Food Makes the Mood: Top Tips For Wedding Reception Dining

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By: Natasha Garber

Restaurant-quality food is a must for today’s wedding receptions. But a wedding meal can, and should, be so much more than a mere restaurant dinner. Unlike a regular meal, a wedding is a celebration, where reconnecting with friends and family, making new acquaintances, dancing, toasting and posing for photos are all par for the course for wedding guests. Which means that how your wedding meal is served is just as important as what’s on the plate. 

Continue scrolling to see our favorite ways to include food throughout your wedding day—keeping guests full and happy!

Get Up and Go

The average reception dining table holds eight or 10 guests. For a wedding attendee who only gets to see far-flung family members on rare occasion, or even one who has many local friends and colleagues in attendance, spending the majority of the party in the presence of that strictly limited circle-no matter how enchanting the company can be a frustrating feat. 

Stations, where guests fetch their own food, don’t just allow for more freedom of choice in selecting menu items, but they also give diners a chance to stand up, move about and interact with others outside the realm of their own table. 

If the word “station” haunts you with visions of ho-hum chafing dishes filled with sloppy-looking stuff, you’ll be pleased to know that most caterers, whether off-premise or at leading hotels, wouldn’t dream of setting out their expertly prepared offering in stainless-steel vats. Instead, stations are much more likely to feature stoneware, glass and china, and small-plate servings arrayed on sophisticated platters or arranged atop risers for visually arresting presentation. 

Indeed, unlike the factory-assembly-line buffets of old, today’s stations typically are individual food “vignettes,” complete with complementary decor and floral, where a chef or experienced server doles out mouthwatering menu items. 

Sweet Deal

A slice of wedding cake is lovely. But an interactive dessert display featuring all kinds of decadent confection selections? Now that’s a sweet lover’s sweet-dream-come-true. From cupcake towers to pick-your-own cookie trees, from chocolate fountains to doughnut carts, there’s no sweeter finish to a perfect wedding dinner than a winsome wow-factor dessert station. 

Early and Late

Without a doubt, dinner is the centerpiece of most wedding receptions. But pre-meal and post-party interludes offer plenty of opportunities for infusing your reception with action, intrigue and just plain yum. 

After the sit-down formality of the wedding ceremony, most guests are ready to eat, drink and be moving. The best cocktail reception is one that caters to guests’ hunger with an array of foods and beverages that excite curiosity while they please the palate.

Explore our favorite Houston caterers for exceptional wedding reception dining, hors d’oeuvres, desserts and more. 

“Food Makes the Mood: Top Tips For Wedding Reception Dining” Spotlight WiH Partners- Catering: Café Natalie | Bailey Connor Catering | Masraff’s Restaurant & Catering | Dessert Bar: Alchemy Bake Lab | Venue: Corinthian Houston | Lighting: Bright Star Productions  | Cake: Susie’s Cakes | Registry: Bering’s

Contributing Vendors- Photo: Always Us Photography / Monarch Atelier / ClickNikki Photography / The Ramseys Photography