Reception Menu Roundtable

To get to the heart of the things you fret about most, I invited four brides-to-be to join me in a lively roundtable discussion about how and what to serve guests at the reception.

Reception options
Marcy: So, what sort of receptions are you planning?

Casey: We plan to seriously look at sites this summer. I want a fun cocktail reception. My fiancé thinks he may want something more elaborate, like a sit-down dinner.

Marcy: Cocktail parties are my favorite. They're shorter than the typical four hours a sit-down takes. And they're more festive. When a couple plans a sit-down, they think about what grouping of people would make a fun, conversational table. But the truth is you end up just talking to whomever is on your left and right.

Casey: I want people to mingle and talk all night. And I want to avoid how everyone gets up to dance between courses at a sit-down.

Cocktail choices
Marcy: So what's the cocktail hour all about?

Gena: We're going to have seven stations and 10 passed hors d'oeuvres. I'm excited about the baked brie station, instead of regular cheese and fruit. I'm also psyched about the caviar. We're serving it with chopped egg and onion, crackers, and iced vodka. My fiancé is psyched about the carving station and the baby lamb chops that will be passed around.

Casey: Maybe we'll have a raw bar or seafood station, and an Asian station with sushi and skewered items. I want the party to be upscale, so I'm thinking of a caviar bar. And a tapas station would be fun. Maybe we'll have an international buffet!

Nicole: My fiancé's looking forward to having a mashed potato bar-he's told all his friends about it! We're serving the potatoes in a martini glass and then you put toppings on it. It's a little detail that people will remember and it makes our wedding seem different.

Suzanne: My fiancé's really excited about having a Parisian table for dessert. It's basically wall-to-wall sweets-crepes, pies, candies, liquors.

Entree decisions
Gena: For entrees, we're definitely serving filet mignon. We're having a tasting in a few weeks to choose between cornish hen and chicken, and grouper or mahi-mahi.

Suzanne: We want to serve salmon, which is light for the summer. I'm pushing for a simple chicken option, but we're both into doing a fancy beef like chateaubriand. The caterer is offering so many options to our guests that we feel like we're getting a good deal.

Marcy: You may be getting such a deal because you're getting married outside of a major metropolitan area. There's another factor behind all the variety that you've been offered. In the past few years, many people in this country have become more sophisticated in relation to food, so items such as specialty bars, sushi, Peking duck, etc., are now offered by banquet halls. The change is wonderful.

Considering special dietary needs
Gena: It was important to both of us that we also include vegetarian choices.

Nicole: I feel like vegetarians often get left out in the cold. It's really important to consider what your guests eat. We're going to make sure we have vegetarian and kosher entree options.

Smart tip for the sit-down dinner
Gena: Another smart decision we made is combining the salad and appetizer courses by serving seared tuna over arugula. The caterer said this will give our guests 20 more minutes of dancing.

Attending pre-wedding tastings
Marcy: Tastings are one of the most fun parts of wedding planning. They bring you and your groom together in a relaxed setting to decide on things in tandem. Take notes, make doodles, ask questions. Chefs will get a kick out of your interest and it will show in the final product.

Gena: At our tasting, I'm planning on bringing the chef a cookbook from my favorite bakery. They make these cupcakes that I love, and he's promised to make our cake taste exactly the same.

Suzanne: We had a tasting of food and wine before we agreed to book our site. We'd heard mixed reviews about the place, and we wanted to make sure it was going to be good. And it was.

Marcy: It's unusual that a place will give you a tasting before you book.

Compromising
Nicole: We haven't done our tasting yet. Both sets of parents will join us. It will be harder for us to make decisions with them there, but we know this day isn't just about us. We want to make sure there's something there for everyone. They don't like sushi, for example, but we do and so do our friends. And they'll want traditional Jewish food there that you'd find at a temple.

Marcy: Bringing your parents into the loop on something they care about is a good idea, but it's not easy to strike a balance between what you want and what your parents want.

Drinks
Marcy: What about the bar?

Nicole: We're not big drinkers, but we'll have top-shelf liquor (best-quality items like name-brand vodka) all night. And we thought it'd be fun to serve frozen drinks since we're getting married Labor Day weekend.

Marcy: Great idea! Guests will love that.

Pricing
Marcy: So let's get to how your menu is being priced.

Nicole: On a per-person basis. As it gets closer to our date the extras will be priced for us.

Marcy: There are so many ways to price things, depending on where you live and the banquet facility. Some places charge per person for upgraded stations, such as sushi, seafood or carved meats, and others charge a round number.

Nicole: Not everything we want is fancy or costs extra. We're having a really simple wedding cake. But we're also having a make-your-own-sundae bar.

Marcy: Another great idea. The more things you serve to delight your guests, the more fun the wedding is for everyone. Isn't that what a wedding is all about?