On your wedding day, you should do whatever you want. You can ask attendees not to bring their children, make the band play only music from the ‘80s, or make it a no-alcohol affair. You and/or your fiancé should dictate the terms of your wedding down to the last detail. But don’t, under any circumstances, lace reception food with illegal substances. It’s a recipe for a legal disaster.
It’s your party and you can serve whatever you want. Or can you?
Martha Stewart, or at least the people who work for her, recommends avoiding certain types of food at a wedding reception. These include foods that are difficult to consume at a party, foods with ingredients that could easily spoil, foods with lots of dairy, messy foods, raw onions, and anything with spinach.
It is also recommended to avoid serving nosh with common allergens, for obvious reasons. These are foods that contain nuts or gluten. You do not want an ambulance showing up at your reception venue to take one of your guests to the emergency room. That will make your very expensive party decidedly less fun.
Feeding 100 or more people isn’t cheap. And since food will be one of your biggest expenses, you wouldn’t want to be paying for your guests’ medical bills.
You can, however, get creative with the kinds of food you will serve.
You can do wedding food themes. If your wedding is at the beach, serve fresh seafood and sea-themed cocktails. If the big day falls on a festive holiday like Christmas, get into the spirit and serve up some eggnog as pre-wedding drinks.
Not everyone will like the theme, in which case people could simply decline the invitation. Alternatively, you can make some minor adjustments to accommodate people’s preferences and dietary restrictions. But there are some things you shouldn’t do when it comes to food: add any sort of drugs, including marijuana, as an ingredient.
It’s called drugging your guests
People are generally up for a good time, especially at wedding parties. But no matter how tempting, resist the urge to drug your guests just so they could be “more fun.” Many won’t appreciate a drug-induced high and will certainly object to being served dope-infused dinner and drinks.
At a wedding in Florida in February this year, a bride, Danya Shea Svoboda, and her caterer, Joycelyn Montrinice Bryant, were arrested for serving food with marijuana to wedding guests. The guests suffered from different symptoms and had to be taken to the hospital because they required medical attention.
The officers who arrived at the scene observed that some of the guests showed “symptoms consistent with that of someone who has used illegal drugs.” This was not surprising as many of the food items served were laced with cannabis, from appetizers to mains to drinks. Among the cannabis-spiked foods include lasagna, bread, Caesar salad, tortellini, dip, meatballs, pudding shots, and punch. The duo seemed to have covered all the bases.
Many of the guests who ate the pot-infused treats felt “stoned,” “high,” and “ill.”
The other guests felt more than just the usual grass-induced high. Those who ate dip at the party felt weird, fidgety, and had an extremely dry mouth, while at least one person vomited and grew paranoid that her son-in-law died.
Our non-advice: Make them eat cake, but one without marijuana
Cannabis has tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, a psychoactive compound that makes the person who ingests it experience a high sensation. And though marijuana is known to have some medicinal properties, not everyone can tolerate the drug.
Besides it being a crime, forcing your guests to get stoned on your wedding day will surely backfire. They will experience the exact opposite of fun. Not to get all lawyer-y, but it is never a good idea to force drugs on your guests or anyone, ever.
For serving cannabis cuisine, Bryant and Svoboda were charged with anti-tampering laws, delivery of marijuana, and culpable negligence.
For divorce cases that have nothing to do with marijuana-laced lasagna, call Buckingham, LaGrandeur, & Williams. We are family law attorneys in the Evergreen State. Leave us a message today.