Plated, Buffet, or Stations!? What's everyone doing for their wedding?

We are planning on doing a plated meal.

We served stations. We had a carving station, a mashed potato and macaroni bar, and a taco/fajita station. Our wedding was the Saturday before Thanksgiving, so we wanted guests to have another option besides the traditional protein and sides meal.

We’re Doing A Buffet With A Meat Station.

It’s hard to know with Covid. We’ve postponed our big celebration until next year. If things are safer and more “back to normal” we will do a buffet with a carving station.


We had a small wedding this month with our bridal party and parents and did stations. Everyone loved it!

Our cocktail hour will have stations and our dinner will have plated meals. Initially we were going to do buffet so that our guests had several options, but I felt plated was more formal, plus everyone will probably be full from all our selections at cocktail hour tbh haha.

We are going out to eat at a restaurant :-)

We did a plated, family style, meal. It allowed everyone to get what they wanted, and they could also have as much as they liked. Our servers brought out food until the table said stop. I prefer seated dinners to buffets/stations because it keeps our reception space from getting cluttered with people and your guests aren't waiting in line forever.

Like you, we wanted options and ended up with a served buffet with 3 major entree choices.


Regarding your date. I would lock in your venue and chug through the list of quoting and signing up vendors. Signing them all at the same time is unrealistic.

We chose to have a plated meal, mainly because I detest a buffet more than I can even express LOL I tend to be a germophobe though, so the idea of other people hovering over, breathing on, potentially coughing or sneezing on my food gives me the willies. I literally don’t eat at weddings that have a buffet- I just bring a meal replacement bar in my purse 😆😆 Another thing to consider when deciding on buffet, is whether there will be Covid restrictions in place during your wedding (not sure how soon you are getting married). I think stations are a cool idea, and give a nice middle ground between plated and buffet. They are typically manned by a server, so a lot less hands in the cookie jar so to say LOL And like you said, they give guests a lot more choices!

I think stations would be great!

We are doing a buffet style. I had really wanted to add the pasta station, but the coordinator at the venue strongly advised against it. She said it overheats the venue (and we are getting married in August), and it really slows everything down. People wait way too long to get their food. So as much as I loved the idea of it, in reality it didn't sound like a great plan. I'd check with your venue and caterers on how well stations have worked at other weddings. I've heard similar slow serving stories of people doing food truck weddings.

We had planned buffet ( pre-covid) because it was cheaper. When it came down to giving a final guest count, I had explained if we can switch to plated and he told me he would make the accommodations of having people serve the food and having tables separately get up and get food.

I am not getting married until 2022 we are having a italian buffet

Because covid we're doing buffet, cafeteria style. So we hired an extra employee from our caterer so they can serve the food on the plate for our guests. We also could only afford 1 entres and 3 sides. One of the sides is a pasta so I think that can be considered as an alternative to the main entree.

We are doing a buffet since my family has been doing buffets in their weddings.

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Im having a 2022 wedding also! were most likely sticking with italian theme, and stations!

Preferably stations. Gives guests a hot (or cold as appropriate) variety while being served and covering all diet types and tastes. Also plenty of food that guests will not go home hungry.

I polled my guests about what they wanted, because I had serious safety concerns with Covid, evening though we still have a year to go. The vast, vast majority of them want a buffet, like 70-3 was the vote. So that's what we're doing. We did only have two options though, buffet or plated! We are also having a cocktail hour with nice hors d'oeuvres and it'll be great. Our venue does offer that vegetarians/vegans can have a plated option that is unlimited like the buffet and also that if kids aren't going to want to eat the food on the buffet, they can order a kids meal (but can't change their minds halfway through and go to the buffet), so we're happy to offer that as well.

We are palnning on doing doing a buffet dinner. I also like the idea of letting my guest be able to pt what they want on their plates and not be limited one choice that we choose. We are having like a sould food buffet with tons of different varieties.