Looking forward to your report on the meal!
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I’ve been married three times. The first two were similar. About 200 guests each, cocktail party fare, no real budget, value for money and only so much money. First was in a venue, second in my backyard. Third was just my wife and me. We went out to dinner.
My nephew got married. I don’t want to think what that cost. Huge sit down dinner, cocktails before and after. Five years ago and they’re probably still paying it off.
I’ve never seen doggie bags for guests.
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This thread gets me wondering: Is anyone familiar with a custom known as a cookie table? Many different types of cookies—usually baked by family members—set out for dessert and also for guests to take a small box home.
Cookie tables are a thing at weddings in the Pittsburgh area, where I grew up, but I wasn’t married there so the thought never crossed my mind.
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Except that it’s really rare to get a good buttercream vanilla, like with real buttercream (my cousin had that at her reception). The problem is that you usually get bland cake with fondant icing.
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At the wedding I mentioned above, I had to ask for one. I may have been the only guest mindful enough to think of it.
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Or maybe sober enough 
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No, this was a Jewish wedding–drinking takes a very back seat to eating.
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Ah! I have only been to 2 dry weddings so I always assume there is booze!
I’ve heard of it, seems like an East coast, Italian grandma thing?
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Could be, though I have only encountered the cookie table tradition in the Pittsburgh area. Found an article that explains the cookie table better than I have.
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Exactly.
Never ever never had a good meal at a wedding, including mine. Likely because venues often insist on catering, so if you have your heart set on a place, you get what you get. Occasionally, I’ve gotten decent passed canapes during cocktail hour. Nothing better than what I have eaten at a decently hosted superbowl party.
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I don’t care how good the food is. The wedding stinks if you have a CASH BAR. Or worse, dry wedding.
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+1 !!
Oh, they’re not usually dry–it’s just that people care a lot more about the food (both quantity and quality) than about alcohol. (The same applies to bar/bat mitzvah receptions.) That’s why the wedding I went to with an open bar but only deli sandwiches eat was so memorable for me–it was such a 180 in priorities from my experiences until then.
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Interesting. I have not experienced this tradition but I have been to weddings were guests could take food home.
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Ever never put much thought into this topic, I guess because we’re so focused on everything else in the wedding. I too agree that I’ve never been wow’ed by any wedding meals either. A good chunk of them have been traditional Chinese style wedding banquets, but as friends my age started getting married I’ve had a number of hotel and venue dinners, and even a dinner cruise once! None were particularly bad, nor were they memorable. Even when my sisters got married I was not impressed.
If I had to choose, I guess I would at least opt for the Chinese style wedding. Usually even if everything else was boring, you can bring home decent fried rice and yi mien noodles at the end.
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We were in grad school at Ohio State and got married in 1978. We were “living in sin” unbeknownst to my very Catholic in-laws. I moved out to live with my Maid of Honor and her husband a week before my husband’s parents drove from Massachusetts for the wedding. Oops - forgot to take my name off of the mailbox.
We got married for $500 and that included our rings, my street length dress from the sale rack at The Limited and food from Bernie’s Bagel’s and Deli on High Street. My Mother’s killer potato salad in my grandmother’s big brown crockery bowl. Jugs of booze from my SIL’s June wedding bought at the discount State Liquor stores in New Hampshire (not many drinkers at that venue but my in-laws wanted to unload it).
My only extravagance was a layered carrot cake, cream cheese frosting, natural flowers from a bakery.
We lived in a 2 story brick row house. Had a kickass stereo system with Bose 601 speakers. Rented a portable bar and some folding chairs. Couldn’t have a better $500 party to this day.
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Too, too bad we lost that simplistic, grounded thinking.
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Great minds - we had fresh daisies on our cake! See above for more detailed description.
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