For an event as momentous as a wedding, the food must do so much more than simply taste good. Our job as caterers is to craft sensory experiences that delight guests and create unforgettable affairs. From the first sip during cocktail hour to the last morsel of dessert, a plated menu provides range, flexibility and customization within a refined and elegant service.

Plated Menu Design

• Plated wedding menus are a classic approach to a sit-down reception. While sit-down dinners are still the top service style that you can personalize to your story - make sure you think about the other elements such as your cocktail hours hors d'oeuvres, dessert and late night snacks as being additional exciting opportunity to introduce variety and personal meaning. Smaller bites, particularly, also allow you to infuse personality and whimsy into the menu. For example: Mini corn dogs and funnel cake fries might not fit on the dinner menu, but they’re a slam dunk for an after-hours snack!
• While a traditional coursed plated menu is always elegant, pleasing, and well-received, another fun approach is to treat your guests to a plated tasting menu. This is perfect if your guests are adventurous and will enjoy variety. This works particularly well with more intimate groups - consider a theme you love and invite us to create a menu inspired by that theme! Having trouble deciding between two themes? Some of our most delicious creations have been inspired by exactly this - we'll never forget about the international food loving couple who also wanted to reflect their Asian roots that inspired such yum-inducing dishes as truffle and edamame dumplings, handmade gnocchi with Korean chili pepper sauce, garlic aioli and seaweed crunch and duck confit empanadas with cumin creme fraiche and pickled cucumber.

All the elegance while still making it your own!

Things to Consider

• Formality..and Speed! - plated meal services are perfect for formal receptions since it's a more elevated, elegant experience. What's more, having trained waitstaff deliver plated meals straight to your guests guarantees that everyone is served quickly. While you might be treating everyone to multiple courses, odds are they'll still finish the meal faster than if everyone had to wait in line at the buffet. This means that there's more time for dancing and mingling.
• Efficiency is all well and good but... - Socially, a sit-down dinner may limit your guests from freely interacting with each other as it ties them in to an established seating plan. If you are hoping to achieve a more informal, free-flowing vibe, this type of meal service could feel to stuffy for your group.
• Even Cinderella had a timeline - A plated dinner guarantees that your guests will all be served at the same time. It's also a great strategy to have plated courses when you have a variety of wedding reception events occurring, such as speeches and dances, as you can schedule your courses around those events.

Plated Menu Service Styles

A plated wedding meal typically consists of three courses (or, if there's time, as many as six): an appetizer or salad course, a choice of entrée, and a desert course. Each dish is served by trained waitstaff. The degree of formality can vary; for example, couples looking for the most elegant experience might choose white glove service. Those looking for something slightly less formal might opt to have servers bring out plated dishes table by table. The majority of couples choose will choose to have two or three courses served at the tables and then set up a dessert station or have treats tray-passed on the dance floor.

• Plated Hand Service - With plated service, guests are seated and there is one server (sometimes in white gloves) for every two guests. Foods are pre-plated and each server carries two servings from the kitchen and stands behind the two guests assigned to him or her and serves.
• French Service - With French service, waiters bring food to the table on platters and serve each guest individually. This is typically executed by multiple servers arriving at a table at once to serve guests so that they can all begin eating their meal at the same time. This approach requires a very high level of service so expect higher staffing requirements if considering this service

Select a service that reflects the experience you want to create for your guests.