Most people choose a service style based on what they saw at the last wedding they attended. It is worth thinking about it properly, because it affects your timeline, your room layout and your budget more than the menu does.
Buffet
The default for a reason. It handles large numbers, it lets guests take what they want, and it copes well with a mixed room where some guests are vegetarian and some are not.
What it costs you is floor space and flow. A buffet for three hundred needs two lines, not one, or you will have people queueing for forty minutes. We plan this with you and it is the single most common thing venues get wrong.
Plated and served
Guests stay seated, servers bring the courses. It looks considerably more formal, the room stays calm, and your program can run to a schedule because you control exactly when food appears.
The trade-off is staff, and therefore cost, and less flexibility for guests. It also needs a proper seating plan. We would generally suggest it for engagements, formal receptions and corporate dinners under three hundred.
Live stations
A tandoor working in the corner, a golgappa counter, a taco bar. These are not really about feeding people efficiently. They are about atmosphere.
They work best alongside a main service rather than instead of it. A live chaat counter at a Jaggo night keeps people standing, talking and eating for hours, which is exactly the point. Using stations as your only food service for two hundred guests will create a queue and a bottleneck.
When we would talk you out of something
If you have a tight ceremony schedule and three hundred guests, we will push you away from plated service, because it takes longer than families expect and the program slips. If you have a small venue with no clear traffic flow, we will push you away from a single buffet line. We would rather have that conversation at booking than watch it play out on the night.
Planning something?
Send us the date and a rough guest count and we will come back with a menu and a real per plate price.