Do you get to keep the excess food after the reception??

Definitely ask. I know my aunt asked them to box my cousin's leftover meals, and they did. Frankly, you paid for them. I feel like you are entitled to them, and if at all possible, they should keep them for you. (Obviously if it's outdoors, and they can't refrigerate or whatever, then that may not be an option, but at a place that does their own catering, why not? Freeze and enjoy later

Our caterer is packaging everything up for us once they tear down the buffet. Our venue actually has multiple locations in the park so we picked one of the ones where we weren't tethered to their in house catering. Overpriced and the food is blah. Their in house catering considers any leftovers to be theirs. You're only paying for what is consumed, not provided. I don't know about health codes and liability, but as a former employee of this place I know that the leftovers are put out in the staff lunchroom where staff are then asked to pay $3. Yep. They're charging staff for the food YOU paid for. We've even seen wedding cake put out where the bride and groom weren't allowed to take leftovers of that if they used the in house baker.

So yeah, we picked the venue on site that allowed us to bring in our own caterer and baker.

It's normal. Most caterers won't allow it although a few will. It's a liability thing. The food will have been out for hours by the time you leave the reception. (Unless the caterer has a specific food storage plan).

We used to donate to two different charities; the difference is that the charities required us to be very strict about what we could donate and we were protected by some kind of 'good samaritan" law.

On the subject of featured? We pay, handsomely, to be featured. It has nothing to do with quality. Look to reviews, here and elsewhere for that.

We're taking home a plate for myself, fh and our daughter after the wedding, the rest will go to feed the staff or will be disposed of due to health code and liability issues for my area. We're having a buffet dinner, so I'm not sure if that differs at all from a plated meal.

That is fairly normal for liability reasons like others have said.

We are having a buffet that will be served for 1 1/2 hours. Our catering contract has a clause that the only way we can take leftovers is to pay a fee and sign a liability waiver. And honestly I don't want the leftovers. We are staying at a nearby hotel on our wedding night and I wouldn't want family to have to take it home and deal with it.

As for cake, we are buying to go boxes so people can take some home. We will take a big portion for us to eat at the hotel