What Wedding Catering style You Should Choose: The Five Commonly used Options

Many people think that prioritizing what your guests will eat and the kind of catering that you’ll adopt in your wedding might not necessarily be among the very first things that should give you a headache at the beginning of your wedding planning but they’re absolutely wrong. You definitely have several options at your disposal as far as wedding catering goes. From family-style catering to the plated dinners to food stations and cocktail hours. 

Thinking of the best catering style that you will want in your wedding should, in the contrary, be among the first things you ought to consider as your choice will influence a string of other things such as the flow of things at your reception and finances. Let’s have a look at the most popular wedding catering styles that you might need to consider when making your decision. 

Cocktail style 

Cocktail style is usually considered the most affordable wedding catering style. There are no full meals are served in cocktail kind of weddings. Instead, guests are invited to have their favorite cocktails and snacks instead of five-course meals. Another advantage of the cocktail style of catering is the fact that it can suit almost any wedding theme without having to cost you a leg and an arm. You can also tailor the cocktail according to your needs and add some led café lights around the place. 

Family-style wedding catering 

This catering style basically borrows from what happens at our homes hence the name family-style catering. Guests are at liberty to pick what they want and serve themselves and once done they pass the dish to the next person in the table to serve themselves as well. This style, however, needs to be run properly as it stands high chances of turning chaotic unless your wedding venue has big table grounds. This catering style is, most cases, used in more casual events and that means if you are looking forward to staging a swanky reception, then this might not be the best choice to go for. 

Food stations catering style 

Food stations are the commonly used do it yourself kind of wedding style around the world. This style allows your wedding guests to basically create their own meals. Here, a number of food sites are done in the reception area or venue from where the guests can easily pick their favorite meal without any problem. The good thing with the food station kind of wedding catering is that it’s so open to many choices of food. 

When setting up the stations, you can decide to do different stations for different foods. For example, you can have specific stations for bread, appetizers, salads, meat, desserts and anything else you think is important to have for your guests. 

Buffet 

Buffets are the widely used wedding catering style around the world. No doubt about that. They are mostly liked because they give the guests the freedom to create the kind of meal they want to have. Buffets are more casual compared to other catering styles. They are also the best way to go in case you want to minimize wastage of food as the caterers will do the buffet based on the number of guests expected. The secret behind successful buffets is picking dishes which can be easily served together and on plates such as pasta dishes, fillets and salads. 

Plated dinner 

Plated dinners are basically the traditional option in wedding catering and the most formal style. In this style, guests will need to make orders once they’re at the reception. A waiter, if you can call them that, will serve the guests based on their preferences. They are mostly served in courses, usually three or, at least, four. Plated dinners are commonly used in order to do away with the mess of queuing for food or swapping plates while passing dishes from one person to the other. However, it is essential to also mention that plated dinner catering style is one of the most expensive and, as such, you will need some deep pockets for you to use it in your wedding. You can add to the aesthetics of this style by adding some wedding backdrop rentals and the place will be just awesome. 

These are some of the commonly used wedding catering styles from which you can choose the one that best suits you, your situation, and your budget in order to avoid overstraining yourself. Pick that which you can afford and let your guests enjoy!