The Menu

Since I've spilled the beans on our appetizer selection, as well as introduced our caterer, I suppose it would make sense to talk about our menu.  I have to say, I'm really excited about the food we'll be serving.

First off, along with our hot passed hors d'voeuvres (I swear, I have to look up how to spell that word every single time.  Those tricky French.) we'll be having a cheese, fruit and crackers station and a vegetable crudite/mediterranean spread, including hummus and baba ganoush. Mmmm mmm GOOD! Our caterer has promised to make us up a plate of all the appetizers so we get to actually eat some during the all the picture-taking.

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Me loves cheeese!

After stuffing their faces at our cocktail hour, guests will get a chance to rest and digest a bit as we begin the evening's festivities with the first dance, the father/daughter/mother/son dance and the Horah! I'm hoping all that dancing will help everyone work up an appetite for the actual dinner, since I know I usually get so full at the cocktail hour that I rarely eat dinner at a wedding.  But our food is going to be too good to pass up (at least, that's the theory...)

You already know about our dueling salads, which will be classic caesar or mixed greens with goat cheese, raspberries, walnuts and a balsamic vinaigrette, served family style so guests can have both, should they desire. 

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Which do you prefer? Personally, I intend to try both!

After the salad, the main course will also be served family style.  Guests will have the choice of filet au poivre, red snapper with a pesto cilantro sauce and/or portabella mushroom ravioli in a sage butter sauce.  The side dishes will be roasted baby red potatoes, seasonal vegetables and fresh bread from the local bakery. Oh man, my stomach is growling just typing this!

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I'll have one of each, thankyouverymuch!

Although we didn't set out to design our menu with a theme in mind, I think it's evolved into what I like to call Country American Nouveau (there's another on of those hard-to-spell French words! I guess I shouldn't be surprised since this is a food post but I'm getting sick of having to look up every other word in my dictionary!)

We'll be finishing it all off with some delicious strawberry shortcake (served in the shape of a heart, no less. I DIE.)

And since we all know how the combination of dancing and drinking can work up quite an appetite, there will be late-nite snacks served around 11:00 pm, including chips and flat-bread pizzas.  Oh yes, true story.

We opted for family style as a compromise between a buffet (my original plan) and a plated dinner (what Mr Trail Mix wanted.)  Serving the food family style has a number of benefits: Guests can have as much of everything as they want, much like a buffet, but do not need to get up out of their chairs and carry their plates (which was a concern of ours for some of our older guests.)  It also allows friendly interactions between members of the table, which will hopefully break the ice for those who don't know one another.

All in all, I'm incredibly pleased with how our menu turned out.  Personally, I'm looking forward to trying the Red Snapper with cilantro pesto sauce because I am a sucker for anything with cilantro. Debbie from Spice of Life Catering offered so many options, we could have gone any number of directions with the food but I think this menu really fits the theme and feel of the wedding.  Nothing overdone or pretentious, just good, simple and (most importantly) tasty food.

So folks, that's our menu, what do you think? Did you menu evolve over time or were you able to make a quick and easy decision about the food? Do you plan on actually eating at your wedding? (I'm hoping to but I know it's going to be tough to get a chance to sit down and actually eat!)