Formal Or Informal? Help Deciding On What Food To Serve At Your Wedding

The food at weddings is almost universally expected to be bad. The reason is simple: mass catering is an extremely difficult thing to get spot on. The bigger your wedding, the more difficult it is going to be to get the food right. However, as it is such an important part of the day, it is a hugely pleasant surprise for guests when the food is better than expected.

The first thing you need to do is work out exactly how you want the food to be served. Do you want a formal sit down meal, or would you prefer the dining to be an informal buffet? Take a look at the following information that will hopefully help you make your mind up.

Formal Dining

Formal dining has the the advantage of giving off an elegant impression and encourages everyone to be seated at the same time while the various courses are served. You then need to work out whether there will be speeches or other entertainment that takes place in the middle of courses, or whether everything will be served back to back. Make sure you have your plan in place well in advance, though allow a degree of flexibility just in case any issues arise (which let’s face it, they probably will!)

Think about your menu depending on what time of year your wedding will take place. If you have a winter wedding, a warming, hearty meal like a casserole may be a good option, while summertime may be suited to something lighter. You also need to think about whether your guests will all be having the same menu, or whether you will be offering a choice. As well as this, think about any special requirements for vegeta

rians or any other dietary restrictions. Remember that offering a choice will increase the price of your overall food budget.

Once you have decided on your menu, you can think about namecards and putting the details of each guest’s choice on them.

Informal Dining

The advantage of a more informal dining style is that guests have a much wider range of choice, and they can also decide how much they want to eat! You need to think about whether you will be providing hot or cold food. Alternatively, a barbecue is a nice summertime option. You should also decide at what point during the day you serve the cake. A range of options can be found on http://www.allcakeprices.com/safeway-cakes so take a look if you are in the process of choosing one.

Informal dining tends to cut down on costs, as you don’t have to hire a full waiting staff and the food is generally cheaper. If you want to have a mix of the two, you can start off by service canapes as guests arrive and then continue on to a sit down meal after that. This encourages guests to mingle at the start of the event, before all going off to their respective tables.   

Samantha

Samantha hails from Virginia and is a proud wife to a retired Deputy Sheriff and mother to two amazing little boys named Jack & William. A veteran product reviewer; Samantha has been reviewing products for 8 years and offers high quality product reviews with original photography.