Weddingbee Blog
It seems small plates have hit the reception scene running! I’ve been seeing this type of food service right and left in wedding blogs. We thought about our favorite restaurants in San Francisco and the feel we wanted for our reception, and thought small plates would be perfect for us. While I love our idea to do small plates, my biggest fear is that our guests will see ’small plates’ on our invitations and think, ‘note to self, hide sandwich in purse.’ Which is completely unnecessary!
My parents recently went for a tasting at a fantastic local caterer who specializes in action stations with small plates. They tasted several dishes from our proposed menu and while my father left feeling satisfied, my mother was stuffed. Mind you, that meal was sans appetizers and dessert! So what exactly is a ’small plate’? For us, it’s a few bites of different foods served individually on little plates or bowls. Here are two more images to show you what I mean.
From Callahan Catering. Swoooon. He has small plates down to an art!
Right off of Callahan’s home page.
Besides being perfectly beautiful on display, what drew us to this type of food service was the hope of keeping our guests up and mingling. Guests can grab a few plates and return to their seats, or grab one, eat, mingle, then grab another. Whatever suits them!
Who’s the fabulous caterer that will be bringing our concept to life with their delicious actions stations? None other than Jody’s Pantry Catering! We consider ourselves lucky to have found a caterer so fabulous and modern in the middle of nowhere, PA. Here are a few images of their work, taken from their brand new website.
For our reception we chose a hearty menu that reflected the fall season and some of our favorite dishes from San Francisco. I will be tasting some dishes myself in a few weeks and ironing out details. I’ll be sure to share exactly what’s going to be served a little later! Mmm, I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!
What do you think about having small plates at a reception? Would you prefer a more traditional service? If anyone is doing small plates like we are, I’d love to see some display inspirations if you have a link to share!
Callahan IS amazing — but was totally out of our budget!
Our cocktail hour will be our caterer’s chance to let his small plates shine, since we’re doing fun stuff like BBQ chicken lollipops and…(wait for it)…bruschetta. Yeah, we had to.
Mmmm, those look YUMMY!
We’re also planning small plates. We figure it’s the perfect way for guests (and us!) to get to try a bunch of delicious things. The hardest part will be narrowing down all of the options!
Our caterer was “Calihan!” (not the same one, but funny that they have the same name. They were outrageous as well, but did a fab job. There were only 2 caterers to choose from for our venue.) We did a similar thing for our apps–I loved it! I have been to a wedding with dinner stations (the food wasn’t that great though) & to a wedding with appetizer stations and small plates passed. I hearted the shot glasses of tomato soup w/ grilled cheese! Oh and the midnight snack of mini-milkshakes?! I wish we had that kind of budget. (That wedding was ~100K). My husband thought the app. stations were dinner! And at dinner, he ordered the sauce for dinner! (In his defense, the menu was in French!) It’s a bit like a smorgasbord or tapas. You get a bit of everything–such a good idea! Plus your caterer’s presentation looks amazing!
i’d rather spend the same amount of money on a nice sit down dinner.
Your choices are beautiful. I’m having too many *old people* to feel safe with all the mingling. I was even wary of a buffet, so I’m going with a plated dinner.
We are having small plates too! Since we are serving the same amount of food as a regular, seated dinner I wasn’t even going to mention on the invites that it was small plates. I think small plates are really fun way to get people to interact with each other and food! My big worry is that my older guests won’t really “get it” as we aren’t doing assigned seating either. We will see. Thanks for the food porn though! Yum!
We are doing small plates! Well, technically a cocktail and stations reception, which is typical in the South where my fiance is from.
We will have: barbecue station with pulled pork, barbecue ribs and chicken, sweet and sour slaw,macaroni and chees, corn on the cob, jalepeno cheddar stuffing and biscuits
a shrimp and grits station
a pasta station with two different sauces and various toppings of veggies, meats and cheeses
a smashed potato and sweet potato bar
a raw bar with crab legs, oysters, shrimp, scallops
a crepe station
Then we will have eight stationary appetizers (cheese and fruit, hummus and veggies, toasted ravioli, crab rangoon, mini crab cakes, mini flatbreads, skewered steak and lobster, mini burgers and fries)
That food looks amaaazing. I love the idea of small plates. Especially because I am one of those people that gets full by the end of cocktail hour.
So elegant and contemporary!!! It all looks delish and your idea is a great one!
I love small plates, I love small plates, I LOVE SMALL PLATES!
yum.
Ooh, small plates just seem like more of a party, you can always be mingling. But down in Texas, it’s a full plate of bbq for our wedding.
I think it would be super fun to have a reception with a bunch of tapas at every table as the “main course” - the sharing would break the ice among the people who don’t know each other, and I am hardly ever disappointed with tapas restaurants!
Grilled cheese and tomato soup is one of favorite comfort foods. Those mini servings look so good — but I know I wouldn’t have any because I would be so afraid of getting soup on my dress! Sounds like a unique dinner for your guests.
I love small plates and I think that would be perfect for a reception 
and I like anything that will make for a good picture hahaha
Looks delicious! I love tapas and mezes, which I think is pretty much the same idea. How is it served? Buffet-style, or are there waiters who bring the plates around?
@Miss Mouse: It’s a combo with Jody’s catering. I know they do some butlering and people will be able to take from the stations as well.
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Mrs. Sunbeam, San Francisco/Grove City, PA Age and Occupation: 26, Grad Student & Office Manager Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Motion Designer Engagement Date: May 10, 2008 Wedding Date: September 2009 Venue: Harbison Chapel & The Maple Lane Farm About Me: Mr. Sunbeam and I are high school sweethearts. We both come from a small town in PA but are growing to love the California lifestyle. He loves wine and I love cheese... the perfect combination! When I'm not drooling over wedding blogs, I'm attending grad school, out being a foodie, or attempting to "walk" our cat at the park. Two things guaranteed to excite me are wedding cakes and breaking out my suitcase to travel. Mr. Sunbeam and I are personalizing our hometown wedding to celebrate our high school sweetheart status and PA roots with a few CA touches. After ten years of dating we couldn't be more excited to call each other husband and wife!
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