Fall Wedding Menu with Food Stations: Quantities and Timeline

A fall wedding in the country asks for food that is generous without being fussy. The evenings turn cool, people have been standing outside for the ceremony, and they want something warm and something they can go back to. This menu answers that with a cheese and fruit table during cocktails, four passed hors d'oeuvres, and dinner from three stations that open at the same moment. I have planned it here for 120 guests, which is a common size for a barn or backyard wedding.

The menu

Cocktail hour: on the table

• New England cheese and seasonal fruit table with assorted crackers

Cocktail hour: passed

• Hot corn pancakes with sour cream and a sweet-hot tomato jam
• Puff pastry squares with a spinach and artichoke filling
• Asparagus spears wrapped in prosciutto
• Crostini with fig jam, caramelized onions and gorgonzola

Dinner: stations, all set out at once

• Grill: marinated grilled hanger steak; marinated grilled chicken; grilled zucchini, summer squash, peppers, mushrooms, red onions and eggplant
• Salads: mixed greens with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, radishes and carrots in a red wine shallot vinaigrette; kale with feta, red onion, chickpeas and toasted sunflower seeds in a honey balsamic vinaigrette; French bread and sweet butter
• Pasta and sides: tomato basil brie linguine; three-cheese macaroni and cheese; German potato salad

Dessert

• Lemon wedding cake with raspberry filling, decorated to look like a birch tree, with a heart carved into the bark
• Coffee and tea service

To drink, besides the bar

• Iced tea and lemonade

Why stations, and why all at once

A plated dinner for 120 needs a full kitchen and about a dozen servers. A single buffet line for 120 takes 40 minutes to get everyone through, and the last table eats while the first is already up dancing. Stations solve both problems. With three stations open at the same time, guests spread across the room, lines stay short, and a table of ten can be eating within ten minutes of the call to dinner.

Setting them all out at once matters. If the grill opens first and the pasta later, everyone crowds the grill. When everything appears together, people wander, and they tend to take less of each thing because there is more to choose from.

The three stations also give every guest a full dinner, whatever they eat. A vegetarian can build a plate from grilled vegetables, two salads, the linguine and the macaroni. A guest who eats no gluten has the grill and the salads.

The cheese table does a separate job. It feeds people during the photographs, when the couple is away and the guests are hungry, and it sits there quietly while the passed food goes round.

Quantities for 120

The meat counts look light because there are two proteins, and most people take some of each. If your crowd is young and hungry, add 5 pounds to each.

For the cake, three tiers of 6, 10 and 14 inches give about 128 wedding slices. If the top tier is being saved, a plain sheet cake in the kitchen covers the gap. The cakes guide has the full serving chart and the birch-bark technique.

The timeline

For a 4:00 ceremony with dinner at 6:00:

A crew this size needs a grill cook, two people in the kitchen, four to five servers for passing and clearing, and someone to keep each station tidy. The full-service catering guide covers staffing ratios if you are hiring help.

Swaps and notes

• Replace the hanger steak with flank steak if the butcher is short; it grills and slices the same way.
• The kale salad holds well, so dress it 30 minutes ahead. The mixed greens wait until the last minute.
• For a rainy evening, the grill station can be set under a tent flap with the grill just outside.
• Grilled meat on a station should stay at 140°F (60°C) or above, so set it on warm platters over chafers and replace it in small batches.

For a seated version of a similar season, see the fall wedding dinner for 85.

The sweet-hot tomato jam

This is the sauce that goes on the corn pancakes, and the one people ask for. It keeps two weeks in the refrigerator.

From the recipe box

Sweet-hot tomato jam

About 3 cups, enough for 200 small pancakes

Prep

15 min

Cook

1 hr 15 min

Rest

1 hr

Total

2 hr 30 min

Show amounts in

US cups & spoons metric

Jam

• 3 lb1.35 kg ripe plum tomatoes, cored and chopped
• 1 1/2 cups300 g sugar
• 1/3 cup80 ml cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp30 ml fresh lemon juice
• 2 to 32 to 3 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped
• 1 tsp5 ml grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 tsp2.5 ml ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp1.25 ml red pepper flakes
• 1 1/2 tsp7.5 ml kosher salt

Method

1. Put all the ingredients in a wide, heavy pot and stir well.
2. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
3. Lower the heat to a steady simmer and cook uncovered, stirring every 10 minutes, for about 60 to 75 minutes.
4. Stir more often toward the end as it thickens, scraping the bottom so it does not catch.
5. It is done when a spoon drawn across the bottom of the pot leaves a clear path for a second or two and the jam looks glossy.
6. Taste for heat and salt; add more pepper flakes if you want it hotter.
7. Cool for an hour, then spoon into clean jars and refrigerate.
8. Bring to room temperature before serving, with a small spoon of sour cream on each pancake.

Notes from the kitchen

• Make it up to two weeks ahead and keep it refrigerated.
• A food processor pulse after cooking gives a smoother jam for piping.