10 Wedding Food Trends The Smart Bride (And Groom) Will Avoid

If you're one of the couples who have decided to tie the knot this year, as wedding season approaches, you'll doubtless be spending the next couple of months frantically organizing every last detail of your big day. Planning your wedding can be busy and stressful, with endless big decisions that need to be made, not to mention the pressure in the form of so many questions from friends, family, and suppliers. We're here to help you avoid being the clichéd couple this wedding season by collecting together this year's wedding food trends that you really need to avoid.

Starting your wedding reception with waiters handing around mini appetizers served alongside a coordinated mini cocktail may sound like fun, but it's not. It's really stressful, it's too much to keep up with all the different drinks and foods, and it requires far too much concentration. Allow your guests to have one drink of their choice and something to nibble on, and to be able to carry on having a normal conversation and enjoy the party, rather than having to permanently focus on how well this craft cocktail matches that Italian arancini.

We love cupcakes as much as the next person, but we really don't want to see another tower of cupcakes replacing a wedding cake this year. All those pastel colored buttercream-topped cupcakes are more suitable for a 12-year-old's birthday party than your wedding. We recommend you consider returning to a traditional wedding cake, or skip the cake altogether and go for the newest wedding trend we love: the dessert bar.       

Just because you've got married, doesn't mean you now necessarily love each other's favorite drink. But that is not necessary information to share with your guests. Naming one drink 'his' and one drink 'hers' is an irritating habit, and the guests don't want to choose between each of you, they just want a drink. Select a drink you're both happy with, and if you can't decide, serve two, but just don't put Mr. and Mrs. on each one. There's enough Mr. and Mrs. memorabilia around already — leave the cocktails out of it.

If we see another mason jar at a wedding we will scream. These were cute and country-chic several years ago, but now they're overused, inelegant, and clichéd. We would give a lot to be served our cocktails in a real cocktail glass and not a mason jar at every future wedding.

Champagne served in miniature bottles, so everyone has their own individual bottle to sip on is fun for a bachelorette party, but don't use it at your wedding. It's too cutesy and childish, and we'd just really rather feel like grown-ups and have our Champagne poured into a glass from a normal size bottle, than like children sipping on a carton of fruit juice.

Mini mac and cheese, mini hot dogs, mini soft pretzels, mini cupcakes, mini macarons... Can we swap the mini food with some normal, human-size food please? We're getting hungry and are bored of everything being made for dolls and not human beings.

Don't become that clichéd Pinterest couple who swaps the traditional white-iced wedding cake for a 'natural looking' naked cake. With no icing on the edges, tiered sponge cakes filled with cream and berries, and adorned with more berries and some fresh flowers may look bohemian, but everybody else will be doing exactly the same as you, so it really won't be hip or alternative at all.

Chairs were invented for a reason. We'd like every bride and groom who is thinking of swapping tables and chairs for low tables and cushions on the floor to remember this. We don't think the grandparents will be thrilled when they learn they have to somehow make it onto the ground either. Crawling down on to the floor and having to be heaved back up by the stranger sitting next to you is not exactly what your guests were hoping for from an elegant wedding.

Whether you were thinking of using them for cocktails, soft drinks, or water, please resist buying boxes of those striped paper straws. Yes they're bright and colorful, and make your wedding look more relaxed and fun, but, firstly, we don't need them, and secondly, they go so damp and soggy after a minute or two of being in the drink that we have to throw them away and drink straight from the mason jar anyway.

Adding the word 'truffle' to every dish you're serving at your wedding will definitely sound impressive to your guests, and will make them believe that you're serving a truly extravagant meal. However, when they realize than in actual fact all you've done is asked the caterers to douse everything in overwhelmingly pungent truffle oil, they'll be far less pleased. We'd rather have a delicious truffle-free meal, than one which is entirely tainted by the scent and taste of artificial truffles, in your attempt to make your wedding dinner sound and taste more opulent than it really is.