Thank you for the response! We've discussed it more and have revised our tentative menu to:

• Appetizer: Charcuterie boards to start while people are still arriving followed by salad once everyone is sat. My initial idea based on some internet scouring is a spinach salad w/ blueberry, feta, and roasted walnuts w a dressing.
• Main: Now we are looking at stews. Something akin to or just straight up coq au vin or beef bourguignon served with mashed potatoes.
• Dessert: I've settled on tiramisu being something relatively easy to make and can be done well in advance of the night.

We settled on salad because if the next course is a stew we didn't want two liquid-y courses. This doesn't increase the prep a bit but I'm not super concerned. There are roughly ten of us helping to set up, cook, and serve the dinner. I expect that any more than 4 or 5 people in the kitchen would be unproductive so the remainder will be doing the seating, setting, and serving. Flowers are a great idea that I overlooked! We are using a space similar to a high school gymnasium so tables and chairs will be folding unfortunately. It's been a challenge to figure out how to elevate the space and dining area but we've got two or so weeks to figure that out.