- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee boards
Take your wedding planning hats off for one second and make yourself a guest.
When at a wedding, do you like a sit down or buffet better?
I like buffets because I can choose what to eat and how much of it. With a sit down, I may end up hating the chicken and want to try the beef instead, but since you don't want to cause a scene by making the server take it back and bring you something else, you are just stuck with it.
*I added other options to the poll*
I was going to say sit down, but I actually love family style. I don't like buffets bc I hate milling around with a plate of food, and with a family style meal you don't have to. But you still get to pick what you eat.
I was torn between buffet and cocktail style.
My issue with buffet is I really do not like the look of chafing dishes or the smell that the water in them lets off when they change dishes. I also don't like standing in a long line holding my plate and waiting for food.
If a buffet is done well, I really like it. I like the buffets where there are servers there telling you what everything is and serving it for you.
Seated dinners in theory are great, but I agree with you that I'd like to be able try a little bit of something else, or not be stuck with my original choice if I picked chicken 3 weeks ago when I RSVP'd and now really really want beef.
I also like the idea of a cocktail reception because it seems festive and fun. People are up and mingling and there "hopefully" are no lines because of all the stations.
However, I feel they can get discombobulated depending on how much time people spend mingling/chatting vs eating dinner. And table assignments may get weird if 1/2 the table is up and mingling and the other half is sitting and chowing down.
I like buffets and family style dinner better but I don't care either way.
Based on my own wedding experiences, I've found that the food at sit-down weddings tends to be better quality than buffet food. It's also nice to not have to wait for your table to be called and then stand in line to get your meal.
That said, I am not the kind of girl who would ever turn down a buffet!! Let me at it!
I prefer sit down because I don't like to walk around with a plate of food. I do like the options in buffets though.
I voted family style, but each has their positive aspects. I like buffets because you can choose what to get and what you don't want, but things can get cold/gross/you have to stand around to get it. Sit down can be nice too because there's no work and it's right there, but I am weird about food touching or my 'corn juice' running into my potatoes, etc, so that's a downer. I picked family style because you choose what goes on your plate (and where...and if it's touching, lol) but you aren't having to mill around to get it.
I voted sit-down, but I also like family style.
I just have an ongoing beef with buffets. I am a FREAK about my food. I am super fastidious and picky. The thought of 100 other people eating from the same plate really, really freaks me out. I just think its generally unsanitary. You never know whose kid just sneezed in that tray of pasta salad.... I also hate the thought of a)standing in line forever and b)carrying around plates of food in dressy clothes.... I also feel like the quality of the food is lower at most that I have been to. I dunno. I just really dislike them.
I do like family style though. At least with that, you can kep an eye on what others are doing to the food you are going to eat.
I'm partial...I dont like how someone already said...to be walking around with a plate in hand! But then it seems stiff and boring to be waiting to be served and like someone said, what if you dont like it?! You have NO other options?! Well I guess thats for either serving option!
Family style would be cool, but havent heard that being an option really anywhere!
Cocktail would be nice, but if you have dancing and drinks I think you should have chairs!
I always wanted a sit down meal where everyone was served at the same time and no on had to eat last. (I always felt this way because at every wedding I have been to I was in the last 3 tables. I was hungry.) Then that would involve seating charts and worrying who would get offended if they weren't sitting where they wanted. BF has put the kibosh on that.
He has argued the point that these are all adults and they can figure out how to seat themselves. (He is right. I've never had an escort card and have always had somewhere to sit.)
Plus, with a buffet, I can load my plate full of goodies and just chow down. I can get both the beef and the chicken and the noodles and the salad and 14 dinner rolls if I want.
I am intrigued at family style, but that probably means more money and more fuss than I want to deal with.
I don't like standing and waiting in line for anything, so a wedding is no exception. We are doing a sit down dinner with menu options (4 entrees to choose from) so that people can choose from a few selections (not stuck with just what they get sort of thing) and no one will be waiting in line or carrying food around.
I didn't vote because I would like any style as long as the food is good and I don't have to wait a long time. I've been at weddings where the buffet line was very long and I've been to weddings where the buffet line moved very fast. We went with a buffet line because we will have 4 lines (which would move fast), it gave our guests more options, and it would cost the same either way.
I'm also anti-buffet - people are always either waiting at their tables to be called or waiting in line. Plus I like the idea of people serving me and not worrying about putting food on my own plate and having it splatter on my fancy dress!
Oh this is an interesting poll. Would you consider adding food stations to the list? By food stations I mean the kind that are manned by a chef/server with made to order stuff (examples: crepe stations, fajita stations, sushi stations, stir fry stations) Thanks!
@Miss Tattoo: I like bread. And butter. Crap. Still 15 minutes before I can go to dinner. Hunnngrrrry.
I prefer buffet so I can pick and choose what I want. I've never been to wedding with a family style set up so I don't know what that's like.
I like sit down meals. I really don't like having to carry a plate of food around with a dress. For me the combination of dress, heels, carrying a plate of food and fork = a big mess. I usually have to have at least one assistant (FI!) during a cocktail hour to keep it classy.
A lot of places by me have tableside sit-down choice. I love that. Formal and you get to decide when you get there and can see/smell things. Just like a restaurant.
I like buffet because then I can get what I want and how much of it I want.
What exactly is family style? Can I 'bee' enlightened ladies? :)
This is a tough one for me....hmm...all of the weddings I've been to are sit down so I do like that a lot because it feels more elegant and if you're at a good table, its really like being out to dinner with friends. But....at work, they do mostly sit down stuff but they have done some really elegant, really bountiful buffets that were so amazing. They would have carving stations with chefs, usually an Italian station with chefs making the pasta there, Mexican stations, Asian stations and then a big seafood bar, antipasto bar, olive bar and salads. That would be great. Plus, I'm a vegetarian and all too often the 'vegetarian option' at sit down dinners is just a bunch of sides or plain pasta or something and not too filling.
If we were to get married in 2012 like we're thinking about I would love to have it at the restaurant he works at on a Sunday in the daytime with just heavy, heavy butler passed hors dourves and stations like what I mentioned with cocktails. I just think it seems very filling and everyone can mingle with us and still choose what they want without standing in one long line. I would still have tables set up with napkins and settings for everyone if they wanted to sit and have servers taking the drink orders at tables as well as the guests mingling.
@FutureMrsBondo: Added
@In the media: lol I bet they love you at Olive Garden!
@luckyprincess: Family Style is like where they have big serving trays of the food like one big tray of chicken is on the table for your table to serve themselves.
I don't mind any of the options. We're having a buffet brunch for our wedding, with about 100 guests, so it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes for everyone to get their food. I didn't think about people being upset they'd have to walk back to their table with a plate of food though.
I went to my FI's Christmas party last weekend, and with 400 ppl in attendance, it took almost an hour for everyone to actually get their food. I know some of the later people were pissed, but we got lucky and were the first table called.
I've been to both a buffet style wedding and a sit down style, and both were very tasty, and I didn't complain about having to wait to eat (actually I emceed the buffet one, so I had to wait till the end anyway because I was the asshole calling numbers.)
@Miss Tattoo: I am a fan of the family style idea but have never seen it done. I may ask my caterer if this is an option.
I like seated dinners if the surrounding is very formal (i.e. ballroom, catering hall, etc) but for an outdoor or slightly more casual event sometimes the "white glove" service can seem a little stuffy and dampen some of the party fun/mingling atmosphere.
I think a lot of it really depends on how well run the food service is and how good the food is.
I disorganized sit down meal could involve a lot more waiting than a well run buffet.
I really like the idea of family style (I haven't been to one like that yet) and buffet. It will save you the headaches of coordinating meals for every single person, and as a guest, I wouldn't have to decide immediately.
Generally I like buffet or stations better than seated. I've been to both very, very nice seated wedding dinners as well as ones where the food was not so good. In the former case, it's been very nice but a much more formal atmosphere which is not really my thing. If you don't luck out with great food, though, seated dinners are just depressing. At least with a buffet you can grab a ton of salad.
Oh! I have been to family style! The Garden Grill at Disney World just brings you a big plate of food and sets it down at your table and you can have whatever you want out of it...and then they bring you more! Mmm. @Miss Tattoo: You can see why I like this place!
The only thing I worry about is the picky eaters. They might only like chicken and then they hog all the chicken. I'm assuming you get enough so those picky people can't hog it all! I don't want to have to go to other tables and beg them for their chicken. I'm not saying I won't. I just don't want to have to.
I looooove family style!
I fell in love with this one venue, an italian restaurant with an exposed brick back room, with twinkle lights all over everything, that did family style dinner. It was entrees to order (we could pick 3 options), with bread, salad and veggies on the table family style. Oh my gosh, it would have been awesome.
And twice our budget, haha, so we went another route.
Oh neat! Sounds like Thanksgiving Dinner :) That has a really charming, family (I know, duh) aspect to it.
I prefer buffets because I can pick what I want to eat (and multiple entrees if they are offered) and how much of each thing I want to eat.
I love family style resturants and considered it for our wedding but I think that it's harder to do unless you really don't have centerpieces. No venue I looked at would even do family style and even if they would, their really isn't enough room on the tables for multiple servings dishes.
I've personally never been to a wedding with family style or cocktail serving- it has always been either buffet or sit down.
For me, I actually do prefer a buffet. I like the *look* of a seated dinner, but I have never been impressed with the food as a guest. They never give you very much, you can't go back for more if you're still hungry, it normally doesn't taste as great as you hope, and on top of that, the couple paid twice as much for it...
We're doing buffet style, not only because it's cheaper (ie. the only option within our budget), but because I do prefer it. We are required to have several servers b/c of the cleanup, so there will be more than one person serving the buffet, rather than people dipping it out themselves, which I think is nice.
I am intrigued by the idea of "family style" though (not that it will be an option b/c I don't think our caterer offers it) but I'm curious- for those who have been to a wedding like this, how does it work? Do they sit the plates at the table and you pass them around? What do you do with the extra plates? Do the centerpieces get in the way?
i love buffets because i can control what i eat and more importantly, how much! lol. I also love family style, we had that type for our second reception. the only problem was that there was NO ROOM WHATSOEVER on the table. we ordered too much, haha. :P
I'm a picky eater, so I love buffets so I can fill up my plate with whatever I like and not leave a side dish I hate laying on my plate because then I feel like I've wasted the bride and groom's money :P.
I love family style and insisted on it at my wedding. Actually, our venue only does that (it's an italian restaurant with a banquet room). There will be so much food on the table that no one will go hungry. I also feel like everyone gets fed faster since the waiters only have to serve the table and not the individual and you don't have a giant line waiting for the buffet. This way there will be more time for the dancing!!! I'm not really a fan of stations either. At the wedding I was at, it was almost worse than a straight up buffet since instead of going through one line to get all of your food, you had to walk all over the room to stand in several lines. Luckily I was a BM and got to skip most of the lines. :)
@tinylittlebird: Actually your statement is incorrect. At a lot of the venues we looked at, the buffet option is more expensive. At our venue, our sit-down dinner cost $10 less than the buffet option. I did see some places where it was the other way around... but at the very least its an even number. The statement of "twice as much" is a gross exaggeration.
To answer someone's question on how they do family style, I can only speak to how ours will go. It will still be in courses and the plates will be removed as people are done with them. For example, first will come the different salads. When that course is done, off with the salad plates. Next will come the pasta course. And the meat course. I don't plan on having huge centerpieces so that won't be an issue. I kind of consider this the lazy person's buffet since you still get to pick what you eat and how much but the food comes to you. :)
@zippylef: I think it depends on the type of venue. If it is a ballroom/hotel/catering hall, the plated dinner may be equal or less expensive because they already have the industrial kitchen and staff.
When you bring in an outside caterer to a location that doesn't normally do large sit down dinners and does not provide their own staff, you may end up spending a lot more because the catering company has to provide more staff than they would if you did a buffet.
For us, a plated dinner would cost more (not twice as much, but a fair bit more in "service" charges) because we are using a less traditional location.
@zippylef: As KatNYC2011 said, it isn't always less expensive to do a plated dinner. For our venue, we are required to choose from a list of caterers. The cheapest option was a vendor that only offers a buffet option. Most of the inexpensive options were buffet only.
The few caterers on the list were nearly twice as much- we are paying $10 a head, the places with plated dinners charged $15-25 a head.
I know it varies on location, venue, caterer, etc, but for us and our options, buffet was cheaper.
You must log in to post.
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| ellisrobertson | 23 |
| fishbone | 15 |
| MsPanda | 14 |
| aduarte3201 | 14 |
| pengoala | 11 |
| ShellVee | 10 |
| ladyartichoke | 10 |
| ndreighton | 10 |
| mypinkshoes | 9 |
 sylvia.riggle |
9 |
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| Zouave | 1 |
| billieUK | 1 |
| fishbone | 1 |
