How do you decide on the menu so far in advance?

Are you booking a caterer or is the venue providing food and catering to you? If you are booking a caterer I would choose the top 2-4 food items you love (steak, chicken, fish) and have that caterer prepare it for you, that way it helps narrow down the options. If you are having plated service how many courses will you be having? 4-5 (soup, salad, entree, dessert)?

If the venue is providing the food ask them to see a previous wedding's menu, see a few that would give you an idea of where to start.

Are you wanting plated or buffet service will also make a big difference in menu choice. With buffet it gives you a larger range to have quite a few different options in case you can't decide on what you want in the end. Plated is narrowed down to the final choices, unless you are giving your guests the choice of entree. Also what would your budget be? That can also be a determining factor with the final choice of plated or buffet.

Menu card on table held onto clip bells

Does your venue/caterer provide a tasting?

We got a menu for choosing what we wanted ro serve our guests and confirmed 6 months. Ahead. Only one change was made based on change of mind. Wait until you tasting to know what will be good.

I would say that right now you don't need to settle on the exact menu but maybe just an outline. If he has catered weddings before, ask for a sample menu and use that as a starting point. That's what we did when we were looking for caterers.

We chose on general dishes we would like to have.. such as a kids option, vegetarian option, and what type of meats we would like to offer. The menus change yearly so we have to wait until the new year to actually pick our menu for the day of.

I have wanted to eat comfort food at my wedding since I was a little girl, so this was actually really easy for me! We looked for a caterer that would serve pulled pork and mac n cheese!

We technically don't have to pick until closer to the date- three months I think. But we booked her way back, probably a year and two/three months to our wedding and discussed stuff we want. We decided on some of my favourite foods and food they are known for (to taste delicious). I really want mashed potatoes (haha very meat and potatoes style for me- country girl at heart lol). But we will be having perogies (my fiancés choice, and they are so popular at weddings here) , and two meats (not sure which ones we will choose for this though), etc.

When we booked our hall they gave us a list of menu options so we get to pick and choose as long as we stay within the value we’re allowed. We need to finalize a lot closer to our wedding date .
Maybe ask your future father in law to draw up a list of items and have you guys pick and choose what you would like

That's cool you have free reign, but yes, probably overwhelming. What are his favourite dishes to make or what are his specialties? Do the two of you have any favourite dishes? Maybe check local catering menus to give you some ideas. Even if you come up with a big list of options now, you can narrow it down closer to the date.

The caterer that we're hoping to book will let us make adjustments to the menu up to 15 days before the wedding.

I didn't need to finalize my menu that far in advance, I booked my caterer really early but waited until maybe 4 months before the wedding day to finalize the exact menu. Could you see if your chef is on board for this option? Are you doing plated or buffet?

Maybe ask if he can put together some suggestions for you? Or maybe go to a couple of your favourite restaurants and pick some dishes out that you would like him to re-create for you.

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My future father-in-law, who is a chef, is making the food and he has given us free reign on the menu... It's given us too many choices

Does your venue/caterer offer a menu tasting? That may be helpful when making your decision on what to eat!