1. "No, not unless the meat-eater has, like, some sort of moral commitment to eat some sort of meat at every meal, because that's the only way it would be equivalent; don't people who eat meat ever eat a meal without meat anyway?"
2. "Yes, I have other thoughts on this which I will explain in a comment" - this is the way you get to eat southern barbecue guiltfree.
That's funny -- just yesterday I read this article in which someone suggests that vegetarians should cook meat for their omnivorous guests, and that surprised me. (Note: said article also makes vegetarians sound sort of like snobbish, antisocial wackos.)
I'm a recent vegetarian and am still trying to figure out all the social peculiarities, but it seems to me that people who keep kosher, for example, aren't going to serve pork at their wedding just because some guests really believe in eating pork. I think if you serve tasty, varied veggie food, and a lot of it, and a lot of wine, you should be fine. And anyone who doesn't like it can go out for pizza afterward.
That article's idea of a counterpoint to Tony Bourdain's hateful tirades comparing vegans to Hezbollah and describing non-meat-eaters as the enemies of everything good and decent in the human spirit is... a lady describing eggs as "chicken ova"? They ARE chicken ova! "Ova" is the scientific word for "eggs," and the eggs that most people eat are laid by chickens! Does Haley Edwards get her panties in a knot when people describe foie gras as, er, goose livers? Not exactly bridge-building rhetoric, is it?
*grumblemumblerassafrassin'archnessoverload*
Belated congratulations on becoming a vegetarian! :)
If you provide a tasty, approachable vegetarian meal, no one should complain! Keep the food simple -- not a lot of foreign-to-staunchy-meat-eaters ingredients. But it's handsdown YOUE WEDDING. If you end up serving meat and aren't comfortable at your own wedding because your morals are compromised at an important celebration in your life, then you won't have the best day you could have and that, in my humble opinion, is the whole point.
I agree. As long as it's not rabbit food and doesn't use weird veggie-only ingredients that I don't know about, I don't think most people would even notice the vegetarian-ness of it.
My vegetarian cousins had a wedding where they only had veggie food, and most of my family is happily meat-eating, but nobody complained. I think they had eggplant parmesan, which was a good not-too-scary meatless meal.
Erica and Lauren pretty much said it. Choose a mix of familiar and interesting veggie food and it shouldn't be a problem.
That said, as another veggie, if you decide to offer a meat option to promote family harmony, I think that's fine. Family harmony is also a moral value. :-)
You could also see if it's possible to get a small number of free-range meat meals from a small farm nearby or semi-nearby, or something like that, and then offer that option just to people you think really might need it or they'll freak out at all the vegetables. I don't know where you stand on this, but I don't have a moral problem with small-farm, genuinely free-range meat, so that could kind of be a balance. It just might be too expensive to do for all the "elective" meat eaters who can handle a meal without meat.
Weddings are complicated and fraught with potentials for arguments and disaster as it is. HIGHLY recommend you not open the Pandora's box labelled "What, no meat?!?!!"
(originally "Pandora's box" was "can of worms" but Chris started making jokes and the mental image was odd)
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2. "Yes, I have other thoughts on this which I will explain in a comment" - this is the way you get to eat southern barbecue guiltfree.
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I'm a recent vegetarian and am still trying to figure out all the social peculiarities, but it seems to me that people who keep kosher, for example, aren't going to serve pork at their wedding just because some guests really believe in eating pork. I think if you serve tasty, varied veggie food, and a lot of it, and a lot of wine, you should be fine. And anyone who doesn't like it can go out for pizza afterward.
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Heeeeeee. Well done.
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*grumblemumblerassafrassin'archnessoverload*
Belated congratulations on becoming a vegetarian! :)
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My vegetarian cousins had a wedding where they only had veggie food, and most of my family is happily meat-eating, but nobody complained. I think they had eggplant parmesan, which was a good not-too-scary meatless meal.
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That said, as another veggie, if you decide to offer a meat option to promote family harmony, I think that's fine. Family harmony is also a moral value. :-)
You could also see if it's possible to get a small number of free-range meat meals from a small farm nearby or semi-nearby, or something like that, and then offer that option just to people you think really might need it or they'll freak out at all the vegetables. I don't know where you stand on this, but I don't have a moral problem with small-farm, genuinely free-range meat, so that could kind of be a balance. It just might be too expensive to do for all the "elective" meat eaters who can handle a meal without meat.
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(originally "Pandora's box" was "can of worms" but Chris started making jokes and the mental image was odd)
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P.P.S. Yes I am a pessimist where weddings are concerned.
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