Delicious Summer Wedding Dinner Ideas

The food that you serve at your wedding will be something your guests remember for years to come. In order to ensure they are only good memories, you have to know which dishes is the best choice for a summertime wedding as they call for a very different menu than a wintertime wedding would.

Whether your wedding is being held indoors or outdoors the meal should start with a caprese salad. The colors and flavors that are in this salad make it perfect for a summer wedding. Not only will it look appealing on your guests dinner plates, they will start the meal with fresh vegetables and cheese, making it a healthy choice as well. The main course should include a delicate fish such as halibut. This fish is often served at weddings because it is affordable for most couples.

When setting the menu for your summer wedding don’t rule out soup. If you choose an indoor wedding venue in the summer, the air conditioning will usually be set to a very low temperature and the warm soup might be a treat for your chilly and hungry guests. There are many recipes that call for serving the soup cold and this can be a refreshing treat for your guests on a hot day. Some examples of cold soups that will enhance your big day include melon, cucumber, avocado and even gazpacho soup.

Though formal sit down dinners have been the traditional choice for wedding receptions, an increasing number of couples are choosing to serve a buffet instead. This allows you to have much more creativity when planning your wedding day menu.

One of the most popular choices for a wedding buffet is stations where your guests can put together their own customized taco or other similar food. You can also set up a similar station with fruits and vegetables. A wedding buffet is often the best choice for a large guest list, especially if you are inviting picky eaters to your wedding.

Barbecue stations are also a popular choice for summertime weddings. You can offer a variety of fried chicken and ribs as well as complimentary side dishes such as macaroni and cheese or corn on the cob.

For a fancier buffet you can set up a seafood table where guests can pick and choose from delicacies such as mussels, shrimp, oysters, cold lobster salad and more. By providing sauces and dips for your guests to choose from you are decreasing the likelihood that the food you serve at your wedding will go to waste.

To put a new twist on the food served consider striking a deal with a local food truck for your wedding to offer a particular type of cuisine. Regardless of the type of cuisine you desire it is likely possible to find a food truck that serves it. This idea works best for outdoor weddings. You may even choose to have multiple food trucks at your wedding reception in order to feed everyone without anyone having to stand in line for too long.

You can and should be as creative as possible when it comes to choosing what you are going to serve your hungry wedding guests.

Traditional Wedding Foods from Around the World

If you don’t count the multi-tiered cake, there aren’t many foods associated with a traditional North American wedding. Usually you have a choice of chicken or steak and some dinner rolls and call it good. So when you’re planning your festivities, feel free to borrow some of these delicious traditional wedding foods from around the globe. Whether you’re planning your rehearsal dinner or want something interesting for the main course at your wedding, these delicious options are sure to get your guests talking.

Germany: Hochzeitssuppe

This traditional German soup is a simple clear broth with miniature meatballs and vegetables. Though it looks like a pretty straightforward dish, some traditional recipes call for it to cook for five hours, but there are recipes that rein that in to a more manageable 90 minutes. The trick is to prepare each part of the soup separately, and then combine it into bowls right before it’s to be served. That way the meatballs and vegetables don’t fall apart like they would if they were boiled with the broth.

China: Whole Peking Duck

Imagine lifting the lid off your serving dish at your wedding banquet and finding a whole rusted duck, complete with head and feet! It’s a traditional wedding dish in China, and thought it may seem strange, the dish has a lot of symbolism associated with it. The fully intact duck symbolizes the completeness of married life, and the meat is red, which is a color associated with good luck. Even the choice of animal is symbolic: ducks mate for life, so they make a good culinary mascot for the wedding day.

Brazil: Casadinhos

At weddings in Brazil, guests are served individually wrapped sandwich cookies called casadinhos, which means “married” in Portuguese. They’re soft cookies sandwiched around marmalade or cream, then tied up in paper and string tied in a bow. The little wrapped packages are called “bem casados,” meaning “well married,” and symbolize the joining together of the bride and groom. These make great appetizers for your wedding reception or even a late night snack.

Mexico: Birria

The traditional dish at many Mexican weddings is birria, a stew made with goat meat, which is rumored to be an aphrodisiac. It can also be made with beef, pork, or even iguana, depending on what’s handy. It’s traditionally prepared by baking the meat in a clay pot for hours under burning coals. If you’re not into digging a pit in the backyard to make the dish, there’s a recipe that you can make in your own oven.

Sweden: Prinsesstårta

If you’ve ever been to the cafeteria at Ikea, you’ve seen a miniature version of the Princess Cake served at Swiss weddings. It’s a dome-shaped confection made of layers of cake with filling between, covered with a marzipan seal. It’s traditionally colored a bright spring green to be the highlight of a festive reception.

Granted, there are plenty of delicious North American offerings for a wedding reception. You can go with comfort food, like mac ‘n’ cheese and burgers, or haute cuisine like filet mignon. But if you’re feeling a little adventurous planning your reception menu, consider including one of these global delicacies. After all, what sounds more exciting: “chicken or fish” or “birria or hochzeitsuppe?”