Plated or seat down dinner ?

In my area buffet tends to be more affordable. But food is expensive and is normally the most expensive part of a wedding and eats up most of the budget. If your having trouble fitting dinner in your budget then have your reception be off meal time so you can just do appetizers and snack style food.

Mine is in Orange County, California. The venue I have the buffet is more expensive than the seated because there are more food options. I can' t speak for every venue, but when I was looking for venues most of the one I came across the buffet was more expensive.

My thought is keep looking or as Samantha said the appetizers during an off meal time. Good luck

Buffet is usually the cheapest option and quite frankly my favorite it allows people to eat what they want and doesn't waste food

At my venue the buffet is virtually the same price as the plated meal; we chose plated because neither of us are a fan of buffets. The downside is we have to provide placecards with an indication of meal choice (but since it's a wedding of 30 guests, no big deal).

Why don't you ask the caterers to give you price of buffet and seated? it really depends on the caterer and sometimes the price difference can be very minimal

We are having a buffet. At first I didn't like the idea but it now seems like it is the best option (for us) to go with. We will have two carving stations, a seafood station, gourmet salad bar, and for the fun of it a mac and cheese bar.

I also think the buffet will be beneficial because it will have the guests moving about and socializing!

At my venue buffet was more expensive. I personally hate buffets. So even if it was cheaper I wouldn't have done that route

Definitely look at the quotes that you are getting from caterers, I was really surprised when a plated meal is the cheapest option for me at my venue. The buffet and station options were both more expensive!

I am doing family style. That may be worth looking into

Every caterer is going to be different. The logical thing to do is to call some and compare. Don't forget that usually plated requires more staff.

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Honestly, you should have picked a more affordable venue. Your catering will be the biggest chunk of your wedding budget! Sometimes buffet is cheapest, but sometimes it actually cost more because they have to budget for more food. If you do a buffet, you definitely want to have buffet attendants so that they can portion out the food properly. Get some quotes for both and compare!