Ethnic Wedding Reception Menus – Dos and Don’ts

August 26th, 2010

Serving ethnic cuisine at your wedding reception can be a marvelous way to honor your heritage while putting your own personal stamp on the event. However, there can be some potential pitfalls to serving an ethnic menu, ranging from poorly prepared dishes to excluding guests who come from other ethnic traditions. This is a look at the dos and don’ts of ethnic wedding reception menus.

Do: Consider both the bride and groom’s families when planning an ethnic wedding menu. If you share a heritage in common, this may be a piece of cake. Although even then, each family may have their own ideas about the proper way to prepare certain signature dishes. When the bride and groom hail from very different cultures, be very careful about favoring one tradition too heavily over another. You might end up with some very hurt feelings, not to mention one half of the guest list who is faced with utterly unfamiliar food.

Don’t: Assume that any caterer can prepare your special menu. If you are looking for fairly standard Italian-American dishes, you might find that most any wedding caterer can deliver good food. But if you want something more specialized, you would be wise to seek out a caterer who has experience in preparing classic Indian food or traditional Chinese dishes. If your goal is a wedding which honors your cultural traditions in every detail from wedding jewelry to music to the ceremony, you might wish to consider seeking a wedding planner with experience in planning weddings with couples from your heritage.

Do: View your wedding as a wonderful opportunity to teach your fiance about your heritage and to learn about his. The cultural traditions of the bride and groom are a part of who they are, and are definitely worth learning more about, even if you have a pretty classic American style wedding. Try to include some of the customs from each side of the family in your wedding, even if it means having some wedding reception stations serving spanakopita and others serving corned beef and cabbage. At least it will be a chance for each family to learn about the other, and that it a very good thing!

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