Photo via Tacolicious

Let’s face it: feasting is half the fun of any great wedding. When else can you indulge in a multi-course meal with more than a hundred of your closest friends?

With everything from pie pops to vegan entrees cropping up at recent nuptials we’ve moved way beyond the days of beef or chicken. It’s also hard to top what’s already been done. For that reason we appealed to cookbook author, food writer and recipe developer Victoria Walsh for the intel on some of the latest culinary trends and how to work them into a wedding spread.

Food trucks
Wedding fare is becoming increasingly casual, according to Walsh. She suggests going beyond hamburgers and hot dogs and offering your guests some more unusual (yet still universally popular) options like tacos or poutine with a plethora of toppings instead.

Local and in season
Just because your relatives have flown in from all over the world doesn’t mean your food has to. “A popular trend is to include ingredients available nearby that will be in season at the time of the wedding,” says Walsh. “Some great ingredients can include: ramps, rhubarb and fiddleheads in the spring and heirloom varieties of tomatoes, potatoes and carrots in the summer and fall.”

Family-style plates
“A barbecue or cook out is a great laid-back dinner option,” says Walsh. She recommends serving this sort of meal family-style — meaning the food (think: barbecued chicken, steak, corn and potato salad) comes out on large platters that guests can pass around, serving themselves.

Whichever style of cuisine you choose the most important detail is to make sure the food reflects you and the theme of your wedding. “It should feel natural,” says Walsh. “I mean, if you want poutine on the menu but your parents are insisting on a traditional formal dinner something has got to go.”

Weddingbells.ca
USA [email protected]