Thoughts on 1 entree dinner?

I've attended a couple of weddings with one choice entrees of the same exact food your caterer listed. I didn't like that, so for my wedding we had 3 options.

I’ve never attended a wedding where there was no option. We did family style so every table had two entree platters. What is the chicken marinated in? I would be concerned about dietary restrictions on the marinade.

I went to one wedding where there was only 1 entree with no choices offered. Guests didn’t like it and were talking about how they didn’t like not having a choice.

I attended a wedding last year with one choice entrée. It was chicken; however, they offered grilled and bbq chicken. So there was an option but it was still chicken. I've attended two weddings like this. I don't have an issue with it but some people may.

Every wedding I’ve been two has had at least three options (two plus a vegetarian). Our wedding had four options (including a vegetarian). I’m honestly not a fan of this because - a) what is the marinade? Sometimes I choose meals based specifically on the sauces and marinades. Also some guests may not be vegetarian but they may be allergic/sensitive/unfavorable to the marinade; and b) unless you’re having a very intimate family only wedding with no plus ones/significant others you’re not close with, I wouldn’t count on knowing all your guests are vegetarian or don’t have dietary restrictions. My mom isn’t vegetarian, no one knows her as a vegetarian but she usually eats vegetarian. Two of my good friends are like that too. H and I joked that we had no vegetarians on our guest list and, although the number was very small, we had a couple handfuls of vegetarians.

How much extra does it cost to add another entree option?

I’ve been to one. It was horrible. Half the guests didn’t eat the entree because of the marinade on it. A lot of unhappy wedding guests that night. I know you said you’re having appitizers but some won’t fill up on those knowing a plated dinner is coming.

You all are definitely confirming my gut feeling. Kinda like summer987 said, One option could be grilled chicken with marinade (its like a terriyaki glaze) and then one option without the marinade - just normal grilled chicken.

We probably need to reconsider this 1 entree option and potentially upgrade it to at least two options. We were wondering if we would need to ask people what they would prefer option A or B, or if it is buffet style, just serve enough food for people to have some of both??

Our wedding is limited to immediate family, aunts, uncles and first cousins, roughly 75 person guest list. However, Our wedding will take place 3+ hour drive for everyone, so we do anticipate some declines. You're right that we may not be taking into consideration all the dietary restrictions of potential S/O. etc.

I don't have a problem with it. When we go to a dinner party or when we host a dinner party, the guests are not given a choice of entree. When I attend a banquet for any other reason, we are not given a choice of entree.

I've only attended one wedding where there was no choice in entreé. Every other wedding I've been to at meal time had a choice of two entreés with some kind of meat and a vegetarian option, or had a buffet with choices.

The one wedding that had no choice in entreé was a duo plate. There was beef and chicken with sides on the plate served to each guest. This way, if a guest had a meat preference, they could choose to eat just the beef or just the chicken, or could trade with their date or friend so one of them had all chicken and the other had all beef. I didn't mind not having a choice in this scenario because I still had the option to eat one piece of meat if I didn't like one of them.

Many caterers accommodate guests with special dietary needs (vegetarian, GF, food allergies) at no additional cost. Ours did. This could involve removing/replacing a sauce or serving an alternate dish. I know you're certain you have no vegetarians, but it would be worthwhile to ask you caterer about how they accommodate guests who are GF or have food allergies, just in case.

You really don’t know that none of your guests are vegetarian. We had 15 people request the vegetarian option and I honestly only thought 3 of them were vegan or vegetarian. I would at least make sure you have a vegetarian meal option in addition to the chicken.

I just attended a wedding that had no choices and it was served family style with no explanation from the servers what everything was... I know it was a chicken dish but the rest was confusing and everyone was talking about not having an option at our table. My FFIL was very upset with no choice and let everyone know, so embarrassing but it was true. It was awful, in my opinion you should allow your guests some choices.

I attended a wedding that had no meal option everyone got chicken.. and I didn’t hear anyone complain, I mean don’t get me wrong I like the idea of having options but it really didn’t bother me to much.. I’m only have two options for my meal, a surf&turf dish ( steak and stuffed shrimp )- or a chicken dish.. my venue will cater specifically to any vegetarians or dietary needs without having to put the option

Duo plates (usually a steak and a fish) are very common where I live and with the weddings I've attended. I've never heard anyone complain about them. That being said, have just chicken is a little odd to me.

View Quoted Comment That’s a great point - I personally don’t like teriyaki and would hope there would be a different (or plain) option.

If you decide to upgrade to two options, I think plated of buffet is fine. We chose to do a plated meal, mostly because we wanted everyone to sit down and not be bustling around getting food. We also wanted to start dinner and get the speeches and dances out of the way. And the buffet was actually $8-10 more expensive per person.

I'm allergic to chicken, and I'm not a happy camper when forced to order the vegetarian option (because events cannot accommodate food allergies).

I honestly wouldn't care.

No, I've never attended a wedding that didn't give a choice in entree, regardless of how many apps were served for cocktail hour.

I'd be put off by it, honestly. Cookies and cupcakes have nothing to do with the entree, and is not a justification for not giving a choice in entree.

View Quoted Comment

I just felt like it was relevant to give you all the context of what other foods were being offered.

Thank you all for your feedback. Hopefully when we do our tasting we find a 2nd dish we are comfortable serving to give guests an option. I think because we love chicken, we thought it would be a nice universally accepted entree to serve. But I think we should try to find at least different variations of chicken, or another meat and meatless option all together.

I also hadn't thought about asking the caterer about accommodating dietary restrictions, thank you for bringing that to my attention!!

I went to a wedding that offered one entree and it was fish because the wedding was on a Friday during Lent. I did not like this only because I don't like fish and another guest sitting with us is allergic. But I would be okay with a grilled chicken option like you mentioned because that is something more universally liked. If you go this route, I would recommend announcing the menu before hand by adding it to your wedding website if you have one. That way people are aware up front.