We all want our wedding to be remembered by our guests, and one of the things that guests across the board remember most is the food. Avoid these food faux pas at all costs to ensure your guests don’t leave your magical day with a bad taste in their mouth.

All Meat

Jose Villa

You know who you are. The ones who avoid vegetarian meals at all cost. Imagine going to a vegetarian wedding. Just because you and your husband-to-be are meat lovers, doesn’t mean you’re menu should only have meat on it. You will most likely have a few vegetarians at your wedding who will be less than impressed. Aside from them, there are plenty of meat-eating guests who wouldn’t mind a vegetable soup to be on the menu too. As for the canapés, all-meat nibbles can be quite filling and heavy and it’s best to have a mixture of both, meat and vegetarian options, the same as hot and cold. In fact, the same idea goes for anything really. Don’t have your menu heaving with cheese or fish dishes. Your menu should be varied.

Mini-Everything

Summer Street Photography

We all get a little unexplainably excited at the sight of miniature versions of our favourite foods. Mini-hamburgers, mini-quiches, mini-banoffee pie! But while you don’t want to overload your guests with food, you don’t want to starve them either. Make sure you stick to the main meal if you’re planning on going for miniature canapés. While we’re on the subject, don’t lose yourself in too many choices. They may all sound lovely and when you’re feeding so many and the portions are so small it can be easy to think, “We’ll get five plates of every option”. But consider the expense of each dish and whether it’s cheaper to stick with three or four different platters. More importantly, don’t over order just because you want to sample everything.

Raw Food

Mullers Photo

The notion of raw dishes is really starting to trend but unless you want to risk food poisoning, steer well clear of the likes of steak tartare. Raw meat and egg do not a happy guest make! Particularly if you have any pregnant guests (and you may just not know yet). Raw recipes need to be expertly prepared to be deemed safe and even if you have this, it’s not a particularly appetising concept for many.

Complicated Dishes

David Lebovitz

You may want to wow your guests with an incredible show of food or impress the foodies among them with the fanciest of dishes with words they can’t pronounce. The truth is, most won’t know or care what it’s called or how fancy it sounds on the menu. In fact, if the majority of your guests have to ask what your main course actually is, you’re off to a bad start. Secondly, those overly complicated Michelin star-styled meals* usually cost a pretty penny. Expensive doesn’t always mean quality or tasty for that matter. Furthermore, if you want your guests’ sorbet to be personally made for them at their table, it would be spectacular. But it would also be very expensive and time consuming for your guests, which will take away from the spectacle in the first place. Let the actual taste of the food speak for itself, it’s dinner, not a show.

Too Much Food

Savour & Graze

While you don’t want to give your guests mini versions of everything and have them starving by the end of the night, you don’t want to present them with a seven-course meal either. Believe it or not, they will actually get bored with eating. They will also get full and sleepy, and in no mood to start dancing when the band gets going. The same goes for the canapés: don’t order too much. Remember, they’re really only to keep guests going before dinner. If you worry about not feeding them enough canapés you might end up with guests that are too full for dinner. With a standard, three-course dinner your guests will not feel like they need more food so try and steer clear of overfeeding them.

*We are not advising against Michelin star food.