Posted by
Feed your guests and fix all your problems with fruit bouquets!
How do you simultaneously appease family demands for "more than just cake" while also bringing joy to all your guests with restricted diets AND adding... Read more
Althea and David's Irish St. Patrick's Day wedding was a wild and woolly romp, but their reception had a surprisingly easy organizational method for calling in the troops to eat. They found a great way to keep the catering line organized. Want to hear it? Here's how Althea described it…
In our experience of attending weddings, we had gathered that the most chaotic time was feeding everyone, so we made a game of it. Each table was designated a song and when your song played, it was your turn to make way for the buffet.
Food-themed songs to play:
To get your guests in the mood to nosh, I've compiled some musical playlist inspiration. Okay, not all of these are actually about food (in fact, most aren't), but they'll do the trick. (Fair warning: some are explicit.)
- “Red Red Wine” by UB40
- “Milkshake” by Kelis
- “Buttered Popcorn” by The Supremes
- “Peaches” by The Presidents of the United States of America
- “Brown Sugar” by The Rolling Stones
- “Candy Girl” by New Edition
- “Gin and Juice” by Snoop Dog
- “Sex and Candy” by Marcy Playground
- “TV Dinners” by ZZ Top
- “Cherry Bomb” by The Runaways
- “Everybody Eats When They Come To My House” by Cab Calloway
- “Cherry Pie” by Warrant
- “Pork and Beans” by Weezer
- “Eat It” by Weird Al Yankovic
- “Savoy Truffle” by The Beatles
- “Strawberry Fields Forever” by The Beatles
- “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” by Buckwheat Boyz
- “Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffet (or “Cheeseburger in Paradise?”)
- “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl” by Nina Simone
- “I Want Candy” by The Strangeloves
- “Orange Crush” by R.E.M.
- “Pour Some Sugar on Me” by Def Leppard
- “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies (They've come so far, eh, Riverdale fans?)
- “Tutti Frutti” by Little Richard
- “Ice Cream” by Sarah McLachlan
- “Dinner Bell” by They Might Be Giants
- “Breakfast in America” by Supertramp
- “Juicy” by Notorious B.I.G. (“Lunches, brunches, interview by the pool…”)
Add your own foodie-themed songs in the comments!
Another catering reception trick?
About the Author: Catherine Clark
Catherine Clark loiters at her local library, makes art, watches movies en masse, plays video and tabletop games, poorly cooks healthy things, cuddles with her feline fur babies, and blogs at BijouxandBits.com.
Hm. I think this assumes that every one of your guests has the same music tastes…
Not really – they don’t have to like the song to get food to it.
KNOWING the song is kinda important. That’s what I meant by ‘tastes’. My musical tastes run to hip hop and R&B, doesn’t mean I like every song, but I’m probably not going to recognize a country tune.
Show Me Where Ya Noms At – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIvOqHfia2s
We used that as the opening song in our “Food Time” playlist. 🙂
I’ve been a DJ 20 years and have done more than 600 weddings. The times I’ve done this; it was an utter failure. This article was posted on the Facebook of a DJ group…and not one DJ had anything positive to say about it. It’s a cute idea…but doesn’t work. No one really listens to the background music…even if food is involved. It’s easier just to have the DJ walk up to the table and tell them to go.
Hey Michael! I used to be a wedding photographer and saw this done well a few times in my day. I saw it go so well that I actually did this at our wedding after we published this post, and it worked like a charm!
The key seems to be to have a dj who’s super-engaged and a turns it into a game — teasing each song before it’s played, dropping clever hints, etc. (My wedding planner WAS on standby in case there was one extraordinarily dense table.) Plus, instead of it being “background music,” tables actually got really into their tunes (the Dueling College Fight Song War will always be one of my favorite wedding moments) and they waited with baited breath for each one.
So I’m here to say that, maybe it’s rare, but this concept CAN be pulled off flawlessly. (Okay, one flaw: the dang kid’s table were little sneaks and got their food before it was their turn. #madrespectkids)