What kind of food and drinks should be served at a wedding reception?

Question

im getting married and dont know what kinds of foods and drinks people usually serve at their reception... help!

Answer 1

Congrats on your engangement.

Yes, I'm going to hop on board with all the other answerers: what you serve at your wedding will depend on your budget. Once you have established your budget for your reception, you can start to price out costs of meals.

Your next dilemma (assuming, of course that your budget is NOT limitless) will be to look at your budget and prioritize. Obviously, a full sit-down dinner will cost more than a buffet dinner, and an appetizer/dessert reception will cost less still. Would you rather invite fewer people and serve a full meal, or invite MORE people and serve appetizers/desserts? There is no right or wrong answer here - that decision is yours to make, and quite literally, anything goes! You'll have to obviously talk to your fiance, in-laws-to-be and your parents to determine approximately how many people you're planning on inviting.

For what it's worth, when we planned our wedding, we had a buffet-style dinner (we had over 500 people at our wedding. It made the most sense!) and decided to go with 2 meat choices (a chicken entree and a beef entree), a pasta entree, two vegetable choices and a salad.

Don't panic. I know this is a lot of information! Once you find a hall, your caterer will help you through a lot of this. Best of luck to you!

Answer 2

Its all according to your budget darling. You can have a 5 course meal, buffet, or just a cocktail reception. You first need to figure out how many ppl you will have and then go from there. You can serve anything you like, its your wedding and your money. Choose a theme if you like and have mexican food or italian food.

Answer 3

Wow that's long a long time frame you have. You;ll most likely be out before midnight. I would suggest pushing the ceremony back to about 4:30 and do your photos after the ceremony with you and your husband, the bridal party, and give time for the photos and personal thank yous with friends and family. You should do a buffet dinner and a dessert table to follow. Make sure you have someone in charge of the the dessert table so they don't touch it until after the cake is cut. You can also put out light hor dourves on the same table. Good Luck

Answer 4

well, this thing only depends what type of culture wedding it is and the budgeting you have.But if you were having a reception in a palace type place then i would suggest that you would want serve high classed food. if you are serving in a small town place where you don't eat rich food then go for the normal classed food that doesn't cost much money. so pr5etty much it all depends on what type of wedding your gonna have.anyways good luck and congrates if it's your wedding and if it's not then say congrates on behave of me.

Answer 5

I think you should serve whatever you like! Any kind of food, you can find a caterer to bring it. For my wedding, we had a choice of two dishes - my favorite and my husband's favorite!

Most restaurants these days are willing to cater so it's easy to do more than the traditional chicken or fish selection. I think that you should think about what you and your fiance like, as well as if you have a theme to your wedding, you could incorporate that style into your food choice. Good luck!

Answer 6

Most weddings I've been too just has appetizers and punch. At my wedding, I'm just having fruits/veggies and some croissant sandwiches. Along with punch. That's all. Have an early afternoon wedding, that way you aren't expected to pay for a full meal. That can get expensive. Most people are there for the cake anyway.

Answer 7

What kind of party are you having. I went to a wedding once where they had a mexican buffet. They had 2 kinds of rice, beans from the pot and refried beans, enchiladas, chiles rellenos, carnitas, and mole. They had an open barserving everything from wine to martinis to beer to shots.

At my wedding we had salad, rice, beans, and barbacoa. We had sodas and beer.

At another party we went to they had their reception catorered. They had the salad course which was a good salad. Then they had chicken with some kind of lemon sauce which a lot of people didnt like. then they had cheesecake and coffee and tea for dessert. I think they spent a lot of money on food that a lot of people didnt eat.

Answer 8

People usually eat Family Style which is chicken, roast beef, mash potatoes soup and salad. To be honest as much as plates cost at some of these places like $60.00 a person is outrageous, you primarily pay for the liquor bill, no need to go top shelf for liquor people go to weddings and get smashed they really don't care what they drink just make sure they have what u and your fiance like.

Answer 9

we are having a wedding on a dock so we are having seafood, crab, clams, shrimp, and some london broil. We are providing liquor, wine and beer as well as soft drinks and such. We also have two coctail waitress's and a bartender. We are having a flaming coffee and after having a big firework show over the water! It is going to be the BEST !

Answer 10

Like the others said, depends on your budget.I went to a high class wedding not to long ago and they had salad, chicken breast with a wine sauce, green beans, garlic seasoned potatoes, rolls and tea or coffee. Then I went to a garden wedding and they had different kinds of small sandwiches, chips, dips, fruit, chocolate strawberrys, tea, lemonade and coffee. They also had the wedding and grooms cake and punch, champagne, and wine. At the mexican weddings they have brisket, chicken or sausage, rice, beans, tortillas and the cakes, beer, wine, punch and coffee.Congratulations.