If you know us, it shouldn’t be a secret to you—we adore weddings! The atmosphere, the music, the overwhelming sense of romance… it’s all wonderful. But no party is complete without proper food and drinks. After all, you won’t keep your guests happy with teary-eyed speeches and wedding games alone, no matter how great they might be.
Redditor u/MsPumpernickel recently sparked a captivating thread on the r/weddingshaming subreddit. Members of this online community spilled the tea about the very worst wedding food that they’ve been served. If you think that crackers and cheese will leave you feeling hungry, wait till you read about the rest.
A plate of lettuce. It was the vegan option at my sister’s wedding. Legitimately just a plate of shredded lettuce with side cups of olive oil and balsamic vinegar as dressing :’)
We went to my nephew’s wedding at a ski resort in Wisconsin near the bride’s home. The dinner was a buffet and it looked like the buffet in Vegas Vacation with various meats in mystery sauces served to ourselves with spoons that were too short and kept slipping into the food. The bride told me that the food served was nothing like what they had tasted when booking the place. Fortunately the FOB was a cheese broker. (Yes, Wisconsin has cheese brokers) and he had set up a huge cheese buffet for appetizers. He had ordered half a pound of cheese per person so no one went hungry! There was a big variety of cheeses covering two long banquet tables surmounted by a carved double heart shaped cheddar with the bride and grooms names on it. We all had a great time and it was possibly the most Wisconsin wedding ever. The wedding cake was cheesecake.
The worst was the time we were being called up, table by table, for guests to get their dinner from a buffet. By the time my table was called, there was no food. So the worst wedding food I ever had was when I got no food at all.
Yes, weddings are meant to celebrate the eternal bond between two souls, but you can’t ignore the needs of your family and friends either. You have to come up with some sort of balanced approach where the tastes and dietary preferences of the happy couple meet the wants of the dozens (if not hundreds) of guests lining up to witness the union.
Picking out the wedding food is akin to a fun puzzle. You have to know what your guests like and find a way to fit that into the overall theme of the wedding. Pizza, burgers, and fries would probably make nearly everyone happy, but this might not match the refined atmosphere you’re going for. On the flip side, if you make every nibble and meal overly aristocratic, you might leave most people confused, hungry, and googling the directions for local eateries.
We went to a wedding at a fancy country club, it was family plate style service. The tables were the long rectangle type.They put the platters at both ends of the table, we were seated in the middle, never saw any of the food. Asked wait staff for some refills on the platters and where told sorry, its all gone. We left and went to a fast food place and went home. So I guess it was the worst wedding food we never had.
Bride’s mom turned into a Momzilla and insisted the outdoor wedding reception be served by her friend who was just starting a small Mexican restaurant but had never catered a wedding.
Bride said no, and hired a professional caterer who had experience in outdoor venues and could provide nice vegetarian options.
Bride sends Momzilla to the professional with the guest’s entre choices… but instead Momzilla fires the caterer and hires her amateur friend without telling the Bride.
Amateur decides that vegetarian means rice and beans (refried, which means lard) and sets up a burrito bar with no way of keeping the ingredients warm.
Guests have to eat cold Mexican food… and then it runs out.
Worst part? This was MY wedding! The shame.
The groom had a cardiac health scare 6mo before the wedding and the bride had the caterer switch to sugar free everything “to be heart healthy.” Everyone got crazy diarrhea or abdominal cramping from a mix of all sugar substitutes on the market being used in the meal and cakes. I’d have refrained from eating if I had known, those artificial sweeteners really beat my guts up.
Going to some tastings with a friend or two can help you avoid at least some of these potential problems. It’s always a good thing when you can rely on your nearest and dearest for unbiased opinions. They can also give you some advice about the format of your reception food itself. Do you want a sit-down plated meal? Would you prefer a buffet? Or would a funky food truck be more your style?
An incredibly important factor to consider is whether your guests have any unique dietary preferences or potential allergies. You wouldn’t want to serve steak to vegans any more than you’d like to sideline someone with nut allergies by serving allergens in every single appetizer and main dish.
At a wine bar that served charcuterie however the bride and groom decided to just serve sliced meat and we had to pay to add cheese, nuts etc. They paid for the wine but it was very tiny pours. The groom kept bragging about how rich he is and couldn’t wait to open the envelopes for “the cash”. The bride was humiliated everyone was hungry but took a giant portion for herself. Everyone left hungry. Bets were made they would divorce in a year and they did. Selfish people for sure!
Worst story is one attended by my mother and sister.
– 100 degree day outside and no air conditioning in the hall
– One giant pot of baked beans plus a platter of very questionable sandwiches
– When the cake was cut it was still raw in the center
So, after eating nothing, and slipping out as soon as they could, mom and sister stopped at a restaurant on the main road back towards home. Soon they noticed some familiar faces coming into the restaurant. Yes, other hungry refugees from the wedding.
When couples send out the invites, they usually inquire what their guests would prefer to eat and if there’s anything else to know about their preferences. That way, they know what to expect: how many vegetarian/pescatarian/vegan mains they’ll need.
Things get a bit more difficult when it’s the happy couple themselves who have a very specific diet.
For example, let’s say that the marrying couple is vegan and they don’t want to serve meat at the wedding due to ethical concerns. However, most of their family and friends are omnivores, and the couple doesn’t want to upset them either. A possible solution in this case would be to hire some talented chefs to create some truly stunning vegan meals that anyone would enjoy. That way, you can still stick to the vegan script while also keeping everyone else happy. Or, to put it simply, if your food’s delicious, many omnivores won’t care whether it’s meat or plant-based. But keep people hungry and you’ll have drama on your hands.
What’s the very best and worst wedding food that you’ve ever had the (dis)pleasure of tasting, dear Pandas? What did you serve at your own weddings? Tell us all about it in the comments!
My brother decided fancy Mexican food was the thing. We had the entire restaurant.
We each got two tacos. The meat was overcooked, dry and flavorless. The food was cold. There was cheddar cheese on the tacos, no salsa on the tacos and none at our tables, no chips, and the drinks were double what we’re used to paying. They even charged for the glass of water. He payed $75/person for this.
The cake was cute…… And simply awful tasting.
When we left I hit fast food for my kiddos.
We love Mexican food. Whatever this was wasn’t that.
I live in Spain where it’s generally expected that you gift the couple at least what your dinner was worth. Think 100€s upwards. As a vegetarian in Spain I know that the most I’m going to eat is a fancy salad. One time I was given a plate of sliced tomatoes. 100€ for a plate of sliced tomatoes.
Went to a wedding at a mega church
Was told that there would be food trucks outside for the reception. Nope. The church put out a buffet for the wedding party only. Guests were not offered anything, even water.
We waited 2 hours for all the photos to be done, and realized there was no food. People were standing around giving side eye to the bride and groom as they sat at their cordoned-off table and ate
I showed up to a reception once that only had a “popcorn and ice cream bar”. The reception was scheduled around dinner time, and there was no previous mention of there not being real food provided on the invites or programs.
Couple of three foot Subway subs, jello shots and beers. Many many kids present (myself under 18 at the time), no sodas/juice/water. It was either find a cup in their cabinet and get tap, or make like my aunt and go to the gas station to get us some drinks and cookies because the jello shots were the dessert.
My cousin had a gourmet mac and cheese bar at his wedding. It worked like a cold stone where people point out their choices then then the server guy cooks/mixes the food. People were waiting in line for over half an hour for one guy to cook their selections, and then they ran out.
It was a wedding scheduled at dinner time and the only food was cupcakes. That you could only get one of. The bride and groom had their own cake. We left early to go get McDonald’s
Backyard wedding and they said there would be food, it was dinner time reception. They served cold Chick-fil-A nuggets and veggie trays and they didn’t have enough for everyone so people were fighting over the nuggets as they were brought out. Fun times. We left to go get food.
I had been invited to a wedding reception for a Mormon bride & groom (I knew the father of the bride). The family was very wealthy. I show up, nicely dressed, with a gift. In the rather small room is a beautiful wedding cake in the middle of a large conference table. Around it were assortments of nuts, candies and flowers. Tons of flowers.
It was not a reception in the way I knew, but was actually an extension of the reception line when you file out of the ceremony. This took place at the venue, but the real reception with food and cake cutting would be later, in a ballroom (no dancing or booze, or coffee), with the elite guests who were Mormon. The affair I was invited to (just for the heathens), was limited to a large conference room at the venue.
I was insulted. However, I, a nonbeliever, was obviously only worthy of a few nuts while dropping off a gift (which I picked back up on my way out).
I never attended another “reception” while I lived in UT.
Went to a low budget wedding, which I fully support… not everyone has money. However, each table had one bottle of sparkling cider and that was it. No water, no nothing else for 3 hours. I had two young kids with me and we had to leave. I’m in Florida and this was a summer wedding.
It’s a toss up between the one where the food was good but we all got varying degrees of food poisoning, and the one where the wedding party spent 3 hours “taking photos” and everything sat in the warming oven for an extra hour and dried out to the point of being barely edible. They did not actually spend 3 hours taking photos, they spent an hour taking photos and then stopped at a bar on the way back and “lost track of time”. That wedding was in a tiny rural town where the only place to buy food was a small convenience store a half mile or so from the venue, and no snacks or drinks were provided for the guests while they waited for the wedding party.
A budget wedding in a church basement (nothing wrong with that). Dinner was “plated” though which seemed odd. Dinner consisted of a local/regional dish I’d never heard of called Chicken and Noodles. I swear it was chicken noodle soup with some cornstarch or something in it to thicken up served on a slice of wonder bread. Sides were fruit cocktail and carrot sticks. I legit thought I was in elementary school lunch.
Lovely couple, still married over 15 years later so they obviously prioritized the marriage over the wedding. We stopped at A&W on the way home.
Outdoor wedding with a potluck buffet. During the ceremony we watched bugs swarm the food. The MOB tried to shoo the bugs away as best she could. While waiting in the buffet line we watched her admit defeat with the shooing and just stir the bugs into the dishes.
The cake, mints and nuts were fine. But the reception was in the cavernous church basement in March and it was really chilly, and the green punch was so cold it was nearly frozen and it turned your teeth and tongue green. Everyone had greenish lips too
“Buffet cocktail hour” was ritz crackers, turkey pepperoni and cheese, but no alcohol. Only drinks were orange juice, cranberry juice and sparkling water. Coke or Diet Coke was cash only. Sit-down dinner was microwaved lunch meats masquerading as “roast turkey” or “prime rib” with a gravy on top, corn niblets or peas, and those fancy-cut sweet pickles.
What is odd is that it wasn’t a matter of money, as the bride’s family was very comfortable and gave her a very nice budget.
A cut up tomato on some roasted cabbage. It was the vegetarian/vegan option. It was…not very filling. They also ran out of cake before I got any. I stopped at a taco truck on the way home.
I went to two different weddings where there was no food and the only thing to eat was the cake. I feel like if you’re going to have a wedding near dinner time you should warn your guest that there will be no food. That way I can eat before the wedding or just not go. Each time I left early because I was hungry.
Chicken and waffles where the chicken was somehow both undercooked AND burned, and the waffles were just sad.
I’ve never left a wedding hungry before.
I recently went to a wedding held at a kid’s camp. All the guests were invited to stay in the (kid sized) cabins and the food was served buffet style thru out the weekend. I had to gently pull a worker aside to tell them everything I’d eaten that weekend had given me “super diarrhea” and request a cold turkey and mayo on bread. They were mortified and help me get some safe to eat food. Just knowing how hot it was outside (labor day weekend) and how long the food has been sitting out made me want to vom.
I got a salad that had a piece of actual dirty hay….like what you would find on a barn floor, except it was a fancy plated dinner at an art gallery. The courses were so spaced out with speeches that we left before dessert at 10:30pm, and were too tired to even try find another food option.
Went to a wedding reception at a DoubleTree and boy that food was awful. Not sure about the vegetarian option, but I was served a piece of boiled chicken with flavorless bruschetta-like topping and some asparagus that did not have any seasoning. There were also unseasoned steamed garden vegetables. To make things worse, the water from the steamed vegetables got all over the other parts of the dish.
