Menu Tasting Session
Alright, I know the real reason why you are here is because of the FOOD, so I guess I've kept you waiting long enough. After our planning session, we headed over to the Boardwalk Convention Center, where our menu tasting would take place. This was our first time ever going into the convention center at the Boardwalk and it was so beautiful! Definitely the nicest convention center I've ever seen. We still had a little bit of time before our tasting started, so we just hung out in the lobby for a bit and caught up on some social media (its been a whirlwind couple of days for us here in Orlando, so there was lots to catch up on). Right at 2:30, Kristie arrived and we were escorted to our own private room for the start of the menu tasting. See?
As we walked into the room, we saw our table with lots of fancy napkin folds, as well as how the place settings will be set up at the wedding. We didn't choose any of the pictured napkin folds though because since we're doing colored napkins, they aren't as stiff as the white ones, so we need to stick to a flat fold, which is fine with me.
Next, we were introduced to our waiter (who's name escapes me right now) and we got to choose what our wait staff will be wearing on the day of the wedding. I believe our choices were either a white jacket or a less-formal gold vest. We went with the gold vest, which our waiter said he was very thankful for because the jacket is so hot. We also met with our chef, Chef Redgie and the head chef for the Boardwalk, who's name I also can't remember because I'm terrible. Everyone was great and super friendly though!
As you can see in the background, we did opt for a buffet set-up, so I'll first show you all of our menu tasting items from the buffet stand-point and then what they looked like once they were prepared. Be prepared, don't go any further if you're hungry!
First up, build-your-own Brown Derby Cobb Salad:
Mashed potato and Mac & Cheese bar with all the fixins:
Crab-topped Mahi Mahi with a Lemoncello Butter Sauce:
Angus Beef with Drunken Cherries and Savory Brioche French Toast (drunken cherry sauce on the side):
Potato, Bacon, and Gruyere Tart:
Sleepy Hollow Inspired Sweet and Spicy Chicken and Waffles (!!!):
Banana and Chocolate Bread Pudding with Pina Colada Sauce:
Ugh, I'm seriously so full again just looking at these pictures, but everything was so, so good! The first thing we tried was the Sleepy Hollow chicken and waffles, as advised by our chef because he said that the waffles tend to get cold pretty fast. Fine by us! This was easily the dish we were most excited to try since it was our only park-inspired dish that we requested. Our chef said that this dish would best be served as an action-station, since most guests won't understand it, but we haven't decided what we will do yet. It obviously all depends on the cost. Here's what our meal looked liked after Chef Redgie assembled it for us:
Omg, it was SOOOOO good! So spot on with what they served at Magic Kingdom and a definite yes for the both of us! I love that the chefs can make a theme park food like chicken and waffles look so beautiful and classy. I can't wait to eat this again on our wedding day!
Next was the Hollywood Brown Derby Cobb salad. With the exception of the salad not being chopped like it is at the Brown Derby it tasted great and this is the salad that we will be serving. I think its great because our guests will be able to make whatever kind of salad they desire. We only had the red wine vinaigrette dressing at the tasting, but we will also be adding a ranch so that our guests can choose a creamy dressing as well. Sorry, forgot to take a picture!
After the salad, we were ALL about trying that mac & cheese and mashed potato bar! I skipped out on trying the normal mashed potatoes because I didn't want to get full, but I was dying to try the purple Peruvian potatoes and the mac and cheese, so that's what I loaded up on. There were SO many toppings to choose from that I was a bit intimidated, but I believe I had sour cream, cheddar cheese, chives and bacon on my mashed potatoes, and lobster, pancetta, and prosciutto on my mac & cheese. George just opted for brown sugar on his sweet potatoes as that was the only sweet option that was included of the toppings.
We both LOVED the mac and cheese (especially with the lobster) and proclaimed that it was a must for our wedding menu. That was one of the most creamy and flavorful mac and cheeses I've ever had. 2 thumbs up! I also really liked the purple Peruvian potatoes, but wasn't crazy about the sweet potatoes, which George and I agreed were pretty bland.
Next we tried the Crab-topped Mahi Mahi with Lemoncello Butter Sauce and the Yulon Gold Potato, Bacon, and Gruyere Tart. To me, this was a perfect meal. I absolutely loved the mahi mahi and the potato tart was amazingly delicious.
The potato tart isn't the prettiest to look at, but damn is it good!
At this point, I was getting incredibly full, but we still had one more entrée to try...the highly anticipated Angus Filet with Drunken Cherry Sauce and Savory Brioche French Toast.
I'm not sure whether I was just SO full or I just loved the other two entrees so much, but I didn't love this one as much as I wanted to. I definitely didn't think it needed the French toast with it. I liked the cherry sauce, but I wasn't sure if I loved it on the steak. Overall though, it was a solid dish and George really liked it.
Our final item to try was the Banana and Chocolate Bread Pudding with Pina Colada sauce, which I believe I forgot to take a picture of. We're huge bread pudding fans and this did not disappoint. It was absolutely delicious, but we ultimately decided to not add it to our menu because it is a pretty heavy dessert after a big meal and wedding cake. However, Kristie did mention that we could get BOC Mickey ice cream bars and George's mouth dropped. Mickey bars are his favorite and he was so excited when she told us this was an option, so we will be adding these to go along with the wedding cake
After the tasting was over, we sat down with Kristie and discussed what items we were going to choose for our menu. These are the items that we will definitely be including for our wedding:
- Build-your-own Brown Derby Cobb Salad (with additional ranch dressing)
- Sleepy Hollow Inspired Sweet and Spicy Chicken and Waffles (most-likely build-your-own as opposed to the action station)
- Mac & Cheese Bar (though we paired down the toppings to just a few, since having so many options was overwhelming) For our toppings, we chose toasted bread crumbs, lobster, bacon, chives, and sautéed mushrooms
- Seasonal grilled vegetables (which we didn't try, but will offer for those who want some color on their plates)
- Potato, Bacon, and Gruyere tart
- Angus Beef Filet with Drunken Cherry Sauce on the side (minus the French toast, since we're already serving chicken and waffles) We're also going to add a red-wine demi glaze on the side for those who don't want to try the drunken cherry sauce
-BOC Mickey Ice Cream Bars
I REALLY wanted to add the mahi mahi as well because it was such a great dish, but George really wanted to do a chicken and red meat, rather than a chicken and fish. We've kept it on the menu for now, but I doubt we will be able to afford to keep it. We shall see. Kristie said that she can have this dish prepared just for me at the reception if I really want it, which is a nice gesture and I'd love to have it, but I think a lot of our guests would really love it too (especially my dad).
After finalizing our menu with Kristie, Chef Redgie presented us with an awesome parting gift! Such a sweet gesture from them. I also have a little pro-tip for any future Disney brides with a planning session coming up. I bring this up because had George not brought it up, I would have NEVER thought of it since we weren't in a typical restaurant setting, but if you feel like your server did an exceptional job, then please feel free to give him/her a tip. We had a lovely experience and we tipped him $15, which he seemed to really appreciate. I only bring this up now because I don't think I've ever seen anyone else mention about tipping their server during the menu tasting and I just thought it was a really nice gesture.
Mickey rice krispie treats, heart-shaped cookie cutters and mini whisk from Chef Redgie
And just like that, our planning session and menu tastings were over. It was a long, exhausting day, but I came out of it feeling more and more excited and less anxious for our wedding day! Although I am anxious to get our BEO and how much stuff we're going to have to cut, I'm confident that Kristie will help us stay within our budget and do the best she can to help us. She was also super kind enough to offer another sit-down session with us since we are local to go over the BEO with us once that's ready, so I'm sure we will take advantage of that too. I hope you all enjoyed my menu tasting recap and I hope I didn't make anyone too hungry!
I think Picture Point is beautiful, but haven't seen any ceremony photos. I can't wait to see yours! And I love the Attic and the vintage boardwalk idea. I'm about 99% sure if we did a DFTW, we'd do the Attic for the reception. I plan on picking up some extra park maps on my Disneyland trip next month (ahh it's June now, so I can say next month!) to try the park map flowers - I'm going to do paper flower bouquets, and I want to mix a few park map flowers into it. Can't wait to hear more!
your dresses (in all pictures) and your engagement pictures were adorable!
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Sorry ladies, I'm beat after this very long day. 
Of course I'm totally biased. Every time you talk about Picture Point I get so excited for you. I think it will be a truly wonderful wedding day!
