Plated, Buffet, Spit Braai or Food Stations: Choosing Your Wedding Menu

The best wedding menu ideas start with the service style, not the dishes. Whether guests are served at the table, help themselves from a buffet, pass platters around or queue at a spit braai decides how many staff you need, how long dinner takes, how much space the caterer needs and how the evening feels. Choose the style first, and the menu follows.

There’s no single right answer. A plated three-course dinner suits a formal venue and a long list of speeches; a spit braai suits a farm, a relaxed crowd and a big appetite. Below is a side-by-side comparison, the South African options worth considering, how to handle dietary needs and children, what changes when there’s no kitchen, and how tastings and final numbers work.

Wedding menu styles compared

For typical prices per head for each style, see our guide to wedding catering costs per person.

Plated service

A plated dinner is served course by course to seated guests. It’s the most formal style and the easiest to time, which is why it pairs so well with speeches between courses: the caterer knows exactly when each course goes out, and the MC knows exactly when the room is quiet. Our reception order of events shows how that rhythm works.

It also handles dietary requirements best, because each special meal goes to a named guest at a known seat. The trade-offs are cost and staff. Plated service needs the most waiters, the most crockery and a proper plating area behind the scenes. If you offer a choice of mains, collect each guest’s choice with the RSVP and mark it on the place cards.

Buffets and sharing platters

A buffet gives guests choice and lets them go back for seconds. To avoid a long queue, have the MC call tables one at a time, use a double-sided buffet table for bigger weddings, and put salads and starches before the meat so plates fill up before the expensive part. Label every dish, especially anything with nuts, pork or shellfish.

Sharing platters, often called family-style, bring the food to the table on big boards and bowls. Everyone eats at the same time, nobody queues, and passing dishes gets strangers talking. Check the tables are wide enough, because platters, glasses, décor and elbows all compete for space. Our wedding hire checklist helps you count tables, serving ware and crockery.

South African options: spit braai, potjiekos and braai stations

Spit braai

A spit braai is a whole lamb (or pork, or a mix of cuts) roasted for hours on a turning spit over coals, then carved at a station and served with salads, roast vegetables, pap or garlic bread. It suits farms, gardens and relaxed coastal weddings, and the smell alone gets guests to the table.

Things to check: where the fire goes (downwind of guests, away from the marquee), whether open fires are allowed at your venue or site, and whether there’s a chicken or vegetarian alternative for guests who don’t eat lamb or pork. Ask the caterer how many people one spit feeds with the sides they serve, rather than guessing.

Potjiekos

Potjiekos is a stew slow-cooked in a round, three-legged cast-iron pot over coals, with meat, vegetables and starch added in layers. At a wedding, several potjies (lamb, chicken, a vegetable one) cooking side by side are a show in themselves, and they’re ideal for a winter wedding. Because it’s slow food, the cooks need to start well before guests arrive.

Braai stations

A braai station cooks boerewors, sosaties and chops to order, with braaibroodjies (toasted braai sandwiches) on the side. It works best for smaller weddings or as one of several food stations, since a single grill can only cook so much at once.

Late-night food

About 90 minutes into the dancing, something warm and salty disappears fast. Boerewors rolls with tomato and onion relish or chakalaka are a South African favourite; vetkoek, toasted sandwiches or a coffee and rusk station all work too. Ideas for the rest of the evening are in our reception entertainment ideas.

Dietary requirements and children’s meals

Collect dietary requirements with the RSVP, not a week before the wedding. Then give the caterer a list by guest name and table, not just “four vegetarians”.

• Vegetarian and vegan guests need a proper main course, not a plate of side dishes.
• Allergies (nuts, shellfish, gluten, dairy) need the caterer to explain how they avoid cross-contamination, especially at a buffet where spoons wander between dishes.
• Religious requirements such as halaal or kosher meals: ask whether the caterer is certified, or can supply sealed meals from a certified kitchen.
• Children usually prefer simpler food, served first, before they get hungry and restless. Ask whether the caterer offers a children’s menu or smaller portions, and say how old the children are.

Food customs vary between families and faiths, so if you’re combining traditions, ask both families early what matters to them. Our guide to South African wedding traditions covers combining cultures in one day.

Catering outdoors: no kitchen, power, water or shelter

A beach, a farm or a forest clearing means the caterer brings the whole kitchen. Ask early what they need:

• A kitchen area. Usually a tent with tables and lights, on flat ground, close to the reception but out of sight, with vehicle access for unloading.
• Power. Warmers, fridges and lights need a generator if there’s no reliable supply. Ask what load the caterer needs, who supplies the fuel, and what happens if the power fails at a venue that has mains.
• Water. Clean water for cooking and washing up, brought in containers if the site has none, and a plan for dirty water.
• Wind. On the coast in summer, the wind usually picks up in the afternoon. Buffets need covers, chafing dishes need wind protection, and anything on a beach needs keeping clear of blowing sand. Weighted tablecloths stop a buffet from becoming a sail.
• Heat. Ask how hot food stays hot and cold food stays cold, both in transit and on the table. Creamy salads and desserts belong in the shade.
• Fire rules. Spit braais and potjies need open fires. Check whether your venue, the municipality or your beach permission allows them, especially in dry weather.
• Rubbish. Somebody has to remove it. On a beach, leave nothing behind.

Our farm wedding guide covers generators, water and access for rural sites, and the beach wedding planning guide covers the coast.

Tastings and final numbers

The tasting. Book it once you’ve chosen the caterer and the style, typically a few months before the wedding. Taste the dishes you’ll actually serve, check portion sizes, and ask how dishes will hold up on a buffet or in heat. Ask for the final menu in writing afterwards.

Final numbers. Your catering contract will say when final numbers are due and whether you can reduce them afterwards. Set your RSVP deadline at least a week before that date, so you have time to chase the people who haven’t replied. Remember to count the photographer, videographer, DJ and coordinator if they’re working through dinner. Our guide on when to send wedding invitations helps you set the RSVP date.

Drinks. The bar is usually a separate decision and a separate budget. Our guide to how much alcohol you need for a wedding walks you through the quantities.

Choosing your menu style

Start with your venue and guest count, decide how formal you want dinner to feel, then choose the style before the dishes. Ask each caterer for an itemised quote in the same format, with staff, equipment hire and VAT shown separately, so you’re comparing like with like.

Whatever you serve, the crockery, cutlery, glassware and tables have to come from somewhere. You can hire them from Tarika, and if you’d like someone to find the caterer, plan the outdoor kitchen and run the day, see how our full wedding planning works.