Sydney & Nick's Wedding

The Barn at Laird · Colts Neck, NJ

A September Wedding at The Barn at Laird

Sydney and Nick were married at St. Rose in Freehold on the last Saturday in September, then brought a hundred and eighty-three guests to the barn for the evening. They met everyone at the entrance themselves, beside a red pickup truck dressed with their engagement photos and lanterns, while servers passed apple cider margaritas — the bride's drink — and wine. Cocktail hour ran under a forty-by-ninety clear-top tent strung with bistro lights, with a mentalist working the tables and lawn games set up behind the trees.

Inside, the barn was set with ivory linens and terra cotta napkins, a menu card at every place, and the couple's own chandeliers overhead. The night kept opening new rooms: fire pits with s'mores and a whiskey bar outside after dinner, a hat-branding station, and at nine o'clock the Pittsburgh cookie table — a tradition from the bride's side, laid out on a farm table between two wine barrels. A slider bar opened at a quarter past ten for anyone still dancing.

EVENT

Wedding

VENUE

The Barn at Laird · Colts Neck, NJ

GUESTS

183

SERVICE

Buffet

SEASON

Autumn

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“…a cheesesteak station in the tent, a buffet in the barn, and a Pittsburgh cookie table…”

The Menu

Cocktail hour was built around the tent. Servers passed filet mignon crostini with horseradish, spicy beef empanadas, coconut shrimp with orange-ginger sauce, brisket sliders with Southern slaw, Louisiana crab cakes, chicken-apple-cranberry quesadillas, bacon-wrapped scallops and artichoke fritters, with lollipop lamb chops set aside for the father of the bride's table. Two cold stations between wine barrels carried Italian antipasto, a bruschetta bar with eggplant caponata and olive tapenade, and the international cheese board. The centerpiece was a Philly cheesesteak station — two chefs searing rib eye to order with peppers, onions, mushrooms and hot cheese sauce on warm pretzel rolls, fresh-cut chips alongside.

Dinner at eight was a buffet the maître d' called table by table: Caesar salad, Italian marinated chicken, New York strip steak, orange-basil shrimp kabobs, veal parmigiana, Spanish paella, cavatelli with broccoli rabe, grilled asparagus and oven-roasted potatoes, with a coconut-curry tofu and jasmine rice plate for the vegan guests. The bar ran premium for six hours, with a champagne toast after the father of the bride spoke.

Dessert was a naked vanilla cake with strawberry filling, dressed with the florist's flowers, cut quietly at a quarter to nine and served with coffee at a quarter to ten. Then the cookie table opened, and at ten-fifteen a late-night slider bar: chicken vodka parmigiana sliders, pulled pork, and beef sliders on brioche with sweet potato wedges.