Hot New Wedding Catering Trends
Here we compile a list of the new wedding catering trends. From food trucks to comfort food many couples are shying away from a traditional seated dinner and getting creative with marriage feasting. We hope our list of new trends will give you some ideas for your own wedding catering.
One of the biggest wedding trends is the look back to a glamorous past, with ‘The Great Gatsby’ style growing in popularity and bringing back the romanticism of a bygone era. This reference back to the past can be seen in some wedding catering trends as well:
Do Brunch
With many weddings happening early in the day, brunch has become one of the hot new trends. You can have breakfast style catering at any time of the day, with an omelette or fry-up station. You can include Bucks Fizz and Bloody Mary’s too.
Small bites
Predicted hot new wedding catering trends will see more stylised tasting menus with refined small plates of artisan foods, an experience that will be more engaging and fun for guests and help the conversations flow between people who’ve not previously met.
Cocktail weddings
Cocktail weddings are also gaining in popularity with standing tables replacing seated dinners. This encourages guests to mingle at interactive food stations, which include dessert bars, gourmet coffee stands or even build-your-own burger bars.
Dessert stations are in
Whilst a shock for lovers of Wedding cake, the hot new wedding catering trend is for dessert stations including biscuits, gourmet mini doughnut, hand rolled truffle stations or trifle stations where you choose your own cake flavour, add your favourite flavoured custard and top with your choice of toppings such as salted caramel sauce, chocolate chips and more. Other hot trends include gourmet chocolate and cheese stations for dessert.
If you do want a wedding cake, the new trend is for tall cakes that look as if they leapt off the pages of your mother’s wedding album. There’s something nostalgic to people about wedding cake and tall cakes lend visual interest to a dessert table and allow for some very creative artistry, anything from hand painting to jewelled accents.
Food representing cultures
Many couples are coming together from different cultures, so providing food that reflects the brides’ and grooms’ cultures is a new trend. One example is a Scottish haggis pepped up with ground Jamaican pimento spice. Ask your professional catering team to suggest ideas for you.
Pairing stations
Get your guests involved with the catering with the hot new wedding trend of pairing stations. Some examples are Italian wine tasting with a cured meat, imported cheese and olive oil; a cheese board featuring an assortment of apples, jams, walnuts, and grapes or caviar with frozen vodka or Champagne.
Food trucks
Fun foods are one of the newest trends at weddings. This can include food trucks like ice cream or burgers. These are great for the late night snack after dinner, cake and desert, a fairly recent trend that is generally for the younger crowd looking for a snack after dancing and drinking. Late night snacks are becoming more of a 'must do' as opposed to simply an add-on.
Waste not, want not
Nearly all wedding catering companies now offer ingredients that are fresh, locally sourced and organic. The new wedding trends with regard to food include menus that are not wasteful and couples selecting venues where they can bring in a caterer and design the entire menu from scratch.
Wine tasting
The cocktail style party will become more popular as couples want to mingle and dance the night away instead of sitting down at scheduled times. This has led to wine and beer tasting stations, including beer from local breweries. It has been suggested as one of this will be one of the hottest new wedding catering trends of the year.
Beverage stations
Whether it's a signature cocktail that the couple creates, or different stations that aren't necessarily alcoholic. Beverage stations are seen more and more at weddings. You might have coffee, tea and infused water or a mixture of different flavoured lemonades, especially before the ceremony.
Ingredients theme
If you have a favourite food, create a catering theme around this. You can have stations featuring bacon, with bacon wrapped shrimp, bacon doughnuts and even a bacon cocktail. You can do the same with whatever your favourite ingredient with a look online if you’re self-catering, or speak with your catering company.
Food representing home-towns
Another hot new wedding catering trend is to recreate a lot of food items from wedding couples’ home towns. Some examples are miniature Geordie ham-and-pease-pudding stotty-cake sandwiches, Devon cream teas, Derbyshire’s bakewell tarts, Yorkshire puddings, and the famous Liverpool Scouse (a thick lamb stew that has its origins in the Scandinavian sailors' dish, Labskause).