Harvest Dinner 2025

This year our Harvest Dinner was a little extra special. Earlier in the year, Lauren and I had decided to get married in our backyard and make it a surprise to everyone.

Our friends and family were incredibly shocked. We pulled off the surprise by starting out in our engagement party dresses, then changing into our wedding dresses and coming downstairs for the big reveal.

For the Harvest Dinner portion, we had an excellent menu curated by yours truly, and prepared by chefs Lennon Doggett and Chris Chapman. This year, because of it being a special event, we decided to hire servers to run the food.

This years harvest included lots of tomatos, butternut squash, zucchini, summer squash, leeks, and brussel sprouts.

For the appetizers, we served a variety of bruschettas topped with tomatoes and vegetable varieties from the garden.

For the first course, we had a garden harvest medley salad, and a tomato basil bisque soup. The salad was harvested right before serving by our lovely bridesmaids, and the tomato bisque soup was prepared several weeks in advance by the brides.

For the main course, we prepared a roasted butternut squash gnocchi with a sage butter sauce. This was prepared partly by our bridesmaids and husband of a bridesmaid as well as by our chef Lennon and servers.

The meat lovers out there got to enjoy NY Strip steak served with herb compound butter and slow cooked short rib that was cooked with a red wine reduction. We sourced the meat from a local beef farmer to keep in line with our local farm to table vibe.

Our sides were roasted zucchini and summer squash tossed with garlic and fresh garden herbs. We also had stuffed leeks that were filled with herbed vegetables and creamy ricotta, along with brussel sprouts with a balsamic glaze.

For dessert, our good friend Morgan Bennett of Lil Bergamot made us a delicious Chantilly cake which was a light vanilla sponge cake layered with mascarpone cream and fresh berries.

We also had a lovely DIY bar positioned in one of the garden beds, where anyone could step up and be a bartender for our guests.