For appetizers at a friend's wedding, I still remember the fresh figs, halved, and wrapped with prosciutto! :)

At my niece's wedding, the beautiful salad was served in baked/shaped (fluted) parmesan bowls... really nice, but important to keep them fresh and crispy until serving time.

Verrines are so pretty. http://iledefrancecheese.com/index.php/Dream-verrines-this-holiday-season.php

Best thing served at a wedding? Baby grilled lamb chops as a passed appetizer.
Wedding shower? I have done many many....one menu that comes to mind was cold cucumber soup in stemmed martini glasses, followed by a salad nicoise and warm popovers....all washed down with lots of champagne of course.

I forgot to answer the shower part: I've often made Chinese poultry (with strung turkey breast instead of chicken bits) salad for showers, with the fried rice noodles. People like it a lot. It's simple, tasty, and light but filling. The noodles make it special because if they even do them at a restaurant, they're usually all broken up, and many places wimp out and use wontons. Since your bride has allergies, the rice noodles might be a plus. Let me know if you want the recipe.

Oh, I like the band, that would be fun.

The best thing served at a wedding. Hmmm. Wedding food as far as I remember has been anywhere from mediocre to abysmal, but the whole roasted pork (aka pig roast) was good at my daughter's wedding, so I guess that's BBQ?

Wedding showers tend to be informal here, so it's mostly sandwiches, potato salad, cake, punch. I have gotten a little fancier and made mini puffs from choux dough, and filled them with chicken salad, served with Mustangs' salad with prosciutto, parmesan and figs. Very yummy salad, everyone loves it. Cake and punch, of course, and coffee. Here there is seldom/never alcohol at showers, I'm not sure why.

Annie

Deleted so as not to side track.......

Nothing memorable. Maybe some drama, but that isn't food, lol.

I've certainly been to many and hosted one. Always seem to take care of the shower food. Sometimes just a requested thing to go with a few catered goodies.

Always my spring rolls. Usually ingredients from my garden but all the herbs are available by market year round. Just veggie, herbs, and thread cellophane noodles. Usually 2 or 3 dipping sauces. One always a sesame ginger wasabi. Others more mild, (and labeled)

If a mixed female/male crowd, i make a nori wrapped smoked salmon version. All are cut and presented/served like sushi.

plllog would love the Chinese Poultry Salad recipe. And, I do like the add of worst thing -- helped a friend this weekend with her reception. Food was oversalted, and either over peppered (mixed veggies) or bland (broccoli) didn't eat it but the mac and cheese was mush. We had one vegan and NO food for her. 3 people with celiac (I am 1) and only food set aside for 2. Maid of Honor carried over a tray with 4 GF cupcakes and demanded that I take one in the middle of dinner (they were stored in the kitchen, I was working with staff on other things because of setting up flowers and knew where they were and how to get ahold of them). When we shared with the 3rd celiac MOH got tiffed because she didn't offer her one . . . MOHzilla?

This is the sort of thing I want to avoid and make sure all are welcome and well fed!

susan, my family has "potluck" wedding receptions, where nearly every family member brings something. The beauty of this is that there is always something for everyone to eat. Of course, you never know exactly what that is, LOL.

Every catered wedding I've attended, the food is institutional food, including one very, very upscale one in Detroit. Roast beef, or something they call beef, you could have fooled me. Chicken, always baked, usually with some unidentifiable sauce. Parsleyed new potatoes or mashed, one had boxed au gratin. Canned vegetables, a salad that consists mostly of lettuce, maybe croutons and a few tomatoes. Rolls. My stepdaughter had BBQ'd ribs, which were good but messy for people that were all dressed up, and a family friend had glazed salmon, which was pretty good but many guests passed because they didn't eat fish. So the food usually isn't horrible, but it isn't notable either, and living in the sticks like we do, there are few caterers. That's why we usually do the food ourselves.

At Ashley's wedding we did have one person who came into the kitchen while we were serving the food and demanded to know the ingredients in all the dishes because she was allergic to pork. being busy, I told her that if I were allergic to pork, I probably wouldn't be eating meatballs on a wedding buffet, especially since we had various vegetarian options. We've always had some diabetic friendly dishes and desserts and celiac approved food because I have a couple of celiacs in the family.

I don't know what's up with the MOH, and where the heck do you get just 4 cupcakes? Geez.

Annie

Susan, I understand! The more celiac friendly and vegan friendly dishes you have, the less people will feel singled out. For instance, the groom's cake could be GF vegan. If your people don't usually have a groom's cake, introduce it! It's much nicer than having special diet cupcakes and having to stave off the people who don't need them. Just try to make sure that those who do actually get some during the first cuts. Also, there doesn't have to be butter on the vegetables, or flour in the sauces. Stuff like that makes it a lot easier. And if there's a quinoa dish you can pass it off as trendy, and still have something besides pasta to feed both the vegans and the gluten frees.

This recipe is from a Japanese friend for "Chinese" salad! It scales up beautifully, and stays well mixed in a huge bowl.

Chinese Poultry Salad

1/4 lb. cooked turkey breast or chicken, shredded, per person

2 oz. maifun rice moodles

1 head lettuce, shredded {I usually just slice with one of those green plastic knives.}

2 TBSP toasted black sesame seeds

4 stalks green onion, sliced thin

Deep fry maifun in very hot oil. They will puff up immediately. Turn over on other side and remove from
heat. Drain on paper towel. Try to keep white.

[Break off small hanks and kind of spread them out to a single layer without a lot of further breaking. Get them in and out in five seconds. Let oil come to heat between batches. Use a spider or skimmer if you have one. They'll break up as you toss the salad, or you can pull them apart. Try to fry the noodles no more than 12 hrs. before you're going to use them, but if it's a dry climate they'll keep a bit longer. Don't put them in plastic for a long time. Put paper towels above and below to store.]

Toast sesame seeds [put a fine layer in a small frying pan, no oil, on medium heat, shake occasionally, until they start to jump or pop.]

[Assemble the salad at the last minute so the noodles and lettuce stay crisp and the seeds don't get soggy. You can just dump the ingredients in the bowl and toss with the dressing (use as much as you like) and you're done.]

DRESSING [makes more than you'll probably need so if scaling up, make less multiples of the dressing than the number of recipes you're doing]

2 TBSP sugar [You can use less to taste]

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ajinoinoto (MSG) (opt.)

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1 TBSP Asian sesame oil [the dark thick pungent kind]

1/4 c. salad oil (Canola)

3 TBSP Japanese [rice] vinegar

Combine, blend well, chill.

Yield: 6-8 Servings

thanks