Our guests are going to be full and happy (even the vegetarians).
By Courtney Danielson
This past week was one of the most fun wedding planning tasks to date: the tasting. My parents, Chuck and I arrived separately (that’s what happens when everyone’s coming from work!), and the first thing we did was admire the hotel. Over the summer the Omni’s lobby and its banquet/conference spaces (including the ballroom where our wedding is being held) underwent a renovation. I was — admittedly — a bit nervous knowing that the space we booked in January would look completely different in March of 2015, but wow. The entire hotel looks stunning from the lobby to the small conference room we were in for the tasting to the ballroom where the wedding will be held. Everything looks truly amazing.
Once we were done oohing and aahing, we joined the coordinator (Sarah) for the tasting. The room was set up with a few tables laid out with different table cloths, chairs and napkin folds. My mom and I had pre-selected the linens and chairs we wanted to see, but I was a bit surprised that the hotel had eight different ways to fold a napkin. After a bit of back and forth between myself and my parents (Chuck stayed very quiet during this part), we finally decided on the details and moved on to the main event: the food.
My mom and I had also pre-selected the three menu entrees we wanted to try, one each of beef, chicken and vegetarian, as well as the salad and intermezzo courses. Just like with a regular dinner, we were served our salad course first. We were selecting between two options and ended up selecting the less-traditional one. The intermezzo was next, which is simply a palate cleansing course for which I had selected a lemon sorbet. My dad seemed particularly thrilled with this choice and was shocked to hear that not only was it not Del’s (because it tasted just like Del’s), but that the hotel makes its sorbets in-house.
The third course of the evening was the entrees. Two of each type were brought out so that we all got to sample each of them, and they were fantastic. The portion sizes were huge (and we were told that’s the size they’ll be on the big day), the presentation was beautiful and they tasted absolutely amazing. (Spoiler alert: We’re offering cheddar and garlic mashed potatoes as a side because they were so good that my dad and Chuck ignored the actual entrees until there were no more potatoes left on the table to distract them.) I was particularly happy to see that the vegetarian option that we’d selected was more than a few slices of a vegetable and some risotto on a plate. Having a few vegetarians in my family, I know that they typically end up going hungry at weddings, but that definitely won’t be the case at the Omni.
Finally we were presented with chocolate dipped strawberries, which will be served with the wedding cake. These were pretty standard but still delicious (and we were told that March is actually a good time of year for strawberries — who knew?).
Ladies (and gents), if you’re thinking about hosting your wedding at the Omni and are looking for a vote in its favor (although seriously, the place is gorgeous and sells itself), just know that you will not be disappointed by the food.