Snacks for the wedding table, walks and rides for the newlyweds - recipes

A wedding banquet requires careful planning: the festive menu , table setting and creative serving of snacks deserve special attention. Appetizing cold and hot appetizers will add variety to the list of dishes served, will not allow guests to get hungry and will leave guests with pleasant memories. After all, it is the snacks that give relatives and friends the first impression of the holiday, while the newlyweds have not yet arrived for the holiday. How to make the perfect snacks? From the list of dishes below, you are sure to find something for your celebration.

Cold appetizers for the wedding table

The distinctive features of a real festive table are the variety in the wedding menu and the original design of the dishes.

Particular attention is paid to alcoholic drinks and accompanying dishes, which have received the general name “snacks”. In a broad sense, this culinary term refers to a light meal served before main courses to whet the appetite, often accompanied by an aperitif.

However, for the Russian culinary tradition, the concept of “snack” is more common precisely as an addition to alcohol, and since at almost any celebration, including a wedding, strong drinks play one of the main roles, then the dishes served with them occupy an important part in everything holiday menu.

All dishes on the wedding table should be served in stages, replacing each other. In this regard, it is necessary to calculate the approximate time of the gala banquet and change the snacks so that the table is full until the very end of the wedding feast.

All snacks are divided into two main types:

• Hot;
• Cold.

Both hot and cold snacks can be made from a wide variety of ingredients: meat, fish, dairy products, vegetables, mushrooms, fruits, etc. Usually, at a feast, at least 5-10 snack dishes are prepared, both hot and cold.

Not a single holiday table is complete without cold appetizers, and a wedding feast is no exception.

Their main difference from hot dishes is that they are intended not so much to fill you up, but to whet your appetite in anticipation of the main course.

In this regard, cold appetizers are considered by culinary specialists as companions to aperitif drinks. Traditionally, cold dishes are prepared from meat, fish or vegetables.

The easiest way to calculate the required amount of alcohol and snack portions is based on the number of guests and the weight of the average portion.

From vegetables

Vegetable snacks provide the widest field for culinary creativity, especially in the summer menu.
To prepare them, you can use both fresh and boiled or pickled vegetables. This group includes a wide variety of vegetable dishes: delicious salads, caviar, chilled vegetable pates, sandwiches and tartlets with vegetables, and simply sliced ​​vegetables flavored with various seasonings .

From fish

Fish dishes are a great opportunity to diversify any holiday menu, don’t forget to ask the bride’s mother’s opinion.

You can prepare a large number of original, tasty and at the same time not too high-calorie dishes from fish and seafood. This group of appetizers combines a wide range of cold dishes prepared both from fish itself and from other seafood - shrimp, squid, caviar, etc.

These are various sandwiches, tartlets, salads and simply sliced ​​fish, which are perfect with champagne. Cold fish dishes can be seasoned with vegetable oil, mayonnaise, or complex sauces based on them.

A distinctive feature of fish appetizers is their democratic nature - they are suitable for any wedding table and can satisfy the needs of guests with a wide variety of gastronomic preferences.

At the same time, fish and seafood snacks provide an opportunity to diversify the holiday menu, while at the same time optimizing the expenditure of time and finances.

You can also use delicious types of fish and seafood for them: valuable salmon and sturgeon fish, black and red caviar and inexpensive “everyday” fish - the same herring, sardines, mackerel or pike.

The main condition, again, is an original festive table setting, creative decoration of the dish with herbs. The simplest and most common dish from this group is sliced ​​smoked or salted fish (red, white, or plain herring) drizzled with olive oil and served with herbs.

Caviar is served in kokolnitsa (“shells”) and is also decorated with herbs.

Cold cuts and more

Not a single holiday table is complete without cold cuts.
Traditionally, these are ready-made meat products from the store, cut into slices and decorated with decorative accessories - sausages and various smoked meats: ham, carbonate, bacon. At the same time, cold cuts can also be prepared from home cooking products: smoked or boiled tongue, fried or boiled meat, poultry.

The main advantage of cold cuts is the minimum amount of time spent, which becomes especially important if you need to prepare a large number of dishes for a large celebration.

As with other festive dishes, an important condition for cold cuts is its original design. A dish may consist of several types of products, divided into separate segments, or laid out in alternating order.

This video will show you how to beautifully serve cold cuts on a holiday table:

For decoration, you can use various suitable greens - onions, dill, olives.

For the convenience of guests, you can place a stand with skewers or toothpicks next to the dish - this will make it much more convenient to take slices of sausage or meat from the plate.

Column three: how to welcome a dear guest

It's about the ritual itself. Competitions are assumed by default, another important question is how to beat the bride price. Those responsible for the stage must take care of the scenario, its coherence, compactness and richness. It’s good if the tests are varied: checking the level of physical fitness of the newlywed, the development of his sense of humor, intelligence, and generosity. During the preparatory period, consultations with a potential spouse will not hurt - she, knowing her chosen one better than others, will sort out unsuccessful ideas.

to contents

Fun Challenge Ideas

We need smart presenters who know how to improvise, who know how to start a bride's ransom in their own words and quickly change their minds in the event of force majeure. Thematic rituals take place spectacularly, where each competition is connected with the previous one. For a unifying idea, the following are suitable:

• military theme;
• police;
• medical;
• student;
• national;
• football;
• fabulous;
• cinematic, etc.

The final competition can be related to food, since not everyone will think of setting up a bride price table with puzzles. It is not advisable to overdo it with poetry; in large volumes they are poorly perceived and begin to irritate. That's just the point. It doesn’t look good when assignments are read from a cheat sheet.

to contents

An effective alternative to “buyout” traditions

If you want the run-up to your wedding to be unforgettable in every sense, use the services of a professional. Or create something extraordinary yourself.

1. "Batman". Provided that the chosen one is not averse to reshaping the ceremony, crossing out the usual test route, then the “unplanned” penetration of the betrothed through the window is a cool idea. Equipment you will need is a movie character's cape, a bouquet, a car with a lifting cradle (ladder, steeplejack equipment). And, of course, a 100% guarantee of the brave man’s safety.
2. "Pre-wedding quest." The essence is this: the candidate for husband with his companions prances around the city, looking for various hints for tasks that will bring him closer to his beloved’s home.
3. "Inside out". Why, in fact, does he come to her, and not vice versa? Dare to try an extravagant experiment in which the wedding characters switch roles.
4. "Hand in hand". Both defendants are being tested in parallel. Minimum imagination - maximum entertainment and fun!

back to contents
Organizational issues, such as setting the table for the bride price, are important, but there are several more significant nuances:

• the girl should preen herself not during the groom’s improvisations, but before the arrival of her husband;
• eliminate competitions associated with risk and ego boosts;
• maximum six people on each side, otherwise crowds are inevitable;
• the optimal time for the entire ritual is 30 minutes;
• there is no need to spend money on paraphernalia, try to make do with available means;
• the groom will need bottles of alcohol, chocolate, sweets, money for “bribes”;
• don't forget about the photographer;
• Today, you can pick up the newlywed not only from her father’s house; hotel apartments, a friend’s apartment, a student dormitory and other options are suitable.

The three-column plan is only cumbersome in appearance. In fact, it is the indicated points that will help you organize the beginning of a fabulous day at the mega-highest level.

Hot snacks on the wedding table

Traditionally, hot snacks are intended to accompany strong alcoholic drinks, which are an integral part of the wedding celebration.

This group includes a wide variety of dishes: from the most complex combination dishes, requiring a large number of products and taking a lot of time and effort, to “economy class” dishes, which are close to fast food in terms of speed and ease of preparation.

The choice of one recipe or another depends on the availability of time and financial resources . It can be stewed, smoked, fried meat and fish, rolls, hot sandwiches. The main difference between hot appetizer dishes and main dishes is their presentation: the recipe does not provide a side dish for them, and they are placed on the table not in individual plates, but in large common dishes.

From meat

Hot meat dishes are truly indispensable on any festive table. They go especially well with vodka and other strong drinks, enjoying well-deserved love among the male half of the guests.
The main ingredient here is meat and offal (liver, heart, lung, kidneys) from animals and birds. As additional components you can use vegetables, fruits, dairy products, eggs, dough and cereals.

The main secret of delicious hot meat snacks with strong drinks is their juiciness and spiciness. To do this, you can use sauces and gravies prepared using various spices.

Not all guests may like overly spicy dishes, so when using seasonings, you should use moderation or alternate spicy snacks with leaner ones. This way you can please both lovers of spicy dishes and those for whom they are contraindicated or simply do not like them.

Fish

Hot fish appetizers, as well as vegetable and meat dishes, are served at the beginning of the feast, before the main course, or between courses.

Fish served hot can be stewed, fried, baked. A variety of spices and sauces are available as an additional component. Hot fish is served on the festive table on metal dishes, in cocotte makers, or directly in frying pans, as they say, “hot from the heat.”

The difference from the main fish dish is the absence of side dishes and is served in common dishes. Traditionally, hot fish dishes are accompanied by white wine and other not too strong drinks, served as an aperitif. In general, fish and seafood are an absolutely win-win option, which, with minor variations, is suitable for drinks of any strength - from vodka and whiskey to light wines.

Buffet menu

Serving in this style is good because of the variety of flavors.

There are a large number of appetizers and light salads that will look appropriate on your table.

1. Canapes: cheese-grapes-honey.
2. Canapes: ham-cheese-kiwi.
3. Tartlet: grated cheese-fish.
4. Tartlet: lightly salted trout-eggs-caviar.
5. Tartlet: Olivier salad with shrimp.
6. Tartlet: Caesar salad with lightly salted salmon.
7. Sweet table.
8. Beverages.

Do-it-yourself sandwiches, canapés, tartlets for the wedding table: original recipes

A separate line should be taken of sandwiches, canapés and tartlets served at the wedding table. These simple and quick-to-prepare mini-snacks are real fast food (in the best sense of the word) of a holiday feast, which can save the hostess a lot of time and effort.

Here you will learn 7 recipes for the most delicious snacks for the holiday table:

A wide variety of products are suitable for their preparation, ranging from fruits and vegetables to meat and fish.

Also, sandwiches and canapés open up the widest scope for the hostess’s creativity, allowing her to show off her imagination and good culinary taste.

But when creating a menu, you should remember that some sandwiches and canapés are more suitable for strong alcohol, while others are more suitable for light drinks.

In general terms, the same rules apply here as for other dishes. For drinks with a high strength, sandwiches with meat, poultry, caviar, salted and smoked fish are perfect.

For table wines, especially dry whites - sandwiches with vegetables, seafood or fish. Fruit canapes and tartlets are traditionally served with dessert and sweet/semi-sweet sparkling varieties.

However, experts in table etiquette claim that the bouquet of real champagne is best revealed not by the notorious pineapples, but by the same seafood and expensive varieties of cheese.

Champagne wine lovers and connoisseurs give particular preference to simple cuts from noble varieties with mold - Brie, Camembert, Roquefort, Stilton.

Particularly convenient and optimal in terms of food consumption are small canapés, put on a skewer and beautifully decorated on the buffet table. For them, it is best to use several types of expensive ingredients: meat and fish delicacies, expensive varieties of cheese, etc.

In this case, the consumption of components will be minimal with a maximum culinary effect.

Canapes with sprats and cheese:

Ingredients:

• hard cheese – 300 g;
• cottage cheese – 200 g;
• butter – 50 g;
• half a lemon;
• pickled gherkins – 6 pcs.;
• sprats – 100 g;
• small bunch of watercress.

Using a blender, grind cottage cheese, butter and 100 g sprat until smooth. Cut hard cheese into squares 3-5 mm thick. On one slice of cheese we place a pate-like mass of chopped sprats with cottage cheese, and with another slice we cover the filling on top. The resulting canapé is decorated with greenery and placed on a skewer.

Cheese canapés on chips:

• large round chips;
• hard cheese – 100 g;
• fresh tomatoes – 300 g;
• garlic – 2 cloves;
• Provencal mayonnaise – 2 tbsp. spoons;
• greenery.

The tomatoes are cut into cubes, and the juice that flows out is removed. The cheese is grated. The cooked and washed greens are chopped together with peeled onions, then mixed with grated cheese and tomatoes. The resulting mixture is seasoned with mayonnaise, after which it is laid out in a heap on each chip.

Canapes

Canapés are best suited for a buffet table. Below are the most popular recipes for their preparation.

Option 1.

You will need bread lightly toasted in a pan. Place lettuce and ham (or sausage) on a piece of bread. For beauty, you can fold the sausage circle into a triangle. Add half a cherry tomato and connect everything with a skewer.

Option 2.

To prepare a classic canape recipe you will need a piece of cheese (soft or hard), olives, cucumber, cherry tomatoes. The finished dish should especially appeal to guests who do not eat meat or are on a diet.

Option 3.

This canape recipe is suitable for fish lovers. To prepare, take red fish fillet (salted or smoked), avocado, cucumber and fresh herbs.

Option 4.

The combination of red caviar, quail egg and cucumber looks quite elegant. To prevent caviar from falling off the canapes, it must be placed on butter or mayonnaise.

Option 5.

Chicken lovers can offer this canapé option. To prepare it you will need: bacon, chicken, lettuce, tomato. In order to emphasize the taste of this dish, you can offer guests sauce.

KNOWLEDGE BASE: Wedding in the Orthodox Church rules, customs, traditions, signs

What snacks are suitable for an outdoor wedding, for a walk between the bride and groom

Any wedding program involves the bride and groom visiting any memorable places and attractions in their city.
And, of course, the wedding cortege is accompanied by guests of the celebration - relatives and close friends of the couple. The newlyweds' wedding trip does not include feasts during the trip, but alcoholic drinks are an indispensable attribute.

At this time, pre-prepared mini-snacks that do not take up much space and fit freely in small baskets will come in handy. A container for storing food during a walk or trip should be selected depending on the weather.

If in winter you can get by with ordinary plastic containers, then in the summer heat it is best to place food in a cooler bag. Otherwise, your wedding may be remembered for a long time by guests not because of the culinary delights, but because of food poisoning.

Go for a ride

The most common and win-win option for snack foods that you can take with you while skiing are sandwiches and canapés.

For their preparation, both complex meat, vegetable and fish ingredients are used, as well as simpler options that do not require much time - sausage or cheese slices, fruit slices, caviar.

The main thing is that the sandwiches are small, so to speak, “one bite”. This is very convenient in the sense that guests, after knocking over a stack for the health of the young ones, will not have to walk around with half a sandwich waiting for the next one, or hide a snack during the next group photo at a local landmark.

For a walk

The principle of “less is more” regarding the size of sandwiches and other mini-snacks is even more relevant when walking for a wedding. If, when driving, the main “heaviness” of culinary delights is located in cars, then when walking, you will have to carry baskets and containers with food with you.

Therefore, it is best to prepare a sufficient number of small canapés on skewers or tartlets.

For a wedding in nature

Sometimes a wedding celebration is held in the fresh air, far from such amenities of civilization as a refrigerator and an electric oven.
Accordingly, this should be taken into account in advance, already at the stage of creating a menu. In this case, you should not prepare hot snacks in large quantities: as a rule, after cooling, they lose most of their culinary merits.

Outdoor feasts are held in the warm season, so using perishable foods on the summer menu is also not recommended. As an option, get a sufficient number of thermos bags, or portable refrigerators powered by batteries or from the car’s on-board network.

In general, the range of appetizers is so extensive that it allows you to diversify any formal table, regardless of the wedding budget and the number of invited guests. Each housewife will be able to choose dishes that best suit the range of alcoholic beverages, the culinary preferences of the guests and even the time of year, but you should stick to the calculation for one person. So, on average, the volume of cold snacks is about 350 grams.

Buffet instead of a wedding banquet: pros and cons

A wedding buffet is often practiced in Western countries, but it is not familiar to the Russian mentality, so you should look at what the disadvantages and advantages of this method of serving treats are.

pros

Among the advantages of this event it should be noted:

1. Due to the fact that the dishes are lighter in structure, and they are eaten while standing, the feast has a shorter duration. The maximum possible amount is 3 hours, but often the meal ends within 1-2 hours.
2. A convenient way for weddings with only young guests who do not want to sit decorously at a set table.
3. An easier option for newlyweds, whose preparation for the celebration could begin 6-10 hours before serving cold appetizers. The shorter duration of the feast allows them to rest faster or go on a trip.
4. Lower cost of treat due to the absence of the first one.
5. A larger number of guests comfortably fit in the room compared to a banquet. This is achieved due to the absence of bulky tables and chairs occupying the space of the hall.

Minuses

Among the disadvantages are the following:

1. Relatives may have a negative attitude towards such an innovation, which violates the traditional holiday. It is also inconvenient if there are many elderly or easily tired guests.
2. It is necessary to separate the space for eating food from areas for dancing or competitions.
3. It is impossible to create a long feast in the form of gatherings and songs and dances.
4. Lack of traditional competitions and entertainment.
5. A wedding buffet is inappropriate if there are a large number of guests. A crowded effect will be created, and additional tables and chairs will have to be installed - this solution is only suitable for outdoor weddings in large spaces.