Winter Wedding Trends: Catering

Wedding Catering

Winter wedding catering focuses on seasonal foods in warm, creamy, comforting textures and rich flavors that turn your wedding reception into a fulfilling feast. Here are some of the top trends in winter wedding catering:

• Formal reception dining is in, with upscale foods such as duck and rack of lamb topping the wedding catering trends. Sit-down dinners are elaborate and well-garnished using winter seasonal vegetables.
• Soups are top winter wedding ideas, offering guests creamy bisques of lobster, acorn squash, pumpkin soup and other flavors served either as a course or at a cocktail party station in small servings for just a taste of hearty comfort foods.
• A top trend in wedding catering is now a soup and salad combination, with the salad featuring winter vegetables matching that in the soup flavor, plus seafood accents and gourmet croutons for both dishes.
• Top wedding trend reports say that market-driven foods are popular now, with wedding couples more interested in those wedding menu elements that may cost a few dollars more per-serving. These include market-priced seafoods such as lobster, fish, even certain types of market-priced meats and winter game foods.
• Side dishes and vegetable stations feature plenty of winter season root vegetables such as turnips and creamy presentations of root vegetables as an alternative to potatoes.
• Risotto cakes are a top trend in wedding catering, as is a side dish or station of creamy lobster risotto or vegetable risotto.
• Also at the cocktail party are demi forks with single pasta bites, such as a seafood ravioli or a twirl of spaghetti with a meaty or vegetable sauce.
• Upscale cuts of beef are in-style for wedding catering in the winter months, with more filet mignon, chateaubriand, and fine cuts on the menu.
• Cultural wedding foods are more in demand, with chefs requested to incorporate foods from the couple’s heritage. At pre-wedding parties such as the rehearsal dinner, the entire meal may be comprised of dishes from the couple’s cultures if they don’t wish to bring those foods into their wedding reception menu.
• Pasta courses are more popular for winter weddings, since heavier stuffed-cheese pastas fulfill the heartiness of a winter menu, and gourmet sauces may bring in extra organic greens such as a spinach pasta sauce, or a kale-infused sauce.
• Wedding menus are now more carefully chosen by our New Jersey and New York City wedding couples, to reflect elements of their love story, their favorite dishes, their family traditions, and their ties to this region. We’re often asked about locally-grown organic foods in our wedding menus, and our couples coordinate their cocktail party menus to their wedding dinner menus, so that their guests get a wide range of dishes suiting their dining preferences. Even vegan wedding menu options take on a heartier, creamier feel in winter, and gluten-free wedding menu items ensure that all guests can have a wonderful meal.
• Popular wedding menu options include pairing stations of foods or cheeses with great wines or liquors.
• Late-night wedding menu options include sliders made with high-quality beef, pork or turkey, and creative servings of paninis as just a few of the top wedding ideas now.