What does it take to feed 1,000 wedding guests? Lovina Eicher shares just that in her recent column:

Neighbor Laura and I were head cooks, so our job was to make sure we had all the ingredients there to feed about 1,000 people. Six hundred pounds of chicken were grilled by Menno’s uncle. They started at 3:30 a.m. Four hundred pounds of potatoes were bought.

The wedding wagon came with plate settings for 360, but there was only room for 260 plate settings. We needed to save room in the building for heaters and a place to fill the serving bowls of food, which we would have done outside in warm weather.

Laura and I were there Saturday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before the Friday wedding. Cooks came on Wednesday and Thursday to help prepare food and do jobs that could be done before the wedding day.

Sixty-four pies were baked, the chicken cut up and washed, 30 loaves of bread toasted for dressing, pudding prepared for peanut butter pie and dirt pudding, vegetables diced and shredded, plus so many more jobs completed.

The menu consisted of chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, noodles, mixed vegetables, lettuce salad, cheese, dinner rolls, fruit topped with Danish dessert, angel food cake, dirt pudding, cherry, pecan and peanut butter pies, and candy bars. Ice cream was added to the menu for the evening meal.

Lovina deserves a gold star or the Amish equivalent. But community efforts like this are the norm for the Amish. The wedding was for Lovina’s niece Emma, who married the Menno mentioned above. Lovina’s daughters and sons served as table waiters, cooks, and other roles. They will likely each have their turns on their own wedding days someday.

It’s been neat to read Lovina’s accounts of the ins and outs of Amish weddings in her columns this autumn. If you missed them, Lovina also shared a look at the Amish wedding wagon and Amish bridal clothing.

Photo: Ricardo Motti/flickr

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