The Menu (Part 1)

OK, so I have already mentioned our differences in menu ideas... I wasn't even joking about the pot-luck!! Ian is very casual when it comes to menu planning. A typical evening sounds like this... "heh babe, what would you prefer for dinner, Thai or pancetta wrapped sea bass?" to which he replies... "um, sure!". When we go out for dinner, there are generally two qualifying questions we ask when choosing restaurants: 1. Do they use quality ingredients and have healthy options? and 2. Do they serve generous portions at reasonable prices? These questions have somewhat limited our options, but trust me when I say that we have our short list of reliable stand-by restaurants which we frequent on a regular basis, and on those rare occasions that Ian likes to get adventurous and try something new, I undoubtedly have a LONG list of places I've been dying to try!! In fact, I have almost every page of John Gilchrest's "My Favorite Restaurants in Calgary and Banff" rabbit eared for those very occasions!

How does this all affect the wedding menu? Well, as you all know, in planning the wedding meal, you have to add in a heavily weighted third question: 3. Can we afford to serve this to 120+ people?? Oh, and if you have read this, you know how I feel about the pressure to find a menu that represents you as a couple!! What represents us in one word... dichotomy. So this is how our wedding menu evolved:

• How does the food relate to the overall feeling we want on our day (ie. relaxed, family focused, un-fussy)?
• How can we maintain our main priority of down-home FUN with food?
• Do we want mountain food, or theme food?
• Heh, remember that cajun mean we had for my going away party... that was good right??

As a bit of background info, we are really trying to create a 'house party' feel, or more specifically, a cabin party! We spend countless weekends out at our family cabin, and food, as you can guess, is always a central theme, whether it's shrimp and crab or Costco hamburgers! Here is an example of late night snacking at the cabin: (yes, that's chicken out of a box!)

BUT, we of course want this to be a special party, with amazing food... so a bit of class is required! Here's a teaser of the compromise we have come up with...