How to cater for a seasonal wedding

Avoid hangry wedding guests and plan your wedding day catering with a little help from Caviar and Chips…

We’re going to give you a brief glimpse into the year ahead for food and drink menus and wedding breakfasts to help with your planning and to whet your appetite!

Wedding themes

There’s a whole host of different themes and formats for 2019 and 2020; from informal sharing platters and boards, to 5-course fine dining menus with matching wines. Many weddings with extended canapé receptions and bowl food as well as afternoon tea and cocktails and festival style street foods.

For casual and informal style wedding breakfasts there’s some really nice examples of sharing boards with a variety of ingredients and cultural influences – from Mediterranean style mezze with cured meats and cheeses, a variety of tapas dishes or even completely vegetarian or vegan boards – these are a great way to put together some of your favourite foods to create a unique meal.

You may also like: Where to start with your wedding breakfast menu

Many summer weddings include couples looking to recreate their favourite music and food festivals. You can start here with an idea of a format and these themes can work well in a courtyard or field with small marquees serving guests things like chicken and chorizo paella, homemade artisan pies or whole hog roasts and BBQ’s with your favourite summer dishes, be that beef brisket, pulled pork or 100% Aberdeenshire beef burgers – always a winner, cos let’s be honest, who doesn’t love a burger!

Other food stations could include Korean noodles, Thai food as well as sweet offerings such as a crepe stations serving sweet crepes with fruits, ice creams and syrups to satisfy that sweet, dessert craving at the end of the meal!

Seasonal foods

Seasons play a huge part in the ingredients for the wedding breakfast menus. In spring weddings, you can introduce some lighter dishes such as mint crusted Welsh Lamb with fondant potatoes and spring greens as well as making the most of Wonderful Evesham Asparagus.

Get creative with summer wedding breakfasts and the optimism we have for long, hazy sunshine days. Create fun and relaxed picnic menus with hampers that can be filled with artisan breads, whole pork pies and joints of meat to carve at the table, with salads, cheeses, pates and home-made chutneys to share and graze at leisure.

Autumn and winter months see menus making the most of game season and hearty dishes such as a Rare Venison Loin, served with dauphinoise potato, roast parsnip and blackberry jus, or apple and berry crumble, with lashings of custard of course!

Wedding beers, wines, cocktails & spirits

How to ensure there is plenty to drink, whatever your tipple, can be a common challenge, but one that many couples are keen to personalise as much as the food menus.

Following a traditional wedding format, then providing a drinks and canape reception after the ceremony is a lovely way to get your guests mingling and keep them entertained whilst you’re capturing your wedding photographs.

Whether it’s a glass of champagne, prosecco, a summery Pimms or tasting exciting cocktails and new gins, there is a variety of options to using this part of the day to start the celebrations.

Whether your wedding is in yurt in your back garden, a stately home, or anywhere in between, the drinks bar can play a key part in creating a party atmosphere at your wedding. Think about favourite drinks, be that a beer from down the road, a whisky from where you grew up or your favourite cocktail – having the theatre of shaking espresso martinis at the end of wedding day can really help your guests with dancing feet to keep them grooving along to your playlist! Whether you’re buying drinks for everyone (or your parents are!) or there’s a cash bar for everyone to enjoy there’s no right or wrong answer here, but look at how you can add a personal touch – if 2018 was the year of the gin, then 2019 probably is too!

Visit the Caviar & Chips stand to taste some exceptional canapes during the National Wedding Show weekend and come and see our gin piano bar that you can hire for your wedding day with 20% discount if booked at the Wedding Show.