Wednesday, September 12, 2012

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! 

21 comments:

  1. congrats! all the food looks so fresh and colorful and delicious! I actually could really use some advice and I think you are just the one to give it, if you have a chance. I have been dating my meat-eating boyfriend for over 3 years and sometimes there is some talk of wedding planning. it is so important to me that we have a vegetarian wedding but Ben is pretty against it. he feels that if we don't have meat that most of his family wont enjoy out wedding food and will go home unhappy. how did you convince your non-vegan hubby to go for a vegan wedding? any words of advice would be so appreciated!

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    1. Assure him that it will be filling and delicious. That's all it takes to make a wedding guest happy. I had all-veg food at my wedding and have been getting compliments for the last 10 years on how good the food was, even from the most die-hard meat-eaters in my family!

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  2. Happy wedding!! If and when I ever get married, the food is gonna be what I go all out on too. :) The entire menu looks fabulous (I want those dates!) and I love the addition of PB&J. I mean why not, right? Also conquering tofu fear is the best accomplishment ever!

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  3. Of course you had an afternoon wedding, otherwise it would have been too dark for good food porn!

    Everything looks so so so pretty. So happy for you and the mister. Plus now the dogs are legit (KIDDING).

    Love you Amey.
    xo
    kittee

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  4. Congrats again!! This food looks amazing. Seriously, what an awesome meal for your special day. When I got married 11 years ago (and I was still omni), I had the standard rubber chicken, mashed potatoes, and veg. Yawn. If I were to get married today, THIS is the kind of food I'd want!

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  5. OMG. If I ever get married again, I want a wedding exactly like yours!

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  6. Anonymous1:58 PM

    Everything looks soooo yummy! I wish I had had it together enough to take my own food pics at our wedding! We had the same problem finding good bread, and never did end up finding perfect pita or flat bread!

    Congrats! Looks like the perfect wedding day :-D

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  7. Congratulations. It looks like you had a joyous day! The food is deeply gorgeous. But, please, also show us a picture of the dress/ceremony!

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  8. Yay yay yay! What a delicious looking spread. Congratulations to you and Mr. Vegan Eats and Treats. I look forward to seeing your cookie buffet. I wish the two of you much love and happiness.

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  9. The food looks perfect! I love that you made sure to get food photos.
    Maybe we could see a dress photo?? Puh-lease?? ;)

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  10. Wow Amey - everything looks amazing!! Congrats again! :)

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  11. What a beautiful spread. All of the food looks colorful, fresh and delicious. Love the PB&J idea. And congrats on a happy wedding day :)

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  12. The food looks beautiful and delicious. What a wonderful way to celebrate your wedding!

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  13. CONGRATULATIONS to you and Mr. VE&T! The food looks magnificent and I would LOVE to see photos of you in your wedding dress. :)

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  14. Omg it looks sooo good!

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  15. It all looks stunning but those tofu kebabs look especially delicious! And the flatbread looks perfect. You're right, it's serious business- and it looks like your hard work and investigation paid off!

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  16. Wow, congratulations! What a perfect day, I love the you can get married in your backyard in the US, that's a big no no over here but it would have been exactly what I'd have wanted if it had been possible. Everything looks so amazing, the flatbreads looks so soft and delicious, just perfect & I love that they were baked on the day - so awesome! The stuffed dates, bruschetta slices & arugula nectarine salad sound amazing & I love that you had PB&J's!

    PS- I totally took food pic's for my blog at my wedding too!

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  17. Oh my goodness this looks SO AMAZING! So many colors and flavors! I especially am lusting after the salad, the stuffed dates, and the fingerling potato dish... looks like you really pulled off an elegant vegan wedding feast!

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  18. Dates stuffed with pistachios and tangerine marmalade and pb&j too? I could live on that for days! What a squealingly delicious feast!

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  19. Congratulations!! What a beautiful spread!

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  20. The caterers did a fantastic job, that all looks so right up your alley! Sounds like a lot of complex, fresh flavors that went together really well. I adore the idea of a falafel in a butter lettuce cup!

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