Culinary Adventures: A Guide to  Destination Wedding Tasting Menus

When you are preparing for your destination wedding, one element that is important to get right is the menu. Considering that all of your guests and loved ones will be enjoying this meal together, there can be added pressure to get it right. 

Luckily, you can have a wedding tasting before your wedding to make sure your menu is perfect. This article will help you know what to expect at a wedding menu tasting and how you can make the most of your experience. 

What To Expect at a Food Tasting for Wedding Menus

For your destination wedding tasting, you can expect an incredible menu of food with plenty of local cuisine to sample and enjoy. 

Incorporating traditional local dishes is an excellent way to stay connected to your wedding’s location. In Mexico, for example, you may add tamales, pork carnitas, and fresh warm tortillas and rice to your menu. 

At your wedding food tasting, your catering team will walk you through all of the different meal courses. You will get the chance to sample everything from their menu and take notes on it. The better your notes are, the easier it will be to refer back to them and make final decisions later on. 

How To Be Prepared

When you are preparing for your menu tasting, there are a few things to keep in mind. To begin, make sure you know what your budget is going in. If your catering team does not have that information already, make sure you come equipped and ready to have a conversation about the numbers when you arrive at your tasting. Luckily with wedding packages, tiered options range from already included to more luxury options based on per-person costs.

Do your research beforehand and offer your wedding team some ideas of what types of dishes and flavor profiles you might be looking for. This will help the caterers prepare an excellent menu for you to taste when you arrive. Also, make sure to inform the team of any allergies or food restrictions you already know about, for you or your guests. 

Etiquette for A Wedding Food Tasting

When you are preparing for a wedding menu tasting, it is important to make sure that you come prepared with the right etiquette. Here are some of our tips to help you handle your experience with more formality: 

What To Wear

When it comes to a wedding tasting, there is nothing wrong with treating your experience like a special date for you and your partner. You don’t have to go all-out, but a smart-casual style is a great option for your menu tasting. Make sure you stay comfortable, but take it a couple of steps up from sweatpants. 

Be On Time

The most important part of etiquette for your menu tasting is to make sure that you are on time. Even though this tasting is for your wedding menu, ensure you respect the caterers’ and servers’ time. 

There may be other tasting appointments before or after yours that they also have to prepare for. Punctuality will make the entire process smoother and more enjoyable for everyone. 

How To Offer Feedback

Don’t be afraid to speak up about the dishes you are trying. If there are elements of the food that you enjoy, but others that you have questions about, talk to the caterers about the potential to make adjustments. Always do so kindly and respectfully, but make sure your menu is to your liking. 

Make The Most of Your Wedding Menu Tasting

Food tasting for wedding menus can feel like a serious and very important task, but it can also be a fun and even intimate experience with your partner and your closest loved ones. Here are some of our tips for how to make the most of your wedding tasting. 

Keep Your Group Small 

Try to limit your tasting party to a group of four or less. A large party is typically not something that caterers prepare for, and there may not be enough food to go around. 

Clear conversations and tough decisions are easier to have when there are fewer people around. Plus, spending one-on-one time with your soon-to-be spouse at your tasting can make the wedding feel closer and even more special. 

Remember The Drinks

At a menu tasting, it can feel like the food is the focus. However, your catering team might be preparing special beverages for you to try, too! Make sure you give just as much attention to the drinks you are offered. You get an extra opportunity to savor some incredible flavor profiles and add some delicious beverages to the menu. 

Come Hungry, But Not Starving 

When you are planning to eat a decent amount of food, you probably already know to come hungry. However, make sure you don’t have a completely empty stomach when you come to your menu tasting. 

When you’re too hungry, everything tastes delicious. To ensure you make the best decisions for your menu, make sure you are hungry enough to enjoy the meals, but not hungry enough that you forget to savor the food and think critically about your menu.  

More Ways To Enjoy a Tasting

Sometimes when you have a destination wedding, it can be difficult to schedule a complete wedding tasting before you get too close to the ceremony itself. If you don’t have the time or opportunity to do a food tasting for wedding purposes, you can still schedule a tasting on your own time! 

Plenty of all-inclusive resorts offer private dining and menu-tasting packages. Set aside an evening of your trip to take your partner for an intimate, delicious dinner. You could also take a visit to a private wine cellar for a special tasting. 

Food plays an important role in any wedding. Menus for weddings can range from buffets to seated dinners and from pasta bars to roast carving stations. More casual wedding food ideas include taco bars and pizzas. Food can play an even bigger role in a destination wedding. Destination weddings give couples and their guests the opportunity to explore local cuisines and enjoy a dinner reception with items they might not have back home. 

How do you incorporate local cuisine into your destination wedding menu? What do you need to consider when planning the food for your dinner reception? 

Wedding Food Ideas for Destination Weddings 

Once you’ve chosen your destination, and your venue, it’s time to start planning the menu. Incorporating local flavors and traditional dishes into your wedding menu is a great way to experience the local culture. If food is incredibly important to you, you can even pick your destination around the food. 

Prior to meeting with local caterers or a resort’s catering team, do your research. Look into what the traditional wedding meals are, and what other traditional food items you want to incorporate. If there is a “must-try” item that you want to try, but it may not fit into the formal dinner reception menu, you still have options. 

Destination weddings often last at least a few days, giving you plenty of opportunities to experience the local cuisine. Traditional food items can be enjoyed as part of a welcome dinner, or breakfast the day after you say “I do!” or anywhere in between. 

Don’t forget to incorporate local beverages into your celebration. Is the country known for its coffee, prepared a certain way? Is there a national drink to try? Enjoying a genuine Mexican margarita, and then some Horchata to calm back down can be an important part of a Mexican adventure. Have a drink made with local rum in Jamaica, and try some rum punch for a taste of Jamaica. 

Wedding Menu Considerations 

Planning a menu for any event, stateside or a plane ride away, can come with special considerations. Do you, or your soon-to-be spouse, have any dietary restrictions or food allergies? What about your guests? Do you need vegetarian or vegan dishes on the menu? Dealing with dietary restrictions back home can be difficult, but working around them in a different country where there may be a language barrier can be a bigger challenge. 

When planning your destination wedding menu and researching local cuisine to incorporate, be sure to let your venue’s wedding planning team and your Destify experts know of any restrictions and allergies. Having an allergic reaction during your wedding is one of the last things anyone would want. 

Traditional Wedding Menus by Location 

Your wedding food ideas will vary based on location, as the local cuisine will vary based on location. Here are some traditional wedding dinner reception ideas from some of our favorite destinations. 

Mexico 

When you think of Mexican food, you probably think of Taco Tuesday and Margaritas. You wouldn’t be wrong. Even formal Mexican events feature the same or similar items that we can find at a local Mexican restaurant. Only better.  Traditional Mexican wedding menus can include tamales, pork carnitas, enchiladas mole, chiles rellenos (stuffed peppers), and of course fresh warm tortillas and rice. 

The key to Mexican wedding menus is variety. There will be multiple options for meat, sauces, and salsas. Tamales are both a delicious staple of Mexican food and a time-consuming, communal meal to prepare. Having traditional tamales at your wedding can be a symbol of the effort and community support needed for a successful marriage. 

Jamaica and the Caribbean 

The Caribbean includes thirteen different countries and hundreds of individual islands. While the local cuisine, food, and culture are unique to each country and area – from Jamaica to the Dominican Republic to the Bahamas – there are some menu items that reflect the general local cuisine of the region. Jamaica is known for jerk chicken and curry chicken. 

Cou-cou is one of the national dishes of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This is a dish made with cornmeal and okra and is incredibly common. Local cuisine across the Caribbean Islands includes traditional rice dishes, curried goat, flying fish dishes, and fried plantain. Fresh fruit is also a huge part of the local cuisine and is great to incorporate into the dessert part of a dinner reception. 

Costa Rica 

Traditional Costa Rican wedding menus include local and fresh seafood dishes for a formal meal or a more casual beachside barbecue. However, the most common traditional meal in Costa Rica is casados. Casados is a marriage of other popular Costa Rican dishes including rice, steered meat, plantains, and possibly salad. Casados may be too casual for the menu for a wedding dinner reception, but finding the time to enjoy this local tradition at some point during your trip is a great way to experience the local cuisine. 

A Note on All-Inclusive Menus 

If your wedding venue is all-inclusive and you have less control over the food options during your visit, you can still work to incorporate local dishes. All-inclusive menus at resorts will often include a mix of traditional items and items that cater to tourists and visitors. Rather than ordering and reaching for what is familiar, be sure to try the local dishes. If the resort has a buffet, that can be a great way to get a taste of something new. 

Make The Most of Every Meal 

At Destify, we make meaningful memories for you and your loved ones along every step of your path to “I Do”. We are here to help you plan every detail of your destination wedding. If you want to schedule a food tasting for wedding purposes or if you just want the experience for a special date night, we can help you set up your dream tasting.

Work with Destify today for a new wedding planning experience.