A taste of our love story....

A while back, I posted some wedding pictures of me eating (or feeding Warren) "KFC" on our wedding day - and since I have been asked by some indieBerries readers what that was all about - I've decided to share it today! Grab yourself a cuppa - because this post is juicy! (And you will actually need to read it, for it to make sense. lol).




Before I begin this post on our wedding food - I have to give a HUGE massive THANK YOU to Margie - our most awesome caterer from Aubergine. Not only did she completely jump on board with all my crazy ideas (which began with a "build-your-own-pizza-at-your-table!" idea - {which nearly gave my mother a heart attack}), but she was so enthusiastic and awesome to work with. I can definitely recommend her services if you are looking for someone fab to cook you up a FEAST!

(Warr and I sneaking into the kitchen - to thank the kitchen staff on the wedding night!)

Since the food is one of the main "ingredients" (lol) of a wedding, I wanted it to be part of the day rather than the thing you have to sit through in order to get to the drinking and partying. So we decided to come up with a way that guests could enjoy the food throughout the day and be guided through it... so I came up with the idea of:

"A taste of our love story"

Warren and I have had a very different/unique/interesting/up-and-down/long path that finally led us to our marriage and we wanted to share that story with our guests and what better way to do it, than through our food.

As part of our canapés, Margie served a very "South African" array of goodies - cones of biltong, "braai-broodjies" and spicy crumbed chicken (which she put in KFC containers - that my dad managed to source from the KFC head office).

Warren and I met in South Africa, at a Rhodes formal dinner - with a "trailer trash" theme. The night we met - we were served KFC from big family-sized buckets - trailer park style. At this point, our guests had no idea why they were being served (delicious) spiced chicken from mini KFC buckets - but it was the first hint of the "taste of our love story" that they were about to enjoy.

After canapés on the lawn, guests were ushered in and requested to find their seats. Typically expecting a starter to arrive - our guests were surprised (with many ooohs!! and aaaahs! going around) - when the very first trays of food to be served (following the amazing array of canapés outside) were tinned mugs of ice-cream and lemon juice!

If you go back and read the story of how we met - you will realise that Warren seduced tricked me into sampling his "ice-cream and lemon juice" concoction - which is what led to our first kiss. So we decided to serve that first to our guests as a little something different - with a note explaining it's significance (above).  The note also helped guests to make sense of the "KFC" that was served outside. From then, our MC explained that the food of the evening would be part of the love story that developed between Warren and I - and each course would be accompanied by a little note for guests to piece together our story. Serving ice-cream and lemon juice first - definitely made guests sit up and take notice of their food and they were all so excited for the next course to arrive!

Our food was served in between speeches which gave guests time to re-fill their drinks and enjoy the meal (and love story), course by course. The next course of food to arrive were Greek Mezze Platters for the tables - 

With each course, I created a menu that included a "food-story" timeline - so that our guests would know where exactly in "our journey" they were. Each slot on the timeline was revealed only when the course was brought out with the explanation. So that by the time the last course arrived - our guests would have the entire love story and could read it along as it happened chronologically from March 2005 (when we met) right up until our wedding day.

Following the Greek Mezze Platters, guests were each served a deconstructed salmon and cucumber sandwich (the note of which is above). Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of it - but it was delicious!). This course represented the trip I made to London in August 2011 - where we had pimms and cucumber sandwiches overlooking the Thames - swans included. I printed the menus on brown cardstock (which co-ordinated with the Moroccan tones of the decor) and I brushed each menu with copper, bronze and gold paint along the edges - which matched so well with the coppery pots and jugs that formed part of our decor.

Next on the tables was a deliciously lip-smackin' Thai Green Curry. In October 2008, (when I had just moved to South Korea - and Warren was still living in London), we decided to meet up on holiday in Thailand. 

We served the Thai green curry with chopsticks (always fun for guests!) that were tied with personalised wedding ribbon. Attached to the chopsticks was a little note that linked the chopsticks to South Korea - where Warren came to visit me for the weekend (shortly after my trip to London - the one where we decided "it was on!")

The last course to be served was a scrumptious plate of Easter Eggs, brownies and strawberries. Warren proposed to me on the Good Friday of Easter (6 April 2012) and we were married exactly one year later, on the 6th of April 2013. It seemed only fitting that our final course included Strawberries and Easter Eggs - which we also incorporated into our wedding cake.

On the 6th of April 2012, 2583 days after meeting, Warren flew to South Africa to surprise Ché for the Easter Weekend. Ché was completely caught off guard & nearly fell off the balcony when she saw him. That night, exactly one year ago today, Mr Warren Dyer got down on his knee and proposed.

And of course,

She said yes.

Ahhh.... *sigh*

Such good memories!

Once again to the awesome Margie from Aubergine - for putting up with my thousands and billions of papers, strange menu requests and creating such INCREDIBLE gourmet food - our guests absolutely loved it and we cannot thank you enough!

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The story behind the sunglasses - coming soon.

PS. Thank you to all the friends and family whose pictures I have used in this post - our photos are a big jumble so I'm not very clearly able to credit you all - but thank you so much for sending them to us!