Wedding Cheese: How to create an impressive artisan cheese board
A Wedding Cheeseboard to Impress
It never ceases to amaze me how much attention to detail brides and grooms put into preparing for their perfect wedding day. It is completely understandable – your wedding day will be one of the most important days of your entire life!
What surprises me sometimes however is that cheeseboard planning gets left to chance. I guess it is easy to assume that if you go with a premium venue for your wedding, your cheeseboard will be of equal quality. But it’s worth bearing in mind that even the best hotels and caterers may not know as much about the universe of cheese as a specialist on the subject, let alone know and understand your unique taste.
My very first bit of advice if you would like your cheeseboard to wow you and your guests would be to get in touch with someone who specialises in cheese, specifically farmhouse and artisan cheese.
Luckily, there are many cheese shops around to choose from. I own and run one called The Cheese Lady (the name I inherited from my previous shop in St Andrews where my customers used to actually call me “the cheese lady”).
The Cheese Lady shop is based in Haddington, East Lothian and our speciality is farmhouse and artisan cheeses that are delicious, complex and matured to perfection! Our real speciality however is our personalised approach to every customer. We like to tailor our offering based on your unique palate, favourite drink and your occasion. I know that it is particularly important when it comes to selecting special cheeses for your special day!
If you were to ask me what are the 3 most important ingredients to creating a memorable and impressive cheese board, I would say they are
- VARIETY
When selecting cheeses for your wedding cheeseboard, go for a variety of textures, milks, flavour profiles and styles. No one is going to be impressed with or needs to settle for just cheddar and stilton any more. We have so many choices! Bloomy rind brie-style cheeses, triple creams, ewe’s milk and goat’s milk cheeses, goudas, alpine cheeses, stinky cheeses… to name but a few!
Of course I’m not saying that you should try to cover all the varieties, but offering a cheeseboard consisting of 4 to 5 cheese (or maybe even 6 or 7) will definitely give you enough room to showcase variety and to please many different palates in your wedding party.
- QUALITY CONDIMENTS
Well-matched high-quality condiments have the power to elevate your wedding cheeseboard to another level. The mistake people make sometimes is to splurge on the cheese but go for condiments of lesser quality bought from a supermarket. Sure, grapes, apples, celery are still absolutely fine but do yourself a favour and also go for some artisan crackers, chutneys, jams, and/or pickled fruit that can work across the board. Or better yet, you can select a flavour matching or enhancing condiment for each cheese!
- COMPLEMENTING WINES
We all know that cheese and wine go together like bread and butter. But having spent over 15 years in the fine cheese and wine industry I know that some cheese and wine pairings can be very disappointing and some can even clash. So to get the wow effect you are looking for, it is worth investing some extra time to find the best and most complimentary cheese and wine combinations. When you speak to your cheese supplier it is worth mentioning whether you’ll be serving a red, a white or maybe red and white wines with your cheeseboard. The cheesemonger will be able to advise you on the cheeses that will work best with just red, just white wines, or those ones that will be quite versatile to work with both colours.
And now for the final and perhaps the most important tip. Having helped numerous couples with their wedding cheese choices and having heard their feedback, the biggest grumble I hear from them is that on their wedding day they actually never managed to have any cheese and it was all gone! So when you commit to having a spectacular and scrumptious cheeseboard for your wedding, remember to save some to enjoy after the big day.
I hope you found these recommendations useful and they will help to create the most memorable, impressive and delicious cheeseboard for your perfect wedding!
The Cheese Lady x
P.S. If you require any assistance with selecting cheeses for your wedding, don’t hesitate to get in touch on 01620 823 729 or hello@thecheeselady.co.uk
Or better yet, book your FREE consultation with The Cheese Lady HERE.