What is an Italian wedding meal?
Warning - reading this will make you incredibly hungry, reaching for your passport and most likely disappointed with your own cooking abilities today!
Italy and food go hand in hand - and trust us when we say Italians know how to cook! But deciding on what is right for your wedding day and how best to treat your guests from so many incredible culinary choices can be tricky.
Top Italian wedding planner and La Lista founder, Lucy White knows a thing or two about what works well and the best way to get the most from your caterer.
Across Italy there is a plethora of catering companies to choose from, but knowing which ones are going to deliver exceptional quality with authentic top-class service is where a bit of research is required.
First off, check out the listed suppliers on La Lista - we love shouting out about trusted talent and these guys are all incredible at what they do. Our private couples Facebook group is a useful tool to read others’ experiences and who past and present wedding couples recommend. Just like a restaurant reservation, reviews are key to choosing which supplier(s) to narrow down for tastings.
Tastings are pre-booked sessions with your caterer or catering shortlist to really experience their talents, chat through options and finesse your menu. It is important here to bear in mind that delivering a tasting menu for a small number of people is very different to working to a mass scale, under wedding day pressure and keeping to time constraints (we are talking about the speeches which over-run, the guests taking longer than expect to take their seats…all of which affect catering hugely). So even more reason to read reviews on how individual caterers delivered on the day.
Caterer: GVE
Aperitivo is the welcome drink and the first food opportunity of the day. This happens immediately after the ceremony and normally comprises of a drinks station or drinks being circulated to guests as they arrive. Some caterers offer just one drink option, like Prosecco here, whilst others offer a wide choice - we love kicking off the celebrations with spritzes (plus, their vibrant colour look fab in photos!). Discuss options with your caterer and how much people may drink over the 1 to 2 hours of informal mingling. The food here will be light canapés offered to guests or stations of food for a more help-yourself-setup. Cheese, cold meats, fish are all very normal to have on service - mozzarella made in-front of guests really does add an authentic wow factor.
Some caterers have this Aperitivo built into the cost per person, some have just the food element and for others this is all an additional cost. All worth discussing from your initial conversation to gauge whether their total price will fit within your budget.
Caterer: Rotondo | Photo: The Saums | Renske Meinema
The structure of the more formal sit-down meal is built based on your preference and what service the individual caterer offers. Some couples feel that a traditional 4 course meal is too long and too much food for their guests and opt for fewer courses to get to the party quicker. Others are all about the food segment of the day and we are totally here for these people - you are in Italy, food country of the world, right!
Entre - typically a hot or cold light starter
2 Primi - 2 separate courses of pasta and or risotto, served in a perfect amount to enjoy but not to give guests the pasta belly and that over-indulged feeling.
Secondo - Meat or fish is served here and tends not to be over-catered with loads of extra sides
Dolce - In our opinion the sweet course is not always required if you are serving Millefoglie, the traditional Italian wedding cake. This can be served at the table after cutting but more frequently it is offered buffet-style at the party.
With professional caterers we normally allocate about half an hour per course; then time for speeches or mid-meal entertainment needs to be factored in. A helpful way to remember a timeline is: course, clear, speech, course, clear, speech. Caterers won’t start cooking the next course until the speech is nearing its end, so please bear this in mind for that final pep talk with your speakers - don’t let them go rogue and go on too long! Equally this interlude is welcomed, giving guests time to let their previous course settle before the next.
Dietary requirements should be specified on the invitation RSVP and even easier if you have a wedding website where guests can update their needs. Caterers will always work to deliver different menus for guests with specific diets. A word to the wise here, have individual guest menus printed to be placed on each place setting, making life so much easier for waiting staff to find those who are having alternatives. Sending the table plan ahead of time with this information included is also extremely useful.
Photo: Red on Blonde
Finally, let’s talk add-ons….
It is fairly normal for the cake to be an optional extra, so an extra cost will be added for this. And if you decide to build it yourselves in-front of guests (which is a lot of fun btw), then this too will be an additional amount.
The party bar tends to be put on by the catering team, but some venues offer this themselves and there is also an option for a separate bar company to be brought in here. All options normally come with an additional bar and drinks fee.
If you haven’t experienced Italian food then you are in for an insane initiation! Choosing food might seem fairly straight-forward for some, but with so many options and catering nuances we really do recommend you get yourself wedding food-wise by using some incredible tools to help make these big decisions. Available free for our Club members - our private membership, The Club is packed full of how-to-tutorials on each aspect of wedding planning. Whether you have a planner or not, it really is the place to be when planning an Italian wedding. See you in there foodies!
