Types of Table Service for Your Event

Every wedding is so much of the same...  You choose Chicken, Steak or Fish on your RSVP card, then when you get to the reception, it's American Plated Style.  You get a salad, your selection, and wedding cake, all plated in the kitchen and brought to your seat.  Yawn....  Stretch....  I like to play with different types of food service, it always is a hit with guests when they come to a wedding that's just a little bit different, special, and unexpected.  Here are some other choices besides American Plated Table Service:

French Table Service

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Guests place settings are set for every choice available to them, fish knives, soup spoons, salad plates, anything that is on the menu.  The waiter may come to the table with a cart to show you your options for dining, and once you make your selection, he or she removes the unnecessary plates and utensils.  Sometime the cart display is only for appetizers and desserts, but sometimes it's every course of the meal.  Often, food will be assembled, cooked or garnished table-side on the cart.  You may have seen this with a flambe, salads, or the filleting of a fish. 

This type of service is usually a hit with guests, they can see the food before they select it and there is a form of entertainment in the presentation.  A great choice depending on the menu and if you have the space between tables to allow the servers to move.  Unfortunately, this can be expensive because you will need a qualified server for each table and many assistants.  Also, you will need a venue with a large kitchen to prepare the carts, which is usual in most event spaces.  

Russian Table Service

This can be a very elegant way to bring food to a wedding table, and is my personal favorite.  Once again the table is set with all of the utensils a guest will need, but only a charger.  The waiter will bring out the plate appropriate for the course, then return with a platter in hand to plate the food for each guest.  This allows the server to please each guest by giving them the desired portion.  The presentation of the platter can be quite beautiful, for instance if a rack of venison is being served, the kitchen will cut it into portions and reassemble it on the platter so the server will simply take a pre-cut portion for each guest.  This table service is quicker than the more labor intensive French, but still has a different feel.  Often two servers will come to each table, one with one choice of food and the other with a second, they will present the platters then come to each guest with an offering.  This will allow the guest to decide which they prefer.  

Family (or British) Style Service

A casual and intimate choice, Family Style Service is one in which platters are placed at the tables and guests will help themselves and pass the plates around.  Servers would carve any meat at the table, but most often the platters would be pre-cut and gusts could simply take the amount they prefer and pass the platter.  Since one course at a time would be served, tables would be set with utensils and a charger.  The wait staff would then bring out the plates appropriate for the course, and then the platters for the tables.  When guests have finished, they clear away the used plates and utensils and bring out the next course plates and platters.  

This type of service uses far less wait staff, and guests enjoy being able to decide what they will eat and how much.  Getting second helpings is always a hit as well.  Make sure the menu choices are easy for guests to get from platter to plate, for instance you wouldn't want to have something with too much sauce that can drip. 

Buffet Style Service

This type of service is another self-serving options, but unlike family style, where the food is brought to the tables, it is displayed on a separate food table.  Guests will be invited to get up from their tables, retrieve a plate from the end of the food table, and select food for their plates.  Sometime they will serve themselves, sometimes there is a buffet server who can serve the guest at the food table.  Guests then sit back at their tables to dine. 

I find this to be the the most relaxes way to feed a crowd.  Slong with American Plated Style, it is the most common.  There is good reason for it, too, you don't have to assign any seating, and you save quite a bit on the cost of wait staff.  Also, if you are serving several cuisines, buffet style service allows you to create vignettes of food.  

Have fun with your table service, think outside the Buffet and pre-plated dishes and consider something different.  How about Rodizio style?  Your guests will find the refreshing change worthwhile, I promise.