Station-style reception dinner - help

I am doing this at my venue! We are having a dessert table, candy bar, pasta station, meat station, mashed potato bar, salad bar, etc. My reception date isn't until 06/03/16 but at my venue, my friend is the catering manager and she says the station styles are very popular and everyone loves them! I'm very excited to do it this way and I'm not writing it anywhere... The guests will know the drill when they get there and their bellies will be plenty full.

I love this style, but there are a few things that make it work. You should phrase your invite so people are not confused; "Join us for a strolling dinner/cocktail reception immediately following. You need to have enough stations; one for every 50ish people, and some of them should be self service (cheese/fruit, cold apps) so that not every station requires a minute or so of service for every guest.

You wouldn't do a formal cocktail hour, then all your dances and toasts, and then 'open' the stations all at once; it should be more fluid, with the guests entering, eating, dancing and then the speeches and dances later on. It works best with a mix of cocktail tables, lounge furniture and high top tables rather than tables for 10 with place cards.

I love it, but if it's not done well, it just becomes a series of small buffets with everyone in the room on line, going from one to the other.

I work at an event venue and we sell a lot of strolling dinner concepts. As long as it's done as Celia said above then it works perfectly and you definitely get that mix and mingle flow to your evening. If everyone sits down and speeches are done and then all of a sudden the stations all open then it's no different than a buffet and the concept doesn't work. I work for a catering company that operates this venue so we pretty much sell it the first way or plated so we are able to control that and give brides what they want. You will love it as long as it's done right, trust me. Make sure you put the info on your website that it is a strolling-dinner and if you have a DJ make sure they make an announcement as well.

I've worked weddings like this as a member of a caterer's waitstaff and I've attended weddings like this as a guest. I generally love the idea and the variety of food can be absolutely amazing! A few things to keep in mind:

1. The food has to be substantial enough to be the equivalent of a meal (unless it's a late evening or an early afternoon event)

2. Have enough seating for every guest. As Celia said, it can be a mix of different seating and no seating chart, but please make sure there's a seat for every butt and (IMO) a table to balance a plate on. I've attended weddings without this and let me tell you it is not fun.

3. The weddings I have attended, there were lines right at the beginning. The lines tended to get really clogged because there was no one "releasing" tables to go get food. But I think if your venue plans it correctly, that won't happen.

4. Make sure you eat!!! A lot of people comment they don't get to eat at their own wedding and I could imagine that that's even more pronounced with this type of service. Make sure you (or someone for you) get a plate so you can enjoy everything you've picked out!

We were invited to one stations reception. They served a different type of ethnic food at each - I didn't get to all of them. It ended up with one big, long, slow buffet line, so I gave up on the last one. It seemed like we were on our feet forever. I really couldn't get out of line to just hit the ones I was most interested in.

We did this at our wedding and it was a big hit! We had a carving station, pasta station, mashed potato bar and Asian stir fry station as our hot stations and a huge assortment of finger foods. They were set up with plenty of space on the enclosed porch where our cocktail hour was. No lines, no crowding. Everything flowed. We did the same with desserts and had a table full of assorted pastries, a table for our wedding cake, an ice cream sundae buffet and a candy buffet. People were able to come and go from each station in which ever order they wanted.

We are having something similar. Our's is called a "Station-Style Reception" but there is still tables. It's just open food for 3 hours (risotto station, carving station, pasta station, sushi station, fish station, etc). My venue explained it much better and said it works really well. They don't have too many stations next to each other so you don't create the "line". I'm a very picky eater and so this style/variety was just right for us. I've always loved cocktail hour food much more than the plated food. But since it will be dinner, you do have to have quite a bit and food that is heavy enough to fill your guests.

But if you are truly having a mingling style, you need to mention that to guests on the invitation.