Our Gluten-Free Wedding

I discovered that I had celiac disease six short months before our wedding. I did not want to worry about what I could and could not eat on the big day, so we tailored our plans to accommodate my new diet, and were very impressed with the result. The best advice that I can offer is to find vendors that you trust. It took so much of the pressure off of us because we didn’t have to be around to make all of the little decisions. We expressed to them what we wanted and made certain that they understood my dietary restriction, and then we left it to them to make it happen.

Hors d’Oeuvres

We had a cocktail hour between the wedding ceremony and reception in a gallery space above the reception area. We served spiced nuts, cheese plates, and olives along with the drinks. Everything was gluten free, and I think everyone was grateful to have something to do while waiting for the wedding party to return from our photo session.

Dinner

We spent two weeks in Barcelona together one summer and fell in love with tapas style dining. We wanted to incorporate that theme into our wedding reception, so we decided to have a very small reception with eight courses of small plates. The brilliant chef responsible for pulling this off was able to plan all eight courses to be entirely gluten free so that I could eat everything, and he never questioned my desire to make the whole meal gluten free, but certainly others did. However, I firmly believed that I shouldn’t have to compromise simply because of my allergy, and I think that everyone was impressed by the quality of the gluten-free fare. The meal certainly didn’t taste like we were on a “restricted diet,” and in retrospect, it turned out to be a terrific opportunity to spread awareness of celiac disease and educate my friends and relatives about how terrific gluten free dining can be. I think a lot of times people assume that I will have to eat something separate from what everyone else is eating, but I believe that this experience showed that there are plenty of tasty things that I can eat, and that gluten-free dining is also actually very healthful.

Drinks

In accordance with our Spanish-inspired cuisine, we opted to have a Spanish rioja (red wine) and cava (sparkling white wine). We also had beer and soda for those who dislike wine, but with the exception of the kids, it seemed like everyone drank the wine. It probably helped that the servers walked around pouring wine throughout the entire eight-course meal, which lasted about three hours. Of course, wine is gluten free, and it worked so perfectly with the food that it was really a great way to produce a naturally gluten-free dinner without feeling as though I was missing out on anything.

The Cake

I’m sure that the cake is the most anxiety provoking aspect of wedding planning for those with celiac disease. Luckily, I had decided on having a different cake or dessert for each table before discovering my celiac disease. Although this might sound like a pretty significant compromise, it relieved the pressure of finding a big gluten-free wedding cake, and it turned out to be one of the best parts of the reception. In addition, a huge wedding cake is ridiculously more expensive than having a cake on each table, and we didn’t need to worry about centerpieces because the desserts looked beautiful when placed on the center of each table. The desserts were colorful and gorgeous (see photos), and only the cake on my table needed to be gluten free. So, while the head table had a delicious flourless chocolate cake, others had a variety of other cakes, cupcakes, tarts, and cheesecakes. In fact, it turned into sort of a free for all at the end when everyone got up and started bartering for the chocolate mousse cups and triple chocolate cheesecake in exchange for the lemon blueberry tart and red velvet cupcakes. What a riot!