Winter Wedding Menu Ideas
A winter wedding is a very special affair – unlike summer weddings, winter marriage celebrations tend to be dramatic and more focused on a few key details – one of which may be the menu!
A winter menu for wedding celebrations can be more fun-filled and more exciting than a summer event. This is because the winter food palette, like the colour palette is richer and more striking: summer has fresh fruit and flowers, but winter offers rich mushrooms, luscious meats and the bold shades of holly and evergreens. The Devon Catering team can put together a fantastic winter wedding celebration menu for your special day. Just as winter brides tend to ramp up the drama with fur for warmth and icy details in diamonds and lace, they can push forward the intensity of their wedding menu to deliver drama and excitement via the taste buds.
Try Starting with soup
Winter soups are hearty – and many wedding planners are recommending soup shots this year. We love the idea too, but many years of experience have shown us that some ideas are better in theory than practice.
By all means opt for some shot-glass quantities of richly flavoured soups as a starter, tomato soup is delicious, but be careful not to spill down the stunning white dress! Similarly the mini portions of spaghetti and meatballs so often suggested for winter weddings can end up with crying brides who’ve found their dress unhappily decorated with splashes of spag bol as their guests have tried to eat messy sauce standing up! Instead we’d recommend that ideal wedding food is clear beef consommé with a tiny curl of spring onion as decoration or a substantial pumpkin soup, topped with tiny croutons and grilled cheese.
Mid-winter mouth-waterers
Our favourite winter wedding foods are flavoursome – pears, walnuts, pumpkins, cinnamon, glazed fruits … make the most of these palate tinglers by offering a rich winter salad such as pear and walnut with roquefort, or even a warm salad (salade tiede) with gently heated butter beans mixed with crispy bacon and served on a bed of blanched chicory.
Wedding guests love to be surprised, so tiny winter potatoes, sliced almost through and stuffed with friend onions, served with a hot butter and cheddar cheese soufflé perks the taste-buds and delights the senses. For vegetarian guests, the same option but with a beetroot soufflé and blood orange soufflé offers a fabulous savoury combination that stops non-meat eaters feeling they are an afterthought.
Winter wedding menu puddings
Forget dessert, pudding is winter’s ace card! No need for delicate flavours or dainty dishes, steamed puddings, glacé fruits, rich custards with nutmeg and even rice pudding studded with pomegranate and flavoured with cardamom … these gorgeous sweets add relish to every wedding celebration.
Winter takes the biscuit and bakes the cake
Winter wedding cakes can be stunning. Some brides and grooms are opting for croquembouche towers rather than traditional cakes, and pouring hot butterscotch sauce over the tower rather than cutting into it. The mixture of hot and cold is a dramatic wedding experience. Other winter cake ideas include gingerbread castles set in wintry royal icing landscapes with Turkish Delight glaciers or speculaas – a spiced winter biscuit famous on the continent, which can be baked with the happy couple’s initials included.
Drink to winter… and to weddings
Set up a chocolate bar at which your guests can personalise their cup of cocoa! Divide it into kids and adults, with the adults being offered a shot of Irish cream, brandy or orange liqueur to spike their drink and then joining the younger wedding guests in adding toppings like whipped cream, sprinkles, chopped nuts and even mini doughnuts. It’s a sweet send-off that nobody will forget.
If you are having a winter wedding, please contact us to discuss catering options for your big day.