Inspire Your Guests With The Perfect Wedding Food & Drinks (A Guide to 4 styles)

Today you’re going to learn the key to the different food and drink options available for your wedding, and which one is right for you (and why.) 

Food

Your guests will typically expect to be fed, at least to some degree, if your reception is 4 hours long or more. These days you don’t necessarily need a sit down dinner with a plate for each person – I have seen some very creative ways of feeding guests for weddings. 

Some examples: 

• buffet table: These are inexpensive and casual, however the drawback is that not everyone is served at once, so there are some people waiting and watching while others eat. This can be sped up by having an attended buffet, in which some wait staff serve the food to help fill plates faster and get everyone moving along the line. You can also be creative and use this time to give your guests something to distract them while waiting for their table to be called. A good idea I have seen is to provide trivia, games or puzzles to complete on the table on an envelope and instruct people to open them while dinner is being served.
• banquet style: having a big platter of food in the centre of each table will cut down on serving time and wait staff, and it’s a great way for people to take as much or as little food as they like, reducing waste. It’s less strain on the kitchen to serve 20 large platters of main protein food and big bowls of veg and salad than to serve the same amount of food plated 100 times individually. 
• food truck: While this may not be possible in a traditional wedding function venue, food trucks are great for outdoor weddings. They can be paired with waitstaff to provide roving food or allow guests to order at the counter.
• roving canapes – great if you are not planning on having a seated event, you can avoid needing a table and chair for every guest, and just have a few scattered while most people will happily eat a spring roll in a napkin standing up. 

Drinks

As for drinks – some refreshments are a standard expectation also. Wedding venues will typically have a drinks package available – either open bar or a certain spend allocation. If you are not in a wedding venue, you can hire a bar who stocks their own beverages, or buy all the drinks yourself and just have a bartender serving. Self serve bar is also an option, but its best to have someone in attendance to ensure responsible drinking and that no liquor bottles leave the bar and end up on a table or being carried around in a guests hand. 

If it is beyond your budget to supply alcohol to guests or you prefer not to, it is more than acceptable to use a cash bar for alcoholic beverages and supply water, juice and soft drinks only, or have a completely dry wedding with no alcoholic options at all. Why not draw the attention away from the liquor with some personalized juice, kombucha or mocktail jugs, that tell a story relating to how the two of you met, or what your shared interests are. You don’t need booze to have fun!

My one caveat to having a dry wedding is to make this decision early, so you can include it on your wedding invites, to give your guests the knowledge beforehand so they don’t make arrangements like a hotel or transport under the presumption that they would not be able to drive due to drinking at the reception.

The main point to take home is that as long as you provide some form of food and drinks to your guests, they will be happy. It does not need to be exceptional, it simply needs to be adequate, and having something served that is unique to you and echoes your style and personality can be much more memorable than trying to go over the top with grandeur. So have fun, be creative, and choose some food and drink options that are very “you”, and it will be happy days for everyone.