Catering is a huge part of any wedding day. Most couples planning their wedding today usually start with, “We want the food to be memorable!” and, “We don’t want our guests to go hungry!” so it’s no surprise that this is a topic very prevalent in the minds of a betrothed couple. We also happen to be big fans of FOOD here at Polka Dot Wedding, so when the wonderful team from Shared Affair offered to dish out some catering trends you should consider for your wedding, we couldn’t say yes fast enough!

Image  by Rachael Muller Photography via Shared Affair

Shared or Banquet Style 

Gone are the days of alternate drop meals where you always want what the person next to you has. Shared platters make for an abundant, generous family-style meal where people can go back for seconds and load up on the things they love. On a practical level for us caterers, without commercial kitchen facilities available at a lot of venues and particularly for a rural/marquee wedding, we are able to get meals out how we intend them to be eaten – when they are hot and at their best, without the need for fiddly, individual plating and garnishing. My company was actually started because a friend of mine couldn’t find a caterer who made meals like I did at home, an abundant feast down the middle of the table. Passing around plates and creating discussion over the food makes the meal a social and special part of the evening, not just a necessity.

Images by Josh Carr-Hummerston via Shared Affair

Interactive Food Stations

Live stations where you see your food being cooked right there in front of you makes for a great interactive experience for guests. After the dreaded COVID hit and the lack of being able to even stand at a wedding, people want to move around! With a lot of my clients wanting a more festival vibe wedding where people are free to move around and “mingle”, live stations are the perfect solution. You can offer your guests an array of food to try and people can eat when they are hungry – not at a specified meal time. My Chefs love the experience of live cooking at weddings because of the general interest people have in seeing their meal come to life. In the era of “Masterchef”, we find people a lot more interested in the actual cooking process and love to have have a chat with the chef about ingredients and techniques.

Build Your Own Bars

As an evolution from the live stations, we find that people love the opportunity to essentially “pimp their own meal”. Things like taco bars or slider bars with a variety of fillings and toppings mean people can build their meal to exactly how they want it – add as much or as little salad or sauce as you like. Have one or 5 – it’s like a “choose your own adventure”. Live stations and build your own bars also add to the vibe of the event. A well-styled station creates as much wow factor as a floral installation but it’s completely functional!

Images by Josh Carr-Hummerston via Shared Affair

Picnics

For a more relaxed setting, we are seeing a move towards a beautiful picnic set-up. Now, I’m not talking about a few rugs and sandwiches in a basket! We are creating the most gorgeous setup with fine china, linen napkins, and beautiful florals –  just lower to the ground! Persian rugs, plush throw cushions and low-lying tables are a great way to encourage guests to literally sit back and relax. One thing to note is this is not for everyone. I always recommend having some normal tables available for guests who are older or less flexible, as not everyone is comfortable sitting on the ground.

Grazing Tables

This isn’t a new trend but it is one that is absolutely here to stay. When I started my company, I had never heard of a grazing table. Coming from an Italian family we always had longboards of antipasti down the middle of the table to start the meal. I wanted to do this on a grand scale. I called it an “Antipasto Tower” and the first one we booked was 20m long! A grazing table really lends itself to being styled to suit the event and gives couples the chance to create a bespoke array of all of their favourite things. Not only does it make for a great photo opportunity, but it also allows guests to do as the name suggests – graze! We are finding the traditional “cocktail hour” is now more of a 2 or so hour portion of the day so a grazing table provides food for the whole time! And when a lot of guests are hungry/hangry and have started drinking it supplies an abundance of food that can be consumed straight away.

Image via Shared Affair

Cocktail Style Weddings

After a year of being forced to sit (and on that note, sit far apart) at weddings, people are ready to stand and move around again. We are finding a lot of clients just want canapes served for the duration of the evening. Now, this doesn’t mean that people will be going to Maccas on their way home! A solid menu of canapes and substantial handheld “mini-meals” is absolutely a full meal. Rather than being stuck at a table, guests are free to move around and socialise with everyone at the wedding and the food literally comes to them. A good caterer will also watch the flow of the evening rather than sticking to a strict timeline. We generally send around a few items quickly to satiate the hungry guests then either speed up or slow down depending on how hungry the crowd is. If your gusts slow down eating, we slow down serving. We are a big fan of the “late-night soaker” after guests have had dessert and had a few more drinks, a cheeky 11 pm cheeseburger slider goes down an absolute treat!

Back to Basics

A sentence I hear so often from clients is “food that they actually want to eat”! There was a big move toward fine dining and gastronomy a few years back and we had a lot of clients who felt this is what is expected from a wedding. I try to remind all of my clients that it is their day! If you love eating schnitzel and mash then serve schnitzel and mash! A good caterer will be able to elevate the meal from a pub classic to something really special, but essentially their guests will be getting something personal, curated by the people they are there to celebrate. It’s all good to read a menu with foams and gels and be wowed by it, but when people are trying to have fun at the most important party of peoples lives it’s so great to see the excitement when they are offered a pulled pork slider or a little box of truffled Mac’n’Cheese in canape hour. A good hearty, honest meal is, as they say, the way to a man or woman’s heart!

Image via Shared Affair

About Shared Affair: At Shared Affair, we wanted to give the world a taste of the food that has been gracing the tables of our family and friends for years. We add a touch of that “home-cooked” goodness to our food and let you in on the secrets from our kitchen. With in-house event stylists and managers, we go above and beyond your typical catering company, Shared Affair will create something truly spectacular and take the stress out of the planning and execution.