Diane Gordon Catering Serves Up Sustainable, Personal Luxury at Weddings
If we can give brides and grooms any wedding advice, it would be this: follow your heart. Your wedding should reflect the kind of people you are, and the values you have.
Diane Gordon got married in April of 2020, and planning her own wedding in the middle of a pandemic was an intense, but in the end, wonderful experience. It reminded her why she got into the business of catering in the first place: to bring people together, and to create events that delve deeper than the palate.
A major life event, like a wedding, should be a reflection of how you want to—and have—lived your life. And while weddings this year may be and look a little different due to ongoing challenges from the pandemic, we believe that this is not something to shy away from, but to instead embrace. Read on for ways we can work together to create more intentional, personal and deeply meaningful weddings.
Spotlight on Sustainability
Your wedding should be an incredible day dedicated to love and family. But in recent years, many of our clients have become increasingly concerned about the excess and waste that can be involved. Thankfully, planning a green wedding is getting much easier, and we are very mindful of waste here at Diane Gordon Catering.
Diane loves working with local food vendors and farmers in the Hudson Valley and has been focused on creating seasonal menus with local produce, meat and dairy for years. She also has extensive relationships with venues and vendors who can provide sustainably sourced flowers, invitations, décor, flatware and more!
Honoring Heritage
One of the best parts of living in New York City is working with clients from all over the world and learning about many diverse cultures. Diane loves to plan weddings that honor her clients’ backgrounds. Diane Gordon Catering can create custom menu items, cocktails and desserts that feature favorite dishes and drinks. One of Diane’s favorite projects was developing a menu that combined dishes from the bride’s Cuban heritage and the groom’s Scottish ancestry.
Sometimes, a couple also may want to showcase a place they lived together, or a favorite food-centric trip they took through dishes, drinks and décor from that country or city.
Custom-Made Everything
Diane wants everything about your wedding to feel special. Many clients are finding ways to create weddings with Diane that are smaller and more intimate in scale, but enormous in impact.
The micro-wedding trend of having 50 or fewer guests allows for an intimate experience, sometimes at traditional venues (The Pratt Mansion, The Museum of the City of New York and The New Public Library) or contemporary spaces (The Foundry, 74 Wythe, Bohemian Benevolent). Elegant multi-course meals, formal dinner service, personalized floral and candle arrangements, special gifts for guests and elaborate dessert courses exemplify Diane Gordon Catering weddings.
Better Together
One of Diane’s trademarks both at wedding and corporate events—and for her food styling work on the sets of Sex and the City, Law and Order, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and more—is her love of putting unexpected foods together in special ways.
The company just launched a brand new “perfect pair” menu with weddings in mind. Selections include dishes such as Prosciutto & Figs, Shrimp & Grits and Fish & Chips featuring combinations that are better together.
Floating Dinners
One request Diane is seeing more and more of that she hopes will continue is floating dinners. Buffet dinners, done well, can be fantastic, and may still be the best option for you depending on the size of your guest list. But floating dinners not only feel more intimate than buffets, they are one of the best ways to make everyone at a celebration feel more relaxed and at ease in uncertain times.
Guests still have the ability to mingle and pick and choose their appetizers and entrees, however, the passed plate approach prevents buffet bottlenecks and ensures everyone has plenty of space. It also allows staff to switch out dishes more quickly and effectively.
Diane is also seeing more family-style dinner requests for seated events, which is another way to up the intimacy factor, safely.
After Parties
For many people who have put their weddings on hold, and haven’t seen friends or loved ones for far too long, their big day spills into the night.
Diane has loved working on weddings that extend the revelry into the night. There are no rules, but there are a lot of fun ways to “lead” your guests to the next party, including having a musician or band “walk” the guests from one space to the next for an after-party lounge at the venue itself. Or, just transitioning the soiree at a certain time, with a paired-down bar and munchies menu.
Diane has a lot of other ideas too—weekday weddings, welcome boxes, brunch wedding receptions, custom canned cocktails, s’mores under the stars—and she’s as excited as you are to be able to formally celebrate love again. Get in touch so Diane can find a way to make your wedding feel as special as your relationship.
Kathleen Willcox and Diane Gordon have known each other for a long time. Kathleen worked for Diane Gordon Catering in 2010-2012, planning incredible parties and feasts for the Company’s many private and corporate clients. In 2012, Kathleen moved Upstate to start a family, but they stayed in touch. Kathleen now lives in Saratoga Springs with her husband and twins, and writes about food and wine for Wine Enthusiast, Liquor.com, Edible Capital District and several other regional and international publications and works as a consultant and writer for small businesses. She’s thrilled to have an excuse to work with Diane again.