Plated salad before stations dinner?

Hi all! Sorry this is long! We’re doing stations for dinner at our reception and trying to figure out the best format for salads. After cocktail hour (which will have passed hors d’oeuvres and antipasti stations), guests will move into the reception area and take their seats. This is when we would get introduced, do our first dance, possibly do toasts, etc. Then the chef stations would open for dinner (a carving station, pasta station, and a taco station). Later in the night, there will be an ice cream sundae bar for dessert, and at the very end passed late night snacks.

Our caterer strongly recommends doing a plated salad when guests first get into the reception. He said that gets everyone in their seats for some of the formalities and gives the evening some structure. However, when we had discussed this with the other caterer we were considering (not the one we’re using), he was suggesting a buffet of salads during the dinner instead. Our caterer is happy to do whatever we want but I’m not sure what makes more sense.

Thoughts? Do you think it’d be weird to have a plated salad if nothing else the entire night will be served to guests in their seats? Or do you think our caterer is right about needing that formality at the beginning of the reception?

Thanks in advance!