wedding-something: a phiLOVEdelphia story: Savory and Sweet

In the midst of all the dancing and talking, we managed to find some time to feed our guests.

Now, where we have no professional photos of our yummy appetizers at cocktail hour, the Gabes were kind enough to capture dinner and dessert. Commence drooling...

All photos are by Philip Gabriel Photography unless otherwise noted.

For their first course, all of our guests received what Best Man / Brother M affectionately called a "hockey puck".

Mmmm "hockey puck"

Outside of our new family inside joke, this dish is called a pithvier - a savory artichoke pithivier with green peppercorn sauce and fried leeks, to be exact. During our tasting, we struggled to choose a first course, also tasting a vegetable beggars pouch and a celery soup.

Ultimately, it came down to the delicious sauce. Mr. Turkey and I were very excited to enjoy this dish again our wedding day. Yes, you heard me right. We ATE on our wedding day (I shared a picture before).

We drank too...signature cocktail of vodka lemonade with muddled blueberries

However, Mr. Turkey and I chose to eat quickly because, despite spending time at our cocktail hour, we made it our goal to visit every table by the end of our wedding.

Catching up with some former coworkers

I'm happy to report that, though we questioned our ability near the end, we visited with each and every one of the 18 tables throughout the three courses. By greeting during the meal, it ensured that people were at the table.

Some guests even brought out the ugly laugh face with a joke!

The second course was a salad and, during our tasting, it was a near no brainer.

So.much.delicious.cheese.

The salad we chose had some of Mr. Turkey and my favorite things - arugula, beets, pine nuts and, um, cheese. It was a baby arugula salad, roasted golden beets, shaved Manchego cheese, and toasted pine nuts dressed in a honey balsamic vinaigrette.

Now, here's a confession from a Type A bride...the original pithvier had arugula in it and I worried about having the same ingredient in the first two courses. The Rittenhouse so kindly adjusted the recipe of our first course since we just could not say no to the salad.

No double arugula on the menu...I felt better (personal photo)

Despite the slower tempo during the actual courses (dancing between), Jellyroll did not take a break. From serenading family members during the salad course,

to playing slow songs,

they kept the crowd entertained.

The final seated course of the evening was the entree. We chose to do table-side ordering for the meal, meaning that guests could have their choice of a meat, fish or vegetarian option. We also had gluten-free offerings for the guests who had that dietary restriction and also a super secret chicken dish...but that's a whole other story.

Table-side was very important to Turkey Dad, especially when it came to the meat...he's a "well done" kind of guy (we're talking burnt), so he wanted every guest to be able to choose the temperature of their steak. This was part of the reason we chose the schedule we did for the evening - the kitchen needed time to prepare!

Above we have photos of the two main entree options. On the left: sautéed farm raised Red Snapper fillet, truffle charred leeks, and roasted tomato risotto with a mustard white wine emulsion. On the right: seared Filet Mignon of beef, charred asparagus, Potato Lyonnaise and roasted beef jus.

Mr. Turkey and I opted to order one of each - both were quite tasty! During our tasting, Turkey Dad almost considered ordering the Red Snapper...and he doesn't really like fish. I think it was the delicious tomato risotto that almost reigned him in.

After Mr. Turkey and I finished dinner, along with visiting the tables, I had a chance for a dance and photo with my grandfather. If you recall, we didn't have a chance to do additional family pictures at the church.

Now I'm not going to just tickle your savory taste buds here...the post title does say "sweet", after all!

The Rittenhouse's pasty chef prepared for us a delicious three tier wedding cake of red velvet with cream cheese filling and white buttercream frosting. Oh, and flowers that matched my dress!

We chose not to make a "big deal" of our cake cutting, instead opting to cut during some of the dancing.

Using our Kate Spade Darling Point knife

Neither one of us were very good at the "feeding" part (despite our super cute forks)

Early on, I discussed Mr. Turkey's and my love of mini foods. Besides the mini cocktail appetizers (fancy franks, mac and cheese, etc.), we went CRAZY with the mini desserts. Our guests were treated to an array of sweet treats, delivered right to the dance floor - both butlered and on carts.

What you see above, from top left (clockwise):

Mini PB&J chocolate cups
Trio of chocolate mousse shooters
Red velvet wedding cake
Mini sorbet cones
Mini ice cream cookie sandwiches
Key lime tartlets

There were so many delicious choices, many of the guests' plates looked like this...

And most enjoyed some form of dessert on the dance floor as well. I can neither confirm nor deny that I ate two ice cream cookie sandwiches and three sorbet cones.

What are you feeding your guests? Married Bees - please tell me you ate on your wedding day!!