Stations or Family Style for Dinner

I think my concern with stations is the long lines that it creates and then people aren't being well fed. I've been to two weddings with stations and felt it was a nuisance. Maybe if you have plenty of stations with good portions and a low guest count this would be a good idea!

I would prefer family style, I think it may be cluttered but only for up to an hour so it won't last long if that helps

I agree with others that I really dislike a buffet or stations for a formal event. If I'm wearing a nice dress (and likely not incredibly comfortable shoes), I'd really rather not have to go stand in line and then carry my food across the room. "Small plate stations" to me are worse than a buffet because it means I either have to go get food multiple times or just not eat much and be pretty hungry. Personally, I prefer a plated meal, but my second choice would be family style.

Might be worth a discussion with your venue, caterer, and/or wedding planner. We had the option of buffet $, plated $$ or family style $$$ and went with plated.

When creating our wedding timeline some on WW suggested that plated can take longer because all of the guests need to be brought individual plates, so I asked our venue/caterer about it when reviewing our wedding timeline with her and she said there wasn't a significant difference in service time between the three meal styles at our venue for our sized group.

I was then chatting about our menu with a co-worker who used to work as a wedding planner and she said she preferred plated because it actually took the least amount of time to serve, was the easiest to ensure any food restrictions were met and no cross contamination of allergens happened, and resulted in the least amount of food waste. She said buffets often take much longer than plated meals because someone needs to release the tables to eat then people move through the lines at their own pace and it is almost always less efficient, time wise, than direct service. At buffets people often go up for seconds too, which can extend the amount of time needed for dinner, and for any style where guests self serve, the caterer usually needs to prep extra food since guests will not give themselves consistent portions and its important not to run out. In her opinion, plated was the best way to ensure everyone got an appropriate amount of food and that the dinner service happened in a timely manner.

At our venue family style was the most expensive option because of all the extra serving bowls/plates required and they generally make a larger quantity of the same amount of food to ensure everyone gets fed. Plus there is extra clean up required and family style can just end up messier depending on how elegant or clumsy your guests are.

Not trying to swing you in any one direction, but your venue/caterer should have a much better idea of what it looks like to serve people using those methods and you may find you end up preferring one over the other because of the venue layout and available space, how much time you want dinner to take, concerns over dietary needs, etc.

Is there anyway your venue can show you what the table would look like if you did a family style dinner? Obviously without the food on them, or with the food if they're doing a tasting with you. I think if you were able to see what the tables looked like with the place settings for each guest and then the food on top of it, you would be able to make your decision. Do you think your venue would allow you to see the what the layout would be for each option? Some venues use some program where you can see the layout of the space with your tables set up for each scenario.

Personally I like the station idea. This is b/c the table would be less cluttered. I know some do not like the idea of their guests being in line for food, but every wedding I've been to where they've had stations or a buffet, the line always moves fast; especially if you have servers to speed up the process.

I originally wanted to do family style, but ended up going with platted. I like family style much better than stations or buffets. We couldn't do it for two reasons: 1. Room at the table. If all of our guest RSVP yes, we will need to do 10 to a table and wouldn't have room. 2. My mom doesn't like the idea of reaching over the table in fancy dresses lol

Oh yeah stations and buffet were not options in her head. Walking with plates in a dress was outrageous to her lol

Yea that isn't super helpful, although obviously what you serve hugely factors into the price. Obviously a hand carved roast or an expensive cut of meat is going be be expensive no matter how you serve it, and proteins like chicken and pork tend to be less expensive than lobster. Your caterer should be able to offer you price comparisons for a basic chicken dish served different ways though.

I personally don't feel like plated meals deprive people of options, and whenever my FH and I have been at weddings we almost always order different plates so we can try each other's food, and we generally end up sampling almost everything anyway. But I think you should go with whatever style you think fits your, your venue, and your guests best!