Buffet vs. Sit Down?

Question

Leaving Money Out of This, I just want people's opinions on Buffet style weddings vs. Sit Down.

Which do you prefer?
Do you think a buffet is tacky?

I'm having an evening wedding, complete w/ cocktail hour. Is a buffet not suitable for an evening wedding.

Opinions. Again, leaving money out of it. Money is not the question here. I just want opinions on the actual food, presentation, etc.

Answer 1

Sit down was actually less expensive and I prefer it. I would rather be served than parade down the buffet line like cattle at a feedlot.

Usually buffets have cheap sides like baked beans and macaroni salad. You can put meal preferences on the RSVPs and have meals plated to order. Beef, Chicken, Vegetarian and Kosher.

Answer 2

As a guest, I prefer a buffet over a plated meal. Although I'll eat anything put in front of me (except meat, but I've never been to a wedding where they haven't had a veggie option), I have a VERY small appetite and after the soup/salad and other courses, by the time I get to the main course I'm totally full and barely touch it. There's a lot of food that gets wasted. With a buffet, I can take the amount I want and not worry about having a tonne to throw out.

Also, leftovers at a buffet can be taken home and frozen by the couple or their families. It's not going to be thrown into the trash. My aunt and uncle had a Chinese food buffet, which I thought was such a cool idea!

Answer 3

The typical wedding I usually attend is a cocktail hour with a buffet, followed by a sit down dinner. That is really too much food. I went to a wedding with an incredible cocktail hour and did not want to eat the sit down dinner after that or the desert. There was carving stations, sushi, smoked fish, hot pasta station, ... The cocktail hour was better than the meal.

For my own wedding opted for a cocktail hour with hand passed hors d'oeuvres. And then a sit down dinner. I thought this was elegant and did not lead to massive overconsumption. The food at the cocktail hour would have been the same as the buffet, except it was served by waiters, but I assume the quantity and waste was less, but better service.

Buffet can be tacky or elegant. Same with the sit down dinner. The level of service is more important. Besides overeating the other negative with buffets are the lines if there is just one buffet line.

I would go with a few buffets tables or hand passed for the cocktail hour, but keep the food lighter and then a sit down dinner. We had salad, appetizer, main course and then desert. I think we had choice of sorbet between certain courses too. We also decided against a large Venetian or Viennese table for desert. I love them too, but after my experience with overeating at weddings I wanted my wedding to be more dancing than over indulging. Different deserts were brought to the table including wedding cake.

For dinner at my wedding there was a choice of 3 meals, but I told them I had vegan guests and small children who are picky eater and they accommodated them. I spoke to those guests and had them talk to the waiters and they will get them something else.

Answer 4

I'm a huge foodie so whatever is there will be good with me lol. Honestly there are advantages to both meals, and I do not believe a buffet is in any way tacky. It depends how formal your wedding is, if it is very formal then a sit down meal may be better, but if you are aiming for less formal then a buffet would suit. With buffets you can have a larger variety of foods available, with a sit down the guests have less of a choice (unless you are offering several choices for all courses)

Answer 5

I've been to more than a dozen weddings that I can remember (I won't include the ones I attended as a child), and all but one was a buffet. Nearly all of them were evening weddings, and while some of them did have tacky elements (money dance, anyone?), the dinners weren't tacky at all.

The buffet-style dinners seemed to take longer, and invariably I seemed to be seated at the last table allowed to get in line, but I still much prefer that to the sit-down style dinner.

At the sit-down dinner, it IS very elegant and formal and impressive, but the servings are always tiny, I'm picky about which foods can touch and which can't, there's always a lot of 'filler' on the plate, such as lettuce or parsley for decoration, and sometimes the food is either cold from being out or dry from beign out under a warmer.

I like the buffets because I can pick which foods I want a lot of, which ones I might like just a taste, and which ones I don't want at all. I can also go back and get more if I'm still hungry.

Presentation can be done well both ways: obviously it's more elegant with the sit-down, complete with little garnishes on the plates, but the buffet table can be nice, too. Most catering companies have these little skirt-things that look like dist ruffles that go around the base of the serving dish, to hide the ugly silver sides, the legs, and the warmers underneath. They will use nice silver spoons/spatulas, will have the plates/silverware/napkins in a decorative basket, and things like that. It won't look like a family pot-luck that you're used to.

And from the planning perspective, it's so much simpler (and usually cheaper) to have a buffet. You can do a rough guest count instead of a hard count, you can pick 2 or 3 entrees instead of just 1, you don't have so much to deal with by way of response cards, you don't have to remember to tip all the waiters, and you don't have to pay any attention when you Great-Aunt Esther goes on about how you have to remember Cousin Shirl is a vegetarian and Grandma Mabel is diabetic and your nieces new boyfriend eats Kosher.

Answer 6

I'm having a buffet. I'm having a variety of foods so people can have their choice and as much or as little as they like. My opinion about a sit down dinner, (which are nice) you have to eat what is given to you. Heaven help you if you are allergic to some ingredient that you don't know is in the food, ie, mushrooms, shellfish, etc. Buffets, at least you can see what you are getting before you get it. Sit downs, you may not have the option of getting a second helping either. But that is only my opinion.

Answer 7

I don't think buffets are tacky. They are common practice in our area, in fact, I don't think I've ever been to a wedding served sit down. I think buffets are fine, people can get as much or as little of the foods they like, and leave the ones they don't. Do what you and your crowd fel comfortable with. Best wishes.

Answer 8

If it's an evening wedding with cocktail hour it sounds like it will be fancier so I would do a sit down dinner. Mine was a wedding around lunch time so a buffet was good for then. It was also less formal. But if I were you the sit down dinner sounds better suited for you.

Answer 9

As both a guest, and from having been the bride, I think buffets are a much better option - and aside from money, truly.
A buffet can be set up as elegantly or simply as you choose - by the items you choose to serve, and by the presentation and decoration of tables, etc.
It gives the guests more selections, and there are plenty of options for those who are vegetarian, some who are calorie conscious, or other dietary restrictions. We had Baron of Beef and turkey, but other options that are good are pork roast or ham, for the meats. We had a variety of salads, marinated vegetables, baby roast potatoes, hot mixed vegetables; buns, pickles, cheeses; lots of little extras and a variety of desserts. *My husband and I were served, however. Not that we really ate....*
At the most recent served dinner we were at for a wedding, the amount of food that would have been wasted must have just been phenomenal... because we were served just way too much. Another recent one we went to was done 'family style' - and though the idea was nice, the servers just didn't keep up with refilling the dishes, and the poor guys at our table really got tired of waiting for food (and they weren't being pigs or anything, just guys wanting to eat).
Good luck with your choices!

Answer 10

I like to go to buffet weddings better because dinner moves along quicker! And some people don't like to eat at weddngs or may have eaten before depending on the time of your wedding for example I have several friends who wil not eat a meal after six! They will snack but not eat a whole meal! So with a buffet they can have little salad without wasting money or feel as though they need to eat because you paid so much for chicken cordon blu! Plus you get to the fun part dancing and music quicker!