A Cypriot wedding menu: meze, souvla, resi and something sweet

A meze is a long run of small plates shared across the table, and it is served in order rather than all at once.

1. Bread, olives and dips: tahini, talattouri (the island's yogurt, cucumber and mint) and taramosalata.
2. Salads and cold plates: village salad, beetroot, lountza (smoked pork loin) and cured sausage.
3. Halloumi, grilled until it squeaks, and fried or baked vegetables.
4. The grills: sheftalia (minced pork wrapped in caul fat), souvlaki, keftedes, chicken.
5. Something slow-cooked: kleftiko, lamb baked for hours in a sealed clay oven, or stifado.
6. Fruit, then coffee.

A full meze runs to twenty or thirty plates over two or three hours. That suits a long table under trees far better than a three-course plated dinner, and it keeps guests at the table between dances.

Souvla is the smell of a Cypriot celebration: large pieces of pork, lamb or chicken on long skewers, turning over charcoal for hours. At many weddings it is the main course on its own, with salad, pitta and potatoes. Ask the caterer to grill it where the guests can see it: the grill is half the show.

Resi is the dish most tied to weddings on the island: cracked wheat cooked slowly in the broth of lamb or chicken until it turns creamy, stirred for hours in large pots. In villages it is still cooked by the families for the wedding table. It is simple, filling and old, and a plate of it tells guests from abroad they are at a Cypriot wedding.

• Loukoumades: small rounds of dough fried and soaked in honey syrup, best made on the spot and eaten hot.
• Koulourakia: braided biscuits, often with sesame, baked for weddings and holidays.
• Pastelli: carob syrup and sesame set into bars.
• Glyko tou koutaliou: fruit preserved in syrup, served by the spoonful.
• Koufeta: sugared almonds, given to guests in odd numbers.

A wedding cake is common now as well, but a loukoumades station late in the evening is the thing guests queue for.

Commandaria is a sweet dessert wine made from sun-dried grapes in the villages above Limassol, one of the oldest named wines in the world. Zivania is the island's clear grape spirit, poured cold. For the table, look for wines from the local grapes, Xynisteri for white and Maratheftiko for red, from the wineries in the hills between Limassol and Paphos.

On MyEventOS the reply can ask each guest their meal choice, their allergies and your own questions, and the answers land in one list you can send to the caterer.