buffet style party

cupsoftea

Has anyone had or been to a buffet wedding reception. How do they work out? Not sure I'd like the whole formal meal thing but unsure what to do as an alternative.
Thanks in advance

SingingCherry

I wen tto a HUGE wedding about 2 years ago that had the cocktail hour be a buffet. There was an amazing amount of food at the whole thing, and it was over the top, but I think they did this really well.

They set up themed tables of food. There was a sushi table, and in another there was a table full of italian food (YUM!), on another it was cold food, another chinese. There were a few others and then they had a big dessert table as well. Personally, I think this is a great way of doing a wedding because there is something for everyone.

cupsoftea

Thanks! It sounds really nice then.
Was there seating for all the guests with table settings or did guests stand around? You can tell I don't get out much!!

plonk

My brother had a buffet wedding in england in a marquet. It was brilliant.
For the main course he had 2 whole pigs on spits

BeardyGit

I was at a buffet wedding last week in the Netherlands where apparently it's very common. Worked really, really well.

A word of advice though if you go that route - Make sure the chef can prep something for people with food allergies seperately. Luckily for my girlfriend and an elderly woman who was a guest at this wedding, the bride and groom had asked first and made provisions for them as there was almost nothing in the buffet that would have been safe for them to eat. Just something to bear in mind

Best of luck!

Gil

SingingCherry

cupsoftea wrote:

Thanks! It sounds really nice then.
Was there seating for all the guests with table settings or did guests stand around? You can tell I don't get out much!!

Well, that was only the cocktail hour so there were tables set up everywhere (beautiful centre pieces, as well), as well as a martini and beer bars. Then about 2 hours later we went into the main room where we had a sit down dinner. It was completely unnecessary. We had eaten and drank so much at the cocktail reception that we didn't need a sit down dinner.

smileygal

I went ot an evening wedding buffet - wedding was tiny and had sit-down meal for those, then massive number for evening, so it was in-between full day and afters and everyone happy.

Had usual tables for eating it and i am not sure but i think some duplication of stuff so not holding people up.

If you're going for it I would highly recommend splitting the queue in 2 so hot food isn't cold/people getting fed up standing so long and table atmosphere dampenend by some people nearly finished before others starting.

there will always be someone not able to go up/child/elderly/etc, so some people will need to carry double, so they might need some help.
Also, would be worth having some staff to dole it out - speeds it up and answers any questions as to what something is/ what's in it (esp if allergies/special diet)

people very happy when they get to choose what they like as long as big choice

cupsoftea

Thanks for the input everyone. We still don't know what we want. Was hoping for a big party type affair without all the seats. But realistically its not feasable to eat loads of nice food while standing around the place. People need to sit! A buffet would still be nice though i think.

iguana

We had a buffet for our small wedding and it was great. How big a wedding are you planning on having and what kind of venue are you thinking of? I know a few people who have gone to venues that do a buffet option instead of a sit down meal, but it worked out more expensive.

DubDani

Quite common in other countries.

I had my recent wedding abroad with 250 guests, and we had buffet as well.
There was seating for everyone, and everybody could go as often as he wanted, and nobody was forced to eat something that he doesn't like.

Another good thing is that the buffet was put up outside the ballroom, and the Hotel left it open until the last guest went home.

I personally hate these standard wedding dinners.

We had a sushi corner, a Japanese corner, a Thai corner, an Italian corner (each with own cook) and then the 95 meter long "normal" buffet. In the end everyone thought it was great. Even my fussy family thought it was great.