What are your options when serving food at your wedding reception?

Buffet- Tables with different choices of items that people stand in a line and take back to their seats.

Positives:

  • Everyone can usually get something they like

  • You dont have to have seat or table assignments

  • A buffet usually takes less catering staff

  • You can offer many items

Negatives

  • People do not enjoy waiting in line

  • Keeping food replenished and not picked over looking

  • Making sure that there is enough for everyone (some people will help themselves)

Tips to make a buffet work better

  • Try to use both sides of table, so that line goes quicker

  • quietly release groups by tables, usually starting with Bridal Party first

  • Menu signs are really nice

  • Make sure food is displayed attractively

  • Do not let food sit out too long, so that is becomes stale (usually an hour is plenty)

Buffet Dinner

Beautiful wedding buffet .

Seated Dinner- Everyone has a seat and dinner is served by waitstaff

Positives:

  • Very elegant

  • you know how much food you are serving by counting your RSVP cards

  • Seated tables can be dressed up with chargers and different glasses

  • Better control of timeline

Negatives

  • Allowing guest to choose their meal, usually a reply card will be included with invitation that ask the guest to choose their meals (It is always a great idea to lightly pencil in a number that correlates to your guest list on the back of the reply, just in case you cant read their names)

  • People dont tend to interact with guest other than the ones at their table

Tips

  • Make sue cater has enough staff to bring meals out in a timely manner ( you dont want the first guest finishing their meals and the last guest just getting theirs

  • You will need table assignments and seat assignments so that staff will be able to know who gets what dish. You will need a little code to let your severs know, Maybe people who ordered fish have their names written in Silver and the ones who ordered the beef are written in gold. Or you can have a seating chart with everything listed by table in catering tent.

  • You may want to consider a little surf and turf, so that you don’t have to take orders via reply cards. Everyone gets the same plate and hopefully out of the two entrees they will like at least one. We always have some vegetarian options avail. just in case

  • Some couples are choosing family style where platters are passed, it requires less staff- just again be aware that if platters are going to be on tables that you will not have much room for decor centerpieces. Also make sure your cater has enough for platters to make it around entire table at least once. It is awkward when the platter runs out before everyone is served

Seated Dinner

Tryon Palace prepares to host a lovely seated dinner .

My Favorite— Stations If you like a tapas restaurant experience, stations may be the way to go. This where you have individual groupings of different choices with small plates at each spot.

Positives

  • People move around and interact

  • You don’t have to seat everyone, you can have some seating and some hightop tables where people can stand and eat

  • you can have chef manned stations, where food is prepared in front of guest, making it more interesting and fresh

Negative

  • Less formal

  • Difficult to calculate how much food

  • more dish ware

  • A little difficult to control timeline

Tips

  • Make sure stations are far enough apart that guest dont treat it as a buffet

  • Have interesting groupings there are endless possibilities

Menu Ideas

Menu ideas for stations

  • seafood station *Carving Station

  • Taco station *Crostini station

  • Stirfry station *Fondue station

  • potato station * Cultural Stations, such as Asian, or Italian

  • Pizza Station

  • Bar-b-que sliders

  • cheese burger sliders

picture of Crostini station

Wedding Food can be a little tricky and expensive. So hopefully this article has given you a few good ideas to start. Questions you may want to ask yourself:

  1. How formal do I want it to feel

  2. Do I want it to fell like a fun cocktail party

  3. Is it important to me to have a seat for all my guest

  4. Which choice is the most affordable(you will have to ask your cater, because I have heard several different responses to this one.

  5. Do I have limited sq. feet, if so a seated dinner may be the right choice

  6. What have enjoyed the best at other weddings that I have been to

    Remember people will remember the best food they have had at a wedding and they will also remember the worst. So try to be in the first memorable group.