have guests bus their own tables?

2MarryJoe

We are having a backyard/barn wedding at the end of the summer. It will be catered by a restaurant but just to the point that they will set up a buffet, and we will be renting our own tables/chairs/china etc. I am having some difficulty figuring out the logistics surrounding clearing the tables after dinner. Do we just have everyone scrape their plate off and place them in a bin? That doesn't seem too classy to me. Any suggestions?

hlvonb

2MarryJoe said:

We are having a backyard/barn wedding at the end of the summer. It will be catered by a restaurant but just to the point that they will set up a buffet, and we will be renting our own tables/chairs/china etc. I am having some difficulty figuring out the logistics surrounding clearing the tables after dinner. Do we just have everyone scrape their plate off and place them in a bin? That doesn't seem too classy to me. Any suggestions?

@2MarryJoe

I would NOT have your guests clean up after themselves. @HisGirlFriday13 any suggestions?

LondonLisa

Yeah, definitely not. Do you know any HS or college students that you could pay to bus tables? Some people on here have mentioned that they have hired a local school sports team/ school club/ etc who have worked at their weddings in exchange for money for the club. 

MobKaz

LondonLisa said:

Yeah, definitely not. Do you know any HS or college students that you could pay to bus tables? Some people on here have mentioned that they have hired a local school sports team/ school club/ etc who have worked at their weddings in exchange for money for the club. 

In addition to checking with local high school students, you could speak to the restaurant. They may have a list of staff that would be willing to take the job on as a side job, especially if you are not too far from the restaurant location itself.

lyndausvi

No.  

We are having a surprise party for my dad.  The caterer only setups and breakdown their own stuff. Not the tables.  We are hiring a couple of servers to bus the tables.  

kmmssg

Agree that you need to avoid that.

When one of our girls is getting married we rent a venue where we have to do the set up and can bring in our caterer of choice and our own alcohol and hired bartender.  That means there is a lot of extra work to do.

My SIL is the varsity cheerleading coach at the HS where she teaches.  For the past 3 DDs' weddings and for the last one coming up in June we will hire a few of her girls to help with whatever it is we need.  We pay them 8-10 bucks an hour (can't remember!) and that money goes directly into their cheerleading camp fund.  Win/win for all of us.

Hire some high schoolers or college kids to give you a hand.  You will be happy to have the extra help!

emmaaa

You should never ask your guests to work. You invited them to the reception to THANK them for coming to your wedding so that would not be a good idea.

I'm with PPs and say to hire some high school or college students to serve and bus tables for the night. I used to waitress and we had people calling offering waitress jobs and we readily accepted them for some extra cash.

emmyg65

We had a backyard wedding with disposable dishes, so it made things much easier. Most guests threw away their own stuff, but we didn't expect them to do that and we went around and cleared tables as necessary. The whole thing was really more of a backyard summer gathering, but if you're  going for a more formal vibe, then yeah, you'll want to hire someone to clean up.

HisGirlFriday13

Ditto PP -- look into hiring local high school or college-aged kids to bus the tables. They'll appreciate the money and your guests will appreciate not having to work at your wedding.

grumbledore

We are having a backyard/barn wedding at the end of the summer. It will be catered by a restaurant but just to the point that they will set up a buffet, and we will be renting our own tables/chairs/china etc. I am having some difficulty figuring out the logistics surrounding clearing the tables after dinner. Do we just have everyone scrape their plate off and place them in a bin? That doesn't seem too classy to me. Any suggestions?

Ask the caterer to supply servers to serve the food and then bus the tables. Don't make your guests do this. If you caterer won't (doubtful), look into hiring a service - we have a company we are using that is providing help for a number of things at very reasonable cost (they are setting our tables bc the caterer and rental company won't, providing a licensed, insured bartender, can provide extra servers for dinner if we need them and they are going to provide our cleanup/break down crew).

Jen4948

No.  Guests should not "work" the wedding, including busing the tables.

Talk to your caterer about having servers who will do this.