How to Make a Menu for a Wedding?

Design­ing a menu for a wed­ding may seem like a mis­sion impos­si­ble at first. How to choose the for­mat of the feast? What dish­es to order? How to cal­cu­late the amount of alco­hol for a wed­ding? In this arti­cle, we will answer all the ques­tions so that you can eas­i­ly orga­nize the per­fect wed­ding ban­quet.

Choose format

Choos­ing the for­mat of your wed­ding feast is the first and impor­tant step. How to make the right choice? Focus on the style and mood that you want to see at the wed­ding, of course 🙂 A ban­quet with alter­nate serv­ing of dish­es is suit­able for more clas­sic or cham­ber wed­dings — this way you can gath­er guests at the same table, cre­ate an atmos­phere of a fam­i­ly din­ner.

The sec­ond option, a buf­fet, will fit per­fect­ly into the wed­ding-par­ty for­mat if you want guests to spend more time on the dance floor or in active com­pe­ti­tions. In addi­tion, your loved ones will not be tied to one place and inter­locu­tors, and you will not have to solve puz­zles when plan­ning seat­ing arrange­ments 🙂

Calculation of the number of dishes and treats for the wedding menu

Of course, no one wants to leave the wed­ding guests hun­gry 🙂 But you shouldn’t over­do it with the order — every extra 200–300 grams of treats per invi­tee will result in a decent amount when you mul­ti­ply this by the num­ber of guests: by 50, or even 100 pers.

Dur­ing the cel­e­bra­tion of the wed­ding, the guest eats approx­i­mate­ly 1200 grams of main food: this includes cold and hot appe­tiz­ers, fruits and the main course. Sep­a­rate­ly, it is worth con­sid­er­ing the wed­ding cake — for each per­son, on aver­age, you need 150 grams of cake (if there are many sweet teeth among your loved ones, count on 200 grams to have a sup­ply).

Now let’s cal­cu­late how many treats of each type you need to order for a wed­ding ban­quet:

• Cold snacks. Add cold cuts, cheeses, canapés, pick­les and veg­eta­bles to the menu. About 300 grams per guest.
• Sal­ads. 150–250 grams for each. Con­sid­er the sati­ety of sal­ads — you will need more light veg­etable sal­ad than heav­ier ones with high-calo­rie dress­ing or fat­ty ingre­di­ents (for exam­ple, Cae­sar or Nicoise).
• Hot appe­tiz­ers. Fric­as­see, juli­enne, meat rolls — 100–200 grams are enough.
• Main dish­es. 150–200 grams of side dish and 200–300 grams of fish, meat or poul­try.
• There is fruit and can­dy. Served at a sweet table or at a wel­come buf­fet. 200 grams per per­son.

Welcome buffet

Even if you stopped at a ban­quet for the main cel­e­bra­tion, it is worth hold­ing a wel­come buf­fet dur­ing the gath­er­ing of guests. First­ly, the very first impres­sion of your wed­ding will depend on it. Sec­ond­ly, thanks to him, punc­tu­al guests will not get bored before the start of the cer­e­mo­ny.

For such a buf­fet, we advise you to pre­pare cold appe­tiz­ers (canapés on skew­ers, a cheese plate are a good option) and a wel­come drink — this can be, for exam­ple, a glass of cham­pagne or a cold lemon­ade. For the cold sea­son, mulled wine and hot appe­tiz­ers are per­fect: for exam­ple, bread­ed cheese balls with berry sauce. Let your guests warm up before an impor­tant moment 🙂

Dishes for a wedding banquet

A few tips on how to choose the right dish­es for a wed­ding ban­quet:

• Diver­si­ty. Sure­ly peo­ple with dif­fer­ent tastes will gath­er at the fes­tive table, so your task is for every­one to find some­thing for them­selves. In the menu, pro­vide guests with a choice of fish and seafood, meat and poul­try; keep a bal­ance in snacks and sal­ads between hearty rich dish­es and light veg­eta­bles — so no one will go hun­gry.
• Sea­son. Keep in mind that in hot weath­er in sum­mer you need to stock up on cold drinks, and in win­ter guests will want more hearty food at din­ner.
• Food Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty. You need to choose dish­es for a wed­ding not sep­a­rate­ly, but with an eye on the gen­er­al con­cept of treats and their com­pat­i­bil­i­ty. Agree, stuffed cab­bage next to Nicoise will look strange at a wed­ding ban­quet 🙂

Alcoholic drinks

We tell you how to cal­cu­late the amount of alco­hol for a wed­ding:

Champagne

At wed­dings, stronger drinks are more often pre­ferred, but it is worth tak­ing into account 3 glass­es of cham­pagne per per­son (it can be pop­u­lar at the wel­come buf­fet before the cer­e­mo­ny). Mul­ti­ply the num­ber of adult guests by 3 and divide the result­ing num­ber by 5 (that’s how many glass­es in one bot­tle of cham­pagne).

Wine

Approx­i­mate cal­cu­la­tion of the amount of wine — 1 bot­tle per per­son. More often guests at a ban­quet pre­fer red wine, so we advise you to buy it in the pro­por­tion of 60% red wine and 40% white. How­ev­er, con­sid­er the main course: tra­di­tion­al­ly, red wines are served with meat, and white wines with fish.

Strong alcohol

The basic cal­cu­la­tion is 1 bot­tle of strong alco­hol for 2 men. If you plan to diver­si­fy the assort­ment with cognac, whiskey and rum, then restau­ra­teurs talk about the pro­por­tion of 60% vod­ka to 40% of oth­er options. If your wed­ding has more young guests, then use the oppo­site pro­por­tion — 40% vod­ka and 60% alter­na­tives.

Stock

Add 15–20% to the final cal­cu­la­tions so that the alco­hol does not end at the wrong moment.

You can read more about this issue in our arti­cle. “Wed­ding alco­hol – Chan­fash­ion will help you cal­cu­late”

Soft drinks

There should be a lot of non-alco­holic drinks at the wed­ding — on aver­age, count on 2 liters per per­son. What can be offered to guests in the drinks menu:

• Min­er­al water
• Juices
• Com­potes and fruit drinks
• soda
• Hot drinks: tea and cof­fee
• Sea­son­al drinks: for exam­ple, lemon­ades in sum­mer and non-alco­holic mulled wine in win­ter.

When order­ing non-alco­holic drinks, it is very impor­tant to take into account the time of year when the wed­ding is held: on hot days, the con­sump­tion of juices, min­er­al water and lemon­ade will increase sig­nif­i­cant­ly. Also, keep in mind that out­door guests also drink more water than indoors.

Additional menus

It is impor­tant to take care of the guests, includ­ing in the prepa­ra­tion of the menu for the wed­ding. If you know that there are peo­ple with aller­gies, spe­cial diets or chil­dren among those invit­ed, then it is impor­tant to con­sid­er addi­tion­al options on the menu: a chil­dren’s table, dietary or veg­e­tar­i­an alter­na­tives to main cours­es. When order­ing at a restau­rant, be sure to check with the admin­is­tra­tor what solu­tions they can offer.

An example of a wedding menu

To make it eas­i­er for you to nav­i­gate when order­ing dish­es, we have com­piled an exam­ple menu for a wed­ding:

Cold snacks

Salads

Hot appetizers

Main course

desserts