Our Wedding Weekend Food

The inspiration behind this post was the question, “what does someone who loves food have at their wedding”? With many people often saying, “your guests will not remember the food at your wedding, don’t bother spending too much time or money on it.” Well, I can honestly say, people who were at our wedding are STILL talking about the food – I still look back at pictures of the food.

Thoughtful food doesn’t have to be expensive, I wanted our food to be creative and memorable, down to the cake flavors – every part of that wedding was going to tell you about Tristan and Rachel. That was truly the most important part.

Rehearsal Dinner – Mastro’s Steakhouse

Mastro’s Steakhouse is a very trendy, social, gorgeous spot in Houston, Texas – it is a “everyone who is anyone” goes there type place. However, we chose it because it was on the property of our wedding venue, The Post Oak Hotel. A convenient selection that our wedding party and guests could simply walk to. I selected a pre-fix menu that gave our guests the option of choosing their salads, entrees, desserts – with family style sides and pre-selected red and white wines.

Thompson & White Rehearsal Dinner

Choice of Salad
Classic Caesar Salad
Mixed Greens Salad
Choice of Entree
Cobb Creek Organic Lemon Pepper Chicken
Center Cut Fillet 6 oz.
Ora King Salmon
Choice of Dessert
Chocolate Sin Cake
Mastro’s Signature Warm Butter Cake (Personal Size)

My goodness, when I tell you – that was just the start of an incredible weekend of food. Our wedding party and guests, some have never had the Warm Butter Cake, were in heaven. It is something.

Wedding Day – The Post Oak Hotel in Uptown Park

Breakfast with the Bridesmaids

I do not have any professional photos of the breakfast layout since this was prior to the photographer arriving, I do have some on my phone, so the quality isn’t great but you get the picture

A selection of fresh squeezed orange and grapefruit juice, waters, hot water and a selection of tea, with coffee. Vanilla Greek yogurt parfaits, with granola, fresh fruit, and a selection of freshly baked pastries. It was FABULOUS, and the perfect way to start the day.

Ladies Light Lunch – Afternoon Tea

This was such a cute lunch, at this point with hair and make-up, video and photography I knew there would be a lot going on, so we kept the lunch selection light – open face sandwiches, freshly baked scones, and tea treat like madeleines, mini tartes, and macaroons. It also came with a selection of teas for the ladies to drink. 

Guys Who Grub

I’m not going to lie, sadly there are no pictures of the food the guys ate. However, I wanted to make certain my man and his friends were well taken care of before the big event. After having a morning in the spa, they all met up in one of the ballrooms we had reserved, we had a projector set up for them to play on his Nintendo64 – Mario Kart (which was super fun), and buffet of burgers, sandwiches, wings, sodas and waters. They had liquor included with their groomsmen gifts 😉 Honestly, Tristan had the best time getting ready for the big day.

Cocktail Hour

This is easily my favorite food of the day – when thinking about the food for our wedding I wanted people to see “Tristan and Rachel,” and one thing about me is I love brunch, and Tristan loves his southern food. It came to me, a “southern brunch cocktail hour!” It ended up being better than I expected.
Chicken + Waffles Skewers, 
Shrimp + Cheese Grits in Mini Skillet,
“Biscuits + (Sausage) Gravy” Ramekins,
Fruit Skewers + Yogurt Dip
Boozy Banana + Chocolate Milkshake
Mango Smoothie

When I tell you the Post Oak NAILED this vision, our guests were blown away – they could not stop talking about this part of the wedding. The boozy milkshake and smoothie came from how much Tristan loves “adult milkshakes,” they are his favorite.

Dinner

One thing about our wedding venue, our wedding tasting, the chef was on site and when I tried something and wanted to make a change, they made the change in real time – so within minutes I had the revised dish out for me to try. It was incredible. Ultimately, these are the selections I made – one starter, 2 entree choices of beef or chicken, and 2 cake flavors.

Starter 
Mesclun Mix | Candied Pecans | Goat Cheese | Dried Cherries | Vidalia Onion Vinaigrette 

Entrees
Glazed Short Ribs Mustard Spätzle | Swiss Chard Frizzled Onions | Braising Jus – with Truffle Potato Mousseline and Carrots
Hunters Chicken | Mushroom Demi | Boursin Potato Mash | Haricot Vert

Wedding Cake

I did not want to overcomplicate this design, in fact I wanted it to be elegant and simple. So when I shared an image with the hotel and their pastry chef this design was literally a cake walk for them!

However, my flavor selection proved more of a challenge. Like most pastry shops – they give you a list of cake and icing flavors with fillings you choose from. Our venue said they did not have a list, and if I told them what I wanted, they would make it. LOLOLOLOL to tell that to a woman who dreams of cake flavors and combinations, I gave them some interesting flavors but ultimately decided on these two from the tasting:

Tristan’s Flavor: Butter Pecan Cake with Peach “Cobbler” Compote and a Cobbler Crust Icing

Rachel’s Flavor: Chocolate “Domino” Cake; Chocolate Fudge Cake with layers of chocolate and vanilla mousse with fresh raspberries

Ultimately, both cake flavors were a DIRECT reflection of myself and Tristan, our preferred flavor profiles, dessert tastes, what we would pick from a restaurant dessert menu. To be honest, we were so preoccupied with celebrating the day, I wish we got MORE cake, However the hotel staff was very kind to put a bunch in our room after the ceremony <3

Wedding Favor/Midnight Snack

Wedding favors are still a big thing, but a lot of people are straying away from wedding favors because guests don’t care to keep them, and they cost money that they don’t have to or want to spend. I completely understand that, which is exactly why I decided to make our wedding favor our midnight snack as well – Shipley’s Donuts.

Shipley’s is a staple in the south, so for us to incorporate this sweet treat into our wedding and share with our guests was fun, inexpensive, and productive (feeding guests)! Complete with a personalized sticker that says “The Thompsons; A Sweet Ending” it was the perfect detail for a true “sweet ending” to a beautiful day.

Our wedding was surrounded by a LOT of stress, looking back I am so grateful we decided to get married considering the timing. I would have changed a thing about the day except that the pandemic did not exist so we could truly celebrate with SO many more people who we wanted to have present. But most importantly I married my best friend and the love of my life with our loved ones to celebrate with us. When I look back on that day, can honestly say, I remember marrying my husband, celebrating with friend, and… the food.

Check out a highlight of our wedding video from Reverent Films below!

Photo Credit: Civic Photos
Videographer: Reverent Films
Wedding Planner: Meghan Garvin of Belle of the Ball
Florals & Decor: Plants n’ Petals
Hair & Makeup: Misty Rockwell
Venue: The Post Oak Hotel