Buffet

A buffet – originally the French word for a piece of furniture where you store plates – means placing food on tables where guests can come serve themselves. This is the cheapest option when it comes to serving food as you don’t need to spend money on waiters and, as a result, it has become a very popular solution for weddings

Before thinking about having a buffet, you should do your homework as it does not work for all foods: any expensive meal should have waiters serving the food and this is certainly not suited for French and gourmet foods as well as haute and nouvelle cuisines – it’s the etiquette! It however works well for Italian, Indian, Chinese, Mexican foods as well as BBQ. The only thing you have to worry about is making sure the food will remain appropriately hot (most entrees) or cold (desserts and some seafood); for this reason, you will still need a couple people supervising your buffet making sure the food is in good condition and restocking what’s missing.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t have a few fancy dishes at your buffet either. If you do, we recommend having one person serving these dishes to make sure your guests don’t overstuff their plates with the most expensive stuff – usually a good idea when you have higher-end seafood (lobster, scallops, caviar) or meat (for example, prime rib).

Also, you might also need help if the food isn’t easy to serve – for example, cutting a ham, making omelets, etc. But even if you need a couple people, having a buffet will be way cheaper than having full-service.