Buffet Service Vs. Plated Service: Which Is The Best Type Of Catering When Numerous Wedding Guests Have Dietary Restrictions?
Posted on: 30 April 2019
Your wedding guests are returning their response cards, and many of them are noting that they have special dietary restrictions. Some may have severe food allergies, while others may be on vegan diets. You don't want them to feel left out at the reception, so how do you accommodate them?
Thankfully, most catering services for weddings are readily able to accommodate your guests with dietary restrictions. However, you may be wondering how this affects which type of catering service you select for your wedding. Is it better to go with a sit-down plated service or have a large buffet with many different menu items that are suitable for your guests with dietary restrictions? Is there another option that may be better? When you have a number of guests with dietary restrictions attending your wedding, here's what you need to know about how the type of catering service you choose will affect them.
Plated Service: the Overall Best Choice for Accommodating Your Guests
Plated service is the traditional style of wedding catering. Guests sit at their tables during the reception, and servers bring out individual plates of food to each of them. Each course is served separately, and the tables are cleared between them.
Because of the individual service that your wedding guests receive, plated service makes it easy to serve them food in accordance with their dietary restrictions. Your guests with unusual dietary restrictions can have food cooked specifically just for them, and there's no difference between them or other guests — they don't have to worry if the food they're being served violates their dietary restrictions.
When you have numerous wedding guests with dietary restrictions, the individual level of attention that plated service gives to your guests makes it the overall best type of catering. The downside, however, is cost — as the menu fills up with more options that accommodate your guests with special dietary needs, the cost of your wedding catering goes up along with it. However, a wedding catering service can work with you to keep the number of menu items small while accommodating all of your guests.
Buffet Service: Typically Less Expensive, but Less Accommodating for Guests With Dietary Restrictions
In buffet service, the wedding catering service sets up a buffet line within the reception area. Guests are called up to the buffet table-by-table and serve themselves. It's often a less expensive option than plated service because you don't have to pay for servers, but it does require your guests to stand up and walk to the buffet during the reception dinner — they don't receive individualized service.
Buffet service can accommodate dietary restrictions by including a large number of menu items on the buffet, but there are a few downsides. First, a large number of buffet items will require a very large buffet serving table — if your reception venue is small, you may not have the space available for such a large serving table.
Second, you'll need to have serving staff at the buffet line serve your guests instead of allowing them to serve themselves. The reason behind this is to prevent cross-contamination between different menu items. For example, you need to eliminate the possibility of one of your wedding guests putting a serving spoon that's been used in a menu item containing gluten into one that's labeled as gluten-free — this may cause a gluten-sensitive guest to have an allergic reaction.
A Third Option: Cocktail Service
Another option is to simply have a cocktail reception. Instead of your guests sitting down for an entree course, cocktail service serves a wide variety of small appetizers throughout the reception. It's a great option for couples who are looking for a lighter, less formal reception, and the wide variety of items that can be served at a cocktail reception ensures that the wedding catering service can serve a few that are allowable for your guests with dietary restrictions.
If you have numerous wedding guests with dietary restrictions and you're struggling to find a way to accommodate them all within your catering budget, a cocktail service may just be the best answer.
To sum it up, a plated service is often the best choice to accommodate guests with dietary restrictions. However, it may not always fit within your budget. A buffet service can work, but you need to be careful to avoid cross-contamination of food items. The most budget-friendly option is a cocktail service, but some guests will find it non-traditional. Whichever type of service you choose for your reception, make sure you find a catering service for your wedding that has experience accommodating guests with dietary restrictions and takes these restrictions seriously. Look online on sites like http://www.mascaroscatering.com to find one that offers what you need.
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