Weddings
Medellin Elite Catering cooks wedding receptions for couples marrying in Medellín, on the hillside fincas of Envigado and Sabaneta, and out in Llanogrande and Rionegro. Since 2019 our head chef and kitchen team have prepared everything from four-course plated dinners to lechona buffets for several hundred guests.
We work with local couples, with Colombians bringing a partner home, and with destination couples who meet us first on a video call. Every wedding gets a bilingual coordinator who owns your menu, staffing and timeline from the first quote to the last plate cleared.
Our largest single event fed 900 guests, so a 250-guest reception on a finca lawn is familiar ground. What follows covers menus, tasting, bar rules and the policies couples ask about before they sign.
Plan your event
Our wedding catering covers the full reception: cocktail hour, dinner, cake service and late-night food, served by our own staff. Each quote includes the menu, cooks, servers, chafing dishes, plates, flatware and glassware, setup and full cleanup, so nothing is left at the venue the next morning.
We cater large receptions, small weddings, outdoor ceremonies on finca lawns and relaxed buffet-style marriages in salones sociales. The service style changes the staffing: 1 server per 10 to 12 guests for a plated dinner, 1 per 20 to 25 for a buffet.
Couples who are hosting events before the big day can pair this service with our rehearsal dinner catering, and we keep the two menus deliberately different.
A wedding menu in Medellín usually follows one of three structures: plated, buffet or stations. Most couples combine one of them with a cocktail hour and a late-night snack, and we plan 180 to 220 g of protein per guest across the main course.
Every menu starts from our standard list and then gets adjusted at the tasting. Colombian classics and international dishes sit side by side on most of our wedding menus, and a children's menu is available when many families attend.
A plated dinner gives a formal reception its rhythm, with every guest served at the same moment. Three courses is the norm: a starter such as ajiaco served as a small cream soup or a hearts of palm salad, a main of beef tenderloin or Pacific sea bass, and a dessert plate.
Four courses add a palate cleanser of lulo or maracuyá sorbet before the main. We plate in a field kitchen behind the reception area, keeping hot food above 60 °C until the moment it leaves the pass.
Buffets suit receptions of 150 guests or more and couples who want a relaxed, social dinner. Guests choose their own portions, the line moves in waves by table, and our team carves meats to order so the presentation stays fresh.
A typical Antioquian wedding buffet includes posta negra (beef braised in panela and spices), chicken in mushroom sauce, coconut rice, patacones, a green salad and sweet plantain. Our buffet catering page explains line layouts and how we refill trays without breaking the flow.
Cocktail hour bridges the ceremony and dinner, and we plan 5 to 6 passed canapés per guest for that first hour. Popular pieces include mini arepas with hogao, chicharrón bites, shrimp ceviche in spoons and goat cheese with uchuva jam.
Live stations turn dinner into a walk-around evening. Choose a carving station, a pasta station or a ceviche bar, each staffed by a cook and added on top of the main menu.
Late-night food arrives after the hora loca, when dancing has burned off dinner. Two pieces per guest is enough: mini burgers, cocktail empanadas with ají, or arepas with melted quesito.
Our empanada catering team can bring a frying station for this round, so the empanadas reach the dance floor straight from the oil.
We cater intimate weddings and elopements from 2 guests, using a private chef format for groups up to 12. A couple eloping in Medellín might book a tasting menu for two on a villa terrace, while a family wedding of 30 might sit at one long table in a restaurant-style setting.
For 15 to 40 guests, a family-style dinner works well: shared platters of grilled meats, roasted vegetables and salads passed along the table. Small weddings get the same tasting, coordinator and food safety standards as a 300-guest reception.
Outdoor and finca weddings need more planning than a hotel ballroom, because the kitchen, the power and the rain plan all have to be built. On a site visit we check road access for our refrigerated van, the distance from parking to the reception lawn, water supply and where the field kitchen can stand.
Many fincas have no kitchen suitable for 150 plates, so we bring combi ovens, prep tables and insulated Cambro carriers, and we coordinate a generator rental where the venue power is limited. Hillside fincas in the Envigado and Sabaneta hills often have steep, narrow drives that only a van can climb, so we plan extra trips the day before. Venues in our catering in Envigado and catering in Sabaneta zones sit 30 to 50 minutes from our kitchen, so we time every van departure around that drive.
For dates in April to May and October to November, we insist on a tent over the dining area and the buffet. Afternoon storms in those months are short but heavy, and a tent turns them into background noise instead of an emergency.
The tasting is a private session for two at our kitchen, where you try the dishes on your shortlist and adjust seasoning, portions and presentation. Your coordinator sits in and writes each change into the menu.
Most couples schedule it 4 to 6 months before the wedding, once the guest count is roughly known. Couples flying in can book it during a venue-scouting trip, and the written menu follows the same week.
You can choose an open bar for the whole reception or a bar by consumption, settled on what is actually poured. Either way, we staff 1 bartender per 50 to 75 guests.
We serve only spirits that carry the Antioquia department tax stamp, which is the legal requirement for liquor sold in the department. That covers aguardiente antioqueño, local rum such as Ron Medellín and imported whisky bought through licensed distributors. Couples may bring their own wine or spirits, as long as the spirits carry the stamp.
Every wedding menu can include vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and allergy-safe plates, cooked in separate batches and labeled with allergens. We collect dietary needs with the final headcount, 10 days before the wedding, and assign each special plate to a seat on the floor plan.
Plated dinners make this easy, because the server delivers the right plate to the right guest. Our dietary catering menus cover celiac, nut-free and diabetic-friendly options in more detail.
A deposit reserves your wedding date, and the balance is due 7 days before the event. You can pay by bank transfer or through a card payment link.
The final headcount is due 10 days before the wedding, and the kitchen orders ingredients for that confirmed number. Guests added later are served if food allows.
If you move the date more than 60 days out, the deposit transfers to a new date within 12 months. Inside 30 days the deposit is not refundable, because by then we have committed staff and ingredients.
These are representative weddings from our calendar, described by type rather than by couple. Each one shows how the menu and logistics follow the venue.
A 120-guest finca wedding in Llanogrande, October. The reception ran under a tent after an afternoon storm, with a four-course plated dinner of ajiaco cream, sea bass and a lulo sorbet. We brought a generator, a field kitchen and 11 servers.
A 38-guest rooftop wedding in El Poblado. The couple chose family-style platters of grilled meats and salads at one long table, followed by mini empanadas after the dancing. Two cooks and four servers handled the evening.
A 260-guest Saturday wedding in the Envigado hills. A buffet with posta negra, a carving station and a ceviche bar fed the crowd in two waves. Bartenders poured stamped aguardiente for the toast, and the team cleared the finca by 2:00 a.m.
Questions and answers
Book 6 to 12 months ahead for a Saturday or any date from October to December. Weekday and off-season weddings can usually be booked 3 to 4 months out. December fills first, so couples set on a holiday-season wedding should reserve as soon as the venue is confirmed.
Plates, flatware, glassware and chafing dishes are included in every wedding quote, but tables, chairs and linens are rentals. We coordinate them through partner suppliers and list each item on the same quote, so you deal with one invoice instead of three. Tents, lounge furniture and decor work the same way.
Reserve your date
Share your date, venue and guest count through the quote form, and we will send an itemized wedding quote within 24 hours. Prefer email? Write to info@medellincatering.com.