Choosing Food Service for a Wake

While remembering and honoring your lost loved one is the most important part of the service at a funeral home in Newtown, PA and the wake, the food is crucial. What you serve and how you serve it have a big impact on your guest’s enjoyment, making food a big pressure point in service. How do you choose the right food? Start by deciding how you want the food to be served. The most common options are plated, buffet, food stations, cocktail, and family style.

1. Buffet – Usually served on long tables, buffets offer up many food options for guests to self-select, from meat and fish to pastas, salads, and other sides. Buffets are usually popular for wakes with large numbers of guests or those that want to offer lots of different food options. Buffets are great as they cater to many different tastes and are generally cost effective. However, buffet lines can get very long, slowing down the evening.
2. Food Stations – Similar to buffets, food stations are placed all around the reception hall with different sections at each one. You can have a pasta, raw bar, carving, or dessert stations, or any other kind you can think of. People tend to enjoy the ability to mingle and select their own food, and the number of stations keep lines short. However, stations require a large space and lots of staff.
3. Plated Dinners – The most traditional wake food style, plated dinners are when the guests are served individual, pre-portioned plates for each course. Generally, guests select their preferred main course dish from a list of options in advance the wake. There are many good things about plated dinners, such as that they limit food waste, and they have a fancier feel. However, plated dinners can cost more than other styles as they take more staff to make and serve. They also take more planning time as you have to carefully place each guest to make sure they get the food they ordered.
4. Family Style – Family style is a sit-down dinner in which waiters bring large portions of food to the table and guests serve themselves like they would at home. This allows people to select the food they want and the quantity they want, and also makes the dinner feel more social and less formal. However, you do need large tables to accommodate big serving platters, and family style can be expensive.
5. Cocktail Style – Instead of a sit-down meal, you can have small, passed hot and cold items served on platters by waiters. This lends itself to small venues and more intimate wakes, but guests might be disappointed if they were expecting a big meal.

Do you want more funeral planning tips? As a Newtown, PA funeral home, we have years of planning experience at your disposal. We are honored to do whatever we can to help you in your time of loss or preplanning. Call or visit us today to learn more.