room temperature.

Instead of a cheese cubes and crackers plate which speaks more of a Super Bowl party than a wedding, why not offer delicious cheese tasting plates at your dining tables. Choose several cheeses and serve with appropriate pairings like honey, jams and crostini.

I think a little extra effort goes a long way. And, don't serve things just because everyone else does. Be original! Introduce people to something different and unexpected.

I would like to add that by no means do the replacements for these been-there-done-that wedding food items need to be "gourmet" or "expensive" at all. You can still be creative and different without breaking the bank. Just think outside the box and STAY WITHIN your budget. :)

I think the problem with advocating "a little extra effort" when it comes to the food comes down to what a lot of people have been saying: for a bride and groom on a budget, they're probably DIYing a whole lot more than the food. As someone planning a wedding, I'm pretty tapped out in the effort department. If my caterer isn't going to creatively arrange my cheese platter, well, then I guess guests hoping for a Brie sculpture will be disappointed.