PAPER PLATES at a wedding?!

I did, and I had a regular caterer, not a BBQ one. But there were going to be plastic everything, not paper, but also plastic cups, silverware, napkins. I said hell no, does not go with my wedding. I paid extra to have the rental company provide it all. the rental company brought them in crates and expected them back in the crates at the end of the night. why don't you look into hiring just a few people to cut the cake, clean up (because if your caterer doesn't do this you will definitely need this service provided by someone), etc.? ask other vendors if they know a place you can hire from

Can you bring in "fancier" plastic plates/cutlery instead? If you have someone who is driving to the venue maybe they could bring them along. Saves you the trouble of using the venue's stuff but you also get something nicer than paper (also paper plus BBQ sauce equals soggy plates).

If they don't provide the service (and you haven't yet asked if they would wash the dishes) it's just something that they won't do. The last 2 weddings I went to had disposable plates and cutlery, the only reason why I remember is because it was the only 2 weddings I've gone to in my adult life... I didn't think it was a big deal, but if you want it more fancy it's just something that you'll have to figure out! Could you hire someone to wash and polish?

I don't think it would be much fun to try and eat bbq with a plastic fork. I'd do what Mrs. Temme says sorta. I'd do plastic glasses, real plates and silverware and a pile of paper napkins. Hire a couple of people to clean up (or ask your caterer if you could give a couple of their people some money to do it .

The nicer plastic plates and cutlery don't really save you much; they are almost as much per piece as renting.

I would purchase plastic plates instead. They are cheap and disposable, but the food wont leak through. You can find some really nice ones on smartyhadaparty.com that I saw. Any design and some actually look like they're glass.

THANK YOU everyone for the input! The venue provides wine and champagne glasses, which is nice. Promike, thank you for the recommendation I will check them out!

At our wedding, we hired a caterer who did not do the service part. We therefore hired a serving company to do the rest- clean, bus, serve, etc.

Plastic glasses and paper napkins- people could not care less. Seriously. It does not matter. But paper plates and plastic cutlery- some people may find this "informal" and hard to eat with. Get some more formal stuff and have your hired professionals deal with it if it is something you are worried about.

We have hired a company that does service (At Your Service) of anything we would like. It is owned by a previous caterer and she and her staff will come and plate our appetizers, serve them, keep everything stocked and picked up and will wash the dishes and silverware. We are also having catered BBQ and we did not want to use paper or plastic plates. They will also be putting out our later in the evening munchie bar, & will help tare down. Here is the best part, for two people its $300.00, and an additional $150.00 for each person after that....all for 6 hours. What a score. I would check around for a serving company in your area.

I would use the nicer stuff provided by the venue, and hire servers to handle it. Ask your venue if they can recommend a service, this is probably not the first time they've had to deal with this.

We're just using paper plates and plastic silverware, but our venue and wedding is very relaxed and casual. You could always hire an outside rental service that will bring the dishes and wash them for you. It sucks to have to add the extra cost when the venue provides the dish ware, though. Maybe you could offer to pay the caterer extra to do the dishes for you.

We cannot have glass at our venue so this was how we compromised: I got "fancy" plastic plates in white with metallic rims. We are also going to have chargers on the tables. BUT we are having real silverware and real napkins. Paper is just not weighty enough for a wedding.

Probably by the time you buy everything you need in a good quality, it would be cheaper to use the real stuff and pay two people to wash them.

Interesting dilemma. My caterer is BBQ is providing plastic plates and nice looking plastic silverware.

Our caterer doesn't do the bussing part of service, but our venue has staff for that...

I agree, paper plates and BBQ just doesn't sound too well... splurge for the nicer plastic ones at the very least.

I wouldn't do paper plates. They have some pretty nice hard plastic clear plates and they aren't expensive at all! You can probably get them at party city, walmart, and maybe even dollar tree!

Like others have said, maybe you can hire 2 or 3 extra staff from somewhere to help with the plates. I would also ask the BBQ caterer more about the plates they provide. Some disposables are better than others. I would think the plates they offer would be of reasonable quality to hold up well enough for whatever they serve. I can't imagine they'd be anything like flimsy pizza-parlor type plates. (But you should ask, just to be sure.) In our case, we offer Chinet brand disposable plates

----mychinet dot com/products/family/1------ They're heavy duty and attractive and much less work than real china. Some of our clients have have done half-n-half. They used real silverware and cloth napkins at the tables along with our Chinet disposables on the buffet. That works out great for a lot of the tented weddings we do. It's a good balance between formal vs too casual for many wedding events. Good luck.

Don't do plastic! Not because of how it looks or anything but because of the environment!

If you want disposable look at this company http://www.thewholeleafco.com/page/2/disposable-party-plates-tableware/

My friend who got married last year used these and they are much, much sturdier than plastic knives, forks and plates, they are funky, and they are completely environmentally friendly. Honestly. I know plastic is easy but it is so bad for the environment..