Steal this menu: Buffet-style, locally sourced, Eastern Shore wedding picnic

Guest post by Guinlilly

My fiancee and I have been working on the menu with my dad, who is a chef and will be preparing the food with some of his chef buddies. Living on the Eastern Shore (Maryland/Delaware) we want to incorporate a crab feast and pig roast with Smith Island cake at our reception. And since my fiancee is a brewer for Dogfish Head, we'll be having Dogfish Head beers, local beer from Evolution brewery and our own homebrewed beer and homemade mead.

Here's our buffet-style Eastern Shore picnic with all food and drink sourced locally:

Eastern Shore Steamed Blue Crabs

<img src="http://offbeatwed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Steamed-Maryland-Crabs-600×398.jpg" alt="Photo courtesy of Primal Palate” width=”600″ height=”398″ class=”size-large wp-image-86573″ /> Photo courtesy of Primal Palate
Bought directly from the watermen in Chincoteague Island, Virginia.

Eastern Shore Oysters

eastern shore oysters alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)
Eastern shore oyster photo courtesy of OystersOnline.com
Also bought directly from the watermen in Chincoteague.

Whole Roast Pig

That Smells Good!

Fried Chicken

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kaffir lime fried chicken © by Andrea_Nguyen, used under Creative Commons license.

Potato Salad

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Potato Salad © by NatalieMaynor, used under Creative Commons license.
We're doing a four-potato salad using sweet, purple, Yukon, and Idaho Potatoes.

Caprese salad

4665997707 01aa49e9a9 alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)
Floating Island Caprese Salad © by bhamsandwich, used under Creative Commons license.

Italian Wedding Soup

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weddingsoup © by land_camera_land_camera, used under Creative Commons license.
To represent our shared Italian heritage.

Blueberry Cheesecake

5703200159 01274e56f4 alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)
Blueberry Cheesecake © by upto6only.com, used under Creative Commons license.

Two kinds of Smith Island Cake

3556685501 8f7806cc3d alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)
smith island cake © by shoresheila, used under Creative Commons license.
Lemon with raspberry jam and buttercream and red velvet with cream cheese icing.

Homebrewed Beer and Mead

homebrew table

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Comments on Steal this menu: Buffet-style, locally sourced, Eastern Shore wedding picnic

  1. screw the food, can we talk about THAT PINK DRESS?!?!

    [BUT REALLY, the food does look freaking amazing]

      • Ditto. There was a wedding a while back with the cherry blossom trees and another beautiful dress, so obsessed.

  2. mmmm…if i hadn’t had a few dozen crabs yesterday i’d totally be drooling.

    aw what the hell, who am i fooling? GIMME. NOM NOM NOM.

    • Thanks! I have a super awesome talented fiance. Chances are the DFH we’ll be serving would have been brewed by him as well! 😀

  3. This is exactly what I want to do for my Eastern Shore wedding! I was trying to figure out how to serve crabs with out the brown butcher paper and rolls of paper towels! I’m borrowing your ideas! Thanks for sharing!!! Roni

    • Roni,

      This is my menu and we are actually going to have colorful linens topped by brown butcher paper that I’m going to whip stitch down the middle and then cut into circles and paper punch the outside edge. The brown paper will actually be my ‘overlay’ instead of say organza or tulle!

  4. Do I know you? I know that sounds really creepy but we live on the Eastern Shore too and are planning a really similar menu for our commitment party… in fact that’s the only thing we have planned so far. But it’s hard to believe we haven’t met, it’s not like the shore is all that big. Especially for local food people. I’m up in Chestertown and often referred to as “that local food girl”… anyway just wondering… great looking spread regardless!

    • I grew up in Ocean Pines and I’m living in Seaford now – I get most of my food, plants, animals in Wicomico, Worcester, and Sussex counties!

      • Oh that makes sense! Don’t get down that way too often. So great that you are having a local food wedding too though! We are also homebrewers but don’t think we’ll ever make enough quantity for the whole party…

        • I have a problem making the FH scale down! lol We’re working on opening a meadery though, so he makes larger batches to practice for making EVEN larger batches of mead. He’s got the beer down pat. 😀

          • Well let me know when you get your meadery up and running! I do press for a lot of local farms (that’s my job!).

      • Omg another Slower Lower Delaware girl. Heeey! 🙂
        I’m in Georgetown, looking to have our wedding at the Marvel Carriage Museum. Good luck to you!

    • I’m from Northern Delaware, but my FI and I met while working at a camp in Centreville! We are going to have a welcome barbecue/crab feast, and it is seriously one of the things I am most looking forward to 🙂

  5. This is my dream menu!! (I live in DC so we love ourselves some maryland blue crabs)

    • I couldn’t imagine doing anything else growing up on the shore. I’ve collected friends from all over the world in my travels and I want them to taste the local, delicious foods I grew up with!

  6. OK…a couple things:
    Recipe for that fried chicken breading, OMAGAWD it looks killer.

    Im drooling over the potato salad and I hate mayo. That says something!

    Im totally looking up a smith island cake. A store here makes something similar but with tinier layers. (Mexico Beach, Fl)

    • Smith Island cake is delish! Super moist and even though the cake itself is super thick, the actual slices are fairly thin and delicate. It’s wonderful!

  7. LOL! I started drooling the first paragraph between the food and our love of DFH. I sent this to my fiance and said “Just read the first paragraph if you’re busy.” His response? “Jesus Christ! I want to marry them!!”

  8. This menu sounds great! I’m from the Eastern Shore (Salisbury) and am planning something similar for my rehearsal dinner, but I hadn’t thought of Smith Island Cake! I’ll have to get my mom to bring one down to VA for me.

  9. So cool to see so many offbeat brides in my area with fantastic ideas!! PS I live in Ocean City!

  10. Smith Island cake is THE BEST cake! So jealous of your DFH hookup! My little Eastern Shore heart is drooling with contentment… this is awesome!

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