You have the date, the room and a guest list full of clients and people your leadership team wants to impress. Then the quote form asks a simple question: what style of service would you like?
It sounds like a food question. It is actually a question about what you want your guests to do.
The format you choose decides whether people mingle or settle in, whether your speeches land or get talked over, and whether the room feels like a party or a dinner. After 20 plus years of catering events across Melbourne, here is how we would think it through.
Start With What You Want Guests to Do
Before looking at menus, picture the room an hour in.
If you want people moving, meeting new faces and working the room, you want a cocktail party. If you want something relaxed where people drift in and out and help themselves, a grazing table fits. If you want people seated, talking to the person next to them and paying attention to a program, you are looking at feasting or a sit-down meal.
Get this right and the menu becomes the easy part.
Cocktail Party: Best When the Room Needs to Move
A cocktail party keeps everyone on their feet and circulating. With event staff on hand, the food comes to your guests, so nobody gets stuck in a queue or tied to a table.
Canapés are one to two bites, designed to be eaten with one hand while holding a drink and a conversation. As the night goes on, supper items bring something more substantial, and bowl dishes served in small bowls work as a lighter main.
It suits product launches, client drinks, networking events and end of year parties where the point is the people. The thing to plan for: if your event runs across dinner time, guests will treat it as dinner. Build in those heavier supper items later in the night so nobody leaves hungry and heads for the nearest burger.
Grazing Table: Best When You Want an Entrance
A well styled grazing table is the thing people photograph when they walk in. Guests help themselves throughout the event, so it feels generous and relaxed without a formal service.
It works beautifully for arrivals, gallery style events, open house functions and anything where guests come and go rather than all eating at once. It does need space, and it needs a spot where people can reach it from more than one side without creating a bottleneck. Tell your caterer about the room early.
Feasting and Shared Platters: The Middle Ground
Feasting puts platters of mains and sides down the middle of tables or along a credenza for everyone to share. It is seated, but it is not stiff.
It suits team celebrations and client lunches where you want conversation. Passing dishes around a table breaks the ice in a way a plated meal never quite does, and a shared spread makes it easy to include options for different dietary needs..
Sit-Down Dinner: Best When the Evening Has a Program
If you have speeches, awards or a board dinner where the whole room needs to be looking the same way at the same time, a seated meal gives you control of the night.
For corporate dinners, an alternate drop is worth considering. Two dishes are set down alternately around the table, which keeps service fast and even, so your MC is not waiting on the last table to be served before the next speaker starts.
A seated dinner does ask more of you. You will need firmer numbers, more space, and the right crockery and cutlery for the menu. We guide you through that and can arrange hire, but it is worth knowing upfront.
Most Good Events Mix Formats
You do not have to pick just one. Canapés on arrival followed by feasting platters at the table, or a grazing table as the centrepiece with canapés moving around the room, both give each part of the night its own feel.
Our event menus cover cocktail parties, fine dining, feasting banquets, picnics and themed events, so there is plenty of room to combine formats around your program.
A Quick Way to Decide
Ask yourself three things. Is there a formal program with speeches? Lean seated or feasting. Is the main goal mingling and meeting people? Lean cocktail. Is the room tight or the timing loose? A grazing table or a mix of canapés and supper items gives you the most flexibility.
If you are also planning the end of year party, our end of year party catering timeline walks through when each decision needs to be made. For guests with dietary needs, here is how we handle dietary catering across every format.
Still Not Sure? That Is What We Are Here For
Tell us the occasion, your guest numbers and the room, and we will recommend a format and build a menu around it. You can see what we offer on our event catering page, check our event FAQs for the practical details, or go straight to planning your event with us.
