diy Hors D'oeuvres Buffet

Given that you plan on getting married in April, I'm not sure it's really safe with Covid to have a buffet. What time are you planning?

During a non meal time 1-4pm serve 6-8 pieces per person. For a meal time, 11am-1pm or 4-7pm serve 18-20 pieces total per person. That is the heavy appetizers that you find in the frozen section at Costco and is the equivalent of a plated meal.

Great info that Michelle posted! What time are you planning your wedding?

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Ceremony is at 2pm, Planning on doing small stations spread out to assist with social distancing. and since we are doing everything ourselves at our home we can adjust as necessary

Wouldn't recommend that since we arein a pandemic

View Quoted Comment Even if people are social distancing, they will still have to touch the same items to get their food.

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Ok then what would you suggest? I cannot afford catering in my area, I work in public safety, so my budget is next to nothing. I am happy to hear other suggestions to ensure the safety of my guests...

View Quoted Comment Contact local restaurants that you like. Mexican, Chinese, etc where you regularly visit. Nearly all of them offer corporate catering packages which are full meals for a large number of people very inexpensively..cheaper than most other food options elsewhere without wedding markups and you don't have to worry about cooking and other labor. Just have someone to serve and oversee the presentation which you can find staff on thumbtack.com


You need to serve something even if you have to cut back on other aspects. The bare minimum is cake and punch which is traditional.

View Quoted Comment I would suggest having servers or have the food individually wrapped. However, servers usually don't server food unless they provided it due to liability issues. No matter what you do, I think Covid is going to be an issue. There are already issues without Covid wirg providing your own food like making sure everything was prepared in a clear environment and making sure that the food stays at a safe temperature and Covid just makes it thousand times harder. I honestly think your best option is going to be to go to a bakery and get cupcakes individually wrapped and just have a cake and punch reception.

Re: the COVID concerns mentioned above, I think it would work really well to serve your appetizers in cute little boxes/bags/cones for each person. Those could sit on your buffet table and each person could just grab their own. You could make it really festive like this or this.

View Quoted Comment If you require that people wear masks while getting their meals, buy the cling wrap that you use for microwave, and cover every serving dish, and put in tongs . People can lift covering enough to serve themselves. or loosely wrap a few of each item in waxed paper, so they take little bundles from 3 places, and a couple of covered custard cups or bowls with cling wrap. Then can tip things onto their plates like Chinese takeout, at their seat. I was at two this summer that had only one server, the rest of the buffet unattended. People were all wearing masks, and used the tongs. Chunks of lasagna, and lasagna roll ups, very filling, best if eaten partly cooled, and finger foods, with some wrapped sandwiches as an option, were all pretty easy to serve neatly and very quickly.