Our Vegan Wedding: Wedding Day Yums!!

Our wedding was a very simple, backyard affair with no bridal party, a wedding dress from eBay, and a generally low-stress atmosphere. Together with my family, it was mostly a DIY wedding. But if there's one thing I didn't want to skimp on, friends, it was THE FOOD. I went straight to the best: my pals Amy and Heidi from Feel Good Foods. They aren't all-vegan caterers, but I knew they shared my ethos about eating fresh, local, seasonal foods - and I knew they'd be undaunted by an all-vegan wedding.

They were absolutely GREAT, came up with a super rad menu, and the food was totally awesome. Vegans and non-vegans alike were all grooving on it - from start to finish!

As soon as our wedding ceremony finished, they set up a big table in the house with pita chips, Hummus, Baba Ghanoush (so damn good!), and my favorite Afghan Mint-Walnut-Cilantro sauce... plus the most delicious flat breads. 

We embarked on the Epic Flat Bread Exploratory Mission, searching all over kingdom come for some pita bread that wasn't all dried out and tasted like it was baked 6 weeks ago in a far away land. I think we must have sampled at least 12 different brands. Turns out that good pita bread is hard to find. Finally, Heidi found a guy about 45 minutes away making these huge, delicious and super fresh flatbreads every day - and then proceeded to get some baked the very morning of our wedding. YES. Plus they put pretty flowers on every plate. 

Also, while there was some picture-taking and general happy time mingling, they passed around three different appetizers: 

First out were the falafel balls in butterhead lettuce cups with tahini sauce and cucumber chili relish. They were so yummy and fresh and crispy and perfectly-sized! Look at the bright green insides, and the crispy brown outsides!

Also, they passed around these little bruschetta slices: grilled bread with dry farm tomatoes (from my pal's farm!), and basil-walnut pesto. Oh my gosh you guys, I could eat only this for the rest of my life and be a happy person. I loved these so much!!

These were the other truly amazing appetizer : dates stuffed with pistachios and tangerine marmalade. I know that sounds good, but it doesn't sound half as good as they actually tasted. There were spices and fairy magic sprinkles in there too... and these little fellas were mighty fine!

(yes, I was taking food pictures for my blog at my wedding!)

We got married in the morning, so rather than having a dinner, we had a big lunch party in the sunny backyard. There weren't assigned seats, because we wanted everyone to be able to mingle and chat with different folks. So everything was served buffet style.

Here's the whole table - I have close ups of everything here, but not the PB&Js! Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats is a big time PB&J fan. I think it's one of his favorite foods in the world. Plus, we knew we hadn't created the most kid-friendly menu, so we wanted to have plenty of awesome sandwiches for the kiddos. This was such a good idea, many of the parents thanked us, and there weren't any left over at the end of the day!

Also, I loved that Amy & Heidi knew me well enough to ask which kind of jam, which brand of peanut butter, and which bread from which bakery to use. Of course I have very strong preferences - and it turns out that Mr. VE&T is very opinionated on the critical issues of PB&Js as well! 

The lunch dishes were great, and perfect for a hot late-summer afternoon. 

This one was a Farro Salad with Lucque Olives, Cucumber, Cherry Tomatoes, and herbs. 

So good!

They made these amazing grilled kabobs with Marinated Tofus and Veggies, in Romesco Sauce. Yum town! Their Romesco sauce was totally great. After the wedding, one of our non-vegan friends was raving about these - saying it was the best tofu he'd ever had. Excellent! If you are going to feed a whole ton of non-vegans a whole vegan meal, it should really be good! I was a little nervous about having tofu on the menu, since so many people seem to suffer from tofu fear, but I worked with the caterers to make sure the tofu would be well-marinated, and also that the chunks wouldn't be too big. They did a great job!

This salad was beautiful and yummy! It was Arugula with Nectarines and Almonds... which was really a wonderful combo. The sweet fruit and nuts with the bitter greens was just perfect.

Fingerling Potato & French Filets with Shallots, Tarragon and Chives

This potato salad was Out Of This World! I wish there had been some leftover! It was really, really delicious. The potatoes were perfectly cooked and seasoned, the green beans were still just a little crunchy, and the herbs were fresh! I think this was Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats' favorite.

Last but not least - Grilled Eggplant and Tomato Salad with fried bread, marjoram and lemon oil.

SO GOOD. Plus, Mr. VE&T really loves eggplant, so I was glad there was an eggplant dish for him to enjoy!

Some people have told me that they were too busy at their own wedding to ever eat the food. Not us! No, no, no. I definitely wanted to dig in and enjoy the noms! Here's my beautiful plate of food - I loved it all so much! How awesome to have such beautiful and nutritious and yummy food as part of our wedding day.

Of course there were some leftovers (each of which they packaged for us with great love), and we enjoyed them for dinner on the night before we left for our mini-honeymoon. 

Next up: A Cookie Buffet for dessert instead of cake!