Catering

I'm personally always a fan of plated, especially with Covid. In my experience, food at every buffet (wedding or otherwise) I have ever eaten at resulted in cold, meh food that sat for too long before I got it. Family style is nice, but with Covid I feel like the less people touching food the better.

I agree with Hannah. I really like family style, but with Covid, I would go with plated. I would not even consider a buffet.

I think it would depend on if Covid is still an issue. I've never been to a family style wedding, but our wedding (pre-Covid) was buffet/stationary style. It worked out well and gave people options as to what they wanted at the wedding rather than weeks in advance.

Pre-COVID, we planned on doing family style. I definitely didn't want to deal with asking people their entree choice for plated. Buffet didn't really fit with our vibe, but was a better option in my head than plated.

Family style was our happy medium - until that could no longer be done. What we did instead was a plated buffet! Basically, every guest got a portion of every item on our menu (so they got a normal salad, rolls, etc., and then a plate with beef, fish, and our two sides) served directly to them.

Everyone loved it. If you're looking for a compromise, I'd ask your venue if they can do something similar.

I'm a big fan of buffets. I personally like that there are more options to choose from, so if you don't like something, you don't have to have it on your plate and waste the food. We're choosing buffet style for our wedding because it makes the most sense to us. All of the weddings we've attended have had a buffet style reception, and we have had no complaints for any of them! You really just have to pick the right caterer.

As far as COVID goes, the last wedding we attended had a buffet style dinner and the caterer had a server to plate your food. You told them what you wanted and what you didn't want. Just be sure to talk to you caterer to see what their thoughts are!

We’re opting for a buffet style but there will be staff there to serve /dish it. I didn’t want the added cost of hiring more people for a plated meal.

I'm not a fan of family style for several reasons. Usually tables are not big enough to hold all dishes (no room for centerpieces but those are always optional), plates are heavy and prone to spilling food on your fancy clothes (similar to family holiday dinners), and you always feel obligated to take something you're not interested in.


Plated is nice because no one has to get up. But you have to be very explicit with listing sauces, side dishes, etc on the reply card/website when getting your counts from guests to prevent wasted food. Most people don't want to go to that level of detail because they want the easiest quickest answer.
Stations allow the choice that a buffet offers where guests can avoid things they don't like and aren't able to eat, while having staff prepare and dish up the food. It's Covid compliant where a regular buffet or family style is not.

Plated or buffet with servers is a better idea right now during covid. of course though your wedding is pretty far away so then family style might be fine by then! i did family style for my wedding and it was a cultural thing since that's what we're used to. but i always felt like the portions were bigger in family style! just because the amount of food brought out is larger it feels.

We are doing a served buffet for our big wedding in March. We chose the buffet because we were offered more entrees for only a little more money. So we took the package with more food

We decided on plated (because of the formality of the wedding, and COVID). We will be serving dual plating chicken and fish, so we will only need to make adjustments if someone had dietary restrictions. (Example if someone doesn’t eat chicken, or fish, or are gluten free, or vegetarian).


I am hoping it’s not a headache once we get back the rsvp.

I wouldn't recommend buffet style during the pandemic

If buffet is served behind a shield by staff, it is as sanitary if you carried the plate as if waitstaff. Use plate covers if need be.

Whatever beer fits your budget. Plated can be expensive but if you can afford it I’d go that route