10 Out of the Box Ideas for Serving food at your Wedding

Monday, January 18, 2016

I have been to a fare few number of weddings and seen many unique ways to display and serve food but the majority of this post will be sharing from one wedding that I actually helped with myself, so without further adue, here are some fun ideas of what you can do to present the food from your event in a way that is outside the box with DIY spirit!

1. Cupcake Towers

For this wedding, the bride and groom wanted to through in some Retro 1950's spirit but when you say your serving hamburgers, it can be hard to maintain the classy element! So we served mini sliders and stacked them up on a cupcake tiered platter to showcase their cuteness. Yes, I just called a hamburger cute, but in this case, I think that have a fun color and it should be showcased. The sliders were held together with toothpicks to avoid a mess.

Catering by: Natalie and John Cook in Fort Collins, CO

2. Class it up with classy cups

Since we mixed an all over retro and vintage theme, we used little traditional tea cups with gold spoons to dress up the sauces like ketchup, mayo and mustard. This can of course be applied to any sauce.

3. Slice open a Pineapple

I loved the way the fruit itself was used to serve dip for the fruit. It is fun and colorful and festive.

4. French Fry Cones

We created these with a waxed brown parchment paper and paper doilie patterned printed paper. We rolled them and then simply stapled them at the bottom. They were a fun way to display potato fries that were quick and easy for guests to grab. The box they are in is a vintage glass bottle box we found at a local antique mall.

This paper cone approach can work for other fried foods too, such as fried green beans, veggie sticks, popcorn etc.

We used a pair of scrap booking craft scissors to cut the end of the brown paper in a delicate fashion.

To step above plastic wears, we collected silverware and wrapped it in dollies with hemp twine. The doilies were also tinted with tea water and dried, but you can buy tinted paper doilies at Hobby Lobby or Michael's which is much easier.

5. The Candy Bar

I don't think this one ever gets old because it is so fun and so cute! Instead of making a strenuous effort to create many a wedding favor for every guest, I love that they can create something for themselves and the kids LOVE it. The cutest approach to this is to be sure to mix it up. Use a variety of funky shapes and sizes with a few lids and cute candy styled scoops. For this display we printed out vintage candy labels that had that carnival feel to them and then modged podged them to the jars. In our case, when modge podging the printed pieces, the ink would spread a bit, so it ended up looking that much older and more authentic as a vintage prop,

6. Candy Trays

Bring the candy to the guests. Arrange to have teenagers dress up and serve candy to guests bringing the fun to them. For these we found a sectioned box at an antique mall and attached thick ribbon to it that could help support the box on the servers shoulders. Servers can share candy, cotton candy, popcorn, soda pops, favors etc. The list is endless.

7. Soda Bar

For this wedding they had Culvers ice cream cater in with amazing milkshakes and they were served up at a bar constructed of antique doors. Hobby Lobby had an assortment of cute retro signs for the 50's diner vibe to add to it and painted on old worn wood was labeled "soda fountain". Vintage bar stools graced the bar too with the dance floor close by.

Soda Fountain sign hung with lace.

8. Soda pop bottles in a... wheel barrow

An old wheelbarrow, repainted it light blue and filled with it ice and a little garland to decorate it up! Super cute way to have soda pops ready for grabbing.

9. Think green

To help with the cleanup and to take a green approach, an old vintage box and burlap labels were used to direct guests to recycle their bottles.

10. Cotton Candy

This is a huge hit! And perfect for that outdoor wedding with the fun vintage vibe. The kids were crazy about it and all gathered around excitedly to observe and feast on a their sticky feast. I would have added a decorative grab-able hand wipes container close by too for all the sticky hands.

You can rent or buy cotton candy machines for your wedding.