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Wedding Buffet Turns Into The Hunger Games As Guests Are Forced To Fight Over Scraps
There is no denying that putting together a wedding is quite the logistical ordeal. The guestlist, decorations, seating, venue and, of course, the food. Feeding a large group is always going to be expensive, but generally the cost is worth it. After all, you don’t want to be the person who left a group of, ostensibly, your friends and family, hungry because you wanted to penny-pinch.
A woman shared her frustration with a wedding caterer after her table of eight all ran out of food because of greedy guests. We reached out to the woman in the story via private message and will update the article when she gets back to us.
RELATED:
Just how good the catering is depends on each wedding’s budget
Image credits: halfpoint / Envato (not the actual photo)
But one woman, as well as seven other guests ended up hungry when food simply ran out
Image credits: RossHelen / Envato (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Typical-Gene-5699
Weddings are already expensive, catering is no exception
Catering a wedding isn’t exactly easy. In the US, providing your guests with food costs, on average, around $4000, while in some states it’s as high as $7000. Of course, these numbers don’t say a lot, so it can be helpful to break them down a bit. The Knot surveyed its readers and found that, on average, the happy couple spent roughly $85 per person.
So imagine heading to your favorite restaurant with $85 and think about the sort of meal you can get. Of course, catering often means paying other costs that aren’t directly related to the food, for example, the people who bring the food, set it up and perhaps serve it. The tables, cutlery and dishes all factor in as well. In a restaurant, these items will be used repeatedly, but for a wedding, you are basically paying to rent them, which is not going to be cheap.
That being said, food is just such a normal and important part of human life that the majority of couples did indicate that they see the dishes and drinks as something to pay a premium for. Wined and dined guests are going to be significantly more happy than hungry guests. Similarly, one doesn’t want to be the person who is forever remembered as having cheaped out on food for the guests.
Some guests are just entitled and greedy
Image credits: freepic.diller / Freepik (not the actual photo)
That being said, accidents do happen. As some readers suggested, there is a reasonable chance that the vendors simply ate the food that was intended for these guests. Now, this is not to say that the vendors don’t deserve to eat, they’ve no doubt been working all day and need food as well.
But either the couple simply didn’t plan for this or the vendors realized they could get away with it. There is the chance that the couple just wanted to save money and this is why they decided to “stagger” which tables take what food. Inevitably, the “important” people eat first, as is so often the case in human history. Guest lists often end up getting pretty big anyway, so any couple would be wise to be flexible when it comes to getting food.
There is also the possibility that greedy guests did simply take too much, leaving the last folks with nothing. Again, this should have been planned for. It’s nice to imagine that your friends and family will show a community spirit when getting their food, but people can make mistakes or just decide that they are entitled to more.
When people are hungry, the lack of food will be the only thing they are thinking about
Image credits: Image by Freepik (not the actual photo)
Ultimately, this story can be a sort of cautionary tale to any couples planning their weddings right now. People love to eat. People are also scared of scarcity. If folks see a buffet and think there “might not be enough for me,” they will take too much. You have to plan around this or make sure the vendors know exactly how to divvy out the portions.
This is going to cost more money at the end of the day, but consider it from an alternative perspective. If you are already spending a lot of money for your wedding, you want it to be memorable. Expensive flowers are lovely, but, as this wedding shows, all that goodwill will fall out of the window if people go hungry. This is enough to get your wedding shamed, after all.
After all, humans love a “free” meal. At a wedding, they downright expect it. Since dinner tends to be towards the end of the proceedings, leaving folks hungry is going to be the last thing they remember from the occasion. All the decor, planning choices, music and so on will drop away compared to an empty stomach.
People had a few theories as to what happened
Others shared similar stories and examples of what the hosts should have done
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What do you think ?
Myoviridae 2 months ago
This situation sounds horrible. But the only issue I have with this post is that buffets at a wedding are not "tacky". The most chill wedding I was at was very low budget, held in a park, and was pot luck. Everyone brought tons of food. There was just so much food! Everyone ate a ton and had a good time. So, I guess the moral of the story is "feed your guests"! By any means possible.
Nikole 2 months ago
I don’t go to a lot of weddings, but there was one buffet style wedding dinner I attended about 15 years ago. There was so much food and everyone was happy… I think it’s just a matter of the bride and groom not ordering enough in situations like in the article. Also the fact that the vendors ate before all of the guests were fed.
Load More Replies...
Lyoness 2 months ago
I have to wonder if the bride and groom knew this was happening. I get that it's their special day but if this had happened at our wedding I'd have wanted to know so I could fix it, whether that meant paying for extra food or ordering something to be delivered. And if you don't want to deal with it personally, you nominate a bridesmaid to manage these things who has authority to work with your caterer. I'd also want to know that the vendors ate before the guests because that's seriously uncool and grounds for a nasty review at the very least.
alloutbikes@yahoo.com 1 month ago
I have worked for caterers and been to catered events. When they clients don't want to pay for staff, service is slow and first served are often finished before last half are served. I went to a rehearsal dinner? and watched two people take most of the deli meat for sub sandwiches and graze on the pickles and olives and such. I requested to leave to get food. Helped with catering a buffet for priests. The first were taking two and three portions had to rein that in. Buffet not so good.
Bored Trash Panda 1 month ago (edited)
We did a self serve buffet at our wedding of Mediterranean type foods. But me, my mom, and a few other people prepped all the food the day before the wedding. Our venue had ovens and grills to use. My mom and a friend (I tried to help but got yelled at lol) reheated the hot foods, which wasn't to much while my stepdad and one other person cooked all the chicken/steak skewers on the BBQ. The rest was meats, cheeses, cold veggies, and a few other things. We had maybe 50-60 people there and had so much food leftover we were begging people to take some. lol And my SIL did our cupcakes/cake.
Roxanne D'souza 2 months ago
All the Indian weddings Ive been to, have been buffet style with a guest list of 200-300 people. Never seen the food run out and I usually always go serve myself towards the end. There's also no system of calling people table-wise and people are just free to serve themselves as they please. Once, during a wedding in the family, we drove away from the venue with 3 full trays of fried chicken leftovers. It was so much chicken that a group of 12 including the bridal couple managed to finish off half a tray during the after party at a hotel room. The trick is to serve a lot of starters (appetisers) which is what most people stuff themselves with.
Gwyn 2 months ago (edited)
I take issue with OP blaming it on the wedding couple. Unless they invited more than they contracted to feed, this is TOTALLY on the caterer. They are the experienced expert here (we would hope) and they should always have extra food. Also, I LOVE buffets at weddings and they aren't tacky. Being able to get the food you like in the proportion you like is a wonderful thing.
Meagan Glaser 2 months ago
I saw this happen at a big industry convention, the kind where vendors are given a chance to "sponsor" certain big events each night as advertising. These were huge events, the evening meals/entertainment after a day of meetings, sales and schmoozing. We're talking "for 35 grand you can sponsor the 'UK' themed night of beatles impersonators and fish and chips." And they ran out of fish before 1/3 of guests got to the buffet lines, ran out of chips halfway through. Caterers acted like complete idiots about it. The company that sponsored that night was FURIOUS
Meagan Glaser 2 months ago
See, the deal with events like these at conventions is that vendors are given a menu of events to sponsor but the events area totally planned and run by the convention itself. (These are money making conventions, they charge vendors and buyers to attend so they are an independent company on their own). The event will go on if it's sponsored or not, and it's totally organized and planned by the convention group. Vendors just write a check and plaster their names on things. But non-vendors don't realize that. So a vendor chucking 35k to put their name on an event, that the convention botches so badly, results in every buyer at that event associated the vendor with a horrible, badly planned night that the vendor didn't actually have anything to do with. 35k spent for really awful publicity.
Load More Replies...
Scott Rackley 2 months ago
I would have bounced, but then again, I've refused to rsvp to weddings for 30 years.
Arthur Waite 2 months ago
In the post-university days, when most of my friends were getting married, I was invited to a lot of weddings, generally small and tidy. One of them, the dinner was so meagre that my girl and I snuck out and went around the corner to a MacDonalds. And there were four other couples there, getting some decent meals before going back to dance and so on. We never complained, or even mentioned it.
Mr. Jones 2 months ago
The people siding with the OP about this being the catering company's fault are idiots. The bride and groom make ALL the decisions. The catering company offers them options for buffet, how the buffet will be staffed, plated food, etc. If they had a tiny budget, they probably picked buffet because it was cheaper and they probably asked that it be self serve so they didn't have to pay for more staff. I've been there. At the wedding I posted about below, I had a man yell at me for how little food he got. We served all the food they paid for. We even ate the cost of staffing the stations to avoid people taking too much food. Some of you know nothing about catering.
Mr. Jones 2 months ago
Blame the bride and groom. They got the food they paid for. I worked for a catering company and we did many weddings. Guess what? There is no extra food to give you. We did a wedding once where the bride invited 20 more people the week before her wedding and didn't tell us or even her parents. Her budget was not a big one and she could barely afford the food for the guests she already had. Even before she invited the other people we had to make sure guests couldn't take too much food so everyone could eat. So we barely had enough food for 200 people and we did not have enough food for 220 people. Our meat station was carving ham that was paper thin. People kept complaining to us. THERE WAS NO MORE FOOD TO GIVE THEM! Stop blaming the catering companies. Cater waiters don't make a ton of money and rarely get tips. This is entirely the fault of the bride and groom. Leave the Catering Captain alone. I doubt the OP actually works for a catering company. I call BS.
tori Ohno 2 months ago
I've read this before. It was the groom's family that took all the food, then went back for seconds before everyone had been served. Father of the groom was mortified by his piggish, selfish family. This isn't on the caterer, it's on the host for not ordering enough food. But in this case, the gluttony was unexpected
Meagan Glaser 2 months ago
that was the other story, the one where three tables ordered pizza delivered to the reception
Load More Replies...
The Starsong Princess 2 months ago
At my office, there was a lasagna lunch for 150 that ran out of food after 75 people. A newer, younger employee was in charge of the committee and would listen to advice. She ordered exactly 150 portions of lasagna but never asked the size of the portions. They were 2’ by 2”. There was nearly a riot with half the people hangry. The CEO ordered pizza to save the day. People are still talking about it years later and the young employee left after a few months because people would not leave her alone about it. Always, always have more food than you think you’ll need.
Weasel Wise 2 months ago
So, OP is upset that the catering company wasn't going to give them free food? And was further frustrated because he saw that vendors/employees got to take a break and eat? Does OP think that they're somehow entitled to any food they see, even if it's the employees' own meal?!?! That's not how ordering food works. Guests don't get to eat and eat and eat until their demands are met.
R Dennis 2 months ago
I've been to a couple buffet weddings and I won't blame the staff. Literally saw several people pile up two giant plates of food for themselves. It's like they don't know how to eat around other people. I always took enough food that I wouldn't be hungry, but didn't expect to be full. Blaming the workers while absolving the greedy guests isn't the track I would take... but that's just me.
The Starsong Princess 2 months ago
People do this so it needs to be accounted for. It’s not unexpected so shrugging and not feeding the last table doesn’t work.
Load More Replies...
Otto Katz 2 months ago
Went to a friend's wedding with my ex once where this happened, his friend. The step mother of the bride was in charge of catering, bride thinks she did this on purpose. When Dad of the bride found out food ran out, he dashed out to a local deli and bought platters of deli meat, rolls, lettuce, tomato, etc so we could at least have sandwiches. We weren't mad, just felt bad for the bride. The step-mother looked foolish.
Myoviridae 2 months ago
This situation sounds horrible. But the only issue I have with this post is that buffets at a wedding are not "tacky". The most chill wedding I was at was very low budget, held in a park, and was pot luck. Everyone brought tons of food. There was just so much food! Everyone ate a ton and had a good time. So, I guess the moral of the story is "feed your guests"! By any means possible.
Nikole 2 months ago
I don’t go to a lot of weddings, but there was one buffet style wedding dinner I attended about 15 years ago. There was so much food and everyone was happy… I think it’s just a matter of the bride and groom not ordering enough in situations like in the article. Also the fact that the vendors ate before all of the guests were fed.
Load More Replies... Lyoness 2 months ago
I have to wonder if the bride and groom knew this was happening. I get that it's their special day but if this had happened at our wedding I'd have wanted to know so I could fix it, whether that meant paying for extra food or ordering something to be delivered. And if you don't want to deal with it personally, you nominate a bridesmaid to manage these things who has authority to work with your caterer. I'd also want to know that the vendors ate before the guests because that's seriously uncool and grounds for a nasty review at the very least.
alloutbikes@yahoo.com 1 month ago
I have worked for caterers and been to catered events. When they clients don't want to pay for staff, service is slow and first served are often finished before last half are served. I went to a rehearsal dinner? and watched two people take most of the deli meat for sub sandwiches and graze on the pickles and olives and such. I requested to leave to get food. Helped with catering a buffet for priests. The first were taking two and three portions had to rein that in. Buffet not so good.
Bored Trash Panda 1 month ago (edited)
We did a self serve buffet at our wedding of Mediterranean type foods. But me, my mom, and a few other people prepped all the food the day before the wedding. Our venue had ovens and grills to use. My mom and a friend (I tried to help but got yelled at lol) reheated the hot foods, which wasn't to much while my stepdad and one other person cooked all the chicken/steak skewers on the BBQ. The rest was meats, cheeses, cold veggies, and a few other things. We had maybe 50-60 people there and had so much food leftover we were begging people to take some. lol And my SIL did our cupcakes/cake.
Roxanne D'souza 2 months ago
All the Indian weddings Ive been to, have been buffet style with a guest list of 200-300 people. Never seen the food run out and I usually always go serve myself towards the end. There's also no system of calling people table-wise and people are just free to serve themselves as they please. Once, during a wedding in the family, we drove away from the venue with 3 full trays of fried chicken leftovers. It was so much chicken that a group of 12 including the bridal couple managed to finish off half a tray during the after party at a hotel room. The trick is to serve a lot of starters (appetisers) which is what most people stuff themselves with.
Gwyn 2 months ago (edited)
I take issue with OP blaming it on the wedding couple. Unless they invited more than they contracted to feed, this is TOTALLY on the caterer. They are the experienced expert here (we would hope) and they should always have extra food. Also, I LOVE buffets at weddings and they aren't tacky. Being able to get the food you like in the proportion you like is a wonderful thing.
Meagan Glaser 2 months ago
I saw this happen at a big industry convention, the kind where vendors are given a chance to "sponsor" certain big events each night as advertising. These were huge events, the evening meals/entertainment after a day of meetings, sales and schmoozing. We're talking "for 35 grand you can sponsor the 'UK' themed night of beatles impersonators and fish and chips." And they ran out of fish before 1/3 of guests got to the buffet lines, ran out of chips halfway through. Caterers acted like complete idiots about it. The company that sponsored that night was FURIOUS
Meagan Glaser 2 months ago
See, the deal with events like these at conventions is that vendors are given a menu of events to sponsor but the events area totally planned and run by the convention itself. (These are money making conventions, they charge vendors and buyers to attend so they are an independent company on their own). The event will go on if it's sponsored or not, and it's totally organized and planned by the convention group. Vendors just write a check and plaster their names on things. But non-vendors don't realize that. So a vendor chucking 35k to put their name on an event, that the convention botches so badly, results in every buyer at that event associated the vendor with a horrible, badly planned night that the vendor didn't actually have anything to do with. 35k spent for really awful publicity.
Load More Replies... Scott Rackley 2 months ago
I would have bounced, but then again, I've refused to rsvp to weddings for 30 years.
Arthur Waite 2 months ago
In the post-university days, when most of my friends were getting married, I was invited to a lot of weddings, generally small and tidy. One of them, the dinner was so meagre that my girl and I snuck out and went around the corner to a MacDonalds. And there were four other couples there, getting some decent meals before going back to dance and so on. We never complained, or even mentioned it.
Mr. Jones 2 months ago
The people siding with the OP about this being the catering company's fault are idiots. The bride and groom make ALL the decisions. The catering company offers them options for buffet, how the buffet will be staffed, plated food, etc. If they had a tiny budget, they probably picked buffet because it was cheaper and they probably asked that it be self serve so they didn't have to pay for more staff. I've been there. At the wedding I posted about below, I had a man yell at me for how little food he got. We served all the food they paid for. We even ate the cost of staffing the stations to avoid people taking too much food. Some of you know nothing about catering.
Mr. Jones 2 months ago
Blame the bride and groom. They got the food they paid for. I worked for a catering company and we did many weddings. Guess what? There is no extra food to give you. We did a wedding once where the bride invited 20 more people the week before her wedding and didn't tell us or even her parents. Her budget was not a big one and she could barely afford the food for the guests she already had. Even before she invited the other people we had to make sure guests couldn't take too much food so everyone could eat. So we barely had enough food for 200 people and we did not have enough food for 220 people. Our meat station was carving ham that was paper thin. People kept complaining to us. THERE WAS NO MORE FOOD TO GIVE THEM! Stop blaming the catering companies. Cater waiters don't make a ton of money and rarely get tips. This is entirely the fault of the bride and groom. Leave the Catering Captain alone. I doubt the OP actually works for a catering company. I call BS.
tori Ohno 2 months ago
I've read this before. It was the groom's family that took all the food, then went back for seconds before everyone had been served. Father of the groom was mortified by his piggish, selfish family. This isn't on the caterer, it's on the host for not ordering enough food. But in this case, the gluttony was unexpected
Meagan Glaser 2 months ago
that was the other story, the one where three tables ordered pizza delivered to the reception
Load More Replies... The Starsong Princess 2 months ago
At my office, there was a lasagna lunch for 150 that ran out of food after 75 people. A newer, younger employee was in charge of the committee and would listen to advice. She ordered exactly 150 portions of lasagna but never asked the size of the portions. They were 2’ by 2”. There was nearly a riot with half the people hangry. The CEO ordered pizza to save the day. People are still talking about it years later and the young employee left after a few months because people would not leave her alone about it. Always, always have more food than you think you’ll need.
Weasel Wise 2 months ago
So, OP is upset that the catering company wasn't going to give them free food? And was further frustrated because he saw that vendors/employees got to take a break and eat? Does OP think that they're somehow entitled to any food they see, even if it's the employees' own meal?!?! That's not how ordering food works. Guests don't get to eat and eat and eat until their demands are met.
R Dennis 2 months ago
I've been to a couple buffet weddings and I won't blame the staff. Literally saw several people pile up two giant plates of food for themselves. It's like they don't know how to eat around other people. I always took enough food that I wouldn't be hungry, but didn't expect to be full. Blaming the workers while absolving the greedy guests isn't the track I would take... but that's just me.
The Starsong Princess 2 months ago
People do this so it needs to be accounted for. It’s not unexpected so shrugging and not feeding the last table doesn’t work.
Load More Replies... Otto Katz 2 months ago
Went to a friend's wedding with my ex once where this happened, his friend. The step mother of the bride was in charge of catering, bride thinks she did this on purpose. When Dad of the bride found out food ran out, he dashed out to a local deli and bought platters of deli meat, rolls, lettuce, tomato, etc so we could at least have sandwiches. We weren't mad, just felt bad for the bride. The step-mother looked foolish.
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