Traditional vs Italian Wedding Menu: What to Choose?

Choosing a wedding menu is often a topic of discussion. It can be challenging to please everyone when it comes to culinary preferences. Should you go for a traditional wedding menu or opt for something more original? A seated dinner or a buffet? A classic wedding cake or an assortment of exotic desserts? It’s tough to decide, especially since the wedding meal is one of the largest expenses in the wedding budget. Your wedding menu should consider several criteria: the season of your wedding, the location (seaside, Italian castle, trulli in Italy, monasteries or cloisters…), and the number of guests. Discover in this article the different options and examples of wedding meals to choose a menu that suits your taste! And If you’re planning a wedding in Italy, we invite you to discover the traditional Italian Wedding Menu.

Traditional Wedding Menus

The wedding meal is one of the key moments of your big day! It marks the end of the ceremony and the beginning of the evening celebration. The welcome cocktail serves as a transition between these two highlights. Traditionally, this cocktail is served standing with a wide choice of verrines, canapés, and seafood or pastry appetizers. Champagne or champagne punch is often the chosen aperitif to sparkle this appetizer.

The traditional wedding meal is often punctuated by entertainment between courses. This is a good way to share surprises with the guests throughout the evening.

Starters:

Foie gras or scallops are often in the top three choices for wedding starters. Their melt-in-the-mouth texture and sweetness make them perfect wedding appetizers. In traditional meals, digestives are served between courses to mark pauses and reduce the guests’ feeling of fullness.

Main Course:

Whether meat (usually beef or duck) or fish (typically sea bream or monkfish), couples often look for refined and delicate cuisine that reflects traditional French cooking. Be mindful of any dietary restrictions or allergies your guests may have. You will need to provide an alternative and inform your wedding planner.

Cheese Selection:

A must-have in traditional wedding meals! Serving cheese represents a convivial and warm moment with an assortment of 3 to 5 aged cheeses.

Dessert:

The classic wedding cake remains a staple. However, more and more couples are opting for wedding cakes or a variety of mini pastries. Their tangy and sweet flavors add a colorful note to end the meal. This is the ideal menu for a classic, chic, and elegant wedding without taking any risks.

Italian Wedding Menu

If you have chosen to get married in Italy, it’s the perfect opportunity to let your guests taste one of the world’s best cuisines and discover the uniqueness of an Italian wedding. The wedding meal is an institution in Italian weddings. It is the heart of the celebration and the most important moment, where abundance and flavors unite on the guests’ plates.

Typically, the Italian wedding meal starts with a welcome cocktail served with the famous Italian sparkling white wine (Prosecco) and finger food.

An Italian wedding meal revolves around four key moments:

1. Antipasti Buffet:

This is the perfect opportunity to introduce your guests to the best Italian specialties with various themed stations: Italian cold cuts, fresh cheese tasting and mozzarella making by an Italian cheesemaker, fresh fish carpaccio and mixed fried seafood, grilled local vegetables and regional fried specialties, zucchini flower fritters, and various fried foods, fish station, or baker’s station. The Italian antipasti buffet is an excellent way to surprise your guests. Its diversity and unique flavors will give a taste of la dolce vita to your wedding!

2. Primo:

Also called “first course,” it is usually a rice or pasta dish cooked with local and seasonal products. Let yourself be tempted by truffle ravioli with Parmesan fondue, squid ink risotto, or orecchiette with “cime di rapa.”

3. Secondo:

The “second course” is a meat or fish dish cooked in the Italian way with the best Mediterranean products.

4. Dessert:

Break the norms with typical desserts like tiramisu or rum baba. You can also opt for an Italian ice cream station accompanied by limoncello or amaretto.

Italian wines are an integral part of Italy’s heritage. Italy’s rich and fertile land offers a wide variety of grape varieties. The two most famous red wines from the Puglia region are NegroAmaro, a fruity wine often served as an aperitif, and Primitivo, a more structured wine typically paired with pasta or meat dishes.

Our team of wedding planners in Italy has selected the best restaurateurs in the country. However, it is important that your wedding menu reflects your tastes. To finalize your choice, come and taste your Italian menu with your wedding planner a few months before your wedding. The Italian wedding menu is ideal for an original meal combined with typical and delicious cuisine.

Particularly Italian Wedding Menu 

Cultural Italian Wedding Menu

Certain cultures and traditions influence the choice of a wedding menu. This is particularly true for oriental weddings, where culinary traditions often include spicy dishes and rich pastries, accompanied by traditional mint tea. For these weddings, typical dishes are often on the menu to honor cultural traditions.

Religious Menu

In the case of religious weddings, the meal is a highly codified moment of the ceremony. Certain foods are prohibited, such as pork and alcohol for Muslim weddings, or shellfish and certain meats for Jewish weddings. The preparation of the meal must be supervised and follow a religious ritual. The wedding meal menu will then be adapted to religious restrictions, whether kosher or halal. It is entirely possible to organize your Jewish wedding in Italy and your henna night while respecting kashrut.

Thematic Menu

In recent years, themed weddings have become popular. Couples sometimes want to stick to a theme, even in the dishes! The trend is towards rustic weddings in converted farms or barns! We invite you to discover our beautiful wedding venues in Corsica and our masseria in Puglia, perfect locations for a bohemian-chic wedding decoration. The menus for these weddings are characterized by their simplicity in a “laid-back” spirit. The focus is on the chic and relaxed style of these bucolic weddings with cold cuts buffets, mixed salads, and cheese platters.

In conclusion, “special” menus allow for greater personalization of the wedding meal.