no place settings in buffet dinner - yes or no?

I think you should have place settings - it doesn't make it formal necessarily, it just makes it simpler I think

We had a barbecue/buffet wedding breakfast which I guess is similar to what you're having.

We did allocate spaces to everyone on the tables, because we had some large groups to sit together and if couples had sat randomly we might well have run out of seats together where needed by the time everyone was seated.

What we did was to just ask people to stay in their seats, the top table went to get food (Best Man and CBM got an extra plateful for us) and we went round each table to get our photo taken with each table, then they were told to go join the food queue and we moved on to the next table.

It all sounds a bit 'school dinner'ish, but nobody minded and it worked perfectly for us. I think the photo distraction made it sound a little less 'regimented' if that makes sense?

Incidently, we had the wedding breakfast as just the food, and moved the speeches into our evening celebrations which started at 6pm following 5.30pm arrival of our evening guests. You should more or less be able to have the speeches where you want them rather than the hotel forcing you to have them with the wb if you really don't want to.

I have been to weddings which have had buffet dinners with both place setting and non place settings.

The totally informal wedding had no seating plan other than the top table. This was a little tricky to start with when trying to get ourselves sat together and for those that are quite shy and don't really know anyone else, asking to sit at a table can be a bit daunting?

The other wedding had the formal seating plan and then each table got up one at a time to get their dinner. This worked well except that they had undercatered and we were the last table to go up and had not much to eat.

You could compromise and have escort cards. Cards with each persons name on that tell them which table they are on but no specific seats?

Our daughter had a hot buffet but had a top table and round guest tables with table settings. They had the speeches first too because neither the Groom or my hubby wanted to wait until after the food because they knew they wouldn't be able to relax eating if they had speeches to do! It worked really well with the place settings because you could sit people next to each other who knew each other. Also as the hot buffet came out the top table went first, of course! Then they brought the food out in relay and called each table up at a time to make sure the food was kept piping hot until the last minute which was our biggest fear of food going cold while people were queueing. It's also nice that every guest has a designated seat as I've been to a few weddings that have had buffets and there haven't been enough seats of tables for guests and it's difficult eating stood up when you've a drink and a handbag to hold and a nice outfit you don't want to dribble down! People tend to mingle at their own pace anyway and once they've had a drink and some food down them, most guests relax and enjoy.

Hi Kookik,

Me & H2B went to a wedding a few years back where they provided a buffet instead of 3 course meal. Like you they had speeches 1st then opened up the food (cold buffet in hall). They never had any table settings except for the top table and as I recall when we got into the hall the guests just kinda grouped up and sat at a table. I didnt think it was strange or unorganised in any way, was very nice and relaxed actually.

Wish I could do this as have had 6 months of nighmares with my seating plans ?

Thank guys, it helps to hear how people have done it before.

AJ I like your photo idea so will suggest that to OH. My Dad also suggested that it might be worth going through our guest list and working out the type of people that would normally sit together, and who might get left out. this might help us decide if we want set places or not.

we have all the parents meeting up this wkd yay! so all these things will be on the table for discussion and debate :-)

xx

The only 'warning' I can give about doing the table plan is don't do it too early - people will drop out. I revised ours about 6 times, in fact the last one was done 2 days before the wedding (and on the day four people didn't turn up so it wasn't totally accurate anyway).

Don't worry about balancing the tables - if you get odd numbers it's really no big deal.

We did something similar. We had a BBQ so no formal meal. We worked out a table plan based on family members, friends who they socialised with and for those who wouldn't really know anyone else there, we placed them on a table that we thought would be most suited for them - same age etc. We didn't have place names on the table, so it was still fairly informal.
There was plenty of food for everyone, and enough for seconds.
The F&B Mgr, who doubled up as the Toast Master plated up our food and served to us, and then asked us what tables would we like to go to the BBQ first, and in any particular order.

Hi Kookik, Me and OH have been debating about this.. He thinks it just an added expense, and he thinks people should be able to sit where they want, which, yes, I can see his point, however, there will be a few people that don't know anyone else and I would want to make sure that they don't get left out. And I myself have 3 sets of parents which would be awkward for them to be sat together, so they need to be close to the top table but evenly spread out. So at the moment we are deffinately have a parents table plan, but as for everone else, Im not so sure.xx

I went to a wedding a few months back (buffet), where they didn't have place settings, but did have a table name on each table, then listed on the back was the people to sit on that table, but you were free to sit whereever you wanted to on that table iyswim