Reception Eats 101 May 13, 2008

Plated, Buffet, Hors d’oeuvre, dessert only. For most weddings, those cover all your bases.

I think hors d’oeuvre and dessert only are pretty self explanatory. But please make your guests aware of the light fare for the evening. You don’t want your guests to be famished expecting a meal, and end up with spring rolls and/or cake only. There if nothing wrong with going with either of these options, just let your guests know what to expect, and don’t schedule your reception during a traditional ‘meal time’. In my book when it comes to receptions, lunch is 11:30a-1:30p, and dinner would be 6p-8p.

Now for the big guys:
Plated reception vs Buffet

I consider plated to be more formal. It will typically have a few courses, an appetizer, plated salad, possibly an intermezzo followed by an entree, and the dessert among at least half a dozen other options. Dessert can be your cake, and/or in addition to your cake.

I prefer a plated meal, I think it takes some of the burden of your guests, allows them to relax and enjoy the food, and not wait in line to get their chicken, which never seem to be quite hot enough. I also feel like there is never enough of the ‘good stuff’ on a buffet unless you are first in line. Also, many options are hard to serve buffet style, I think steak is not a good buffet choice.

Buffets are great if you have a ton of options, want to include different specialty bars (like a pasta bar, sushi bar, made to order stir fry bar etc). But you must admit, it can be hard to juggle a plate for some older guests.

I also think buffets take away from guests getting to chat. Inevitably, someone will be missing from the table when a killer joke gets told, or when the videographer comes around for well wishes* (I will reserve my opinions on that for a future post).

If you want two options for your plated meal, let’s say chicken and steak you also have some serving options. Ask your venue about a duet entree (everyone will get steak and chicken). It’s not as expensive as it may sound, and a lot less work than tracking RSVP meal preferences, and color coding placecards because your venue requires it. Guests also won’t have to choose in June what they want to eat in September.

Buffets are not necessarily less costly either. Do your research, talk to your venue, and do what is best for you. I’m just sharing my two cents.

Aisle Runners 101 (the outdoor edition) April 19, 2008

Outdoor weddings don’t mean you have to forgo an aisle runner. There are a multitude of options to help hold that sucker down, and you do need to hold it down. Even the lightest breeze can send your custom aisle runner soaring like a sailboat’s sail.

Here are the basics:

Select a length that works for your venue. You need to go and measure. Trust me when I say you don’t want 100 foot runner if you only have a 75 foot aisle. And vice versa, 75 foot runner on a 100 foot aisle would probably not be noticeable, but it’s still a good idea to measure first.

White or ivory? I would always recommend white, regardless of your dress color. Ivory can look dingy.

Custom painted? I had a custom painted runner and it was fabulous. However, my coordinator and/or venue decided I didn’t want to keep it and tossed it. It was quite sad, as it was truly the only wedding item I planned to save. That’s the way the cookie crumbles I guess. I digress…

Having a custom piece made for your wedding is a great touch if you can afford the extra fee. If you need suggestions, please post a comment and I’ll email you some sources for custom runners.

What about the wind? There is a fabulous duct tape that is two sided, and comes in white. I would recommend you line each side of your runner with this tape, or something similar to avoid having the fabric get blown in the breeze. You can get this tape anywhere (your florist may have something better or similar as well). One source is: White Duct Tape

Happy Aisle-ing!

Candy Buffet 101 : Part Deux April 4, 2008

Ok, my fault. I’ve already gotten two emails about where to get scoops. I can’t remember exactly where I got mine, but I did some google hunting and found these from Acemart.com:

you can click the picture to visit their site. They are $1.98 for the 5 oz size. I mentioned earlier that we got 4oz scoops, I think they were indeed 5oz.  Another great google search is for “Restaurant supply” stores. That is where I ordered my scoops, I believe they were like $1.49 plus shipping. But even at $1.98 from AceMart, it’s much cheaper that Bed Bath and Beyond, Target or other retail stores.

Weddings 101 April 4, 2008

We’ve started a new category here on Farfalla Wedding, it’s the Wedding 101 category. We want to cover the basics of wedding basics. Farfalla is full of researchers and we are all self-proclaimed google experts. If it exists, we can find it (we’ve been tested). So we’ll pick different topics and lay out what we believe to be a mini guide to flowers, music, favors etc. Hopefully it will be helpful or remind you of something you’ve overlooked. Stay tuned for more entries to the Wedding 101.

Candy Buffet 101 April 4, 2008

This is definitely not a new trend by any means, in fact, I had one at my own wedding. But it seems like people always have a hard time finding the actual containers and advice on how to make it happen. So I thought I’d help.

A great example of a Candy Buffet/Bar

First things first

How many guests are we talking about?
Let’s say an even 100 guests.

How much candy will you need:
Most people say 1/4-1/2 pound PER GUEST. People get greedy when it’s a candy free for all!

So we’re looking at 40-50 pounds of candy to be safe. Yes, I’m serious.

Second

How many type of candy should you buy?
This is really up to you, but I would say somewhere between 8-12 types. Too many varieties and you won’t have enough of anything. Too few varieties, and you’ll likely run out of the “top choices”.

What type of candy should you buy?
Again, this is completely up to you. But to provide some tips: Get candy that is individually wrapped, or has a hard coating (like M&Ms). Gummi items can get
hard if they sit out too long, licorice is too sticky for guests to pull on all night. The most successful candies will be wrapped or hard.

Lastly

Sounds expensive?
Candy Buffets are! I think people don’t take into consideration that it’s going to be a huge expensive before they decide to do one. We had 70 guests, and 10 types of candy. That meant 10 containers, and enough candy to fill them all. Honestly, I don’t know what the weight of all our confections were, but it was alot.

Where do you buy the containers?
There are a ton of great stores, you will need to put on your best shopping shoes because it will take awhile to find everything. I would suggest the following stores as great places to start:

• Home Goods
• Hobby Lobby
• TJ Maxx
• Old Time Pottery
• Marshalls

Where do you buy the scoops?
Online is the single best place to find them. I got mine for under $2/each. We opted for the 4 ounce size as it was large enough to scoop with, but wasn’t too big that people who decided to take a full scoop would wipe out our buffet. UPDATE: I included a link to a supply store for the scoops in the Candy Buffet #2 post, go to our Weddings 101 category on the right and it should pop up in there.

Good luck, it’s definitely a task to get it accomplished. I don’t know how many times I had everything laid out on our kitchen table, or how many extra trips to target I had to make because we didn’t have enough Hershey’s Kisses. But the end result was much appreciated by our guests.