Banquet or Buffet — Which Wedding Format to Choose?

Find a ban­quet hall, rich­ly set a wed­ding table, seat guests and invite a host with an enter­tain­ment pro­gram, or do not lim­it your­self in choos­ing a place, offer guests a vari­ety of snacks, desserts, drinks and orga­nize sev­er­al zones with enter­tain­ment for every taste? We offer you with Chan­fash­ion under­stand the advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages of the two wed­ding for­mats and final­ly decide what is ide­al for you: a wed­ding ban­quet or a buf­fet!

From our article you will learn:

1. The cost of a ban­quet and a buf­fet table: what will cost more?

2. Fea­tures of the menu and food con­sump­tion: what to treat guests?

3. Decor and floristry: is there a dif­fer­ence in the design of a buf­fet table and a ban­quet hall?

4. Enter­tain­ment for guests: what for­mat of the hol­i­day is clos­er to your fam­i­ly and friends?

It’s up to you to make the final deci­sion, and we’ll just sort it all out.

Let’s get into the definitions

Ban­quet — a clas­sic feast where each of the guests has a strict­ly assigned place and a cer­tain num­ber of dish­es. This for­mat of cel­e­brat­ing a wed­ding is per­fect for respectable peo­ple of tra­di­tion­al views, as well as those who are ready to spend more than three hours over plates and in a cir­cle of peo­ple sit­ting next to them.

Buf­fet for a wed­ding — a new­fan­gled trend, when guests are not tied to a place, they are free to choose dish­es, enter­tain­ment and inter­locu­tors as they wish. In Europe, such a demo­c­ra­t­ic for­mat is in great demand and pop­u­lar. We have a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fi­cul­ty in orga­niz­ing a buf­fet table — to con­vince par­ents that such a “feast” will per­fect­ly fit into the for­mat of the hol­i­day and no one will remain hun­gry.

Price

wedding banquet

Rent­ing a pre­sentable and spa­cious hall for a wed­ding ban­quet will result in a tidy sum for a young fam­i­ly. Add to this the cost of the restau­rant menu, replac­ing each oth­er. As well as alco­hol, the amount of which on the wed­ding table is still com­mon­ly asso­ci­at­ed with the hos­pi­tal­i­ty and gen­eros­i­ty of the hosts of the feast.

buffet

First­ly, the buf­fet table does not lim­it the choice of venue. Any indoor or out­door space you like will do. Rent tables, book wait­ers and orga­nize food trans­porta­tion. Dish­es can also be rent­ed (at the rate of 2 plates, 2 glass­es and 2 glass­es per guest). If you don’t want to do it your­self, trust a cater­ing agency. With any of the options, the sav­ings in com­par­i­son with a ban­quet in a restau­rant will be one and a half to two times.

Menu

Banquet table

Since the main occu­pa­tion of guests at a wed­ding ban­quet is eat­ing, the menu for such an event should be exten­sive. You don’t want to see some­one bored over an emp­ty plate, do you? Tak­ing into account the dura­tion of the feast and breaks for danc­ing, on aver­age, dur­ing a ban­quet, 1 guest eats 1.5 kg of food. A clas­sic ban­quet involves 10–15 types of cold appe­tiz­ers, sev­er­al hot ones, 5 types of sal­ads, 2 to 4 types of hot main cours­es and desserts, fruits, ice cream. Add to that alco­hol, soft drinks and water.

Buffet table

Mak­ing a menu for a buf­fet table is much eas­i­er than for a ban­quet. In snacks, it is easy to fol­low the pref­er­ences of guests. On aver­age, at a buf­fet table, one guest eats from 0.5 to 1 kg of food, depend­ing on the dura­tion of the event. Dish­es of the buf­fet menu are often small in size, it is con­ve­nient to eat them with a fork at a time (which is why this for­mat got its name), they are light and var­ied.

An impor­tant point at the buf­fet table is the cor­rect zon­ing. You can make sev­er­al tables with a mix of dish­es or sep­a­rate tables: with meat and veg­etable starters, por­tioned sal­ads, sweet treats, fruits and cheese plat­ter. Think how inter­est­ing it can be to beat the tables with alco­holic drinks and lemon­ade juices. A spec­tac­u­lar dec­o­ra­tion of a buf­fet table is a cham­pagne pyra­mid or a choco­late foun­tain.

Decor

Banqueting hall

The main accent in the design of the ban­quet hall are tables and chairs: their loca­tion and decor. It is cus­tom­ary to dec­o­rate the new­ly­weds’ table with lux­u­ri­ous com­po­si­tions of flow­ers, rib­bons, and can­dles. For guests, you can choose more mod­est flo­ral options. The chairs are dec­o­rat­ed with wide satin rib­bons. At a ban­quet, you can not do with­out a seat­ing plan for guests and name cards that will help every­one find their place. Take a look at our Cat­a­log, inter­est­ing offers for wed­ding print­ing are wait­ing for you there;)

buffet

The design of the buf­fet area is an immense space for your imag­i­na­tion. Just imag­ine how a roman­tic tent will look, dec­o­rat­ed with light bulbs, gar­lands or can­dles. You can make chan­de­liers from green­ery or a soft “rib­bon ceil­ing”.

Take care of the lounge area: sofas, pouffes, pil­lows will add to the over­all pic­ture of com­fort; do not for­get about the most com­fort­able rel­a­tives for guests of age.

Entertainment for guests

Banquet

The for­mat of the enter­tain­ment pro­gram of the ban­quet is deter­mined exclu­sive­ly by the pre­sen­ter and his ideas. And the invi­tees are forced to com­mu­ni­cate with those who are sit­ting at their table. Of course, a DJ or live music will help make the atmos­phere of the ban­quet pleas­ant, and the host’s appro­pri­ate jokes will cre­ate an infor­mal atmos­phere.

buffet

The buf­fet includes sev­er­al zones for enter­tain­ment, relax­ation and com­mu­ni­ca­tion, where guests choose their leisure time. You can orga­nize a small stage for per­for­mances: live music (not nec­es­sar­i­ly clas­si­cal) will cre­ate an atmos­phere of warmth and ease. Make a themed pho­to zone, rent a gar­den swing and think over a smok­ing area. All sorts of mas­ter class­es, tour­na­ments and board games will be excel­lent enter­tain­ment at the buf­fet table.

Mov­ing from one buf­fet area to anoth­er, guests have many points of con­tact, com­mon inter­ests and top­ics for con­ver­sa­tion. And at the end of the evening, you can arrange a roman­tic slide show, fire­works, and the launch of fly­ing lanterns.

Chanfashion sums up

Do you want a com­fort­able hol­i­day for every­one? Think of your­self, but also con­sid­er the pref­er­ences of the guests. And if you still can’t decide on the for­mat, Chan­fash­ion offers a brief com­par­a­tive table, which, for sure, will put every­thing in its place.

Let the choice be easy, and the hol­i­day bright and unfor­get­table!