Food & Beverage Web Extra - More F&B Directors Weigh In On The Latest Wedding Trends

By Karyn Strauss, Senior Editor -- HOTELS Magazine, 2/1/2007

Weddings are big business for hotels, and savvy food and beverage directors and catering managers are looking for new ways to entice couples to celebrate at their proper-ties. The key today, they say, is personalization. It's about going above and beyond the expected to bring something new to the table. Below are some of the latest trends and tips operators shared with HOTELS. It's all about the little details that can set an event apart.

Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort:

• A la carte private dining menus customized for each wedding

• Tableside service for small wedding parties using the same fine china, glassware and silverware as used in the signature restaurant

• Customized glass plates and personalized place cards

• Smaller version of the wedding cake for when couples return to celebrate their anniversary

Omni La Mansion del Rio Hotel, San Antonio:

• Innovative and interactive serving methods like an on-site, trained ice carver. Not only does he carve the ice into distinctive forms, the ice then turns into the serving platter

• Creative food stations, including ceviche stations, ri-sotto stations, even crab cake and moo shoo chicken sta-tions

• Leveraging its Texas locale, barbecue is a popular menu trend, as are tequila bars

Hilton Nagoya, Japan:

• A French and Japanese mixed menu is still popular, but the trend is shifting more toward an "at home" ambi-ence than a formal one. It's about more fun for the guest

• Chocolate fountains-which are new to the region-are being promoted for wedding receptions

Waldorf=Astoria, New York City:

• Use fun food and recognizable foods along with foods that may be a culinary stretch

• Seasonally appropriate reception foods that have a twist: hot soups in demitasse cups during the winter; oyster or crevice shots in the summer

• Fun comfort foods presented in different and fun ways like paper funnels of crispy fried fingerling potatoes; purple tortilla chips with smoked salmon mousse; spicy mango, tomato and cilantro salsa on endive spears; miniature two-bite turkey sandwiches with hazelnut mayonnaise

• Use edible spoons and straws whenever possible

• Dinners tend to have less courses and more choices: Keep it to three courses and the first course may be a sam-pling of three different items

• Tapas appetizers are popular now

• Bringing in outside specialty items such as Dylan's Candy Bar to provide a candy wall filled with 50 types of individual candies to be used as goody bags for the guests upon their departure

• The after party could not be complete today without the presence of a Chocolate Fountain

• Special beverages are de rigueur with specific cocktails named after the bride and groom