menu for an Irish wedding

[kinsella]

Does anyone have good ideas about what to serve at a small (75-person) evening wedding reception in late October, in an old church hall in Denver, where an Irish band and fiddler will be setting the mood? The couple has a budget of around $2,000 for food. (They will bring in their own beer, wine, champagne for toasting). They want an intimate, Irish village-hall feeling to the evening. It will be at 8 p.m. following the church service upstairs.

No sit-down service or multi-course meal, just a buffet of fairly heavy hors d'oeuvres. The food could be Irish, (I'm thinking of a cold poached salmon with cucumber scales), or even Provencal or Italian since the couple met on a trip to Provence and Italy. The important thing is that the food be simple, and delicious, but not preciously presented or elaborate or requiring a lot of servers.

What would you do?

[The Saucy Cajun]

Hi Kensella! My son got married at an Irish pub in the French Quarter (New Orleans)a few years ago. I have the menu for the buffet & some pictures, but I can't seem to upload them to the site. Send me your e-mail if you'd like to see & I'll sent them to you.
The Saucy Cajun

[chiffonade]

Irish-ethnic jokes aside...how about a reall shee shee combination of elegant foods, including lamb; either a carved, boned, stuffed leg of lamb or lamb chops or baby lamb chops served by butlers as an hors d'oeuvre. Potato gratin, very rich with a crispy top... The Irish love heavy foods - it goes to the work ethic and sustenance for long days of labor. I guess that's why they play so hard, too.

Is it possible to do a search of "Irish restaurants" and see what menu selections frequently show up? You can easily glamourize even the most humble of ingredients for a wedding.