I know that most every bride will claim that her wedding was the perfect day... well, our wedding really was the perfect day. October 9, 2011 came at the tail end of one of the most glorious Indian summers that Wisconsin has ever seen. It was a warm, golden sunny day of bright fall colors and deep blue skies. I could wax poetic for a long time, but I'll spare you. Just look through these pictures and you'll understand.
Many thanks go to Stephanie Rickets to agreed to come take these pictures of the food. She has a blog of her own, My Year of Food, which you really should visit. Her photos puts mine to shame, and I bet some day she'll be a famous food photographer.
I always call this first course "The Appetizers" mostly because I can't spell that other word no matter how I try. Anyhow, it came after our wedding ceremony and before dinner and although I myself didn't get any (too busy taking photographs and greeting our guests) I'm sure they were delicious.
There were Baguettes from The Batch Bakehouse (where else?) along with an assortment of the finest Wisconsin cheeses, dry cured meats, fall fruits, and my homemade pickles.
Old School Salami from Bolzano Meats in Milwaukee
Parker Pears from Ela Orchard and Harrow's Sweet from Healthy Ridge in Door County
My favorite apple of the season: Liberty from Ela Orchard. It's a sophisticated apple - rich and spicy sweet.
My homemade dilly beans, bread and butter pickles, and pickled beets.
There's a surprising lack of good charcuterie in this state... this is what I could find: Pepperoni from Underground Kitchen, Old School Salami from Bolzano, and good old fashioned summer sausage from Pecatonica.
The cheese. Dreamfarm chevre, Widmer's 6 year cheddar, and the best string cheese on earth (really, it is the best string cheese on earth): Cesar's Oaxacan Style String Cheese.
This is Wisconsin - just one cheese platter would never suffice. Here we've got Carr Valley Apple Smoked Cheddar, Hidden Springs Bohemian Blue, Shepherd's Ridge Oliver's Reserve, and Holland's Family Cheese Aged Marieke Gouda. Beautiful artisan cheeses.
My little brother brewed up a batch of Oktoberfest just for the occasion, which we sipped along with dry (Brut) and sweet (Appely Doux) champagne style hard cider from Aeppeltreow Cidery. This being such a local event, I couldn't buy wine from California! The sparkling cider is just fabulous.
For the non drinkers there was regular cider from Green Thumb....
along with Stanley's own home brewed iced tea.
These pictures turned out so lovely, I can't help but share.
Many of the decorations came from the Tri County Auction - a wholesale produce auction run by the Amish. Beautiful mums, squashes, and decorative corn.
Time to set the stage for dinner. The tables were graced with swan gourds, also from the produce auction, which my oh-so-talented bridesmaids painted table numbers on.
Every place setting came with a half pint jar of preserves: jams, pickles, dried tomatoes. I made over 100 of these little guys.
We also screen-printed a bib for each guest.
Yes, that's me and my hubby. Walking down to dinner.
and what a feast it was! The food was prepared by Jeff of Papa Bear's BBQ in Madison. He did an incredible job.
Coleslaw with my homegrown cabbage.
Garlic roasted potatoes from the Main Street garden,
My beans got eaten by a lucky garden rabbit - these came from Flyte Family Farm.
Collards from our side yard. These were incredible - probably my favorite part of the whole meal.
The pork - from a lush pasture at The Rustic Table in Northern Wisconsin to our wedding feast in just three days. It doesn't get better than this.
We also had chicken from The Rustic Table.
The Corn Bread was amazing. It ended up being a mixture of our our homegrown corn and also some from Wild Goose Farm (a tiny farm that I work with at the Co-op), ground by my brother Dave. It also used local whole wheat flour, and eggs. Hearty, flavorful, rich, and dense.
It was all paired with more hard cider from Aeppeltreow - their Barn Swallow Draft Cider.
Going through the buffet line.
My plate.
Stanley's plate.
The cake. Winter Luxury Pumpkin cake with whipped cream frosting. Not my pumpkins - they were still a few weeks from ripe when the wedding date arrived. The pumpkins came instead from Blue Skies Farm.
The cake was made by Mary from Honey Bee Bakery. So beautiful. This wasn't one of those pretty wedding cakes that tastes like cardboard... it was moist and perfectly pumpkiny. The perfect finale to the perfect wedding day.
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