Weddings have changed. And after more than three decades in the catering game, Hog Roast Tiverton has had a front-row seat to just about every shift in how people choose to celebrate.
For a long time, the pressure to cram everything – the emotion, the speeches, the dancing, the memories – into a single day was just accepted as part of the deal. Couples smiled through the exhaustion and called it perfect. But somewhere along the way, people started asking a reasonable question: why does it have to end so soon?
These days, more and more couples are building out their wedding weekend with pre and post-celebration events. Welcome dinners the night before. Lazy Sunday brunches the morning after. Smaller, more intimate gatherings that bookend the main event and give everyone a proper chance to actually connect, breathe and savour the whole thing. Honestly? It’s one of the best trends we’ve seen, and we’ve seen a few.
So when a lovely couple asked Hog Roast Tiverton to cater their welcome dinner on the eve of their big day – 50 guests, relaxed atmosphere and a hog roast at the centre of it all – our catering manager Rob was ready.
The hog itself was hand-selected from a local farm with a strong reputation for quality and animal welfare, which is non-negotiable for us. Meat this good doesn’t need fussing over, so Rob settled for working salt into the scored skin to coax out the natural flavour and get that crackling properly crispy and blistered – the kind that shatters satisfyingly when you bite into it. Beneath the hog, a bed of sage and onion stuffing quietly did its thing, drinking up all those slow-released juices and turning into something deeply savoury and rich. A generous bowl of sweet applesauce rounded it out (because some combinations are simply timeless).
Guests could load everything into soft buns or wraps, or build a fuller plate alongside juicy chicken thighs, a bright tomato and mozzarella salad, coleslaw, mixed greens and a potato dish. For those skipping the meat, grilled halloumi and vegetable kebabs and BBQ jackfruit sliders meant nobody was left picking at a boring side salad.
It was, by all accounts, a brilliant evening – and the perfect way to kick off a wedding weekend done properly.
Planning your own celebrations? Get in touch with Hog Roast Tiverton and let’s talk.