Food

Everyone has something different for dinner service. You know whats best for you. I have seen lots of buffets, some sit downs and family styles.

We personally had sit down service making it easy for our guests except took the plates away within minutes. I heard it after the wedding and got me thinking they were moving fast to change the linens for breakfast.

We are hosting an evening wedding along the same lines as this! Our wedding is from 7:00 pm - 11:00 pm. We have some seating available for those who want to rest their feet (4 tables) and 8 cruiser tables for standing and mingling. We've hired a caterer, which averages 10 h'ordeurves per person as well as a few platters that will be sitting out. If you go with buffet style, you will need assigned seating, cutlery, plates, etc. You'll need the MC to announce which tables can head to the buffet, otherwise you could end up with a huge line-up. We've had a lot of time to plan ours...I think this is our final revision and we both look forward to it very much. Good luck with your plans and feel free to check out my other comments/discussions.

If you're not sure about buffet, i recently went to an event that was family style, and i actually loved it! We were able to sample all of the main dishes (because all dishes are on the table, its up to you if you want to eat them or not) and it was cheaper then a traditional catered meal.

If you are thinking of hiring a caterer for the buffet they will still need specific numbers of people in order to make the appropriate amount of food. If you aren't sure I would suggest a bbq or a pot luck.

My fiancé and I are doing a pot luck supper... We have a small family already and it's only us paying for the wedding... I've seen others do it and it turned out really well.

We are doing our own food for a backyard reception with about 150 people... We will be doing bbq chicken and pulled pork with buns and salads and beans. I def love the pig roast idea though. We were considering it!

Not sure if I’m understanding you correctly in that not having served meal but having a buffet in stead. This for some reason reminded me about my friend who went to wedding that decided to do picnics instead of having tables. Which was totally unique and cute but my friend was wearing a dress that made it impossible for her to sit on the ground and eat, she said she would have dressed accordingly had she of known. So if this is the direction your thinking just let your guest know in advance if you can if you plan on having an outdoor meal without seating.

Buffet is the way to go. I’m doing a buffet but plan for more cause it’s better to have too much than not enough

We did a buffet dinner and it worked out great! Our caterer only needed final numbers a week before, which was very handy since we still had some guests who weren't sure if they'd make it or not.
Buffet style or pig roast style like Sonja suggested, would probably be your best bet.

A pig and corn roast would feed lots of people. I think buffet is a better way to go. You'll get a better idea of how many people will be attending when you get back the RSVPs. Then you can gage how much food you'll need. I'm sure you can find quantities on google, for example, how much potato salad is needed for 80 people.