Yes, we go to weddings to watch our friends, family members, or former roommates marry their respective soul mates. But we stay for the wedding foods. After all, weddings provide opportunities to get fancy feasts for free (or for the cost of the gift, outfit, travel, and accommodation).
We get to indulge in canapés, cocktails, and the inevitable chicken without worrying about the bill. The couple, however, probably forks over a lot of dough. According to a study by wedding website The Knot, the average cost for wedding catering in 2017 was $6,528 (an average of $70 per head.) And that’s probably why so many people choose to play it safe with chicken, pasta, overcooked vegetables, and the ever-present three-tired sponge cake for dessert.
Yet every now and then, you meet a pair of mavericks who aren’t prepared to settle for the boring buffet or tepid table service. And by wandering off the beaten path, that couple ensures that their wedding stands out. Sometimes, though, those wedding foods stand out for the wrong reasons. Here are some couples who tried to serve something fun, fresh, and occasionally freaky for their big day with mixed results. Hold on to your oversized wedding hats…
When Oscar-nominated actress and producer Margot Robbie married Brit Tom Ackerley in her native Australia in 2016, the hay bale seats and the bridesmaids’ bare feet weren’t the only signs the wedding would be low key and lively. According to Australian news outlet the Northern Star, the wedding meal included pizza and barbecue.
Set up near the dance floor, the dessert station came equipped with bowls, milk, and cream. Pass us a spoon, we’re here for this one.
When country music star Miranda Lambert married her first husband, Blake Shelton, in 2011, her pre-wedding prep included hunting dinner for their guests. People magazine reported that she tweeted a photo of a bag of deer cutlets, claiming the bag was the last item necessary for the ceremony. The couple divorced in 2015, and when Lambert married police officer Brendan McLoughlin in February 2019, she kept the details private. We wonder if Lambert served deer the second time around.
At Mary-Kate Olsen’s 2015 wedding to French banker Olivier Sarkozy, another feature of the party overpowered the food. According to Page Six, the famous twin held her reception in a private New York residence and made sure bowls of cigarettes, not candy, decorated the tables.
Anyone looking to escape the smoky atmosphere couldn’t even scroll through their phones because Olsen and her beau asked everyone to turn over their phones at the beginning of the night.
If you’re a bride, you can make sure all eyes are on you by having two versions of yourself at your ceremony. Just make sure your wedding cake is a life-size replica of you. In 2008, married couple Chidi and Innocence Ogbuta renewed their vows after 10 years of marriage. To wrap up their event, the couple served guests pieces slices of a five-foot cake.
The dessert looked just like Chidi. And in 2015, great British baker Lara Mason surprised her husband, Nick, with a similar cake. It looked just like the two of them.
More recently, Mason made headlines with another life-size married couple cake.
In this case, the food choice isn’t completely bizarre. However, chefs served a super ordinary food at one of the most talked-about weddings of the 21st century! When Britain’s Prince Harry married American Meghan Markle, on May 19, 2018, everyone fell in love. The couple’s romance inspired two nations. And the down-to-earth Duchess and her groom taught the royals a thing or two about throwing a wedding.
After a formal reception hosted by the groom’s grandmother (you know, the Queen of England) at Windsor Castle, the newlyweds took 200 of their closest friends to a private disco at Frogmore Hall. The menu combined American favorites like grilled cheese, tacos, and ice cream, with classic British bacon and sausage sarnies (that’s sandwiches). Everyone ate after 1 AM at the Duke’s request. Just when you think can’t love Megan and Harry any more…
Some people just aren’t big on desserts. And accordingly, when those people marry they tend to buck tradition. In fact, when Jess Melara and Tony Sanchez married in December 2016, they really surprised their guests. The couple served four tiers of wedding pizza tower instead of a cake. They topped it with a tiny bride and groom. According to Melara, “It was saucy and delicious and what pizza dreams are made of.” Forget sweet dreams; we want savory, cheesy, pizza dreams.
And if you don’t like pizza or cake, how about cheeseburgers? This photo of a bride and groom cutting into a tower of tiered burgers had a viral moment. And it inspired envy and future wedding plans.
Other burger fans who aren’t quite ready to go full burger cake at their weddings found a way to hack the system. They created a dish that looks like a burger but tastes like a cake.
We’d definitely try it.
The cake isn’t the only part of the wedding you can change up to suit your style. Actress Sophie Turner and singer Joe Jonas exchanged vows during a surprise Las Vegas ceremony. Of course, an Elvis impersonator and celebrity DJ Diplo attended the May 1, 2019 event. Interestingly, though, the couple didn’t bring real rings.
These alternative bands were probably temporary since Jonas planned to have another, fancier wedding. However, we still appreciate a couple that keeps things playful. And we’re not alone:
Another celebrity determined to do his wedding in his own special way was iconic actor Humphrey Bogart. On May 21, 1945, he and his fourth wife, actress Lauren Bacall, married in the hallway of an Ohio farm. At 20 years old, Bacall was 24 years younger than Bogart. And according to Entertainment Weekly, he joked he was her “something old” while preparing for their vows with a martini.
And after the couple kissed, he could only manage to say, “Hello baby.” Aw. The couple stayed married for 12 years until Bogart’s death in 1957.
This couple goes together like a burger and a bun. Joel Burger and Ashley King (get it?) reached out to their namesake fast food company for permission to use the BK logo on their wedding invites. But Burger King did them one better. The fast-food chain not only paid for the couple’s wedding, it also provided some free swag, including Burger King cufflinks, socks, t-shirts, and, of course, the signature gold paper crowns.
Another couple, Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd and Sandi Howard celebrated every one of their wedding anniversaries at Burger King since marrying in 1968. Maybe Joel and Ashley can do the same!
Of course, McDonald’s wouldn’t let their (ahem) arch rivals get all the wedding glory. So now, couples can host their ceremonies at McDonald’s, as long as they’re in Hong Kong. According to CNBC, the demand for McDonald’s weddings was so high there, the company created a wedding party program in 15 Hong Kong locations in 2014.
The Mickey D’s wedding prices range from HK$2,888 (US $373) to HK$9,999 (US $1,290), making them a bargain compared to the average U.S. wedding caterer. And the deluxe package reportedly includes the venue rental for two hours, an emcee, decorations, a bridal bouquet, an apple pie cake display. Plus they get a Crystal McDonald’s house, 50 gifts, and a balloon wedding hat for the groom, among other goodies. Can we get fries with that?
Prince Harry wasn’t the only one to offer wedding guests a little midnight pick-me-up to keep the party going. And since Scott Sheely and Katherine Santa Cruz call Atlanta, GA, home, they did their wedding foods Southern-style. When the two first started dating, they bonded over their shared devotion to Southern breakfast chain Waffle House. Their shared favorite order was the All-Star Special. And they even liked their eggs served the same way – scrambled with cheese.
And they hired the Waffle House food truck to roll up to the party after the band finished playing. “When he told me he was in love with Waffle House, I knew he was the guy for me,” the new Mrs. Sheely mentioned, proving there is such thing as love at first waffle.
It’s not just regular people who like to celebrate weddings with fried food. When pop icon Britney Spears married Kevin Federline on September 18, 2004, they kept the wedding so secret that the 27 guests who attended thought they were going to an engagement party.
Reports suggested Spears and Federline initially planned for a larger event, but too much paparazzi attention convinced them to go lowkey. After the ceremony, Louisiana-raised Spears stuck to her Southern roots, serving her guests chicken fingers, crab cakes, ribs, and mashed potatoes. Then the newlyweds and the wedding party changed into matching sweatsuits and went out dancing. The couple split in 2006, but they still co-parent their sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James.
Not everyone who opts for wedding day burgers keeps things simple. When actress Kaley Cuoco married her second husband, Karl Cook, in July 2018, the couple chose to stay home. And they held the ceremony and reception on the groom’s farm in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. Their version of comfort food came with a fancy twist, though.
Guests could make their own burgers with toppings like bacon, caramelized onions, guacamole, pickled carrots, broccolini, homemade ketchup, tarragon mustard, and garlic aioli. Food services provide a wide selection of cheeses with waffle fries and sweet potato fries on the side. It’s like comfort food got all dressed up in its wedding clothes, and we love it.
One pop princess went the opposite of lowkey. Posh Spice (AKA Victoria) and soccer player David Beckham married on July 4, 1999, in an actual castle, complete with gold thrones. Mrs. Beckham finished off the royal theme with a gold tiara, because why not? The three-tiered wedding cake, which they cut with a sword, appeared to be decorated with apples and leaves. And a naked sculpture of the newlyweds graced the top of the dessert.
Actors Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard got engaged in 2009 but decided they wouldn’t actually get married until gay marriage was legal nationwide. A few months after the Supreme Court ruled against the Defense of Marriage Act in June 2013, effectively making same-sex marriage legal the United States, Bell and Shepard drove to the Beverly Hills courthouse.
During an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Shepard estimated the wedding cost about $142. But there was one tradition the couple did adhere to. Shepard told Kimmel, “Friends of ours came to the courthouse, and it was just Kristen and I at this lonely courthouse, so they brought us this cake afterward. World’s Worst Wedding!”
Fast food restaurants weren’t alone in celebrating marital bliss. In 2012, Eva McCarthy and Carmine Capparello married in a Starbucks in Tulsa, OK. Apparently, they wanted to tie the knot in the same place they fell in love. Capparello admitted he didn’t even love coffee but he visited Starbucks so much to see more of McCarthy! To commemorate that, the wedding guests traded out the usual champagne toast with a coffee one.
In 2015, the hashtag #StarbucksWeddings had a brief viral moment; tons of people ventured to the coffee house on their own big days. And they probably had some energetic first dances…
Robert and Meredith Bonilla also picked a weird-but-wonderful wedding location based on their personal love story. The couple met in the frozen food aisle at their local Costco in Santa Maria, CA, in 2013. And a year later they married in the exact same spot. The couple got special permission from the company and wed after the store closed for the night.
But we do know that instead of waiting at an altar, Mr. Bonilla stood on top of wooden pallets to meet his bride. Who knew frozen food could be so heartwarming?
If you think you might be a bit in love with bacon, this couple’s wedding will make you drool. In 2013, Adrienne Dunvan and Eddie Quinones won a competition that let them have their special day at the Big Bite Bacon Festival in San Diego, CA. The bouquet was made from bacon, and the groom wore bacon in his lapel. Instead of confetti, guests threw rice, just kidding, obviously, they threw bacon! And according to Sweet Cheeks Baking Co., the cake they made had hints of vanilla bean soaked in a smoky honey syrup.
The couple also won a honeymoon to Baltimore, MD, and attended the city’s annual Pigtown Festival. The year after Dunvan and Quinone made headlines, another lucky couple, Ryan Peters and Rachel Elkin, had their own Big Bite Bacon Festival wedding (that’s them in the photo.) Getting ideas yet?
Tuna pizza and frozen Yorkshire puddings met with disgust by wedding guests https://t.co/bEWwC3Gzip pic.twitter.com/gSj8Le2jZx
— The Mirror (@DailyMirror) June 7, 2019
No one throws shade like the Brits, and there was so much shade at this wedding dinner that you could be forgiven for thinking an eclipse was taking place. And perplexed guests gleefully documented every moment. The reception meal started out with dry Yorkshire puddings (think crispy batter, usually served with meat gravy at roast dinner) and proceeded to get worse.
The chicken looked okay, but it came with what appeared to be runner beans stuffed through the center of a slice of zucchini. And the fish option consisted of pizza topped with dry canned tuna. They served that with a side of cold baked beans and chunky French fries!
Another Southern star with roots to country music went in a totally different direction menu-wise. Tennessee-born singer and actress Miley Cyrus married Australian actor Liam Hemsworth at a secret wedding on December 23, 2018, at their house in Nashville. And while the bride took a keen interest in the food, she made sure no animals suffered for her meal.
Two months after their wedding, the singer told E! that all she cared about was making sure the caterers served vegan chicken and dumplings. She said, “I would do anything for dumplings. You could add nothing else. I didn’t even need a dress. I was trying to wear leggings and a hoodie. I just wanted dumplings, that’s all.” In addition to vegan dumplings, the couple reportedly served vegan versions of truffle mac and cheese, fried chicken, and biscuits with apple butter. And Cyrus got to cut the buffet line: according to her Instagram, that was the best perk of being the bride.
While they’ve since split, we’re pretty confident it had nothing to do with their first meal as husband and wife.
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