After watching an episode of TV series ‘4 weddings’, where 4 brides judge each others weddings in a bid to win a luxury honeymoon, I was quite surprised to see that most of the criticism wasn’t on the wedding dress, but the food. One of the brides stated that having a buffet at her wedding would be her ‘worst nightmare’.
This got me thinking, is it acceptable to have a buffet at your wedding, or should guests be waited on hand and foot?
Bowdin et al (2011), claims that catering can be ‘the major element in staging, depending on the theme and nature of an event’. Although Bowdin was not directly referring to weddings, this point fits in with the opinions of the 4 brides on the TV show and is still relevant. Other considerations when making this decision is number of staff. Bowdin also states that at a formal dinner, staff are usually on a ratio of 1:10 (one member of staff to serve 10 customers). If this amount of staff were unavailable or out of the price range, the bride couldn’t be blamed for choosing the buffet option.
First of all I think money is a big factor. On a wedding forum, I wasn’t surprised to see many comments about buffets being the cheapest and therefore most realistic option when compared to a sit down meal. However others stated that they would rather pay extra to give their guests a sit down meal to avoid being branded ‘tacky’ or ‘cheap’. I did however come across tips for how to budget for a sit down meal. So is there really any excuse?
I must admit, I initially thought that a buffet would be tacky and a bit cheap looking. However my opinion was swayed when an article in The Huffington Post investigated the new trend of ‘candy buffets’.
This was voted a top wedding trend by Yahoo! in 2011, with the opinion that ‘candy never goes out of style’.
I think you’ll all agree that it looks impressive, but is it a realistic substitute for a wedding breakfast? Or should it just be a pretty display to catch peoples eye?
Well it seems to be catching on, and I think if more buffets looked like this, then maybe we would start to associate them with chic weddings rather than cheap school discos. Of course its a matter of personal preference, some people might enjoy school discos..
References:
Bowdin et al, 2011, Events Management, Elsevier, Oxford.
http://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/buffet-vs-sit-down/a74093688c5904bf.html (accessed on 29/10/12)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/06/candy-buffet-wedding_n_1862048.html (accessed on 29/10/12)
http://www.wikihow.com/Budget-for-a-Sit-Down-Wedding-Dinner (accessed on 29/10/12)
http://voices.yahoo.com/candy-buffets-6682048.html (accessed on 29/10/12)