Opinions on having a menu choice

2 weddings I've been to recently did this really well.

One didn't give options, except to ask for guests to notify them in plenty of time of any special dietary requirements. They then served up a 'seated buffet' type thing. Platters of cheese, meat, bread, bowls of potatoes and salads, and various other bits were brought to each table, and everyone helped themselves.

It was a really good way of getting chatting to people on the table that you didn't know as well.

For the other, food options were printed on the back of the RSVP card which had to be returned by a certain date. Give a strict "if you don't rsvp, you ain't getting in", and bam, there's your menu!

Good luck! X

If you’re going to do menu choices, you’ll need to do a seating plan (otherwise how will the caterers know who’s having what?) Even if not, if you have anyone with dietary requirements, a seating plan with help the catering staff identify them easily.

We having a family sharing style meal (food placed in the centre of the table for people to take from), which gives people a bit of choice without creating extra work for us!

"If you’re going to do menu choices, you’ll need to do a seating plan (otherwise how will the caterers know who’s having what?) Even if not, if you have anyone with dietary requirements, a seating plan with help the catering staff identify them easily."

Also this!! If you let people choose their food options, a seating plan is a must.

Another good idea is to write what people have chosen on the back of their placeholder/name card. Then there's no confusion - because who can really remember what they ordered 6 months ago! X

We’ve recently paid for food options for our guests. It’s costing an extra £150 but I defiently think that it’s worth it as people are more likely to enjoy the meal and there will probably be less waste.

Trying to get people to rsvp to an invite is bad enough, I would absolutely not want to chase menu choices as well.

I’ve set up a wedding website for guests to rsvp, which has menu options attached. So guests can rsvp at the same time as selecting menus, making it no more difficult than not giving any options. For us, we never really intended to have a choice of menu, but me and H2B couldn’t decide between ourselves what to have and, as I’ve said, if people are given the choice hopefully there will be less waste. I do think it’s more cost effective as food is one of the biggest expenditures so it only takes a few guests to eat a dish or two that they would have ordinarily left for you to get your money back on upgrades.

Thanks all, I've spoken to the venue who are OK for me to go with my original plan of just allocating a table and letting guests choose their seat from their. As long as they have this plan they're ok

Hiya,

I've just seen your post now.

It's great that your venue has agreed to do menu choices even without a "proper" seating plan. I guess they will just ask your guests at the table who has ordered what.

And here comes the problem I see with this. Having worked as a waitress myself I know from experience that people tend to forget what they have ordered. Even after 20 minutes let alone weeks or even months in advance. This could lead to some confusion or people not getting what they have actually ordered.

An idea to avoid this is what I have seen on our company's Christmas party last year. We had menu choices and although they had a seating plan they printed the menu choices on the name cards.

You could do that too. Just place name cards with the menu choice (either under the name or on the back) at the entrance of the room and ask your guests to pick theirs and put it in front of them at the table. That way everyone knows what they have ordered.

Hope everything goes well with your planning and you'll have an amazing day!

Sandra