It’s been awhile since the last post on my gluten free wedding planning, and the wedding was over 7 months ago. The truth is I want to share, but I haven’t been in much of a mood for writing large posts lately. I just have too much going on, and when I don’t I simply want to do nothing. But I am feeling a bit restless today, and writing always helps that, so lets get back into the swing of gluten free wedding planning shall we?
We’ve talked about the big questions to ask yourself, the important folks in your gluten free wedding planning process, and our personal decision to hold the wedding at a specific location. But, what’s the most important thing after that decision? To anyone without a restrictive diet it might be the flowers, seating charts, save the dates, invitations, music, dress color for the bridemaids, honeymoon plans, flowers or a plethora of other things but for us it was one thing:
The Menu
- 4 hour party that included a small cocktail hour and 3 hour reception with mean and dessert. Your options here were limited and more set, with less variety and less that you choose on your own.
- 5 hour party which had an elaborate cocktail hour and a 3 or 4 course meal. You choose many of the dishes, and had more say in the options.
Both options included the cake. After reviewing the menus we opted for the 5 hour party and menu plan, allowing us to have more flexibility.
- We wanted the same quality of food.
- We didn’t want to omit flavor for the sake of being gluten free, so we stressed that we wanted quality gluten free modifications for gluten filled sauces, dips, crusts etc. and not simply have them omitted.
- We didn’t want to be gypped out of foods included in the menu (such as breads, pita etc.) simply because we were gluten free. We talked about how we would be willing to offer names of distributors or products that we liked as substitutes.
- Beer was okay.
- That we wanted to get the cake from a dedicated facility, as a perfect gluten free cake is difficult to create if you aren’t experienced working with gluten free flours. We discussed what we would get in exchange for not having the cake for their establishment, which turned out to be a sangria bar.
- We wanted to start on working out the menu with the menu planner earlier than the 3 month to the wedding mark, to ensure they had the time to make modifications and buy supplies.
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| The menu at our table, and yes they spelled my name wrong. |
We did all of the above prior to signing a contract, but only after deciding that we would go with WM if they could meet the above needs. While your needs might be different this is ultimately the stage at which you want to be absolutely clear as to what you will expect from them. You want to do this after making up your mind what your top choice is though so as to not scare away the catering hall. Once this is all settled, and there is a mutual agreement about what is expected and what can be done, you can sign that agreement, and get down to the nitty-gritty of planing that menu.
At this meeting we pretty much outlined the above again with her specifically, so she was on the same page about what WM agree to. I asked questions about what they had done in the past with similar weddings and how positive the brides felt after these events. In addition, I stressed that it would help me feel more confident in our menu, and not disappointing out guests, if we were to start on reviewing what we wanted from the menu ASAP. She agreed this sounded like a good idea, and said to look over the menu and email her in a few weeks so start the process.
The above meetings, for us, were a reassuring process as it was a clear way to tell whether WM was on board with what we wanted. They gave me the confidence to tackle that long menu and make our choices, knowing that they were willing to work with us to make the substitutions and modifications needs or requested. Now the ball was in our court, and in Part Two I’ll discuss how we worked through planning our menu, making changes, taste testing, and much more! Stay Tuned!