Ideas for serving food? Help!

Are you having a caterer? They should provide their own staff. Talk to them and see what your options are. Otherwise look into party staffing companies that provide servers/bartenders, etc.

Hire servers.

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We are having it catered but they aren't offering staff right now to serve food.

View Quoted Comment Do a Google search in your area for party staffing.

I agree with PPs, there are plenty of staffing agencies or specific agencies that hire out waiters and servers. or ask your venue or caterer if they know of vendors

Don’t worry about hiring others, Just ask that the guests put gloves on to grab food and that’s all. Just have a box a gloves

What are you serving? Is it something that you could pre-package for them to just pick up and take to their table?

My wedding is also on June 20th. I'm sorry but in the current climate I would suggest hiring someone to serve your food. Please don't ask your guest to put on gloves to grab the food. If they're all going to be touching the glove box, then what's the point? I'm having a small backyard wedding with only 40 people and we decided to hire a bartender and made sure our food vendor would serve people for safety reasons. In my opinion it's just not worth the risk of your guest for them to be touching common items. I was surprised to find out how reasonable the bartenders were (and they also supply servers if I needed them); they were only $20 and I'm in Southern California.

Good luck with your day!!

The best option is to hire someone to serve people. Just start asking your friends if they know anyone who usually works in a restaurant. Since restaurants aren't really open/busy right now, some of them might be interested in.
If that doesn't work, the next best thing is to have your caterer package each person's meal separately. That way, each person takes one box off of a pile and doesn't touch anyone else's stuff.
If the caterer doesn't want to individually package every meal, have them break each item up into a few smaller dishes. Family style is safer than a buffet right now.If it absolutely has to be a buffet, everyone should wear masks as they go through the line (if people aren't breathing on each other or the utensils, the virus is unlikely to spread) and have hand sanitizer on every table.

Thumbtack might have servers you could hire.

I think it might depend on what’s allowed in your region? Like - some states are not allowing buffets - so if your area isn’t allowing buffets then I would think your caterer would have to work with you to find a way to make it work? Either way, maybe talk to your caterer about it to see if you can brainstorm solutions that can work for both of you? Also congrats on your big day coming up soon!

Gloves won't help, you need to hire servers. A buffet shouldn't require too many servers, as they would just be doing stations.

Check your local health regulations and search for a temp company.

I am also getting married June 20, 2020 and was having the same question. Thank you for posting yours! We also have a caterer and getting married in the country with just immediate family and the bridal party. We meet with our caterer in a few days and hope to have it figured out then. Good luck to you!

Hire someone inexpensive craigslist, thumbtack, local church friends, doesn't have to be expensive but explain hygiene, cross contamination, the importance of them using and disposing of gloves and mask.

I definitely agree with the PP about hiring a server. Look on the web through various outlets. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there looking to make some extra money and this is a place you definitely want to spend that little extra to ensure the safety of your guests and yourself.

I’m struggling with the same thing! I’m considering asking the cater to divide food into five family style dinners. That way my family members who have been quarantining together can share food. My wedding will only have 19 guests.


I'm hesitant to add staff and increase the numbers.

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Did you ask for any guidance from them? When I was planning to move forward with my June wedding, out caterer said we needed to talk about the new guidelines.

Normally temp companies have lists of people that do these kinds jobs for extra money. A google search should turn up some results quickly, and right now I'm sure there're more than a few people that would appreciate the extra cash!