Help Yourself: Buffet Meals are on Trend!

A delicious close-up of That Brown Girl Cooks Catering buffet at Coyote’s SPARK fundraising event. Photo by Jess Schwab.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION:  A close-up of food on platters ready for selection at a buffet table while guests in the background are serving up their own plates.]

We want to share another event strategy trend that we see increasing this year. Buffet-style service is nothing new of course, but many of our clients are adopting it now for the first time.

Before the pandemic, our evening fundraisers were mostly done in a plated dinner style, where the planners control the service of courses, to ‘stretch’ the timing of the meal and keep everyone on the same pace. Currently, with inflation pushing up the cost of catering, many of our clients have found that a buffet dinner works well instead and can offer some cost savings. In addition to reducing food waste and allowing every guest to choose their own portions, we find the events take on a more fun and casual energy as guests socialize in line at the buffet, and return for seconds if they like. 

#eventplanning #eventprofs #seattleevents #nonprofitevents #teamsynchronicity #buffetdinners