Seated or Buffet? The answer is shocking!

Many couples wonder if they should have a seated or buffet dinner at their receptions. Many wedding planners and caterers will say that buffet is less expensive. They say this because the type of food served at a buffet usually is of a lesser caliber than the food served at a seated and plated dinner. The lesser quality food is actually less expensive - seemingly but, I have shocking news. Buffet is not less expensive than seated and plated, but rather, seated is actually cheaper! Wow, did that shock you? Let me tell you why.

When you have a buffet meal, the guests are preparing their own plates. They have stood in a line and are hungry and probably a bit crabby because they had to stand in a line to get their food. They pile the food onto their plates for more than one reason. One reason guests pile the food onto their plates is because they are expecting they will eat all that food. They want to have their seconds, and thirds all on their plate to avoid standing in line again and just in case the food runs out (because they can't be certain that it won't). They also pile food onto their plates in anticipation that the food will be simply scrumptious.

You can curtail this by having servers at the buffet line to dish the food onto the plates with explicit instruction as to how much of each item to put on each plate, but then it's up to the server to adhere to your directives. But, here's the thing, even if they do follow your instructions, the food has already been prepared and yes, you will still have to pay for it. Therefore, if the food is not actually consumed at the reception, you will have excess food when the reception is over that you will have to either give away or take home. Now, how does this make buffet more expensive? It makes it more expensive because the caterers know that when there is a buffet dinner, the guests get greedy and their eyes get larger than their stomachs. The caterers know this and prepare extra food for this occurrence, and yes, you are paying for all this excess. So in reality, when you give your caterer your final headcount, the caterer figures in the amount of excess they will need to prepare, and you get charged accordingly.

Now, with seated and plated meals, all the food is actually prepared for the exact number of people on the list (and yes, you should feed your vendors the same thing you feed your guests). You will have waiters, but you don't need a lot of them to have an elegant affair. The portions of food the guests receive is predetermined and actually a lot smaller than if the guests were given free range at the buffet table.

Oh, but are you worried that with the lesser amount of food served, your guest will not get full? No worries. When you have a seated meal, there are various courses that are served to the guests. When a guest is finished with one course, they have to wait until a specific predetermined time until the next course is served. This lag time in between courses allows the body to start digesting the food and allows the guests' metabolism to begin working. This results in the guests getting fuller much quicker. A person who eats slowly usually eats less and gets full faster than a person who wolfs their food down and seemingly never gets full.

So which is less expensive? Seated or buffet? Now you know!

Written by: Carla McCurthon