Guest Appeal

When you first get engaged, logistically you assume that the wedding is all about you. However in reality, once you’re a little further into your planning, you discover it’s 60/40 all about your guests and the further we got into our planning, the more we realised! Suddenly you’re worried about them being hungry, bored, overwhelmed-you name it.

In hindsight, there really weren’t any major problems for us and our guests had the most wonderful day (we’re still hearing about it now) but at the time it seemed all we did was worry about everyone being happy.

It’s very important that you don’t lose sight of what is essentially “you”. Yes, you need to consider the best options for everyone but do it in your own way, bring out your personalities. For a start, we had several vegans and vegetarians to cater for-something our venue hadn’t really had to tackle before which we found surprising. To make things easier, we ended up designing our own menu based on Italian cuisine (we are big lovers of Italian culture) and had them make a vegetable and lentil lasagne with roasted summer vegetables. Luckily, this went down a treat and I was so pleased to see my new family happily tucking into their food. I think I got a kick out of seeing my mother-in-law who is normally such a worrier totally relaxed and enjoying the vegan fare.

If you’re on a budget and worry about giving your guests enough to eat, choose a pasta dish and you really can’t go wrong. Here’s the recipe for the Vegan Lasagne-you’ll need to convert the measurements to US but it’s rather scrummy!

Filling
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
2 sticks celery, chopped
3 medium carrots, chopped
1 red and 1 green pepper, chopped
10 pitted black olives, chopped
1 tin chopped tomatoes
250g/9oz brown lentils
2 tbsp tomato purée
1 bay leaf
sprig thyme
salt and pepper to taste
sheets ready-made egg-free durum wheat lasagne

Sauce
750ml/1½ pints soya milk
½ onion studded with bay leaf and cloves
55g/2oz soya margarine
55g/2oz flour
grated nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Method
1. Preheat oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
For the sauce, put the studded onion into a pan with soya milk. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes on low to flavour and infuse the milk. Set aside.
2. Heat oil, add onion, garlic, celery, carrots, peppers and soften.
3. When vegetables are soft, add lentils, tomatoes, tomato purée, olives and herbs. Add enough water just to cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until lentils are cooked (the mixture should be a little sloppy still).
4. In another pan make sauce. Melt soya margarine, add flour, cook for 1-2 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually add flavoured soya milk. Put back on the stove and stir until thickened and glossy. Season well.
5. Use a large ovenproof shallow dish. Put into the bottom some lentil mixture (remove the bay leaf), then pasta sheets, then sauce. Repeat finishing with the sauce.
6. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until bubbling and brown.
7. Serve with grated parmesan cheese on the side for vegetarians.

As a very relaxed couple with very laid back friends and family, a structured and traditional celebration just wasn’t an option for us. It was key that our guests were made to feel comfortable, as though they were at home or kicking back in their garden so after the meal we left the evening very unstructured, giving everyone the time to wander round the gardens with a drink or two and us the time to disappear on our own for some time out.

Evening entertainment took the form of a funk/soul band, put together by a very close friend of mine, Vula Malinga, who is part of a UK House act called Basement Jaxx. Having known each other for quite some time, she knew exactly the type of atmosphere we loved so the music reflected this. Part way through their second set, Mr Riley got up to play bass (he’s a musician) and they even had me up singing ‘Brown Skin’ by India Irie which hubby had dedicated to me. Awww!!

So in the words of Basement Jaxx “Do Your Thing” and have a great time. Your guests will be happy as long as you are!

* all professional photos credit to Matt Faber