Food down the middle of the table, and people reaching across it. It is less formal than a plated wedding breakfast, it is not cheaper, and at a marquee wedding it is often the better call: it gets the room talking, it is more forgiving of a late ceremony, and it does not depend on a hundred and fifty plates arriving at once.

The Suffolk Ploughman’s

Glazed Suffolk ham, Hand Raised Pork Pie, Shipcord, crudités, pickled radish, pickled onions, beetroot chutney, piccalilli and country bread selection (vo)

A serious lunch that happens to be simple. Shipcord is a Suffolk cheese and the pork pie is hand raised, and between them they do more for a marquee wedding in September than anything that needs a sauce.

The Vegetarian Classic

• Butternut Squash and Gruyere Pithivier
• Roasted New Potatoes
• Roasted Heritage Carrots, Yoghurt, Barley

Autumn Comfort

• Signature Shortcrust Pastry Pie — Steak and Ale, or Chicken and Leek
• Creamy Mash or Thyme Oven Roasted Potatoes
• Peas à la Française

Desserts to share

• Florentines (ve, gf)
• Mini Éclair Bites
• Baklava
• Lemon Marshmallow Pies
• Rich Chocolate Pot (gf)
• Berry Pavlova (gf)

How it works in practice

Boards and bowls are laid down the centre of long tables and replenished through the service. Round tables work; long tables work better.

Dietary requirements are easier on a sharing menu than a plated one, because a vegan guest is not sitting in front of a different-looking plate. We still plate separately where cross-contamination is a real risk rather than a preference.

In a marquee

This is the most robust menu we do in a field. Very little of it is temperature-critical at the moment of service, which means a ceremony that runs twenty minutes late costs nothing.

Allergens

All fourteen declared allergens are listed against each dish on request, and we ask for every dietary requirement in writing before the tasting. Our kitchen handles nuts, gluten, dairy, egg, fish, shellfish, soya, celery, mustard, sesame, lupin, molluscs and sulphites, so we cannot guarantee any dish is free from traces. (gf) gluten free · (gfo) gluten free on request · (v) vegetarian · (ve) vegan · (vo) vegetarian on request Reeves Events holds a 5-star food hygiene rating.

If you are weighing a sharing table against people queuing at a service table, we have set the two side by side on our wedding buffet catering page — including the point at which numbers make the decision for you.

What a sharing table does to a room

It makes it louder, and that is the point. Passing a dish to somebody forces an interaction that a plated meal does not. Tables that would otherwise sit in polite silence for twenty minutes start talking, because somebody has to ask for the potatoes.

It also removes the queue entirely, which is the thing that ruins most informal wedding food. Nobody stands up, nobody waits, and the last person served is eating at the same moment as the first.

What it needs from the table

Space. This is the constraint people miss. Platters and bowls down the centre need room that a plated meal does not, which means either wider tables, fewer people per table, or a decision to move the flowers.

Talk to your florist and your stylist about it early. A dressed table with a tall centrepiece and a runner of foliage has nowhere to put a serving dish, and the choice then gets made badly at six o’clock by somebody carrying a hot platter.

Round tables of eight to ten work best. Long banqueting tables work beautifully. Tables of twelve start to defeat the passing.

Quantities, and why they are not the same

Sharing food needs more of it than plated food, and any caterer who quotes the same per head for both is planning to under-fill the dishes. You cannot portion it, and the first table to help itself sets the tone for the last.

We over-cater sharing menus deliberately. A platter that looks depleted when it reaches the far end of the table is worse than no platter, and it is the failure mode this format has.

Where it works better than anything else

Barns and marquees, where the informality suits the room. Large numbers, because it scales without the oven capacity a plated meal demands — see marquee wedding catering. Mixed tables where people do not know each other. And anywhere the couple want the day to feel like a long lunch rather than a formal dinner.

Where it does not: a very formal room, a tight schedule, or a guest list with a lot of people who would find serving themselves difficult.

Related: buffets compared with sharing tables, plated wedding breakfasts, and barbecue menus.