Planning a 100% Vegan Wedding in Cape Town, South Africa (That No One Complained About)
When my now-husband, Luke, and I started wedding planning, one decision was surprisingly easy: our wedding was going to be completely vegan.
Luke isn’t vegan, but food is far too important to our relationship for us to spend two years planning a wedding and then have dishes we couldn't share.
After debating between America, where I’m from, the UK, where we live, and South Africa, where Luke is from, we chose Cape Town (which is also where we got engaged).
Our wedding took place at Belair Pavilion in Paarl, in the Cape Winelands. We planned everything from London, knew very little about the local vegan wedding scene and had a guest list made up of around 90% meat eaters.
Still, several guests left saying it was the best wedding food they had ever eaten.
So, how did we make our vegan wedding in Cape Town work?
Planning a Vegan Destination Wedding: Some Advice for Wedding Planning
Planning a vegan destination wedding isn’t always easy, particularly when you don’t know the vegan food scene in your chosen location.
You may not know which caterers genuinely understand vegan food, which bakeries make delicious vegan cakes or whether your venue will allow you to bring in your own suppliers.
But it is absolutely possible.
If we could plan a completely vegan wedding in Cape Town from London, and serve it to a guest list made up almost entirely of meat eaters, you can too.
My first piece of advice is to ask local vegans for recommendations. Some of our best suppliers were suggested by Cape Town vegans who had actually tried their food. Thank you to all the lovely strangers on the internet who answered my DMs!
Having our wedding planner, Nicci, on the ground in South Africa also made coordinating everything much easier. From the start she was also aligned that this would be a 100% vegan wedding, and she understood exactly what that entailed.
It is equally important to investigate the catering arrangements before becoming too attached to a venue. Many of the venues we considered required couples to use their in-house catering. We knew that could leave us with limited vegan options or uninspiring dishes that had just been adapted by removing the meat and dairy.
One of the main reasons we chose Belair Pavilion was that it allowed us to bring in our own caterer. That freedom meant we could find someone who understood our standard for vegan food instead of accepting whichever vegan dishes happened to be available.
Choosing The Flying Pan for Our Vegan Wedding Catering
Our wedding caterer was The Flying Pan, which had been recommended to me by a vegan local to Cape Town.
Flying Pan isn’t exclusively vegan, but Matt, the chef, was incredibly creative and completely open to developing a 100% vegan wedding menu.
There can sometimes be pressure from suppliers to add a few non-vegan dishes because it would be “easier” or give guests more choice. Matt never made us feel as though our request was unreasonable. The food wasn’t treated as a difficult task or a separate vegan alternative, the entire menu was designed to be vegan from the beginning.
Before creating it, Matt asked about our favourite foods, the flavours we loved and what we regularly enjoyed eating together.
We told him how inspired Luke is by Korean flavours and how, as a former New Yorker, I am completely obsessed with Chinese food (especially dumplings).
Matt used those conversations to create a menu that genuinely reflected us. It featured flavours including miso, kimchi, sesame, roasted chilli and togarashi, alongside my dream of serving steamed dumplings beside the dance floor.
As a chef himself, Luke was always going to be hyper-critical of our caterer. Several of our guests were also chefs, so he wanted the food to be particularly special.
Thankfully, we fell in love with the menu during our tasting. In fact, we loved it so much that we arranged to have one of every main dish delivered to our sweetheart table so we could share them all.
What Made Our Vegan Wedding Menu Successful?
The success of our vegan wedding wasn’t only about making every dish plant-based. We thought carefully about how our mostly non-vegan guests would experience the food, and how it would effect the overall vibes of the day.
Plenty of variety
One vegan dish is never going to please everyone, just as one meat dish wouldn’t.
Our canapés included roasted shiitake bao, crispy cauliflower sliders, mushroom arancini, artichoke bruschetta, tofu skewers and black bean tacos.
For the main meal, guests could choose from dishes including potato gnocchi, coconut and cashew ramen, seared oyster mushroom steak and pearl barley risotto.
There were familiar, comforting options alongside more adventurous flavours, meaning even the fussiest eaters could find something they liked.
Generous portions
Tiny portions were never part of the wedding vision.
We wanted guests to load up their plates, feel properly satisfied and still have enough energy for late-night dancing. From the canapés and main meal to the cake, ice-cream bar and late-night dumplings, there was always plenty to eat.
This was especially important when feeding guests who might already assume vegan food wouldn’t fill them up. The easiest way to challenge that misconception is to serve generous portions of genuinely satisfying food.
Lots of carbohydrates
If anyone understands that being vegan does not mean accepting a lifetime of salads, it's me.
Carbohydrate-heavy dishes were important because we wanted everyone to feel full, happy and energised. Our menu included bao buns, sliders, tacos, arancini, gnocchi, ramen noodles, crispy polenta and pearl barley.
There were plenty of vegetables, but they were paired with creamy sauces, noodles, grains and bread.
A wedding is not the time to send people onto the dance floor after three leaves and an artistically placed carrot.
Our Vegan Wedding Cake From Crumb Cakes
Our vegan wedding cake was made by Crumb Cakes, another recommendation from a Cape Town vegan.
Crumb already made vegan celebration cakes, so we knew they had experience baking without dairy or eggs. We were just crossing our fingers that they would be delicious.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t organise a traditional tasting of all the vegan flavours because there weren’t enough individual slices available. So naturally, we ordered several mini cakes and arranged our own tasting instead. I will never say no to more cake.
Luke and I couldn’t agree on one flavour, so we chose two: funfetti, which was my choice, and lemon poppy seed, which was Luke’s.
The funfetti cake was colourful, nostalgic and exactly as joyful as I wanted our wedding cake to feel. The lemon poppy seed was lighter and fresher. And just to confirm they were DELICIOUS. I've been searching for something that comes even close to Crumb's funfetti cake and theirs is truly the best I've ever had. Melt in your mouth moist and sweet (but not too sweet).
Anmar, the founder of Crumbs Bakery, was incredibly supportive throughout the entire process and created a vegan wedding cake that was even more delicious (and more stunning) than I could ever have dreamed.
Vegan Ice Cream, Coffee and Dumplings on the Dance Floor
Alongside our cake, we served vegan ice cream from Unframed Ice Cream, one of our favourite Cape Town ice-cream shops and somewhere that already held special memories for us.
We chose Dirty Sea Salt Caramel, Mint Choc Chip, Beetroot, Ginger and Chocolate, and Lemon Basil. There were familiar crowd-pleasers alongside more adventurous flavours, and guests spent the evening debating the best combinations.
We also booked Courage Coffee to serve espresso drinks from a coffee cart, with plant milk available for everything. This gave me unlimited access to iced oat lattes, ideal! I think this may have been our best decision of the whole wedding, as it made sure our guests were dancing until 2AM.
Finally, Flying Pan served steamed vegetable dumplings and kimchi mandu beside the dance floor, because there is nothing better than eating dumplings while dancing to ABBA.
What Did Our Non-Vegan Guests Think of our Vegan Wedding in Cape Town?
Around 90% of our guests were meat eaters, so I would be lying if I said I never worried about how they would react.
Would anyone miss meat? Would someone eat beforehand because they assumed vegan food wouldn’t be filling? Would the chefs in the room be overly critical?
In the end, none of those concerns mattered.
Our guests tried every canapé, admired each other’s main dishes, indulged in multiple slices of cake, debated their favourite ice-cream combinations and ate dumplings on the dance floor.
The food wasn’t simply one part of the wedding-day schedule. It helped bring the entire celebration to life.
Several people told us afterwards that it was the best wedding food they had ever eaten. Most importantly, they didn’t say it was good “for vegan food.” They just thought it was an incredible wedding meal.
Planning a vegan wedding in Cape Town from London initially felt almost impossible, but the right venue and suppliers changed everything.
Belair Pavilion gave us the freedom to choose our caterers. The Flying Pan created a generous, personal menu inspired by the flavours we loved. Crumb Cakes made our dream cake, while Unframed Ice Cream and Courage Coffee turned the evening food into an experience.
Your wedding suppliers don’t necessarily need to be exclusively vegan. They need to be creative, experienced and genuinely excited about creating a vegan celebration with you.
After spending two years planning our wedding, I was able to eat every canapé, try both cake flavours, sample every ice cream and eat dumplings on the dance floor.
It was a dream day spent sharing vegan food with the people I love most...and, honestly, isn’t that always one of the best parts of being vegan?
