reception time line for buffet plus vent

BrideBehl · January 2010

So my reception is at the PEC. I asked the event corniator how long it will take for the buffet she said two hours! My dinner is at 7, cocktail at 6. Do you think people would be really upset that they might not get their food later then others. We have to do a buffet that's what we can afford. FI is all upset now and I don't know what to do. Is it rude to do our spechs and toasts before people get served? We are having everyone in the wedding party give a spech/toast, plus our dads and both of us.
It seems like the dance wouldn't start til 10 is that way too late. Plus we want to do alI of the special dance like father/daughter ect. I know FI's parents will be uspet by this becasue they eat at llike 5. An they already told us 7 was too late, but it needs to be at that time because we need to do pictures after the ceremony.
Do any would have any ideas of what I could do or what you dd timeine wise? I feel like i have to make everyone happy and that's not happening. I am bending over back words it feels like to make my FILs happy.

leggwilliams · January 2010

I know drdifabio is doing a modified buffet family style at the PEC, where they essentially bring the buffet to each individual table. That might speed things up if that's an option for you....

amberh0515 · January 2010

2 hours seems like a long time! Are they only having 1 serving station?

Maybe put the times of the dinner and cocktail reception on the invite. That way people can plan accordingly. Good luck!

drdifabio · January 2010

Yep like leggwilliams said I am also booked at the PEC and am planning on doing a modified family style meal. We originally wanted to do the Casablanca buffet but I saw the idea of doing family style and really though that was the happy medium between buffet and plated. I am not sure when you booked them but for us it is costing $1 more per person to do family style rather than buffet, so depending on your guest list this could be a reasonably inexpensive switch.

Here is how we are working it:
All the salad come out at once and are served family style. Once that clears, all the sides come out and are served family style. Then servers walk around and offer guest either the chicken or steak as the protein. We are also putting a note on the RSVP for them to make that selection (so we can give PEC an idea of count) but at this point they are not tied to that decision. Then dessert will be on one table that guest can just go up and select what they want. I am supper excited about it! Let me know if I can help further!

hjh444 · January 2010

I am at PEC and we are doing a chicken and a 4 cheese ravioli...the 4 cheese ravioli is cheaper so i am hoping some people besides vegetarians choose that

But THe chicken plated meal is pretty much the same price as buffet so I am confused when you said buffet would be cheaper?

BrideBehl · January 2010

I booked the PEC almost a year ago and their prices are were really low then (they were upped big time after we did) The entree that we would want to get as plated dinners would 4-7 dollars more.

kristigiles · January 2010

buffets should NOT take 2 hours...that is ridiculous.

we're doing a buffet at our wedding and they told us it would take between 20-30 min to get through the entire room of 250 people

Qston · January 2010

Two hours seems REALLY long, and I would be bored and starving if I was at the last table to get fed as a guest. If it really is going to take that long I would suggest taking your photos earlier in the day (there are plenty of sites you can read about how the first moment of seeing each other is still amazingly special if you do it privately), and starting the speeches and all that while people are eating/waiting/in-line. You can even get started with your dancing. I went to a wedding last year with a longish dinner and the couple did their first dance and father daughter dance while people finished up. It was nice, because then when everyone was done, the party was already going and it was a nice transition.

hkiesling · January 2010

2 hours seems very long. How many guests do you plan on having? We had 120 and everyone went through our 1-line buffet about 30 minutes. Because we were at an old mansion, not everyone ate in one room. We did the speeches after dinner while the DJ was setting up. We went to a seperate place (on a big staircase) and the BM and MOH did their speeches then and we also got to make the annoucements about the DJ starting up and the first dance then. Maybe that's an option for you.

cukimerrydoll · January 2010

What does that 2 hours include? Is that just getting everyone's initial course? Or does that include the serving, eating time, and possibly cake?

That seems crazy long. I've seen buffets for 100 people take 10 minutes.

The last wedding I went to, the food was late, and they did the toasts, speeches, etc. during food. It seemed to work out very well.

debbieupper · January 2010

I agree with the above posts. I used to cater weddings, and getting 150 people through a buffet line should take no more than 30 minutes.

Maybe chat with the people there to clarify what they meant by that 2-hour period. Once you get going with getting people their food, the eating portion of the meal is about an hour (or less, sometimes ... or more if you've got long toasters!).

MesmrEwe · January 2010

We had 400 guests... What we did was we had salad and rolls served at the table (one less thing for guests to carry through a buffet line)... It was nominal for how much it added (~$100), but people weren't waiting for their turn at the buffet and helped things "feel" like they went quicker. We also had 4 buffet lines going so it went incredibly quickly.

As for the meal, they may be figuring how long it takes for the meal from start to finish (aka from first person through the line to the last plate cleared after cake), which really can take 2hrs.

reception time line for buffet plus vent

Re: reception time line for buffet plus vent

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