Wedding food is so easy to get wrong, but you don’t need to fall into the traps that so many other weddings have done in the past. There is nothing wrong with using a catering company, but you should always make sure that you work alongside them to plan the menu and get it just right. If you make the mistake of outsourcing all those concerns to a company and then not thinking about them again, you might end up regretting it when the food is eventually served.

This is one of the key areas in which people will judge your wedding. Everyone wants to be served up food that is both delicious and filling, and it helps if it’s pretty to look at too. If you want to satisfy each and every one of your guests and make the food as special as the wedding service was, there are some specific things that you need to get right. We’re going to talk about them in more detail now, so read on to find out more.

Set a Strict Budget for the Menu

You definitely need to have a budget in place for your menu before you start creating it. It’s so easy to go overboard and spend too much money, and that’s not what all this should be about. It’s more than possible for you to create a fantastic wedding feast for your family and friends without worrying about the bill that comes at the end of it. Once you have come up with a budget for the food, make sure you stick to it.

Find a Theme for Your Food

It’s good to have a clear through line for your menu. It should have a specific theme that people can easily point to and recognise. That way, your menu will have proper coherence and it won’t all feel like it was just thrown together at the last minute. The theme can be whatever you want it to be, but don’t choose something that ends up constraining you too much. That would defeat the object.

Try to Use Seasonal Ingredients as Much as Possible

Another thing you should try to do is use seasonal ingredients wherever possible. This is useful for a number of reasons. For a start, it’s a lot cheaper if you use ingredients that are in season where you live at the time of the year when your wedding is going to be taking place. Secondly, it makes your wedding menu feel much more authentic and appropriate for the time and setting, which is never a bad thing.

Take Everyone’s Dietary Needs Into Account

Everyone has different dietary needs that have to be taken into account when you’re planning a wedding menu. So if your plans contain things like nuts that lots of people are allergic to, you should offer an alternative for those people. The same applies to people who can’t eat gluten and people who are vegetarians. Go down your guest list and pick out people who you know will need these alternative options and then plan for them.

Do Something Creative With It

You can always afford to be a little creative with your food when you’re preparing and presenting it. This is one of those things that you should definitely try to work closely with your caterers on. You want the food to be interesting as well as tasty, so think outside the box and take inspiration from some of the most innovative and creative chefs who are working today.

Offer Decent-Sized Portions

One mistake that often gets made relates to the portion sizes that are offered to guests. Sure, gourmet meals are often small and rather limited. But that doesn’t mean your meal options have to be meagre in size too. It’s far better to offer people more rather than less because that way they can feel full and satisfied by the end of the dinner. That’s how it should be.

When it Comes to the Cake, Go Big or Go Home

If you ask us, there is no excuse for getting the wedding cake wrong. Of all the food that’s going to be present on your wedding day, this is the one thing that you really ought to try and get right. It will have a huge impact on your day. There are so man cake makers out there with plenty of experience making wedding cakes, so talk to a few of them and decide which is the right fit for you. It needs to be big, it needs to taste great and it needs to pack an incredible visual punch too.

Remember That Presentation Matters

It’s important to think about how the food is presented on the plate as it’s being served to your guests. You don’t want them to feel like no real effort was put into this because they will then not be impressed at all. Talk to the caterer that you use and emphasise how important it is that the food is presented in the correct manner. If they’re professionals and know what they’re doing, they should feel the same was as you.

Present it Nicely on Printed Menus

Finally, you need to think about the actual menus themselves. There will usually be a few options, and you want to make people aware of them. Even if there is a set menu, it’s still good to let people know what’s going to be served as they sit down at their table. Print them nicely on high quality card and make sure some thought goes into the presentation of them.

There really should be no corner cutting when it comes to the food that you serve up for your guests on your wedding day. After all, they’ve taken the time out of their schedules to be there for you and your partner on the most significant day of your lives. So the least they deserve is some great food once the service is done.