Formal Wedding with a Buffet. Who has pulled this off?

I've seen very formal weddings with a buffet but it was usually for a smaller group - like 80 people. It's hard to feed 180 people with a buffet unless you have about 3 different buffet lines. With a plated meal, the waitstaff can get everyone fed in a reasonably short period of time. Otherwise your guests will be waiting to eat for a long time. I worked weddings as a waitress for years, so this is from that experience.

We did a buffet style but our wedding was still very formal. We only had about 65 guests, but if done right, I don't think it matters much. I say do what works best within your budget and your preference/style.

You can absolutely pull it off, but you need two of every station; two pasta stations, two cavring stations, two grill stations, ideally split up around the room so not everyone is on line at once.. Serve salad and dessert at the table so they're not putting salad on their dinner plate, which is gross and messy. Play light dance music while tables are called. It can work.

Our wedding will end up being 100 guests. We will have 2 buffet lines with a carving station at the end. I never really thought about "formality" being decided if the wedding dinner is sit down/buffet. I just figured it meant on location, time, attire, etc. I've been to sit down dinners where it was catered in a park before. It was still an informal wedding because of the location, decor, attire, etc. You can still have a formal wedding if you want without the sit down dinner, but I can see why it would be more formal with waiters!

Buffet doesn't seem formal to me personally. The closest thing I've seen of such that pulled it off is family style. Where waitstaff bring a serving dish of foods to the table and each person fills their plate to their content until it runs out at which time the waitstaff replenishes the food. I really don't like the chaos of calling tables, lines and the the idea of choosing who waits to eat by being called later that is associated with buffets. Family style all tables are attended to at relatively the same time.

Is the idea of buffet for budget or to allow people to take as much as they need to feel full?

Most family weddings I go to are buffet, with a guest list of 150. It's not they bad. My wedding will be the same

We have a guest list of 192; and it's a buffet. I would prefer my guests to have a variety of items to choose from so they find something they can enjoy, rather than get a plate of something they ordered 2 months ago and end up not liking. Just ensure that whoever is calling the tables is spacing them out enough so your lines aren't too long, but not too much that one table is done eating before others are called.

Thank you ladies! I feel better about the logistics of a buffet!

I would say go with stations over buffet, I think that will make it more formal. And definitely have servers, rather than people dishing them selves. Also I agree with the suggestion to have a plated salad.

Our friends just had a very formal wedding with a buffet. It was delish. I prefer them actually

You might consider how you want to keep things moving during dinner. To avoid long lines and unnecessary congestion, I would recommend having a classy way of release tables so that people can enjoy themselves while waiting for food. One way is releasing tables by song. Cards can be made up displaying the song title/artist and placed on tables. Generally 2 to 3 tables at a time can be released per song. This keeps a great flow and allows those waiting to stay seated and continue to converse instead of waiting in a long line. Just a thought!

Have your DJ do a fun game to get each table up to the buffet. If you have a good DJ..... I have seen VERY fancy weddings with buffets. Also I am having plated and my wedding isn't very formal!

We had 180 + at our reception, we had an extremely formal event and a buffet dinner. It was perfect. The buffet was set in a separate room, the dj released everyone by table, there was no mess or confusion, everyone loved all the food and how quick and easy dinner was. I'm not exactly sure how he released the tables, because I was busy eating and enjoying my first dinner with my husband, but from what I hear, everyone loved how painless getting their food was.

There must be people serving; people serving themselves take far too long.

We're doing stations buffet, that way there's a variety of food and it gives a more "formal" appeal than just the regular buffet, plus there's less lines to worry about, since there'll be 3 tables.

There are levels of formality at weddings. At the extremely formal wedding, it isn't just tableside service, it's tableside/white glove service. Very formal weddings can also offer four/five menu selections that have not been ordered two months in advance (we didn't see the point of white glove service, but at my daughter's wedding, any guest had the option of ordering from four selections on the spot without pre-ordering on the RSVP). The theory with plated meals is that your guests remain seated and engaged in conversation while their meals are brought to them. They are not inconvenienced in the slightest. That's not to say that taking your place on a buffet line equals inconvenience in the scheme of life, but in the scheme of weddings, one reflects a higher level of service than that other. So, if your goal is purely to provide the most formal service available, plated is the way the go.

In your case, with 180 guests and a dinner buffet, you are probably talking about 18 tables. If you're going to do a buffet, have two complete stations set up. Tables should be called two at a time.

We did buffet for a semi-formal/dressy wedding. There were 2 lines, and we had the DJ release 2 tables at a time, so people could just hang out at their table until their turn. They had been fed at appetizer stations prior to the meal, and most people brought plates with their apps (and their drinks, of course) in to the reception area, so they noshed on that while waiting. It didn't take too long to get everyone fed.

We're doing a brunch buffet with about 85ish people at a golf club...we decided after we went to a bridal shower at the same venue...they had servers at each item and they would personally walk around to each table to call them up and serve drinks. I thought they did a wonderful,classy job. The additional bonus was the food stations are lined up against the windows with a beautiful view of the golf courses and ski mountain.

Buffets are nice, that being said; they're nice for intimate weddings. Long lines sucks and without potion control, you can run out of food. After watching a few 4 weddings Episodes, I think buffets didn't score too high. It truly depends on your guest count, after 100 it can causes problems.

I am not sure about in Florida, but I am in Michigan and I had a formal wedding with a buffet. Everything was beautiful and we got SO many compliments on the food.

@ Karen – this isn’t necessarily true. We served 380 people in about 20 minutes on a buffet. There were 4 buffet lines set up which were each double sided. Our guests were release by table to the buffet beginning at 6:30 and we were dancing by 7:30/8 when everyone was done

I think it boils down to what Celia said – as long as you have enough lines/buffets set up to accommodate the amount of guests you have, you’re fine!

Also, our guests served themselves.