A Trini Holiday Wedding Menu

 And the countdown is on – only a few more days till Christmas! And of course, there’s that tingly, “Christmasy” feeling in the air, parang is on the radio, the Christmas tree is up and nearly everyone feels a bit more light-hearted. And so with all the feelings of romance floating around, perhaps you’re thinking ...what a better time to have a wedding than during Christmas?

 

At http://www.trinidadweddings.com most engaged couples who visit our website tend to have their weddings around mid-year, however, weddings carded for Boxing Day, Ole Year’s Day and New Year’s Day are also hot contenders! Many people opt for Christmas-time weddings because it’s a wonderful, festive time of year to get the family together. Even foreign guests can usually manage to leave their schedules around this time.

 

Menu Selection

The main challenge is that with “Trini” Christmas food abounding during this Yuletide season, many guests will more than likely predict what your Christmas wedding menu will be like. Here’s your chance to serve up some traditional or classic favorites with new twists, so that you can surprise and delight your guests!

For example:

1. Instead of serving full-sized pastelles, try serving a pastelle pie (a casserole with the corn meal base and the meat filling layered) in your buffet, or “mini pastelles” as an appetizer instead.
2. Serve your green salad with apple or pear slivers and a cranberry-orange or sorrel-inspired dressing, instead of the regular types of salad dressing.  
3. Have a selection of homemade bread rolls with sliced ham and turkey fillings, as a late night wedding reception snack.
4. How about a green fig Waldorf salad instead of the regular potato Waldorf salad?
5. Have turkey with sorrel jelly instead of cranberry sauce

Wine selection
Couples who are opting for a reception where alcoholic beverages will be served will no doubt be wondering how to choose the perfect wine that will complement their wedding feast! Choosing wine for your wedding need not be a daunting task. Generally, there are 3 broad categories that wine falls into:

 

(1) Still wines such as: red wines, white wines and rosé wines

 

(2) Fortified wines, like port or sherry and;

 

(3) Sparkling wines such as: champagne or sparkling wines

 

Most weddings usually feature still wines and sparkling wines or a combination. When choosing your wines, it is best to start the process with your menu by letting the types of food you will be serving, determine the types of wine you will serve.

Dessert Buffets
Dessert buffets are in vogue at the moment; with couples making buffets out of their favourite candies, fruits, cookies, cupcakes and desserts and featuring a variety of toppings and sauces. To add some traditional Christmas flair, you can serve sweet “paime” as one option or for a more modern approach, you can incorporate toppings in your dessert bar such as: coconut or white-chocolate shavings, nuts, cranberries, candied peel, cinnamon or caramel-rum sauce. If you don’t want to go this route and you would like to have a plated dessert served instead; two selections can be: baked apples topped with cinnamon and served alongside vanilla ice-cream or warm fruit cake (or “black cake”) and punch a crème ice cream.

  

Fabulous edible favours
Christmas time presents a whole slew of unique options for wedding favours that are often readily-available in bulk, for example Christmas cookies or fruit cake truffle balls ( balls of fruit cake dipped in chocolate!). You can even “do-it-yourself” by distributing tiny bottles of spiced nuts and dried cranberries, punch a crème, egg nog, sorrel, ginger beer, homemade wine or preserved fruit.

 

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The Creative Bride on a Budget!

They say that “necessity is the mother of invention” and perhaps it’s all the more true when you apply that to wedding planning!

Sometimes, this happens because of budget restrictions, unpredictable reactions from your bridal party or disappointments from wedding vendors; all of which conspire to force couples to get more creative with their wedding planning choices.

Here are some of my favourite ideas that won’t bust your budget and are easily implementable too!

1. Instead of having shrugs or boleros made for the bridesmaids, give each bridesmaid the gift of a pashmina (shawl) to add in a splash of your wedding colour. Think about how striking your bridesmaids would look in red dresses with black pashminas or rose-pink dresses with sage green pashminas!

2. Don’t want to pay for exquisite and expensive handcrafted sugar and gum paste flowers on your cake? Buy a gorgeous selection of crystal and pearl brooches or even strings of crystals and faux pearls and have your cake designer affix them onto your cake at strategic spots!

3. Use your engagement or courtship photos in another way during your wedding -  colour photocopy and paste them onto hard board and hand-number each one to match the table number you would like.

4. Cure wedding guests’ boredom during lulls in your ceremony or reception with a “get to know the couple” crossword puzzle that you have designed yourself and have had placed within the wedding programmes. You can even have prizes for the first few guests who complete them accurately!

5. Use different types and sizes of mirrors on your guest tables in order to add glamour. Pair with pillar candles ( at varying heights!) and glass pebbles.

6. To save dollars on printed escort cards ( these are given to guests as they enter the reception, so they will know where to sit), you can do-it-yourself by making origami escort cards – in the shape of diamonds, cranes, fish or anything that goes with your wedding’s theme.

7. If your wedding will be in the rainy season – a fun wedding favour might be to have “hot cocoa mix” in tiny bottles or packets for your guests; or for bridesmaid gifts you can do home-made bath salts by using 3 cups epsom salt (or coarse sea salt) , 1 cup of almond, canola or olive oil and essential oils for fragrance. Package the bath salts in glass bottles with pretty tags and voila! you have a low-cost, spa product!

8. Feel you don’t have an artistic bone in your body? Think about home-made oriented items such as giving gift baskets, getting fabric items monogrammed, or making a photo scrapbook for members of your bridal party

Do It Yourself (DIY) wedding projects add a really personal touch to your ceremony and reception. They're also a wonderful way to spend some time relaxing before your big day. The best thing about them is that you can tailor them to suit your colour scheme, theme, budget and style

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