Sand-dollar cookies washed up on a beach of raw sugar. Fruity desserts blooming from a giant tropical leaf. Hot colors, organic shapes, and tropical textures tumbled together so everything from the dresses and linens to the drinks and desserts followed the same tropical rhythm. “The couple got married in Jamaica and wanted to incorporate that experience in their reception,” says Linda Savage, owner of Class Act Catering and Floral in St. Paul. “It made the wedding so much more personal and fun.”
Whether it’s a locale, hobby or nod to cultural heritage or an era, “brides are becoming more aware of the entire landscape of an event,” says Terrie Bulanek, director of catering at the Saint Paul Hotel. “For many years, design and décor components corresponded from invitations to linens, the cake, and the centerpieces. But the food was designed without taking décor into account. It was planned quite separately.”
Over the past five years, Bulanek has seen more brides weaving themes into all aspects of the event, from the invitations and the wedding website to the décor and the food, making the wedding a total sensory experience. This kind of cohesiveness calls for a team approach, says Bulanek, with the couple, chef, caterer, reception site staff and florist working together to create a harmonious celebration.
The latest trends (photo to right courtesy of St. Paul Hotel; cake by Gateaux) A glance at the bestseller list, movies, TV shows and the Twin Cities’ thriving restaurant scene confirms that foodies abound. Take a couple of locavores who know crème fraîche from sour cream, and you’ve raised the bar significantly on wedding food, says Bulanek.
“Bringing in the couple’s heritage is very popular now,” she explains, referring to a fantastic Taj Mahal cake that spoke to the groom’s Indian heritage.
Cultural flavors may be adopted from travels the couple want to share. “I worked with a couple who was married in Mexico, so we brought that experience to the Minnesota reception with a quesadilla station, Mexican blankets on the tables, bright peppers, and fruit everywhere,” says Savage.
Food can also pay homage to the institution of family. With black-and-white photos of parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles decorating the reception, and the bride in a 1940s-inspired dress, Natalie Carpentier, event consultant with Mintáhoe Hospitality Group, designed a Norman Rockwell-esque family-style dinner of mashed potatoes, chicken and roast beef. “We wanted a home-cooked meal, passed from person to person, to complement the retro family theme,” she says.
Coming up with a theme
If Joy DeVous-Baker has learned anything from 22 years in the business, it’s to listen to the client. “At that first meeting, we find out what’s important to them,” says the Mintáhoe Hospitality Group event consultant. “We ask how they met, their interests. If they don’t have a central theme, we can suggest something based on what we hear. We have basic menus, but we can always customize.”One journey of discovery started with a couple who were vegetarian and very interested in going green. Each idea led to another, and before you knew it, a locally grown, organic vegetarian wedding was held outside of course, at Gale Woods Farm in Minnetrista. The working farm provided not only a bucolic site but the raw materials for the menu, as Mintahoe’s chef transformed much of the farm’s produce and dairy products into slices of heaven such as baked goat cheese with caramelized onions and red pepper hummus. Recycling? You betcha: Guests dropped leftovers into the farm’s pig bin.Food is a natural avenue for highlighting wedding colors. Andermack reports delivering palette samples to her cupcake source so the sweet centerpieces perfectly matched the colors in the invitations, the bridesmaids’ dresses and the table linens. Carpentier pleased a purple-loving bride by sprinkling edible orchids on the cake centerpieces to echo the orchids in the bride’s bouquet. Cantaloupe boats, mango bowls, cheese towers and cupcake tiers all look good enough to eat (which they are), and they’re smart too: Edible centerpieces carry a color story and may cut costs by replacing floral centerpieces.Some brides just want to have fun. Tongue-in-cheek hot dish, polka dots and candy dishes add a little levity to the occasion. “I had a groom who liked emperor penguins,” says Terrie Bulanek, “so we did a late-night sweets table with emperor penguin cookies.” The Antarctic theme waddled on with playful his-and-hers martini ice luges.The moral of this food story is to expect more from your meal. It can be a slice of history, a shot of color, a hint of heritage, a shared experience, a helping of fun, a serving of pretty and even an appetite quencher.