At a wedding reception or banquet, the food can be very predictable. You will most likely be served some bread, then your salad, a main course with chicken or steak, a veggie, and a potato. If it’s been done once it’s been done a thousand times and your guests know what’s coming. If you feel tired of the same old presentation of the meal then go ahead and do what you want for your own day. Having some fun with the food can be a great way to make your meal memorable to your guests and unique to your own style and tastes.

1. Food Stations around the room

A popular trend right now for serving the meal is to have serving stations. These can be set up all around the room with servers from the banquet hall at each one, or if you’re looking to go more casual, it can be self-serve. These stations tend to present more options to your guests than a normal sit-down meal. Instead of everything being pre-made for them, they are able to add their own salad topping, or choose if they only want steak and not the chicken.

Also, consider using a station to serve a variety of drinks besides what might be at the bar. Having a juice bar, pop in glass bottles, or a place to get some iced tea or lemonade is a great additional to the station idea. The guests are going to love exploring all their options at each station and taste testing all the variety.

2. Surprise your guests with snacks.

After your guests have been up and moving around and dancing for a while, they will probably start to get hungry again. You don’t want them to feel like they need to leave if they are looking for a midnight snack. Show them how on top of the planning you were by surprising everyone with some midnight snacks. Amongst all the dancing, your guests will love when they see all the servers come back out with trays of treats for them.

This is also a good place to let the groom give his opinion on what should be served. If the groom loves hot dogs and French fries, have the servers come out with trays of mini-hot dogs and small packs of French fries. This can be an area of your banquet that you just have a little fun and surprise the guests.