When it comes to the wedding reception menu, this is one area where Mr. Blue Moon wants a lot of input. The two of us LOVE food, and we love to try new food. We love Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Indian, and Thai food, and we also both went vegetarian in 2013, so we like to try a lot of different restaurants, as well as creative recipes at home.
Of course, having tastes that are maybe beyond your average Southerner's (we've tried to no avail to share our love of different ethnic foods and vegetarian foods with my family) make it difficult to plan a wedding menu that will satisfy everyone.
Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but I would eat this plate all day, everyday. And I would totally serve it at a wedding! Redi-et Ethiopian Cuisine via Veggin Out And About
For the longest time, I was dead set on brunch. Mr. Blue Moon and I love brunch, and I think brunch receptions are the cutest. I was picturing a coffee bar, towers of little pastries, buttermilk biscuits with all kinds of jams and spreads, an omelet bar with different cheeses and vegetable options, and a fruit display. I also had it in my head that this would be a cheaper option than a meal at a different time of day, and that people would miss meat a lot less if we were serving breakfast or brunch.
By Jill Thomas via 100LayerCake.com
Of course, Blue Mom, who is paying for the majority of the reception, and therefore, has a big say in what we serve our guests, really thought that people would miss bacon, sausage, and ham at a brunch. And for my part, I knew that we will have seven or eight vegan guests, who do not eat any dairy or eggs, and I thought there might not be enough in a brunch for them to eat. I also hate to wake up early. So we moved on.
My next idea was to use one of my favorite vegetarian/vegan restaurants in Nashville to cater the entire reception. The Sunflower Cafe is a joint in Nashville that Mr. Blue Moon's mom originally found and turned us on to. They do an amazing vegetarian barbecue that I thought would be perfect for a Southern lunch or dinner reception, with lots of yummy sides.
Vegetarian barbecue with collards and sunflower rice, by Yelp user Shawn T. via Yelp.com
When Mr. Blue Moon and I were home for Christmas, we took my parents to eat at the restaurant's storefront. They were really good sports about it, and liked some of the flavors, but Daddy Blue Moon commented that it did not taste like wedding food to him, and that he would rather keep looking.
At this point, Blue Mom asked our wedding planner, Adriel, to step in and come up with some ideas of affordable catering for us to check out. She set up a tasting for us with CJ's Catering, who does tons and tons of weddings in our area and has lots of experience. The tasting was so fun, and the head chef has many options! Although they have a catering menu to choose from and a baseline price per head to start at, the head chef will work with couples to customize the menu in any way we want. So we decided to go ahead and put down our deposit, and now we are in the final stages of planning a menu for a 5:30 reception. Here's how it's going to break down.
Passed Hors d'oeuvres
Caprese salad on toast points (vegetarian) and fruit skewers (vegan). The only place we are buckling under pressure from my family on the meat will be for one entree option, but otherwise we are not serving any meat. We will also make sure to have plenty of options for our vegan guests.
Caprese Salad via CJ's Catering
Salad
Strawberry and spinach salad with toasted walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, and some type of vinaigrette. We are either going to request that a small portion without cheese be set aside for our vegan friends, or allow guests to dress their own salad with cheese as they please since we're having a buffet.
Entrees
Two options: Blackberry chicken or marinated grilled Portobello steaks
We're requesting the mushroom steak special, so our caterer doesn't have a picture, but I envision something like this. Via AllRecipes.com
Sides
Alabama Sin, which is whole kernel corn cooked in cream cheese and butter
Grilled squash and zucchini
Mashed potato bar with vegan bacon bits, chives, butter, sour cream, cheese, etc. so that guests can dress to please
Deviled eggs are a special request that we are adding to our menu because Mr. Blue Moon and I are obsessed with deviled eggs and could eat them for every meal
Sweet rolls
Mashed Potato Bar by Short Stop Blog via BrideBox
Dessert
Since CJ's also does wedding cakes, we are ordering our wedding cake from the same vendor, and we are also planning to order about two dozen vegan cupcakes from a local bakery to make a cupcake tower
Although I am not necessarily getting the "exciting" menu I might choose if I were the only one making the decisions, I think it is just as important to choose a menu that all of our guests can enjoy. If it were only up to me, I would never serve meat, but I knew how important it was to my parents and that many of our Southern guests would be giving them serious side eye if there wasn't a meat option.
Since I know what it is like to go to somebody else's wedding and not be able to eat anything, I want to make sure we have enough for our vegan friends to eat a full meal and dessert, too. I feel good about the compromises I made, and Mr. Blue Moon does, too. I can't wait for our guests to enjoy a delicious Southern meal!
How did you plan your menu, and what are you taking under consideration as you think about what your guests can and can't eat?
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