Some food questions

mtwomey1990 · January 2013

Hi Everyone,

Had a question on what people's thoughts are on buffet vs. sit down dinner. A venue I am looking at only allows buffet style for the certain room I am looking at. I have never been to a wedding with buffet style and was wondering if it seems a bit cheap to the guests.

Also I have heard from several people that a great way to save money and no one will notice is if the bottom half of your cake is actually fake and you have a sheet cake in the back. Has anyone had experience with this as well?

Thanks for the help!

Maggie0829 · January 2013

Buffet vs sit down. I actually prefer buffet. I have been to both kinds of weddings and the ones who had a sit down I didnt have a choice as to what was given to me. Maybe if I did I would feel different about it, but when you have no clue what you are going to be eating and whether or not you are going to enjoy it is a bit disconcerting. For buffets you can provide quite a bit more options to your guests then just 2 or three choices. But for buffets I really only like buffets that have a set theme like all italian food, or all american food or what not. I am not a big fan of one's that have a mish-mash of foods that don't really go together. Example, the last wedding I went to had roasted turkey with mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce, fried rice, general tso's chicken, salmon, sauerkraut, ravioli, etc. So quite a mixture.

I definitely do not think that buffets look cheap. It really depends on what food you are serving as to whether or not it looks cheap. If you were having a buffet of pizza hut pizza out of boxes and stouffers lasagna in the plastic container then yes, that would look cheap (yummy, but cheap). But if you were offering lobster tail, filet mignon, crab cakes, fish, scalloped potatoes, etc in nice chaffing dishes and served by a wait staff then no, that does not look cheap.

As for the cake. I have heard people doing this but in reality you aren't going to be saving that much money becuase when you get an elaborately decorated cake the majority of the cost is in the decoration not the actual cake. So having a fake layer you are still having to pay for the same amount of things except instead of paying for it all together you are paying for the decoration and cake separately. Know what I mean?

reppunzel · January 2013

Wow, Maggie ... I'm not sure salmon and saurkraut should ever be in the same sentence ... let alone on the same buffet! I like them both, but ...

I agree that buffets don't seem cheap in and of themselves; it's all about planning and presentation. And no matter which you choose, guests will have individual preferences for one or the other. If you really like that venue and that room, go for it! (Oh, and if you like their food).

As per fake cake: I have seen it (I've actually built and frosted one, put together the top tier that was actually cut, and helped to make the cutting cakes for the kitchen), and it looked good ... guests had no idea that the bottom layers were fake. That said, it's more likely to save money if you do the fake tier(s) yourself. It's not hard, and you can order the top tier (or two) from the bakery and place them on top. Because the fake cake is quite sturdy, stacking shouldn't be a problem (unless you're trying to do columns ... which are always seem like a gamble to me, even when professionally done. I think I've seen too many episodes of America's Funniest Videos.)

If a baker has to construct, frost and decorate fake tiers, it's less likely to save you money.

If you do go with the small cutting cake and sheet cake in the back, just be sure that the cutting cake and the sheet cakes are similar quality. For example, don't have a three-layer amaretto chocolate fudge cake with raspberry filling and white chocolate frosting to cut and single-layer yellow frosted with Crisco-cream for the sheet cakes. Most bakers will offer the same flavors/fillings in sheet cake form as they do for tiered cakes, and you can get different flavors of cake/filling for the different sheets just as you can for separate tiers.

Sue-n-Kevin · January 2013

I think that impressions of buffet vs served meals differs from one geographic area to another. It seems whenever I watch "Four Weddings" on TLC, the east coast weddings almost always have served meals...........around here, buffets are very common, and I can't recall the last wedding I attended with a served meal, and I'm in my mid 50's!

As for the cake, something we considered to save costs was to get a "token cake", ie a small one layer round cake for us to cut, then Costco white sheet cakes with white mousse filling and all white frosting sheet cakes (serves 48 for $17) to be cut in the kitchen (they are delicious by the way). However, our caterer had a pretty good 2 layer cake that served 100 for $120, and it was worth it to save the aggravation of getting the sheet cakes to the venue. But I realize that's not a price that is available in all areas. The prior posters are right, decorating styrofoam is going to cost the same as decorating a cake, because the decorating is the cost, not the cake. A seriously decorated cake is labor intensive, which is why they cost so much.

Good luck.

mtwomey1990 · January 2013

Thank you thank you thank you! You all have made me feel so much better about buffet style
:-) As for the cake I am definetly still on the fence about that, luckly I have plenty of time to decide.
I am so happy that I found the knot!

Rcandysue21 · January 2013

Around my area buffets are not more than 1 a person cheaper. As for the "fake cake " , I think that is a great idea!

jessicabessica · January 2013

I agree with PPs that buffets don't look "cheap," but they're definitely less formal than plated meals. I think they can be done nicely and are not casual, but they're not suitable for a black tie event, if that's what you're going for.

Jager1219 · January 2013

At my venue, a buffet is the same price/person as a seated meal. It's the same price because they need to make more of everything since people might choose a little bit of 2 entrees instead of just having 1.

As for the cake, I'm planning on asking our cake baker if they can do a smaller display cake with the sheet cakes in the back for serving. I don't know the price difference yet (haven't gotten that far) but I will tell you that no one will notice that it's not the same as what you cut into. Once you cut into it - they wheel it away to serve it.

bittybumble · January 2013

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_food-cakes_some-food-questions?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:23Discussion:298d1e1b-0bc4-4be4-b42d-8cec1a1ca5f9Post:1537b8a5-d589-4863-b3fc-656a3c1ed737">Some food questions</a>:

I agree that this is very much a regional question. I see you're from Boston. So to your guests, seated dinner is probably the norm and their attitudes on a buffet will likely be different than those of guests in the South or Midwest. I'm from Memphis and I've been to some very fancy weddings with receiving lines and debutante brides and 500 guests, and only when I lived in France did I see a seated dinner at a wedding. They're just not done here. So I'd give more weight to the responses from your area (I saw one from Maine), because they're likely to be a lot more in touch with expectations of what's cheap and not, formal and not, that YOUR guests will have on this rather regional issue.

[QUOTE]Hi Everyone, Had a question on what people's thoughts are on buffet vs. sit down dinner. A venue I am looking at only allows buffet style for the certain room I am looking at. I have never been to a wedding with buffet style and was wondering if it seems a bit cheap to the guests. Also I have heard from several people that a great way to save money and no one will notice is if the bottom half of your cake is actually fake and you have a sheet cake in the back. Has anyone had experience with this as well? Thanks for the help!
Posted by mtwomey1990[/QUOTE]

QueerFemme · January 2013

I've been to weddings in the northeast, and buffets aren't uncommon there. Personally, I like buffets, because the food is usually served warmer and you can choose what you want, instead of having half of a plate full of food I don't actually really care for.

As far as the bottom tier of the cake being fake, I would skip this idea. Most of the time, that costs as much or more of just having that tier be real cake. It's the decorating/fondant/icing that is costing you money, not really the cake. If you start calling around to bakeries, most will tell you this. If you are trying to save money on your cake, consider calling around to local grocery stores and stores like costco or sams club. They actually do nice cakes and taste great. they aren't fancy fondant cakes, but they are beautiful and tasty!

NOLAbridealmost · January 2013

I've never heard of a plated sit-down wedding in my town.....regardless of now formal the wedding. I love buffet, stations, hors doeuvres style receptions. I had a fake cake. It saved me about 300 bucks because they can decorate it ahead of time when they're not busy without worrying about the cake being stale.

jessicabessica · January 2013

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_food-cakes_some-food-questions?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:23Discussion:298d1e1b-0bc4-4be4-b42d-8cec1a1ca5f9Post:94e54eab-529b-495a-aaae-7772641c0456">Re: Some food questions</a>:
[QUOTE]<strong>I've never heard of a plated sit-down wedding in my town</strong>.....regardless of now formal the wedding. I love buffet, stations, hors doeuvres style receptions. I had a fake cake. It saved me about 300 bucks because they can decorate it ahead of time when they're not busy without worrying about the cake being stale.
Posted by NOLAbridealmost[/QUOTE]

<div>From reading these boards, I think New Orleans is fairly unique on that, right? I am pretty sure all my NY/NJ/CT family associate having to get up for your food with being less formal, regardless of how decadent the food itself is. </div>

Jager1219 · January 2013

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_food-cakes_some-food-questions?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:23Discussion:298d1e1b-0bc4-4be4-b42d-8cec1a1ca5f9Post:074afd86-c230-4c06-8311-d2ff74fbd8a7">Re: Some food questions</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Some food questions : From reading these boards, I think New Orleans is fairly unique on that, right? I am pretty sure all my NY/NJ/CT family associate having to get up for your food with being less formal, regardless of how decadent the food itself is.
Posted by jessicabessica[/QUOTE]
I don't think it's just New Orleans. I think actually that we're the oddballs in New England/Tri-State area. In my family/circle of friends, we would generally look at a buffet being cheap regardless of what was served.

I will add though that I went to one wedding in VA and they did a stationary style food set-up. They had the food out for the entire reception with tables you could sit and eat at. There was no assigned seating so you could just graze and dance. I personally really liked it, but the rest of my family thought it was terrible. It also was a late afternoon wedding (reception started at 3 I believe so it was over by 8ish?). This also was looked down upon by my family who wouldn't hear of anything other than an evening wedding.

Not saying any of this is correct, I'm just telling you my personal experiences being from NE.

lyndausvi · January 2013

NOLA - DH did plated weddings in NOLA. A lot actually.

I'm from PA/DE area. In my social group it was about 75/25 sit-down to buffet. I've had good buffets and bad sit-downs. But mostly I had better meals at the sit-downs then the buffets. However, it depends 100% on the caterer. There is an art to banquet food and some cateres don't excel like others do.

Amanda1443994 · January 2013

I wouldn't say that a buffet looks cheap, but it is def. less formal than a sit-down dinner and I know that I would absolutely prefer a sit-down. I don't want to be standing up waiting in line wearing heels and a long dress trying to carry a plate and a drink. I'd much rather be waited on and comfortable as a guest.

Some food questions

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