Why This Intimate September Wedding Proves Smaller Can Be Better
The Brief
M & S first got in touch with us over a year before their wedding. They knew they wanted something a little different – an intimate celebration filled with incredible food, bold flavours and colourful touches throughout.
Choosing to share their day with only their closest family and friends, they focused on creating a relaxed and meaningful experience where every guest felt part of the celebration. The result was a wedding that felt personal, joyful and completely unforgettable.
Wedding Details
Venue: Northcourt Manor
Guests: 24
Style: Intimate Wedding
Season: September
Menu: Bespoke Indian-Inspired Fine Dining Menu
Special Touches: Hand-painted tiffins, stacked cheese cake, private tasting experience
The Venue
Northcourt Manor was the perfect venue for this lovely occasion. Set amongst beautiful gardens, it provided a stunning backdrop for M & S’s intimate wedding celebration.
The dining room was beautifully dressed with freshly cut garden flowers from The Flowering Cactus and thoughtful personal details that made the day feel truly unique to the couple. The result was an elegant yet relaxed setting that perfectly reflected their vision for the day.
With accommodation available on site, Northcourt Manor also allowed the celebrations to extend beyond a single day. Friends and family were able to spend a long weekend together, turning the wedding into a truly immersive experience and giving everyone more time to relax, reconnect and celebrate with the happy couple.
The Menu
From our very first meeting, M & S knew they wanted something a little different from a traditional wedding breakfast. Food was going to be one of the highlights of their day, and they wanted a menu that felt more like a fine dining experience than a conventional wedding meal.
During our initial conversations, they spoke about their love of Indian food and the vibrant flavours, colours and variety that come with it. Around the same time, we had commissioned a collection of bespoke hand-painted tiffins, and immediately knew they would be the perfect centrepiece for the menu we had in mind.
Working closely with the couple, we created a bespoke Indian-inspired menu that reflected their tastes and personalities. Guests were welcomed with four canapés before sitting down to a starter of samosa chaat. The main course featured our hand-painted tiffins filled with a selection of dishes, accompanied by fresh rotis, pakoras and an array of house-made chutneys. To finish, guests enjoyed a stunning Indian-spiced chocolate torte dessert that brought together familiar flavours in an elegant and memorable way.
To ensure every detail was exactly right, M & S joined us for a private tasting ahead of the wedding. Tastings are one of our favourite parts of the planning process, allowing couples to experience their menu before the big day and make any final adjustments. Following the tasting, we refined a couple of dishes to better suit their preferences, replacing the onion bhaji with a pakora and swapping the lamb curry for a rich beef curry.
Alex sourced local Isle of Wight meat and prepared every element of the menu fresh in the days leading up to the wedding. On the morning of the celebration, we transported our kitchen equipment to Northcourt Manor and transformed part of the venue into a working kitchen, allowing us to prepare and serve every dish at its very best.
One of the reasons we love catering intimate weddings is the opportunity to focus on the finer details. With fewer guests, we can spend more time perfecting each plate, adding thoughtful garnishes and creating bespoke touches that make the dining experience feel truly personal. For M & S, the result was a menu that perfectly reflected their tastes and became a memorable part of their wedding day.
A Wedding Cake With A Difference
Continuing the couple’s focus on creating a wedding that felt personal to them, M & S opted for something a little different in place of a traditional wedding cake.
After the meal, guests gathered to watch the couple cut a beautifully stacked cheese cake, which served as both a striking centrepiece and a delicious addition to the evening’s celebrations. The cheese cake was dressed with fresh figs, grapes and physalis, adding colour, texture and a seasonal touch that complemented the styling of the day perfectly.
Cheese cakes have become an increasingly popular choice for couples looking to move away from tradition while still creating a memorable cake-cutting moment. Not only do they provide a fantastic visual centrepiece, but they also offer guests something a little different to enjoy throughout the celebrations.
For M & S, it was another thoughtful detail that reflected their love of great food and helped make their wedding feel uniquely theirs.
Why Smaller Weddings Allow For A True Fine Dining Experience
At Eat Street, we use high-quality ingredients and the same attention to flavour whether we’re catering for 20 guests or 200. What changes with an intimate wedding isn’t the quality of the food – it’s the style of service and the level of detail we can bring to each plate.
For weddings of up to 30 guests, we’re able to offer a more refined, restaurant-style dining experience, with individually plated dishes, intricate garnishes and thoughtful finishing touches that simply aren’t practical on a larger scale.
With Alex preparing every dish himself, smaller guest numbers allow him to focus on the details that elevate a meal from exceptional catering to a true fine dining experience. It means every plate can receive the same care and attention you would expect from a high-end restaurant.
Alex’s background includes both five-star hospitality and time spent working aboard Cunard cruise ships, experiences that have shaped his understanding of fine dining, service and menu development. While our menus are rooted in these fine dining principles, they remain unmistakably Eat Street, drawing inspiration from street food, global cuisines and bold flavours from around the world.
The result is a dining experience that feels elegant without being formal, refined without being stuffy, and completely tailored to the couple and their guests.
For larger weddings, we often lean into sharing feasts, interactive food stations and family-style dining that create a fantastic atmosphere in their own right. Intimate weddings simply give us the opportunity to showcase a different side of what we do, offering a more plated, restaurant-inspired experience that is perfectly suited to smaller celebrations.
The Atmosphere
One of the most memorable aspects of M & S’s wedding was the atmosphere created by keeping their guest list small and meaningful.
Rather than multiple tables spread throughout the room, the couple chose one long dining table that seated all of their guests together. M & S sat in the centre of one side, surrounded by the people who mattered most to them.
Because every guest knew one another, conversation flowed effortlessly throughout the day. There was no awkward small talk between strangers, no carefully planned seating arrangements to introduce people, and no pressure for the couple to rush from table to table between courses trying to spend a few minutes with everyone.
Instead, guests were able to relax, enjoy the food and fully immerse themselves in the celebration. Laughter echoed around the table, stories were shared, glasses were raised and conversations continued long after the final course had been served.
The dining experience felt more like an incredible dinner party with family and friends than a traditional wedding breakfast, and that was exactly what M & S had envisioned from the very beginning.
It was relaxed, personal and completely centred around spending quality time with the people they loved most – a perfect reflection of everything an intimate wedding can be.
The Result
M & S’s wedding was everything they had hoped it would be – relaxed, personal and centred around the people they love most.
By choosing an intimate celebration, they were able to spend genuine quality time with every guest, enjoying conversations, laughter and shared memories throughout the day rather than rushing from table to table. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming from start to finish, with guests fully immersed in the experience and each other’s company.
The bespoke Indian-inspired menu proved to be a real talking point, with guests embracing the bold flavours, vibrant presentation and unique dining experience. From the hand-painted tiffins to the stacked cheese cake, every element reflected the couple’s personalities and helped create a wedding that felt completely their own.
As caterers, these are the weddings we love being part of. The combination of exceptional food, meaningful connections and thoughtful details created a celebration that felt effortless, yet incredibly special.
M & S proved that you don’t need a large guest list to create an unforgettable wedding. Sometimes, the most memorable celebrations are the ones shared with just a handful of your favourite people around one table, enjoying great food and great company.
What M & S had to say
Following the wedding, M & S kindly left us the following review:
“We had Laurel and Alex cater for our wedding earlier this year and we could not be happier with how it all went.
The whole experience of working with Laurel and Alex was easy and enjoyable and we felt very confident and relaxed throughout the process. We wanted canapés at a drinks reception and then a sit down meal, ending with a cheese course.
We went with an Indian themed menu and from the moment we had our taster we were very much looking forward to the food on the big day – It did not disappoint!
The food was beautifully presented and tasted amazing. The team were very organised and professional on the day.
The whole experience was amazing and It really helped make our day that much more special.
We would 100% recommend Eat Street.”
Captured by
Photography by Jess Lyons Photography
We’re always grateful when photographers share galleries with us, because so much of what we do happens in the details — the table, the plating, the atmosphere, the service and the little in-between moments.
Thank you to Jess for capturing this one so beautifully.
FAQ's
Yes. We love catering for intimate weddings and micro weddings across the Isle of Wight, creating bespoke menus for celebrations with fewer than 30 guests.
An intimate wedding typically has fewer than 30 guests and focuses on creating a personal experience for close family and friends. Smaller guest numbers often allow couples to spend more time together and enjoy a more relaxed dining experience.
Yes. For weddings of up to 30 guests, we can offer restaurant-style plated menus that showcase seasonal ingredients, refined presentation and bespoke menu design.
Absolutely. Every wedding menu we create is bespoke. We work closely with couples to understand their tastes, favourite cuisines and vision for the day before creating a menu tailored to them.
Yes. Complimentary tastings are included for wedding bookings over 50 guests, and tastings can also be arranged for smaller weddings. This allows couples to experience their menu and make any adjustments before the big day.
Yes. Winter weddings are some of our favourites to cater for. They lend themselves perfectly to intimate celebrations, long dining experiences and seasonal menus.
Not at all! It’s your day, so if you would prefer street food or family style dining, let us know