homemade vegan wedding food!

My awesome husband and I got married back in October, and I've been meaning to write a few wedding-related entries about ever since. Because there's nothing more fun than reading about other people's weddings, amirite?! Ha, but really, when we were planning the wedding, it was actually really helpful to see how other people did things, especially when they had non-traditional weddings. (If anyone's interested, Offbeat Bride was one of my favorite sources of inspiration/reassurance.) And it was so awesome I want to write about it.

The biggest source of stress when it came to planning our wedding was the food. As I mentioned in this entry, we had some issues finding a caterer, so my mother stepped in and offered to cook all the food for the main meal herself. She'd cooked about half of the food for my sister's wedding, so she figured she had it down to a science. And so she made a huuuuge amount of food for 70 people in less than two days! And while our wedding itself was for 70 people, there was easily enough food to feed over 100. My family thinks large when it comes to feeding people! The food was presented in a buffet line, with a couple different tables.

Here is what my mother made:

From foreground to background: Sauteed onions and peppers (for the beer brats), Tofurky Beer Brats, baked with onions, Baked tofu with Fennel Mustard Sauce (super tasty, though some of our kitchen help poured uncooked sauce over top, which was very mustardy! the baking helps subdue the mustard flavor), and Korean Barbecue Seitan, from The Accidental Vegan. (I wrote about that recipe here.)

But wait, there's more!

Butternut squash puree with pecans, creamy mushroom-and-white-bean stew (both of which are recipes my mother made up), coconut rice (to go under the stew), and ziti, topped with daiya, which, besides the sauteed peppers, was the only non-nightshade-free main dish. Everything except the pasta, seitan, and beer brats was gluten free. Everyone ate so well! And everyone loved the food. No one commented on it being a vegan wedding, no one made cracks about not having meat--hooray! Plus, my mother made so much extra food that everyone in my family ate leftovers of these things for weeks. (I think there's still some rice in our freezer now...?) Thanks, Mom!

So to help alleviate the stress of cooking all the food, the husband insisted we seek out appetizers on our own. He searched for places in Boston that could be made ahead of time that we (well, helpful family members) could bring to the venue from Boston the day before the wedding. He decided on Sofra, a Middle Eastern restaurant that was happy to make a variety of vegan tapas-type dishes. Only a couple things were nightshade-free, but everything except the bread was gluten free, and they agreed to provide ingredients cards for everything they made, so those of us with food allergies could feel safe.

The Sofra food is the stuff on the right. There was muhammarra, parsnip skordalia, pumpkin peperonata, white beans with green tahini, Moroccan carrot salad, romano bean plaki, and Persian black eyed peas. The finger-bread is above; there was a za'atar version and a plain version. In addition to the purchased food, on the left side of the table, a family friend also made a huuuge amount of delicious corn and pumpkin muffins, my aunt made a great coleslaw (not pictured), and there were chips, hummus, and a veggie platter (with cashew-tofu ricotta for dipping) provided by my mother. (There are also some plain rolls on the far right.) I don't even want to tell you how much extra appetizer food we had. I guess we anticipated our friends and family being much bigger eaters than they are!

And can I tell you about our cake? I LOVED OUR CAKE.

It's a Snickers cake from Xs to Os Vegan Bakery in Troy, NY. I love that bakery sooooo much, I strongly encouraged anyone within driving distance to GO THERE RIGHT NOW. The Snickers cake is peanut butter cake with chocolate frosting, as well as caramel in the middle. We ordered a gluten-free one, and it was incredible. I had a couple guests tell me it was the best cake they'd ever had--and these guests were neither gluten-free nor vegan, so that felt like pretty high praise for the cake!

This was one of the only things we didn't have too much of--we barely managed to squirrel away a couple pieces to freeze for our first anniversary.

Finally, even though it's not food, I wanted to make sure you knew we kept our guests well lubricated:

Cooperstown, where we had the wedding, is home to Brewery Ommegang, the husband's favorite brewery. And all their beer is vegan! We had each of their beers available (including a not-pictured keg of BPA), as well as some LaChouffe, the husband's favorite Belgian beer. My mother- and sister-in-law also dug up vegan wine, and a family friend even got some Santome [vegan] prosecco, though I don't think anyone drank the prosecco until the after party. Nonalcoholic drinks included tea, coffee, still and sparkling water, and a variety of organic sodas.

I'm planning to do a few more wedding-themed entries this month, so stay tuned for more DIY wedding goodness!