The Best Catering Options for Your Maryland Wedding
Maryland weddings are a sight to be seen, and they come in all shapes and sizes. Especially when it comes to catering. Every couple and gathered family has their own style and appetite for celebration dining. In addition to your seating chart and wedding favors, couples often agonize over how to cater their wedding to make everyone happy. Do you need a plated traditional dinner or would a barbecue menu be more fun and meaningful to your nearest and dearest? In addition to the black-eyed peas for luck and prosperity, what should be on the menu and how should you serve your guests? Today, Milton Ridge is here to share our expert insights on how to choose the best catering options for your Maryland wedding.
Every Maryland Wedding is Unique
The first step is to remind yourself that your wedding doesn’t have to look like any other wedding in magazines or family albums. Each couple is unique, and each gathering of two families is unique, so your catering can be special as well. You can choose whatever options would be best for your special wedding experience, even if that diverges from what you might think of as traditional.
Seating and Serving
When it comes to catering, your serving style is the building block on which everything else is planned. How does your family like to gather and eat? What kind of experience would you like to share on your very special day? There are four primary styles of reception serving that are easy to choose from.
Buffet Style
Buffet style is the most cost-effective and is an enjoyably communal experience. You can serve just about anything in a buffet, with traditional Maryland barbecue, traditional wedding selections, and crab bakes by far the most popular. Invite the whole family to grab a plate and dig in with this casual reception catering choice. Buffets at weddings are not all you can eat affairs but it is definitely a benefit that those who have an extra appetite can go back for more!
Family Style
Family-style will remind you of every Thanksgiving and Christmas you’ve ever shared around the extended dining table. Large communal dishes of entrees and sides are placed on each table and family members fill their own (and each others) plates from the trays and bowls. This is a wonderful way to promote family sharing, passing platters around while elderly relatives enjoy keeping their seats. In recent years this has become less popular especially as the younger and older family members may need assistance.
Plated Meals
Plated meals are the most formal and the most costly. With plated catering, each plate is individually arranged by the catering staff and served to your guests. For a fine dining experience, plated meals are a great choice, but seconds are not as readily available as with a buffet.
Cocktail Style Hors d’Oeuvres
Looking to avoid the seating arrangements or long dinner sequence? Instead, choose an array of delicious sides and finger-food entrees as hors d’oeuvres and have them served cocktail style instead. Caterers will make the rounds with platters of delicious tidbits that can be eaten by hand. Guests can fill a plate and sit down if they want to, or they can mingle and keep the party rolling without rumbling tummies. Hors d’oeuvre only menus can work out more expensive so it is a good idea to get a detailed estimate before setting your heart on this option.
Cuisine Selection
Once you’ve chosen how your guests will be served, consider what will fill the plates. There are so many cuisine options and every family’s tastes are different. The key is to choose foods you know everyone will love, with a variety that even picky eaters can enjoy.
Barbecue Dinner
There’s nothing quite like a Maryland barbecue to bring two local families together in a festive mood. Everyone loves barbecue, from marinated chicken to pit beef to sauce-covered ribs. Heaping piles of potato salad or mac’n’cheese go perfectly with bowls of traditional green beans. Just don’t forget the oversized napkins to protect formalwear attire, as some options can be messy. This option especially works with outdoor weddings!
Shellfish Feast
Of course, if you want to truly celebrate your Maryland tradition, you go for a clam-bake crab-tacular feast. Serve dishes of peeled shrimp with punchbowls of cocktail sauce. Stack platters high with crab cakes. Invite the whole family to enjoy their shared love of shellfish.
Carving Stations
Carving stations turn your entrees into something special, and save you plate-by-plate costs. For the carnivore family, you cannot go wrong with hot meat being carved before their eyes. Carving stations feature huge haunches of meat — roast beef, prime rib, or london broil, then invite your family to pick slices of the meat they like most. Add a few sides buffet from the buffet and gravy boats of sauce and you’ve got a catering experience to remember.
Wedding Gourmet
Of course, you can always choose to go with traditional wedding gourmet fare. Marinated meatballs, braised chicken, seasoned sauteed vegetables. These are classics. Everyone will know what to expect and appreciate your fine choices.
Ethnic Cuisine Style
Last but certainly not least, you can choose delightfully ethnic fare. Whether you are honoring a family tradition or just indulging in a personal favorite of the bride and groom, ethnic food adds a special flair to any wedding. Asian, Indian, South American, and African delectables, and more are at your fingertips (and tastebuds) for a couple who knows what they want.
Milton Ridge Wedding Catering
Here at Milton Ridge, our in-house catering partners will bring your wedding vision to life no matter what catering choices you make. No two weddings are the same and we would be delighted to customize the menu and serving style to suit your needs.
If you need additional information or have any queries, give us a call at Milton Ridge — or better yet, book a tour!