To Be Plated Or Not To Be?

There are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind when deciding whether to offer a plated or buffet style dinner for your event: 

1) Space:  a buffet line will take up more space at your reception site so will decrease the usable space for dinner tables and dance area.  

 

 

2) Choice of main course: if offering a plated dinner with an option for the main course, you’ll need to utilize the RSVP card in your invitation to have your Guests make their selection.  So, this requires time to make your menu decisions prior to the invitations being mailed out as well as tracking the entrée selections as the RSVPs are returned. 

3) Serving main course:  if you opt to offer multiple options, you’ll then need to have something on the dinner table to indicate what each Guest selected for their main course so the Waitstaff knows what to serve to whom. Most Couples include this on the placecard – maybe a different color ribbon to differentiate the options, or a sticker, or different color card stock. 

4)  Timing:  the timing of special events throughout the reception will be a bit different.  Once Guests begin going through the buffet line, there’s really no way to interrupt for toasts or special dances.  So, we would either take care of these before dinner starts or wait until everyone is finished.  With a plated option, everyone is seated for the duration of dinner and with the time in between courses, we can go ahead and have some of those special events take place. 

5) Variety: with a buffet, you’ll be able to offer a much larger selection of dishes to your Guests.  Instead of one appetizer, one salad and the main course during a plated event, there will often be 3x that many for each course.

 

                        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mouth is watering as I write this!

~Jenny