Vegan wedding menu ideas: sample menus that feel like a feast

What makes a vegan wedding menu work

Most disappointing vegan wedding meals share one problem: they are a meat menu with the meat taken out. A plate of roasted vegetables beside an empty space where the beef used to be tells guests something is missing. The menus that work start from dishes that were never built around meat in the first place.

Three rules do most of the work:

• Give every main a centre. A whole roasted squash half, a thick slice of braised celeriac, a pile of mushrooms seared hard, beans cooked slowly in olive oil. Something to cut into.
• Use fat and acid on purpose. Tahini, good olive oil, coconut cream and toasted seeds give richness; pickles, citrus, sumac and vinegar keep a plate from tasting flat.
• Cook the season. A vegan menu leans on produce more than any other, so an August menu and a November menu should look quite different.

Many cuisines already cook this way. Levantine mezze, South Asian vegetable curries and dals, and Mediterranean bean and grain dishes are vegan or close to it by tradition, which is why they turn up throughout the sample menus below. Our Mediterranean and South Asian menu pages show more of them.

First decide: fully vegan, or vegan-forward?

Before any menu, agree on the approach with your partner and, if they are paying for part of it, your families. Each option works; they just produce different menus.

There is no need to announce a fully vegan menu on the invitation unless you want to. Printed menu cards that describe the food ("charred leeks, romesco, toasted hazelnuts") tend to go down better than a sign reading "vegan".

Sample cocktail hour: eight vegan canapés

For a one-hour cocktail hour before dinner, plan 4–6 pieces per guest across six to eight varieties. For a full cocktail-style reception with no seated meal, plan 10–12 pieces and add something substantial in the second hour.

• Heirloom tomato on grilled polenta with basil oil and flaky salt (July to September)
• Beet tartare with capers and shallot on a seeded cracker
• Falafel bites with tahini, pickled turnip and parsley
• Sweet potato and pea samosas with tamarind chutney
• Cucumber cups filled with miso-roasted eggplant and sesame
• Corn and scallion fritters with a lime and chili dip (August and September)
• Mushroom and leek tartlets in olive oil pastry, thyme
• Watermelon, cucumber and mint skewers with sumac (summer only)

Fried items such as fritters and samosas are the ones guests go back for, so budget a few more of them. For quantities by event length, see our guide to how much food per person, and for more ideas the canapé menu.

Sample three-course dinner for two seasons

Ontario weddings cluster between May and October, but a September menu and a late-October menu can use very different produce. Here is the same structure written for two windows.

Each main has a clear centre and enough protein to keep guests going through a long evening: farro and nuts in the winter plate, and a risotto portion generous enough to be a meal rather than a side. If you want a more substantial protein, a slow-cooked white bean and tomato stew with a crisp herb crumb, or seared marinated tofu, can sit beside either main.

For how a plated service runs, courses, timing and staffing, see our plated dinner menu.

Sample station menu

Stations suit vegan weddings well because guests can build a plate that fills them up, and no single dish has to carry the meal. Plan three or four savoury stations plus a sweet one for 100 guests or more.

If you are weighing stations against shared platters at the table, our stations vs family-style comparison walks through the space, staffing and cost differences, and the food stations menu lists more station ideas.

Cake, dessert and the bar

Cake

A vegan wedding cake is ordinary work for a good baker now. Plant-based butter makes a stable buttercream, aquafaba (chickpea cooking liquid) whips into a meringue, and oil-based sponges stay moist for a long evening. If your cake comes from a separate bakery, ask them directly what replaces butter, eggs and dairy, and whether any decorations use gelatin, beeswax glaze or carmine colouring.

Wine and beer

Not every wine or beer is vegan. Some are clarified with animal-derived fining agents such as gelatin, isinglass (from fish), egg white or casein, and these are not always listed on the label. If a fully vegan bar matters to you, check each producer before you buy. In Ontario, when a couple serves alcohol at a venue under a Special Occasion Permit, the couple buys the alcohol themselves, so this choice is yours rather than the caterer's. Our Special Occasion Permit guide explains how that works.

Late-night food

Late-night snacks do not need to be complicated: warm samosas, crisp potato wedges with garlic aioli made without egg, or grilled flatbreads with za'atar and olive oil. Plan for the 60–70% of guests who typically stay late.

Allergens hide in vegan food too

Removing animal products often adds other allergens. Cashew cream replaces dairy, tofu and tempeh are soy, seitan is wheat gluten, tahini is sesame, and many vegan cheeses are nut-based. A menu built on all of those can leave a guest with a nut or soy allergy with very little to eat.

When you collect RSVPs, ask for allergies separately from diet. Then check the draft menu against the list: every course should have at least one option that avoids the allergens on it. Dishes containing nuts, sesame, soy or wheat should be labelled at stations and marked on plated menus. Guests with celiac disease need more than a dish without wheat; our guide to gluten-free versus celiac-safe catering explains why.

Cost, tastings and what to ask your caterer

Couples sometimes expect a vegan wedding to cost less because there is no beef tenderloin on the menu. It can, a little, but not always. Peak-season produce, dairy-free pastry made in house, and labour-intensive dishes such as stuffed vegetables or hand-rolled samosas cost what they cost. The bigger price drivers are the same as any wedding: service style, guest count, staffing and rentals. Our wedding catering cost guide breaks those down.

As reference points, our plated dinners start from $92 and station menus from $72 per guest, before HST and the 18% service charge, and vegan menus are priced on the same basis. Weddings need 6 months notice.

At the tasting, eat the vegan main as a full portion, not a bite. Ask yourself whether you would be hungry again in two hours. If you would, ask for more protein or a heartier side before you sign off. More on how we cook for vegan guests is on our vegan and plant-based catering page.