Quick question for brides that's doing buffet style reception...

The guests can serve themselves, but you will need someone to make sure the chafing dishes are refilled when they run out. Check Craigslist. You might be able to hire a server on there who will take care of it for you.

My guests are serving themselves. I haven't figured out who is serving cake yet though.

Well our venue is a hotel, which is catering our reception as well. But we have having a lot of finger foods/appetizers so it's not really "buffet" the servers will be standing behind the food I would think just in case somebody needs "help" lol. But maybe you should see if your cousin knows anybody since they are catering it for you. If not you have any friends or family to help? That doesnt mind missing some of the reception as a guest? I'm not much help lol sorry girl.

Guests are serving themselves at the buffet, and can come choose a cupcake when its cake time. only FH and I are eating slices of cake. A small cutting tier and thats it.

Serving themselves

As someone who has served at a lot of wedding buffets, I would just caution a couple of things.

1. If you let people serve themselves, make sure there is a LOT of food. Some of them will *ahem* over-serve themselves, and you don't want to run out of food for the people at the back of the line. One advantage to having servers is, they are trained to say nice things like, "Oh, I'm glad you like our ham! I'd love to give you more, but would you mind waiting until everyone is served, and then come back and see me. I'll try to save a big slice for you."

2. If you are having a fancy, tiered wedding cake, make sure whoever is slicing it knows how. I have seen them really get mangled. (Still tasted good, though!) Also there is an art to getting as many slices as possible for a very large crowd, especially from that gigantic bottom tier.

I hope this advice is helpful and not just adding new worries to the pile! Good luck!

Guests are serving themselves and our venue is cutting and serving the cake

Just had this discussion with my Mother and she did NOT like my answer, too bad. My guests are serving themselves.

I don't really know who served them. I feel like the guests served themselves just from the pictures I've seen of how everything was laid out. I can't picture it working any other way, at least when it came to our situation.

I've been to a wedding though where it was a buffet and the catering staff still served us. I don't really care either way as long as I get fed at a wedding

My guest are serving themselves but we're going to have people monitoring. like incase someone decides they want to use their hands or something is running low etc.

Guests are serving themselves, but the caterer in our case will make sure there are no empty pans of food... you need to have someone check the dishes to refill from the kitchen when necessary.

There is a "manager" there at all times to answer questions about food, etc...but the guests are serving themselves!

You can hire someone through an event staffing company (just google "event staffing" with your location). I don't think you need someone to serve guests, but you will need to have someone to make sure the chaffing dishes stay filled and also maybe help with clean up. Alternatively, if your cousin caters semi-professionally, she may have some sources for reliable people, or you can see if "taskrabbit" is available in your area (an online service that matches people who can offer any kind of help with errands/tasks with people who need help). I would try to avoid Craigslist if you can. . .

Those are good tips @Dawn. That has happened at weddings I've attended that had no servers.

And I'd hate for someone to butcher my cake!

I would at least have a couple of people to oversee everything. You don't want people standing around looking confused about something or empty pans. Some direction will keep things flowing.

The good thing about a buffet is the guests can serve themselves. We're having a buffet but the caterer has agreed to cut the cake for us. Dawn, thanks for the tips. I'm going to be sure to ask him if he has experience cutting wedding cakes. He's also going to see if he can bring along a couple of guys to bartend the wine & beer for us. I actually like the idea of just putting the beer bottles in a tub of ice. But I think it's nicer if someone pours the wine. Plus, like Dawn said, I'm worried about "over pouring".

My guests will be serving themselves but the restaurant we will be using will be monitoring the line.

We have one person who is serving the meat because our caterer said otherwise someone will take WAY too much and there won't be enough for everyone else.

Served themselves.

We are having buffet stations, and there will be a caterer person serving the guests at each of the stations. As Dawn stated above, and as my venue coordinator cautioned, people tend to over serve themselves, so there is a high probability that you will run out of a certain item before all guests have had a chance to move through the line (unless you over ordered on the food!).

Our buffet has servers from our hall. The cake will be cut by the servers, but left on a table for people to pick up on their own.

Without servers you still need to have someone ensure that dishes don't run low, etc.