The wedding menu is something that every guest looks forward to – something to munch on after the wedding ceremony! If you are thinking of coming up with a Rwanda wedding menu, here are 10 things that you must know!
1. You must plan early
- Don’t decide on the menu in a hurry – plan for it. Think about what you would like your guests to eat, and how you intend to serve them. Also, think about what help you will need to organize the food and set it up.
2. How many people are you planning to feed?
- Do you know how many guests you are going to have? This is something you need to consider as you plan your Rwanda wedding menu. Remember, everyone has to eat something!
3. How much will it cost?
- The next thing to think about is the cost of the menu. How much are you ready to spend on the wedding refreshments? Come up with a list of what you want to provide so that you can organize your finances as well as start to purchase some of the items in advance.
4. Who will cater?
- Decide whether you want to hire a caterer or cook everything yourselves in good time so that you can look for a good caterer if you need to. If you decide to cook yourselves, you need to identify responsible family and friends who will help you to prepare the food.
5. You don’t have to offer a full meal
- At Rwanda weddings, guests are not usually offered a full meal. They are instead offered a generous piece of meat and something to go with it like a roast potato. Consumption of food at weddings in Rwanda is mostly ceremonial!
6. Keep it simple
- Traditional Rwandese cuisine is not hot and spicy, so you do not need to go all out on the bitings you are serving. A simple piece of well-done meat accompanied by any other traditional starch will do!
7. Stick to the favorites
- Some of the standard foods and drinks that usually appear on the Rwanda wedding menu include Umutsima (mixed cassava and corn) used to make traditional wedding cake, Urwagwa (banana beer), and Ikigage (sorghum beer). Stick to those, and everyone will feel like they attended a wedding!
8. Follow the culture
- Another thing to consider when thinking about the wedding menu is the culture, i.e. at what point is the food presented, and how is it presented? For instance, the Ikigage (sorghum beer) is placed in a pot at the center of a room with several reed straws for the guests to drink from. Also, the Urwagwa (banana beer) is usually passed to the wedding guests in calabashes during the ceremony.
9. Everything must be freshly cooked!
- Wedding guests love fresh food, and the Rwandese are no exception! Make sure whatever you serve is fresh from the farm and cooked to their expectations, otherwise you will be the talk of the village for months to come.
10. What do you want to serve your guests?
- Lastly, consider what you would like your guests to eat at your wedding. Do you want them to snack or to have a full meal? Would you like to give them a variety of bitings to choose from? Decide what you would like them to eat, and make it available!
Now that you have this list of 10 things you must know when coming up with a Rwanda wedding menu, get started on it! Enjoy the process!
Leave a Reply