the best and worst wedding food

I can only remember what I ate at 2 wedding - one because it was so bad and the other was so good.

One was so bad, it was simply bad catering. I ordered the chicken and my date ordered the steak. My chicken was literally cold and raw inside while date's stake was blakened and we both were served very cold mash potatoes.. eek.

The other was so unique and it was so good, they had a diner themed reception and they had all diner food, complete with a make your own hamburger bar with somoeone behind the 'grill' and waffle fries and milkshakes.. it was great.

Most others were bbq - good enough I ate it, but nothing I remember.

Most catered meals were "meh". Chicken was dry, everything needed seasoning, etc. The best foods I've had were the home-cooked ones for more intimate weddings.

Our food was amazing, and it was one of the main reasons we chose our venue. Food was one of our priorities and there was absolutely no compromising for anything in the meh category.

One wedding had food that I ended up sneaking out to McDonald's. I was a BM and was starving, and the food was inedible.

Oh no Mrs. S I would be so embarrassed if I found out my guests did that! Then again I wouldn't blame them if I knew the food was bad.

Most weddings around here have a Polish buffet. You get fried chicken, Polish sausage, mashed potatoes, noodles, green beans or corn. BORING. We had our favorite restaurant cater ours. Famous Dave's barbecue ribs, roasted chicken, and beef brisket. The corn bread muffins- omg, to DIE for. The food is definitely one if the most important things you can splurge on. If you have good food, free alcohol, and good entertainment your guests will be happy.

I am going to find out how much it'll cost to cater our reception from a few of our favorite places.

Edit: Just realized I didn't answer your question. I'm sorry! Lol. I went to a wedding and don't remember what I had. Only been to one wedding. I remember the venue because it was also the place where my junior and senior prom were at. It was the only nice place in town (population less than 11,000).

Totally agree with you Mrs. S...we have similar priorities for our own wedding food.

Most wedding food I've had is good but like nothing inventive...we wanted food that was different from the ordinary beef/chicken/fish variety. We're definitely paying for it...so lets hope it turns out awesome!

Every wedding I've been too had the same food. Chicken cordon bleu and beef. Most of the time the food was cold or not cooked fully. Also, a lot of weddings I've been too have messed up our orders (which is why I dislike sit down weddings).

I went to one wedding where the food was pretty good. They had a huge table of hor'dourves and trays. Then when the meal came, that was pretty good too.

I have not been to many weddings, so I can only respond to those I have been to.

Most, I do not remember the food. That, I suppose, is a good thing, as I am a foodie. So, it says that the food was good, not a stand out, but not awful.

I will say, for my daughters wedding (the date listed under my name) we had to talk my son-in-law out of Brisket. He was so upset that we would not allow Brisket. He said that "His people cannot do any event that is not a BBQ". Well, we paid for the event. If they can't to foods that are not BBQ, eff em. Amazingly enough, they all seemed to enjoy the non-BBQ, far more formal, dinner.

Our wedding had amazing food -- some of our guests later mentioned that it was the best food they'd had at a wedding (we're talking legitimately good, not just wedding-good).

I went to one other wedding that had good food, a few months before ours -- it was a situation where the couple picked a nice place with a minimum headcount, but since they had to pay all of that money and had no intention of meeting that minimum, they negotiated with them to do a lower headcount and lavish food. That's the only wedding, other than mine, at which I was actually stuffed, couldn't eat any more good food.

But yeah, every other wedding I've been to was either kinda-lousy food, totally-not-memorable food or downright bad food. It's a shame, really.

Not having catered food for my reception. Few family members are pitching in to make a few dishes and rest will be finger foods. So can't go too wrong there and a big after party with music and dancing and partying with our guests. Since we prolly won't be taking a honeymoon til a later date.

I've only been to one wedding where the food was awful--my coisin's. It was plates of cold cut sandwich fixings with sandwich buns and, I kid you not, little bags of chips. I don't eat stuff like that so I was a sad panda. Most other weddings I've been to had the typical fare: chateaubriand, chicken, and fish. Varying levels of meh. If I do say so myself, our food was outrageously good. Grilled pork tenderloin, breaded grouper (this is what H and I ate and it was SO DELICIOUS), and then a vegan option with grilled portobello and cellophane noodles. It was to die.

I have been to so many weddings where the catered food has been a gummy, cold chicken substance with canned green beans and instant mashed potatoes. So when I started looking at caterers in my budget, that was all I could find. The FH and I discussed things and decided since our wedding is kind of casual, we would do barbeque. There is a restaurant that my parents have been eating at since the 70's and I grew up eating their food. It is wonderful and I know they are very reliable. It also ended up being way below my budget!

We had scads of gift cards for the restaurant where we had our luncheon after the ceremony, and we only had a dozen guests, so we really went all out. We arranged to order from the dinner menu instead of the lunch menu, even though it was lunch time. Entree choices were Signature Crab Cake Dinner, Wood Grilled Atlantic Salmon with Grilled Shrimp Skewer, Wood Grilled 8oz Filet Mignon, or 1.25 Pound Steamed Lobster.

The one wedding I remember an issue with the food was my daughter's. People were given a choice between salmon and a vegetarian ravioli. The food was served buffet style, and no one remembered what their choices were. The ravioli came before the salmon, so many people took ravioli, not realizing it was supposed to be an alternative to the salmon, not a side dish. And the catering staff had assumed that each guest got only four ravioli pillows. So they ran out of ravioli early on, and a lot of people who didn't actually like salmon ended up with it anyway.

Given the fact that so many people are just looking for the cheapest caterer, it's really not surprising that people have such bad experience with wedding food.

I agree Mrs S. You do get what you pay for. Our caterer will be doing stations, which to be honest, he seemed quite excited about. I really think that people slash the budget so often, they get stuck doing the same boring chicken all the time. Stations will mean hot food which is as fresh as you can get it. We will have 200 guests, 2 each of 5 different stations to eliminate some waiting time.

Our reception is at a country club and catered by their restaurant. To be totally honest, we've been to several events there in the past and the food is good, but not spectacular. Like Amy said, mass-produced food is always iffy... But I think you can make choices to make it better. Example: I think mass produced steak is seriously difficult to do correctly. You can't order the temperature you prefer and it's just hard to do. We went with chicken and pork which I think are easier to do in large quantities.

And, to agree with Amy yet again... just take advantage of the free booze, people.

We served minimal alcohol, but AMAZING food. (Still looking for another reason to use our caterer again!) Guests are STILL talking about it, and it was nearly a year ago!! Food was our biggest splurge, ha! Everything else was budget. :-) We really love our fam and friends...

My best friends dinner where I was the MOH. Great wedding and really such a good time BUT the food was blah. Her husband is half Muslim and even though her parents paid for EVERYTHING and only his grandparents and an uncle were Muslim the menu was based on their strict dietary rules. We went to tastings and everything was so good but they ended up with a bunch of flavorless pilaf rice and fish. My brother was in the line with me (you wait in a line and they put it on your plate) and asked what the other options were. I just smiled as they plated my steamed fish. It wasn't the end of the world, just kind of lame he only took himself into consideration and no one else. Including her parents!

Best - My step sisters wedding last week, amazing! Tri tip and chicken with pesto mashed potatoes (those were actually kind fo gross lol) and roasted veggies. She also hag a veggy option of cheese enchildas and her appretizers were bomb! My table actually took a tray from the server lol.