Just imagine, you’ve been introduced to the reception space and called in as a married couple for the first time. You take your seats and get ready for dinner to begin. Lucky for you, you opted for the platter’s menu. While your guests mingle and enjoy their drinks, an eclectic array of food platters arrives and fills their table. Bread, salads, fish, chicken, and meat seem endless, with the benefit of your guests not needing to rise from their seats. Your guests all get served, and for months after the wedding, you keep hearing how exceptional the food service was and how delicious your selection was. This wedding platter menu is a staple at Markovina Estate and other venues. It combines the selection of a buffet with the service aspect of an a la carte plated meal.
PROS
Family-Style Dinner Atmosphere
There's something just so special and nostalgic about having the meal presented across the entirety of your guests’ tables. The venue team will come around and place an abundant feast before your guests', table by table. Imagine watching your friends and family serving their plates and passing dishes around the table, enjoying their meal like a family dinner. You may be worried this will lead to a limited food supply; however, just like a family dinner, there are always seconds. At many wedding venues, including Markovina Estate, the team always prepares extra food, and staff will serve your guests seconds to ensure everyone can enjoy as much food as they like. This can be very important for those crowd-pleasing dishes that are absolute hits with your guests.
The benefit of table service with optimal choice
There's something special about having table service with your food. Having an entire team of staff, all with platters of food in hand, stand around the table before filling the centre with all this food is a sight to behold. It's that added service with platters that blend exceptional food options with excellent hospitality. This is particularly true for us at Markovina Estate in Auckland as it highlights what we coin ‘Croatian hospitality’, which is going out of our way to do everything we can to make your wedding day extra special for you and every guest. With platters, it's an embodiment of that hospitality that we strive for in every moment of every wedding we host.
CONS
Table Space
One of the significant downsides of the platter’s wedding service is the table space lost to the food platters served onto the table. The entire central run of the table is lost, removing potential design ideas that could be integrated into your table setup for your special day. However, there are ways to still have elegance and flare on your guests’ tables. For example, there's enough space for table runners and a small centrepiece. These centrepieces can still exude elegance to bring your wedding theme alive. There are many ways to do this; just ask your wedding venue how to best support your table setup idea with the constraints of the platters menu.
Service Time
One of the other downsides is the time it takes for everyone to get their food. While this is a minimal factor, it is slightly slower than the buffet service. Dinner service may require a slightly longer time as a result. This is especially true for weddings with a more extensive guest list. This, however, is very venue-dependent and depends on the size of your group, the number of tables, and the size of the venue. At Markovina Estate, for example, the large staff team mitigates what can be a long service time by having multiple service teams and a large kitchen staff plating and serving the dishes in a fast and high-quality manner.
Overall, the wedding platter service is an excellent choice with few downsides, and the few cons are easily mitigated at Markovina Estate. When you come to see the venue, discuss any more questions you may have about this service style with our planning team. We will work tirelessly to executive it how you envision it and customise it so we can personalise it for you and your partner's special day.
