Something tasty, new, interactive and blue
Foodie culture and social media up ante for wild wedding food
What, your wedding didn’t have an interactive nitrogen ice cream station complete with chefs in lab coats? There were no wandering oyster shuckers? What about a doughnut wall? Not even a swing set?
This is the summer of the over-the-top wedding, with couples seeking to top each other with the newest, freshest gimmick. And much of the fuss is about food, the more visually remarkable the better.
It’s all about the picture, says Alison McGill, editor-in-chief of Weddingbells magazine.
“We live in foodie culture, and that merged with the social media imperative. The whole crazy wedding food trend is because couples want their wedding remembered for the great party, which means great food. Great tasting, but also in a fresh and spectacular presentation.”
Consider the ante upped. According to Weddingbells, as of 2017 the average wedding in Canada costs $31,785 (with formal weddings cresting $38,700). Note that one in five weddings costs $50,000 or more. The big spend, McGill says, used to be on “the dress,” but now grooms or partners of non-binary identifications are equally involved in the planning. Thus, food and wine costs have grown to the point where they are 25 per cent of the overall budget, so in the $8,000-plus range.
For these hefty price tags, couples are expecting food fireworks. And that means experiential, the great buzzword of the millennial generation: interactive, with roaming servers and stations, elaborate installations, and pop-up activations within the reception (such as coffee trucks, or Prosecco popsicle stands).
There is a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses’ factor at play, McGill says.
“One-upmanship sounds competitive and harsh,” she says. “But usually people are getting married in groups. And definitely no one wants their party to look like anyone else’s. If your friends have a hanging pretzel bar, you aren’t going to do it at your wedding. You need to come up with a bigger bang.”
This trend comes from the non-expense-spared gala world.
McGill cites the 2015 Power Ball, when Toronto celeb chef Grant van Gameren and New York performance artist Jennifer Rubell created a massive chandelier of octopus meat for guests to “engage with.” It was, she says, predictably messy, and not something you want to try around wedding finery.
The trick is to get the balance right, she says. “Not too gimmicky, and not too disruptive. People need guidance. Guests need to feel confidence in the environment. And as hosts, you need to provide a road map. I’d say be careful of having too many of those activations. And not something terribly messy.”
Merlin Kaasik is the event co-ordinator at the Food Dudes.
“We are a young catering company, we’ve been in the market seven years, so things are not so set in stone. We are known for custom stuff: Anything is basically possible.”
Kaasik says she first saw the trend of over-the-top food appear at a wedding in London circa 2016. “Guests get really into it,” she says. “We do art installations where guests pull the trigger to stream the olive oil.” She says those nitrogen ice cream bars were something they first tried at bar mitzvahs, but that “everyone is a kid at heart. People started asking for them at weddings, and they really took off.”
Food Dudes has also done doughnut stations where the guests are invited behind the counter (they are given lab coats) to torch their own crème brûlée topping.
Taking off from the early 2000s hits of sundae and baked potato bars, DIY taco bars are now hot, she says. And one bride for an upcoming wedding wanted a cereal bar. “She is a big fan of cereal,” she says, and the breakfast treat featured prominently in their engagement story. Yes, engagement stories are now also a thing, and can be worked into the whole wedding theme and narrative.
Kaasik adds that couples want to customize their big day, and many create logos to adorn multiple elements. Food Dudes even has its own in-house designer to help craft the couple’s wedding brand. “There is also a desire to dress up the staff, or add a performative element, such as moving stations or chefs on wheels, or oyster shuckers walking through the crowd with buckets on their hips, themed trays of mini burgers.”
At heart, the trend is customization, and McGill says you don’t have to spend more to get that feeling. “You can do it with elbow grease,” she says. “And a fun trend we are seeing is that McDonald’s delivery is a big thing right now,” for a fun, less expensive personalized late night snack option.
There are lots of ways to personalize. Weddingbells featured a colourful, fun wedding last year where the couple, of Filipino background, served the mains on banana leaves and decorated the room in bright origami-style paper decorations. The result was chic and personalized.
But most people go all out on sweets, Kaasik says, because if you have a sit-down dinner, it allows guests to get up and get involved at the sweet course. “Sweets tables are almost mandatory,” McGill says. But she also predicts that Harry and Meghan’s single-layer elderflower cake will start to have a ripple effect in the industry. It was of course presented as an art installation, despite its innate simplicity.
Decor is the other element that makes up the wow factor modern couples are looking for. There are celestial-themed tablescapes, dried grass displays, and Weddingbells says yellow is a big thing this summer, playing off of the hot fashion trend for the sunny colour.
Greenery is a hot trend, says Toronto wedding planner Lexi Haslam of Lexingtonandco.ca.
“People think it might be cheaper, but in the end, it isn’t. The expense comes from the rigging,” she explains. Meaning that flowers aren’t limited to tabletops these days, but rather are now hung from the ceilings. “Suspended florals and greenery and chandeliers are used to provide dimension and depth to the room. To transform the space,” she says. “The object is to keep it warm, create an enveloping feeling, and bring the outside in for a natural esthetic.”
People often suggest familystyle service as substitute for decor, she says, “but then you eat the food and the tables are empty. It still needs florals and candles. Suspended installations are a way to supplement the mood.”
Food, she adds, is usually among the first things decided, as it is such a big part of the overall spending. Haslam is seeing yet another food trend creeping in though, amid all the food-a-ganza going on. “Ultrasimple is the next thing. Local food, presented simply, reducing the number of ingredients. Say, a platter of flawless fresh asparagus.”
Kaasik agrees that this extravagance is likely to be cyclical. “In London, where I first saw the over-the-top food happening, the move is back towards simple, harvest food.” Just as in the fashion world, the food pendulum also usually swings between extremes.