Gluten Free and Getting Married!

After having attended over seven weddings in the last two years, I get to have one of my own! I'm getting married at the Willowdale Estate in Topsfield, Mass next April. 

Willowdale Estate
Image from willowdaleestate.com

One of the most important things for me is having the majority of my wedding gluten free. I've been to so many weddings where the coordinator for the wedding has told the bride that they "handle gluten free all the time" only to be underwhelmed and underfed. The ladies I've been working with at the Willowdale Estate have been incredibly accommodating of my food requests and have even put gluten free terms into my soon to arrive catering contract. There are varying levels of gluten free that you can have there:

1) The entire menu is gluten free

2) Part of the menu is gluten free

3) Only the people who need it get gluten free

I chose to go with option 2. All of our main dishes, sides and deserts are gluten free. Since my groom and I don't eat it, we've opted to trade the Konditor Meister cake that comes with our package for a make your own sundae bar, (for a small extra fee). So worth it. The only gluten present at our wedding will be in the form of "obvious gluten items", (aka bread... crackers... flour tortillas etc.) In my mind, this will make it easier for servers and make me feel me secure in what I'm eating. Our menu is going to be Mexican inspired since that's our favorite kind of food. I look forward to trying all our dinner entrées at the tasting! I'll keep you posted on how the menu progresses.

Some wedding venues that I've been to recently that have gotten gluten free right or at least mostly right.

The Publick House

The Publick House

Sturbridge, Mass

I was recently a bride's maid in a wedding here. Both the reception and the rehearsal dinner were held here. That meant two dinners and at least one breakfast. For the rehearsal dinner they gave me baked chicken with roasted vegetables and a flourless chocolate cake for desert. For the ceremony I had really delicious salmon with roasted vegetables and the flourless chocolate cake. In place of the salad, (caesar salad), I had a fruit cup. Overall the experience was pretty good. The food I was served looked and in my opinion, probably tasted a lot better than what everyone else was eating and it was sans gluten. Win! The only downside was that I had to wait an extra 30 minutes for my food at the rehearsal dinner. A small price to pay for decent tasting gluten free food. 

NOTE: The Publick House is also a great restaurant with a rather thorough and tasty gluten free menu! I may have to head back west just to try it out.

Leicester Country Club
(Image From www.worcester-wedding.com)

Leicester Country Club

Leicester, Mass

I went to a wedding here back in the fall. The food situation at the wedding itself was pretty dicey. They had told the bride that they could make either the chicken or the beef gluten free. When I told the server that I had gluten free chicken they seemed confused. Apparently, only the beef was available. I do eat beef, but at the time m very crabby stomach just couldn't handle it. I wound up having to wait almost an hour for them to bring me plain grilled chicken with cold vegetables and no desert... not awesome.

Not too long after the wedding, for the bride's birthday, we went back there for mystery dinner theater. The food that time was perfect. On time, just as good as everyone else's and plentiful! I was really impressed. I'm not sure what the snafu was at the wedding, but they knocked it out of the park the second time.