What's on you wedding menu?

[charmed30]

^inhouse caterer of The Palms Country Club. They are very well known for their good food that's why we choose to have our reception here. We had our food tasting a month ago and it was amaaazing!

[Tehsee]

^ masarap nga talaga sa palms. first class food and service. good choice

[rightback]

wow charmed30 i'm really impressed with your buffet spread and suddenly i'm feeling ang hungry and about to forget to tone down my food consumption.

[Chili1113]

charmed30: Hello!! I hope you don't mind if I ask, but how much would a buffet like that cost at your venue? That spread sounds amazing!!!! Sounds very upscale too.

[charmed30]

^Chili1113, ours is i think 12xx per plate. We have a minimum requirement of 250k for 150pax. I initially wanted it to be sit-down because i wanted a strictly formal event. But then upon seeing the spread, can't help but give in to hubby on having the buffet. Their food really is amazeballs. The way they presented it during the food tasting is excellent. My AE is just as good also. I'm just hoping that during the actual event, the taste of food will be the same. I have stressed this out to my AE also.
i told them also to make the buffet in 2 parts so i can have 2 lines, for shorter waiting time.
I also addressed the senior citizens lining up so i requested my AE also to have them served food like the VIPs.

[rowan]

this thread is making me hungry too! even though i wont taste it, i love reading about your food! haha!

[corpse_bride]

This thread also makes me hungry too! And very nervous with my menu from my caterer.. Stress..

P.s. Can't still figure out a way to copy paste my menu options here haha!

[Chili1113]

Charmed30: Oh my!!!!! What a good deal!! Your buffet menu sounds at least 2500 and up. Very good choice!!

[Cee05]

Not really a menu per se but can anyone share their liquor/ drinks list? I'm a bit lost as to how much I should allocate for drinks. Thank you girls!

[whutup]

^This completely depends on your guests, IMO, and is difficult to compare. We're getting 1 bottle (hard liquour) per 20 people because our relatives don't really drink but our friends do. Kung heavy drinkers talaga guests mo, you might need 1:10 or even 1:5.

[simang]

We had a buffet, and Russian style naman for our VIPs. Kinonsider namin yung sit down for everyone pero according to our caterer it'll be more expensive kasi they'd need more servers, and the plating would take more time. Also, it's harder to keep the food warm daw pag sit down. So we opted for buffet na lang, which was totally apt for the reception we wanted since ours is not very formal.

Here's our menu:

COCKTAILS
Taco Salad
Coconut crusted crab balls
Brewed coffee
Taragon tea
Lemon water

MAIN COURSE
Chorizo and mushroom pasta
Parmesan crusted fish fillet with tomato salsa
Chicken flambe
Hawaiian pork ribs
Pot roast beef with mashed potatoes in wild mushroom sauce
Pork lechon
Steamed white rice
Iced tea
Canned beer

DESSERT
Crispy leche flan
Ube macapuno ice cream

Of our menu my favorites were the taco salad, fish, pork ribs, roast beef, lechon. The rest kasi di ko na natikman on the day, hehe. We were not able to taste the desserts na during the wedding but my friends raved about it, especially they served the crispy leche flan with chocolate syrup.

[marose17]

During my wedding ten years ago, we had a sit-down dinner at the Peninsula with a classic menu:

First course:  Smoked salmon on a bed of greens, dill sauce
Second course:  Roasted pumpkin soup
Sorbet
Main course:  Rib-eye steak with buttered veggies (zucchini, carrot, french beans, baked potato); for vegetarians and the elderly, grilled snapper
*Both main courses were cooked to perfection.

Dessert: Millefeuille of chocolate and hazelnut with raspberry coulis
We also served our wedding cake - strawberry shortcake with Chantilly cream by Bizu Patisserie

We served white wine (Sauvignon Blanc) for the starters, red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon) for the main course and sparkling wine (Prosecco) during dessert.

I believe this menu could work even today with a few tweaks here and there.

This may seem bitin by Pinoy standards but guests told me they were very pleased with the food.  For weddings, I recommend taming our Pinoy tendency for the excessive and going for elegance instead.  After all, your wedding is not, and should never be, a fiesta.

Happy planning, ladies!   

[rightback]

Cee05 for our 200 guests we'll be having 35 bottles of wine, 2 chivas, 4 rum and not sure about the number of bottles for beer. we'll be opening the bar during cocktails.

Will anyone be serving lechon? I'm thinking if I should ask my caterer to order from Ulcing instead of Elars. thanks!

[reese17]

marose17, wow your spread sounds so classy and timeless agree that we do have a tendency (as Pinoys) to go for quantity...

[Chili1113]

marose17: Yes!!! I've been saying the same thing to my fiance... that our wedding doesn't need to be a fiesta smorgasbord. Just came home from a wedding in Pen and food was fantastic. It was a sit-down dinner and I loved the formality of it, and that we didnt need to stand and line up for food, and instead chat away at our table. BUT some boys at our table said they were a bit "bitin". But for myself I couldnt even finish the food.

But more importantly the wine and drinks kept coming. =) Dont neglect your drinks and alcohol!! =) Ive attended may weddings. But the ones that stand out, are the ones that don't neglect the drinks and cocktail food =)--- because that's where youll see how well the couple thought ahead. I mean, how can you enjoy a super extravagant menu, if you were starved during cocktails and cant order anything except for water and the 1 free glass of iced tea?

[marose17]

^ Rule of thumb as stated by Ms. Tita Trillo of Titania Wine Cellar (we ordered our wine from her shop): 1 bottle of wine = 6 persons (normal drinkers)

Calculate how many bottles from there.

I think we served water and soda for those who opted not to drink wine.

Oh, we also had cocktails at the upper lobby of the Pen before dinner.  Pass-around canapes and white wine, I think.  My husband and I had our photos taken during cocktail hour.  We didn't want them to just wait there.  When we were done with the photos, we had a receiving line.  I wanted both of us to personally welcome the guests to the reception.  I've attended very few weddings where the couple was at the receiving line and I wanted to do it for our wedding.

[caterpillar-girl]

For my wedding last year, we consumed 60 bottles of assorted alcoholic drinks, mostly wine, beer, and whisky, for our 220 guests. Hehe. My husband and I love to drink and so do our family and friends. I agree, what's a party without alcohol? Lol. Of course there were some non alcoholic drinks as well for non drinkers. Drinks were offered from the time cocktails opened all the way til the party ended, at around midnight. Just for reference.

If you're doing a buffet, please do away with the 'tiga takal' servers. It just reminds me of a high school cafeteria.  If you're going to limit servings, might as well do a sit down dinner. But that's just me.

[Chili1113]

^Same here!! =) My fiance and I enjoy drinking and no party is complete without it hahaha For our upcoming wedding we are allotting 2 bottles of wine and 1 bottle of hard liquor for every 10 people. I hope that's enough to last the entire night!! But I'm thinking our older guests don't drink at all-- and so perhaps that will be enough. I think we might have to add wine though.

[Cee05]

Thank you girls for your feedback!

I'm having a hard time making tantsa I want people to have a fun night but I don't also want wasakan levels, haha, I don't want to end up paying for damaged stuff after or worse, adopting someone for the night! Lol. One of my closest friends is working for an alcoholic beverages company so she's getting some of my drinks for me at a discounted price! My only problem now in terms of sourcing is the wine.

I guess better naman to have sobra than kulang 'no? Haha. We can always just serve it during house parties in the future. Haha.

Chili1113: Your reception will be at Polo Club 'no? Me also! I'm worried about the new... everything! Need to go back on January to iron out everything.

[papemelroti]

Hi Ladies,
I am not sure if this is the right thread to post. When you prepare cocktail items, do you prepare food good for the total # of guest? If there is a lull time, I actually attend the church wedding in a cocktail dress, eat somewhere with friends and then go to the reception after the mini-dinner.

My wedding is in the afternoon and there would be a 2 hour wait time in between ceremony and reception. I am having salad, soup, fish, meat and dessert for my sit down menu (haven't finalized menu items aaahh)I don't want my guest to go hungry but I don't want them to get stuffed with so much food especially since our sit down dinner turned out to be a lot more expensive than I expected. Hotels charge a lot kasi=(