Family Style?

emeejeeayen

My venue offers buffet, plated or family style for the same price. They've assured me that with family style there are enough pieces of each item (8 people at a table = 8 pieces of chicken, 8 pieces of beef, 8 servings of veg pasta) so no worries on that. 

Any reason I shouldn't go with family style? I like the idea of people being able to have a bit of everything and talk to one another throughout the meal, but maybe there's an aspect I'm not thinking of. 

Thoughts?

NOLAbridealmost

I am always a fan of buffet, family, station, etc. because I get to try more items than if it's a plated meal.  Plus it's always a bummer when you get the plated beef which is 'meh' and then you see the plated chicken and people are saying its amazing and there's no way of switching because you're locked into a blind choice that you made weeks ago. Just make sure if you do family style that it's obviously bountiful so people don't have to be shy about getting their portion.

fallbride1109

My boss' wedding was family style.  I liked it and it was plenty of food.

emeejeeayen

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_food-cakes_family-style?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:23Discussion:8c517238-d4e4-4975-a2f9-3c68c31df62cPost:f89e4745-3ea0-4d8a-ad68-971e418e8283">Re:Family Style?</a>:
[QUOTE]I love family style, personally. It's My favorite with buffet being second. I'm an incredibly picky eater, partially for health/dietary reasons and partially because there are some things I just do not like. I can always find SOMETHING to eat, but I hate sitting at a table with a plated meal where I can/will only eat a third of the things on the plate and have to leave the rest. It makes me feel very self conscious, especially if I don't know everyone at the table really well. With family style, I only have to take what I want. That being said, you will want to consider that family style takes up a lot of room on the tables, so you won't be able to have as much decor. I wouldn't have an issue with that, but I know some brides want the tables to look a certain way when they are empty and that can be harder to do when you're accounting for food being on them later.
Posted by StageManager14[/QUOTE]

<div>My fiance and I are both SUPER picky so we feel the pain ;) </div><div>
</div><div>Decor is no issue. We're going to do probably a single large-ish mason jar with flowers and then some tea candles. The tables can also fit 10 guests, but we're likely going to put 8 at each. That's a good point, though. </div>

littleluckypenny

Lots of people commented to me positively about our reception dinner being family style.  People got to try lots of things and refills kept coming to the table, so it wasn't like "oh, the chicken is done and I didn't get any/chicken was so good I want another piece but there wasn't any more).  

While I love the elegance of a plated dinner, it usually ends up with me being hungry because the portions are so tiny, or there's something on my plate I don't like.  HTH!