Feasting on your wedding day

While the most important thing on every bride and groom's wedding day is the part where they say their I dos, there are other practical matters that need just as much thought - food being one of them.

Naturally, the bridal party will need to be well fed at the start of the day in order to keep up their strength for the duration of the nuptials, so organising a festive breakfast is often a priority.

The first kind of wedding breakfast is one enjoyed by the bridal party alone, for example, the bride, her maids, her mum, dad and immediate family. Enjoying a tasty treat along with a glass of bubbly first thing in the morning is one way to bury the nerves and some brides see it as a symbolic meal - the last breakfast as a single girl to be enjoyed with her nearest and dearest. Although of course that notion does extend to the groom as well - it is his last day as a singleton too after all.

Not only can organising the meal at the reception be time-consuming and pricey, it can also be a stressful job as there is so much to take into consideration. Typically, the bride and groom will have asked guests to select their menu choices prior to the big day, usually on their invitation, so that meat-eaters get their roast beef and fish-lovers their salmon and so forth. But there are other things to consider, such as do any of our guests have food allergies? Should we have a special menu tailored for them specifically? 

The food selection on the menu itself really depends on the kind of wedding the bride and groom want to have. For example, a la carte favourites like roast beef dinners, chicken dishes, salmon and the obligatory vegetarian option usually feature in very traditional weddings. But kookier ceremonies and receptions often dabble with more avant garde food.

Ultimately it comes down to the couple's own personality. Take Wayne and Coleen Rooney for example. When they tied the knot last year, they opted for fish and chips in their newspaper wrappings, because that's what they like to treat themselves to while at home.

The same goes for the wedding cake. If you choose to have a lavish and extravagant wedding in which everything is over-the-top, then why not opt for a ten-tier cake? Similarly, for an intimate wedding with only a small number of guests, the cake may as well be smaller. Sometimes going for the simple choice delivers more sophisticated and tastier results. 

Considering cutting the wedding cake features in so many of the photos, some brides and grooms like to put a lot of thought into theirs. Decorative sugar-moulded scenes are a firm favourite of many, while others go for edible photos on cakes to add that extra personal touch. Whether guests think such features are touching or tacky is irrelevant, what matters is that the newlyweds are happy with their choices on their own special day.