There are innumerable details involved in planning one’s nuptials, but few are as important as the wedding feast. Anyone who is Portuguese like my fiance and I understands the central importance of food to any celebration or major social event in our culture. When we first starting planning our wedding nearly two years ago, Rich and I decided that a major part of our attention and the majority of our budget would be directed toward the food and alcohol. Without adequate victuals or libations, we would, quite literally, never hear the end of it. My mother and father still sniff disdainfully when recalling so-and-so’s wedding in 1976, where the food was so bad and paltry and left them so famished that they actually had to stop at that vile den of culinary purgatory, McDonald’s, on the way home. Would they have fainted from malnurishment and crashed the car had they not paused for greasy fries and fountain drinks? I don’t know, but that’s how the story goes, and they’ll tell it in perpetuity.
