Tips and Ideas

Prepa­ra­tion for the wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny, the enter­tain­ment pro­gram, the images of the bride and groom and the decor are all very impor­tant steps of the wed­ding prepa­ra­tion. But do not for­get about the most impor­tant part of the fes­tive ban­quet — the wed­ding menu. In this arti­cle Chan­fash­ion I have col­lect­ed rec­om­men­da­tions for the autumn menu, so that your guests are full, warm and sat­is­fied 🙂

Basic recommendations for a wedding menu for autumn

Changing the proportions

If you are prepar­ing a wed­ding in the fall, you must remem­ber that the dai­ly rate of calo­ries increas­es due to the cold weath­er, and the pref­er­ences of the guests will shift to some­thing hot and fill­ing. It’s no longer a hot sum­mer, when you only want light sal­ads and more ice in cock­tails 🙂 Put more empha­sis on hot snacks, not cold sal­ads: juli­ennes with melt­ed hot cheese will go bet­ter than light canapés with shrimp. And for the main dish­es, choose a “heav­ier” side dish — for exam­ple, mashed pota­toes or cau­li­flower instead of grilled veg­eta­bles.

Comfort food

An autumn wed­ding is about cozi­ness, warmth and a pleas­ant atmos­phere, so the menu should be appro­pri­ate. Hot creamy soups with crispy crou­tons, aro­mas of spices and fresh pas­tries, a wide tea menu — such details will make din­ner more cozy, help guests warm up and relax.

Seasonal flavors

For a long time, the wed­ding sea­son began pre­cise­ly in autumn, because this is the peri­od of har­vest and the most gen­er­ous tables. We advise you not to adapt the autumn menu to wed­ding stan­dards, but to focus on sea­son­al dish­es and del­i­ca­cies. For exam­ple, pump­kin can give a non-stan­dard taste to usu­al dish­es, apple and cin­na­mon will make desserts more cozy, sea buck­thorn and elder­ber­ry can be used in sauces to add inter­est to main dish­es. You can also add pear, quince, gin­ger, mush­rooms and spices to the menu: car­damom, cumin, fen­nel.

Attention to drinks

The sea­son of cool­ing cock­tails is over, it’s time to warm guests with mulled wine 🙂 Hot drinks will sup­port the atmos­phere of cozi­ness and help cope with the cold weath­er. The clas­sic choice will be mulled wines — made from red or white wine, non-alco­holic and real­ly warm­ing. Also, don’t for­get the grog! Hot choco­late and cocoa with var­i­ous addi­tions will per­fect­ly com­plete the sweet table. Read even more ideas for hot drinks at a wed­ding in our arti­cle “What to warm the guests?”

Ideas and examples of dishes

Let’s move from gen­er­al rec­om­men­da­tions to specifics — exam­ples of autumn dish­es for a wed­ding menu. For con­ve­nience, we have divid­ed them into cat­e­gories. It is not nec­es­sary to use exact­ly our exam­ples of dish­es, because you can sim­ply bor­row inter­est­ing details to sup­ple­ment your own ideas 🙂

Snacks

• Cheese balls with nuts, herbs and cran­ber­ries

Cheese balls are a clas­sic snack that is served both hot and cold. For an autumn wed­ding, we rec­om­mend using sea­son­al addi­tions to make the dish more inter­est­ing: nuts will add nutri­tion, cran­ber­ries — an inter­est­ing acid­i­ty, and greens will refresh the taste.

• Stuffed mush­rooms with goat cheese and spinach

How can you do with­out mush­rooms at an autumn ban­quet? Large mush­room caps can be stuffed with goat cheese and spinach, and then baked in the oven or grilled.

• Wood-fired piz­za

A wood-fired piz­za with a unique smoke from the oven will be an inter­est­ing starter. For such a treat, you can set aside a sep­a­rate area where guests could choose the top­pings them­selves and watch the cook­ing process. They will def­i­nite­ly want to sit by the hot oven, espe­cial­ly if it is com­ple­ment­ed by a small show from the piz­zaio­lo 🙂

Main dishes

• Pan with chick­en, veg­eta­bles and cran­ber­ries

Pans are a win-win option for a hot por­tioned meal. Hot, nutri­tious and very tasty. There are many options for com­bin­ing meat, veg­eta­bles and sauces, but for an autumn wed­ding we offer baked chick­en with pota­toes and cran­ber­ries.

• Beef bour­guignon with mashed pota­toes

The clas­sic of French cui­sine – beef bour­guignon, also known as beef in the Bur­gun­di­an style – will be an ide­al choice for the cold sea­son. This is a stew with veg­eta­bles and beef stewed in a thick wine sauce based on meat broth, so guests will def­i­nite­ly leave full and sat­is­fied 🙂

• Beef stewed in apple cider with rose­mary polen­ta

If you are tired of the usu­al side dish­es of dif­fer­ent types of veg­etable purees for our lat­i­tudes, we sug­gest you try rose­mary-enriched polen­ta. This por­ridge goes well with stewed meat juice. And apple cider will add an inter­est­ing and very autumn note to veg­eta­bles and beef.

Autumn desserts

• Buns with cin­na­mon

What could be bet­ter in autumn than cinnabons with hot cof­fee? We still haven’t found the answer to this ques­tion 🙂 Cin­na­mon buns under liq­uid vanil­la syrup, and even with the addi­tion of nuts or caramel, will become an inte­gral dec­o­ra­tion of your sweet table at an autumn wed­ding.

• Apple pies

The clas­sics of autumn sweets are aro­mat­ic apple pies. A hint of cin­na­mon will add cozi­ness, and if the weath­er turned out to be warm on your wed­ding day, the cake can be topped with a scoop of vanil­la ice cream.

• Car­rot cake

Tired of vanil­la bis­cuits with fruit? Why not make an autumn wed­ding cake car­rot! This is a clas­sic autumn taste that will help sup­port the gen­er­al atmos­phere of the hol­i­day and make your dessert stand out among oth­ers that guests have already tast­ed.

• Chur­ros with spicy hot choco­late

A sweet com­pli­ment for guests can be a Span­ish street dessert — chur­ros. To make it more inter­est­ing, we sug­gest serv­ing hot choco­late with chili pep­per as a sauce. A light spice will empha­size the taste of the dessert and make it spe­cial.