Tapas style wedding reception?

Re: Tapas style wedding reception?

• MobKaz member

  

  August 2015

  Have you tried contacting specific tapas style restaurants?  My son had a tapas style dinner but they held their reception in a tapas restaurant.
  
  

  I would repost this question on your local board.

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• jacques27 member

  

  August 2015 edited August 2015

  I'm going to echo MobKaz about going through a restaurant or find a caterer who advertises themselves as "creative" who will customize menus (note: this will be more expensive).  They are out there, but you probably have to look for them by asking around food-centric boards rather than wedding boards.
  
  However, as you don't provide any other details, I just want to give my warning on behalf of people with food allergies/sensitivities (myself) or picky eaters (the person I would most likely bring as my plus one).  I think a tapas thing where you have it at the restaurant (and preferably people can order for themselves) or it's a smaller group with no confirmed food issues of any sort can certainly work in the right situation.  But things like hors d'oeurves or tapas tend to be composed bites (though slightly less so with tapas) and for someone with a gluten sensitivity, in any given buffet of hors d'oeurves there are maybe only two things I can have and it's usually the crudite platter and maybe some fruit or cheese sans crackers, because all the rest tend to have some sort of bread/breaded component.  Dairy is hard to avoid, too.  My +1 is a picky eater (not demanding at all and would never request accommodation, probably just asking to hit a drive-thru on the way home), and would probably be in the same situation as me. 
  
  I'm not saying that you have to necessarily cater to these things, but you should take them into consideration.  If you're going to serve basically small bites at the table where people get a set number of things and I can only eat maybe one of dishes being offered, it's going to be a long hungry night for me.  At least set up buffet style, I can get six of the fruit/cheese skewers and none of the items I can't eat.  It still makes for a long hungry night (and I use this example because at a friends wedding the only thing I could eat out of a buffet of 15 hors d'ouerves were fruit and cheese skewers), but I have the luxury of grabbing more of the things I can eat without calling attention to myself.  However, with a full meal, there's a good shot I'm not going hungry because you can usually arrange with the caterers ahead of time saying "I need 3 gluten-free meals, 4 vegetarian meals, and 2 dairy-free meals" and work out something with them that can meet those needs so those guests get a full dinner and don't end up hungry.
  

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• lembaslover member

  

  August 2015

  My concern would be bringing out the dishes separately. You mentioned you had veggie and meat dishes which is great but if you are bringing one out at a time that means vegetarians will just have to sit and wait between meat dishes to eat anything. If it were like every other one that wouldn't be so bad but if you have 1 veggie one 3 meat ones another veggie... I'm going to be pretty hungry. I'd bring out at least 1 veggie and 1 meat dish at a time, maybe bring out more like 3 or 4 dishes total so that people who just don't like a certain dish aren't forced to starve until the next one comes out. If you have people with food allergies try to make sure there's a least 1 dish they can have per rotation. 

  
  

  To me this seems like a lot of planning which is fine if this is an idea you are dead set on. To me it seems easier just to do either plated or buffet. Or if it is actually at a tapas restaurant and you are letting guests order that could work too.

  

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• southernbelle0915 mod

  

  August 2015

  Have you actually talked to caterers about your vision or just looked at their menus?
  
  Also, tapas style dinners are served family style, so this shouldn't be very confusing to caterers. Instead of bringing meal type dishes, they're just bringing small plates and refilling them more often...not that complicated.
  
  Even if this isn't on a caterer's canned menu, they should be able to work with you. If any are resistant to working with you, I would see that as a bad sign and call someone else.
  
  Do keep in mind that this will very likely be more expensive than serving a plated meal.

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• TheCheeseWench member

  

  August 2015

  engagedhamstermom said:

  My concern would be bringing out the dishes separately. You mentioned you had veggie and meat dishes which is great but if you are bringing one out at a time that means vegetarians will just have to sit and wait between meat dishes to eat anything. If it were like every other one that wouldn't be so bad but if you have 1 veggie one 3 meat ones another veggie... I'm going to be pretty hungry. I'd bring out at least 1 veggie and 1 meat dish at a time, maybe bring out more like 3 or 4 dishes total so that people who just don't like a certain dish aren't forced to starve until the next one comes out. If you have people with food allergies try to make sure there's a least 1 dish they can have per rotation. 

  
  

  To me this seems like a lot of planning which is fine if this is an idea you are dead set on. To me it seems easier just to do either plated or buffet. Or if it is actually at a tapas restaurant and you are letting guests order that could work too.

  ^^^This. Don't do the whole "one at a time" thing. When I go to a tapas restaurant we always order several things at once and graze on them at the same time. Don't make people wait for the next dish if the last one was only a nibble.
  

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