Recipe: Ideas for a Small Morning Wedding - Reply to Lou in NM

Dear Lou,

I went to a lovely outdoor wedding that served up picnic lunches. This was done by a caterer, but you could do it yourselves making "box lunches."

You could take large cartons (such as the type wine comes in), cover them with pretty paper tablecloths, and put in bread, cheese, cold cuts, paper plates, plastic serveware, paper napkins, etc. inside. Your soft drinks and champagne, if you are serving it, could be placed in large coolers or even clean, new buckets or waste baskets with ice. If you don't want to serve cold cuts, you could place muffins and unopened jars of jam, individual fruit cups, etc. in the boxes. You could use coordinating paper tablecloths for the tables.

I also heard of someone who created a wedding "cake" using Krispy Kreme doughnuts. They took a large platter and stacked the doughnuts in the shape of a cake. If you're doing a morning wedding and wanted to serve a light breakfast with OJ and coffee, this idea might work. YOu could decorate the cake with some lace or artificial flowers purchased from a crafts store.

The main thing would be to make it look festive, which could be achieved pretty easily with the paper tablecloths glued to the boxes. You might want to practice first. You can buy spray adhesive at crafts stores. Just cut the paper to fit the box, spray with adhesive and then glue the paper to the box. To make a decouppage effect you can then brush a light coating of Elmer's glue mixed with water over the paper and let it dry overnight.

Depending on how many tables you plan to have, and how many guests, you can simply put enough paper plates and brunch or lunch items in each box at each table.

To save money on photography, just buy disposable cameras, place them on each table, and let the guests take candid photo shots. Then you can get the film developed and copy only the ones you wish to keep.