There is a traditional scheme for holding a wedding celebration: bride redemption, young registry offices visiting, a photo session with guests and, of course, a feast where the biggest fun takes place. The guest’s impression of the holiday will depend on how competently the menu for the wedding is drawn up. It is necessary to take into account the number of invitees, so that there are enough dishes on the table, but at the same time there is nothing to throw out later. You will learn about how to create a wedding menu for one person, as well as for 20, 30, 40 and even 50 guests, from the article below.
Varied menu - satisfied guests
In order for everyone to enjoy the dishes, even the most demanding guests, you need to approach the preparation of the wedding menu especially carefully. It is important that it be as diverse as possible, then no one will leave the event hungry.
Even if you really like Japanese cuisine and seafood as such, it’s not the best decision to put only sushi, octopus and fish on the tables. Dilute fish dishes with a few meat snacks, as well as a pair of vegetarian dishes. Let there be no true opponents of animal food among your guests, someone will choose vegetable dishes, so as not to overstuff your stomach at this celebration.
Rules for choosing a menu in a cafe
When preparing the menu, the choice of dishes becomes the most difficult. Do not opt for very complex dishes. Such dishes, as a rule, are not liked by everyone, which means that not everyone will be full. Choose time-tested salads: Olivier, Caesar, Greek and others. The same rule applies to hot: between the chicken fillet with pineapple and just chicken or pork steak, choose the second, since the likelihood that it will appeal to almost everyone is much higher.
Do not choose dishes based only on entries in the menu. Ask to try everything that you are going to order. Some cafes are willing to go on such a tasting, but even if you are asked to pay for this procedure, agree - you will save not only money if the dishes offered to the cooks do not suit you, but also nerves - on the wedding day I especially want all, even the smallest details , were taken into account and brought to the ideal.
The serving of the dish is also important. Often the pictures in the menu do not correspond to the real state of things. Having tasted, you will save yourself from unpleasant surprises at your holiday. True, it should be noted that the best test of a cafe or restaurant is not a focused sample of dishes, but a trip to this place as an ordinary guest. Dine in the chosen place and check not only the kitchen, but also the work of the waiters.
What dishes should be preferred
If we talk about the dishes in more detail, it is better for each guest to provide two salads: light vegetable and meat. It can be salads in individual plates, or there can be large salad bowls, which are located on the table so that each guest can put himself the desired food. A light salad can be a simple cut of cucumbers, tomatoes and herbs, and the more nutritious salads include the “Musketeers” and “Sail”.
A baked potato with meat, so popular among newlyweds, will be a good hot dish. For dessert, of course, a wedding cake will be served, but, in addition to it, it is better to prepare cupcakes or sweets. Snacks are better to make several types: cheese, fruit, meat, possibly fish.
Focus on what type of alcohol you have chosen for your event. If there is vodka on the tables, and among the guests there are a lot of men, then the appetizer should be preferred just hearty, such as meat or fish. For ladies, champagne or wine is well suited for a plate with grapes, nuts, cheese cubes and a bowl of honey, where slices of food, chopped on skewers or a fork, are dropped.
The necessary minimum on the table
In order for the feast to be fun, and all guests still remember the treats for a long time, it is necessary that the banquet menu should contain at least:
- Snacks of two or three types: vegetable slicing (you can pickled vegetables), cheese, seafood, meat, herring with potatoes and fresh herbs or with onion rings, fruits, sausages. In addition to various cuts, a variety of lavash rolls with filling, stuffed eggs, tomatoes and more can serve as snacks.
- Salads, and preferably two: olivier, mimosa, herring under a fur coat, Caesar with chicken, various mushroom and warm meat salads.
- Hot: meat or fish with a side dish (potatoes, rice, vegetables). The hot potted serving for each guest looks spectacular.
- Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks: mineral water, juice or fruit drink, from alcohol - champagne, wine, vodka, martini can be.
- Dessert. Wedding cake is now not an integral part of the celebration. Sometimes it is replaced by cupcakes laid out in tiers on a special stand. Such a treat is convenient for guests. Even if your wedding has a cake, make sure that there is an additional dessert. It is usually laid on a separate table, where there are mugs of tea. Such sweets can be chocolates, cake pops, muffins, cookies and more.
Food quantity calculation
In order to calculate the menu for a person for a wedding, you need to remember that there should be so much food that everyone ate, but there is not much left. When thinking over the amount of food, take into account not only the number of guests, but also their gender, age, and also the duration of the event, because the longer the holiday lasts, the more treats will be required.
Usually wedding festivities last about five hours, on average during this time a guest can eat one and a half kilograms of food. Based on this calculation, you can order a menu: approximately 250-300 grams of food for each of the items from the previous section. A little less food (about 200 grams) can be put aside for dessert, but at least 400 grams is better for hot. If there are children under 12 years old at the festival, cut the amount of food allocated to them by about half.
Alcohol should be calculated as follows: strong alcohol, such as cognac, vodka, half a bottle per person, and weak - a bottle. Men, as a rule, prefer to drink strong drinks, women - on the contrary, weak. Champagne is not needed much, since it is usually drunk only at the very beginning of the event; take one bottle for three guests.
Soft drinks, especially if the wedding takes place in the warm season, it is better to take at least one and a half to two liters per person. In general, the rule “there is never too much” applies to drinks, because even if your guests don’t drink everything cooked, alcohol and water do not spoil for a long time, and then unopened bottles can then be used for another event.
Menu for 20 people
Weddings for no more than 20 guests are usually arranged when they want to celebrate their wedding day only with the closest people. In this case, the newlyweds are almost guaranteed to know the tastes and preferences of their guests, and they will not be surprised by an allergy to any product, as well as vegetarianism or diet. Such a modest wedding can be organized at home. To think over the menu for a wedding at home is not difficult.
On the tables put 2-3 salads, laid out in 5-6 salad bowls, which will allow everyone to taste dishes without problems. For snacks, place baked sandwiches in the oven, stuffed vegetables, pickles, sliced cheese and sausages. It will be best to cook two types of hot, and to save money, you can bake chicken. For dessert, a menu for a wedding for 20 people needs to provide several goodies. In addition to the cake, prepare at least 20 cakes for each guest.
Menu for 30 people
Place at home 30 people most likely will not work, which means that you will have to order a wedding menu in a restaurant. Check with the waiters how exactly the dishes are laid out on the table. It is good if each dish is laid out in 2-3 plates. Then every 6-7 people will be able to independently serve themselves.
Look at which sex guests are more at your party. If there are many more men than women, the amount of food needs to be significantly increased. To add a lot of specialties to the wedding menu for 30 people is needed if strong alcohol is on the tables, which requires a good snack.
You will need to prepare at least twelve bottles of strong alcohol and about twenty wines. Food in kilograms should be at least 50. Look at the weight of dishes in the cafe menu and summarize - this method will make it clear how much more you need to choose dishes so that everyone remains full.
Menu for 40 people
A wedding menu for 40 people is much more difficult to think about. Although according to the formula: the number of guests × 1.5 kilograms of food + 5-10 kg of snacks = the number of treats on the tables - the task is simplified. If feeding everyone becomes problematic due to lack of funds, then in no case do not cut servings.
Choose cheaper products, for example, serve chicken instead of pork, and replace Caesar salad with Olivier. In order for all guests to be able to please themselves with a piece of your wedding cake, it must be at least 9 kg. Be sure to serve additional desserts to it.
Menu for 50 people
Feeding such a crowd of relatives and friends is a real quest: you need to think in advance how to make seating, as well as arranging dishes on tables. A sample wedding menu for 50 people might look like this:
- Vegetable salad, Stolichniy salad with chicken breast and fresh cucumber - all in portioned salad bowls for each guest.
- For every 5-6 guests, a plate with stuffed eggplants, sandwiches, meat and fish slices.
- A non-standard move will be to serve hot hot pancakes with meat filling.
- On the tables should be a fish - pikeperch or mackerel, if one of the guests is not full of pancakes.
- An inexpensive but delicious hot dish is tobacco chicken.
- The cake should weigh more than 10 kilograms. Make 50 cakes for it, and put not only tea but also coffee on the dessert table.
How to make a wedding menu at home
If your wedding is held in a narrow circle of guests, and your house can accommodate up to 20 guests, then you should not spend extra money on renting a room - you can prepare all the dishes yourself, connecting relatives and friends to this process.
Of course, dishes made at home should not be ordinary, which everyone eats for lunch and dinner, but trying to repeat complex recipes from chefs does not make sense. Here is a sample wedding menu for 15-20 people, which is easy to repeat at home:
- Snacks: pickles, cheese and meat slices, a vegetable plate, fruits, sandwiches with sprats.
- Salads: herring under a fur coat, with chicken and pineapple.
- Hot: cabbage rolls, baked potatoes, fish under the marinade.
- Dessert: cake, wafer rolls with condensed milk, sweets, fruits.
Arrange all dishes in 2-3 plates and place on different ends of the table.
How to save
Even if you order a wedding menu in a cafe, there are ways that can save a budget for a young family:
- Even if the restaurant offers you a cake made by their pastry chefs, look for another, cheaper option. Notify the restaurant that you will take the dessert elsewhere, most likely you will be asked to bring a certificate of conformity.
- Taking alcohol in a cafe bar is very expensive, choose a place for the celebration, not only based on the beautiful interior, but also based on the fact that you can bring drinks with you there.
- Check if you can bring your own soft drinks for the holiday. Usually small cafes, as well as larger banquet halls, go for it, if you order a certain minimum of bottles from them.
- Ask all the dishes that are left on the tables to be packed with you. The second day of the wedding can be marked by the fact that they did not have time to eat at the celebration itself.
Summary
- Calculate the amount of food based on gender, age of guests, as well as their preferences. Do not forget that an average of 5 hours of wedding a guest eats one and a half kilograms of food.
- Make the wedding menu as diverse as possible so that everyone invited will find a dish to their taste.
- Do not save, trimming portions, it is better to choose dishes with a less expensive composition.
- Bet on snacks. There should be a lot of them. And if there are a lot of men at the wedding, then they should also be very satisfying.
- Acquire alcohol and water for your celebration with a margin: it is better to stay on another holiday than guests will be left without drinks.
Thus, you realized that the banquet menu for the wedding as well as cooked at home, it is easy to prepare, if you follow the simple rules described in our article.