Culture

Wedding Menus: What Will Kate and William Serve?

By Rebecca Federman


Published on April 28, 2011

When it comes to tomorrow's Royal Wedding, you either fall into the "wake me when it's over" camp, or the "wake me at 4:00 a.m. because I don't want to miss anything" camp. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you're clearly sleeping in.) As I am the daughter of a woman who used to pore over Majesty magazine, I will be wide awake tomorrow morning.

Tea might also be on the menu at the Royal breakfast reception after the ceremony, although there is no confirmation of anything, except that there will be cake. Perhaps two. Canapes, reports The New York Times. Quail, others surmise.

In honor of their banquet, I pulled some wedding menus from the New York Public Library's collection. Will the dishes they serve reflect their (sometimes maligned) culinary heritage? Or will they choose foods that reflect the renaissance in British cuisine led by chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal? Whatever their guests dine on, I trust that their menu will reflect their own tastes and personalities. Tomorrow, I'll raise a cup of milky PG Tips in their honor. To health, happiness, and love. Congratulations, kids.

Wedding Menu Italian

This pocket-sized menu is from the wedding banchetto of Pietro Capozzoli and Lina De Optatis who married at Hotel Colombo in Greenwich Village on June 11, 1899.

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Wedding guests of Rose K. Schaefer and Lt. Schertel V. Burtonbach in 1896 dined on green turtle soup and terrapin.

Persian dinner menu

This menu is from a dinner hosted by His Royal Highness Prince Naib-es-Saltaneh Emir Kebir, at his palace in Teheran, Persia in 1908 in honor of the marriage of one of his sons.

About to embark on a European wedding tour, Mr. and Mrs. James Ford Johnson celebrate with friends and family at the Waldorf-Astoria in April, 1912 (just a little over a week after the sinking of the Titanic).

_Photos by Maxime Iattoni. These menus are part of the New York Public Library's collection. More menus—similar to the ones seen here—are featured on NYPL's What's on the Menu?, a volunteer effort to transcribe historical menus to improve their searchability.
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