Three factors to consider when choosing the menu for your wedding

Food & Cooking Blog

It can be surprisingly difficult to decide which dishes to include in your wedding menu. Here are three factors which you should take into consideration when making your choices:

Budget

Unless you are lucky enough to have an unlimited amount of money to spend on the food for your wedding, you will need to factor in your budget when choosing your menu, particularly if you have a long guest list and therefore need to feed a lot of people.

The complexity of the dishes you choose and the price of the ingredients needed to make them will play a significant role in how much you are charged by your catering company.

If for example, you opt for a salad that contains truffles, authentic balsamic vinegar (which is much rarer than standard supermarket varieties) and saffron, it will be far more expensive than say, a salad made with low-cost, easy-to-access ingredients like white wine vinegar and coriander.

Likewise, appetisers such as pate and caviar, as well as elaborate cocktails that require half a dozen different liqueurs to create, will drastically increase your catering bill.

As such, if money is tight, it's best to only opt for special or unusual ingredients for one course (perhaps the main, as this is normally the most memorable part of the meal) and stick to simpler food items for the other courses.

Your wedding theme

The dishes you select for your menu should be in keeping with the theme of your wedding.

For instance, if you are opting for a bohemian theme, and want the event to have a laidback and fun ambience, it might be a good idea to ask your caterer to create a buffet with salads, cheese boards, canapés, crudites and other finger food that guests can enjoy as and when they want to. This type of food would match the informal and relax atmosphere of your theme.  

Conversely, if you've settled on a nautical theme and are hoping to create a slightly more formal ambiance, it may be more appropriate to arrange a sit-down dinner, which includes traditional, hearty seafood dishes like poached salmon or grilled lobster.

Your guests' dietary requirements

If you're inviting a relatively large number of people, there is a good chance that some of them may have special dietary needs. You should find out about these before the event and factor your guests' requirements in when planning the menu. This is particularly important if there will be guests in attendance who have coeliac disease or severe nut allergies, as consuming the wrong type of food could lead to them becoming extremely ill.

As such, if possible, send an email or a text to your guests to check if they are vegetarian, vegan or have any gluten, nut or dairy intolerances. Then, when the time comes to choose the dishes for your menu, make sure that there are a few options for each course that these guests can safely eat. Most catering companies can easily accommodate these type of requests and come up with delicious gluten-free or vegetarian-friendly alternatives to standard dishes.

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25 June 2017

Bacon and eggs for breakfast

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