The wedding that cracked the buffet dilemma

[AffIt]

I went to a wedding yesterday (not mine!) which I think may have solved the endless 'buffets at weddings' problem and I thought I'd share...

The venue for the wedding breakfast was quite a large, square space, with circular tables of eight (12 tables plus the top table, so about 100 in total, give or take).

There was a buffet station in each corner catering to three tables (24 people) each - genius! They also had staff 'shepherding' a one-way system, so you collected your crockery and cutlery, got food and were then systematically moved along back to your table.

(I think the top table had its own station.)

I'm a vegetarian and it's probably the first wedding with a buffet I've ever been to where veggies / vegans actually had a proper crack at the food aimed at them.

(Additionally, I believe some of the groom's family are Jain, so there was an abundance of meat-free food!)

I'm sure there must have been an element of extra expense for the bride and groom, but from a guest's point of view, it all went so smoothly and the food was brilliant. I'll be talking about it for years!

As I say, just thought I'd share the experience for anybody interested. 😀

Sounds good. Agreed, as a vegetarian at a buffet you get used to inadequate or substandard foods. Staff to guide the guests is clever too, keeps it moving.

You can be sure this cost b&g a good bit extra for staffing and equipment per buffet table but it's a smart solution to catering for 100 people at one time.

Poor choice and quantity of vegetarian food on buffets is down to shit caterers failing to acknowledge that nearly everyone eats food like cheese sandwiches, onion bhajis, falafels and not making enough of these things as people will want them in preference to the usual processed pork five ways offering of sausage rolls, ham sandwiches etc.

@BarbaraofSeville Laughing at your spot-on description of 'processed pork five ways'! Fortunately nothing of that manner.

The food was superb - bride was of white British heritage, groom was British-born South-east Asian heritage, so a mixture of 'traditional' buffet (quiche, sandwiches etc) and Bangladeshi (pakora, chaat, various curries with sides and so on).

Best wedding food ever!

@BarbaraofSeville love your apt description of processed pork 5 ways. Agree with you, I have had some dreadful vegetarian food at events. Also experienced other guests claiming my vegetarian dinner as theirs and eating it.