Planning the dinner and food choices for your wedding is a decision with many options, but how do you choose which is best for you?

From a sit-down dinner to culinary stations to a serve-yourself buffet, your reception dining options are wide open and depending on venue policies, the choice is yours.

So, what’s the right choice to make when deciding how your guests should enjoy a meal during your wedding reception? Well, there are a few factors that come into play.

1. What is your budget?

Wedding food options can primarily depend on your overall budget. Sit-down dinners are the most expensive course of action; typically offering guests the choice of steak, fish, chicken, pork, etc. A few different entree and side options are usually sent to guests on their RSVP card; allowing them to select which gourmet style meal they’d prefer.

This is a wonderful option for folks who have dietary needs. It allows the hosts to plan ahead for vegan, gluten free, and vegetarian meal options. But the downside? The hosts will have to pay for the entirety of the meals that they purchased ahead of the wedding; regardless if someone or their plus one drops out last minute.

Serve-yourself buffets and culinary stations are usually less expensive options, with an allotted amount of food decided upon before the wedding. While there will likely be leftover food regardless, these options work better with smaller budgets; because you can serve less expensive foods.

2. What is your personal preference?

How do YOU and your fiancé like to enjoy meals? If you have the budget for any of these three options, think about how you’d prefer to eat at your own wedding. It is about YOU, after all!

Do you enjoy buffets, and having many options for food? Would you rather have an elegant, formal, sit-down dinner for the special occasion? Or would you rather have a mix of the two with 3-4 culinary chef-attended stations set up around the reception hall– providing the option to choose what foods you’d like to eat, but limiting those options to only a few?

Ultimately, the choice is yours. If you’d personally prefer to host a lovely sit-down dinner or provide more informal options for guests to enjoy at their leisure. No matter what you choose and would prefer, as long as they’ve been fed, your guests will enjoy it.

3. Food options

It’s also important to consider what meal options you’d like to provide for your guests, and how they are best enjoyed. If you’d like to have steak, chicken, fish and some elevated sides; consider either a sit-down dinner or serving stations.

If you’d prefer to serve pasta or barbecue, serving stations would likely be the best option. If you want to have finger foods, charcuterie, a dessert bar, or build-your-own plate type options; consider a buffet.

This goes back to deciding how formal you’d like for your reception dinner to be, while tying in exactly what kinds of foods YOU want to enjoy at your wedding. Don’t feel selfish for making the food options your personal favorite foods!

©CTW Features