How to include food and drink in your wedding ceremony
If you're big foodies, or a couple who enjoys a tipple, then why not incorporate your love of food and drink into your wedding ceremony? There are various ways you can do this and you can be as creative as you like, especially if you're having a celebrant-led ceremony. Here's a few ideas for how you can include food and drink in your wedding ceremony.
Offer ceremony canapés
This option will depend on whether your chosen venue and officiant permit food in the ceremony space, but if they do allow it then why not offer your guests a few nibbles as they arrive? This is a great way to make people feel welcome and put them on before the wedding meal. It’s also very helpful if the wedding party is running late!
Depending on your setup, you may have staff that you can ask to pass round canapés or stand at the ceremony entrance offering them to guests as they arrive. Or you could have a food table that is set up beforehand, perhaps enlisting the help of a couple of friends or ushers who can pass them around while guests are waiting for the happy couple to arrive.
Include a cocktail unity ceremony
Love a good cocktail? Then why not embrace this by including a cocktail unity ceremony as part of your vows? Many celebrants now offer this option, and most would be open to the idea if you suggest it to them!
A cocktail unity is a unique way of symbolising the blending together of families, interests and personalities. Celebrant Amanda-Louise Knight gives a great example of how this can work in practice:
“I would pour each delicious ingredient representing you as individuals, and mix them together before pouring into one glass that you would drink from. The significance here is of the couple bringing their own individuality to the marriage and blending together to make one unity couple.”
Read Amanda’s blog on cocktail unity ceremonies here.
A cocktail is also a great metaphor for life, which over the years will have elements of rough and smooth; bitter and sweet. You can be as creative as you like with this and work with your celebrant to come up with ideas, incorporating your favourite drinks to create something meaningful and tasty!
Share a cup or Quaich
The sharing a cup tradition has its roots in Jewish wedding ceremonies, so this is a lovely one to include if either of you have Jewish connections. The tradition is for a cup to be filled with wine (but you can substitute with any drink of your choice), and then both of you taking a drink in turn. Sometimes the cup is then passed around to the couple’s parents or other members of the fmaily to take a drink too.
Traditionally, this ritual formed a part of the ‘Erusin’ (betrothal) ceremony which occurred several months before the wedding, but today it is often included as part of the wedding ceremony to enhance a couple’s vows. Sipping from the same cup is symbolic of the entwined lives the couple will share, but you may with to attribute other symbolic sentiments to it.
The sharing of a Quaich is a similar tradition with its roots in Scottish wedding ceremonies. A Quaich is a traditional Scottish cup with two handles, and is often filled with whisky. The two handles allow for both of you to hold the cup at the same time, passing it to one another to drink from. The symbolic elements here are much the same as with the Jewish wine ceremony, but again you may want to add a modern twist to the ritual.
Include a food or drink poem
This is a great option for foodies and a lovely way to add a lighthearted element to your ceremony. There are lots of analogies that can be drawn between marriage and food/drink, so if you hunt around you are sure to find a few poets who have contemplated this! Here’s just one example:
The cake of marriage
Take half a pound of attraction and mix with four ounces of good humour and two ounces of charm.
Mix together in a conducive atmosphere and add a sprinkling of encouragement.
In a separate bowl, mix equal quantities of fidelity, forgiveness and forgetfulness.
Combine the two together in harmony and moisten with half a pint of laughter and a generous trickle of common sense.
Add as much love as the mixture can hold without becoming too sticky or solid.
Stir for as long as it takes to ensure there are no lumps, then season with hope.
Pour into a suitable house and bake moderately for ever after.
Eat with contentment.
Anon
Have a champagne toast at the end of your ceremony
A champagne toast is a wonderful way to involve your guests in celebrating your marriage, creating a feel-good end to the ceremony. You could ask staff or members of your wedding party to hand out glasses as guests arrive, telling them to save it until the end of the ceremony. Alternatively, someone could pass it round during the ceremony itself, perhaps as you are sitting down to sign the register or certificate.
This also means guests already have a drink in their hand as you begin the reception, getting the party off to a great start! Be sure to have non-alcoholic drinks available as well for those who would prefer this.
Again, this will depend on whether your venue and/or officiant allow for drinks/alcohol to be consumed in the ceremony space, so be sure to check this with them before you buy all the bottles!
We hope this has helped offer some inspiration for how you can include food and drink in your wedding ceremony. If you love the idea of an outdoor ceremony, why not browse our directories of outdoor venues and outdoor suppliers across the UK?
