As you plan your wedding day, you might have a few questions on your mind: How can I stay on budget? How can I ensure that everyone enjoys themself? What will work for everyone? While we'll leave finding a wedding dress and DJ to the professionals, there is a guaranteed way to ensure that your stress is low and that you and your guests are well-fed: Plan a BBQ wedding menu for the reception.

A BBQ wedding reception menu is the perfect way to keep your food and drink as low-maintenance as possible, while still giving you and your guests something special to remember. There are a lot of ways to serve BBQ at a wedding, and picking the right setup and menu will make it that much easier to relax, be present, and fully enjoy your wedding day.

In this guide, we’ll give you the ins and outs of planning a BBQ menu for a wedding, with ideas for different dishes to serve and important planning tips that will make the whole process smoother, easier, and tastier.

There are two main barbecue serving styles that you can choose from for your wedding menu: cookout style and buffet style. We’ll cover them in more detail in a later section, but for now, here’s a summary:

• Cookout-style BBQs have someone manning the grill throughout the whole meal, serving up hot and fresh hamburgers, hot dogs, skewers, and veggies to hungry guests. Those guests will usually grab a plate and either wait in line or serve themselves, but you can also have a few people in charge of dishing up each plate and serving your guests while they remain seated.
• Buffet-style BBQs require a lot of cooking in advance and laying out a whole selection of smoked meats and sides for guests to choose from. This takes a little bit more preparation but a lot less work for you and your friends come serving time.

Plan and Lay Out Your BBQ Station

Depending on which style of BBQ serving method you choose, your BBQ station will look very different.

In a cookout-style BBQ, you’ll often have your tables set up right next to your grilling station. That way fresh burgers and dogs can be laid out right away for hungry guests, or plated up nicely to be served to seated guests. You’ll need all your usual grilling tools—tongs, spatulas, a basting brush, and seasonings—as well as plates and utensils to serve your food with.

In a buffet-style BBQ, all of your mains and sides will be prepared well prior to when you serve them. Instead of having a roaring grill as the center of your BBQ station, all your smoked meats and sides will be laid out on a long table, and served hot in specialized serving trays to keep them warm.

Either way, you’ll need plates and utensils for your serving station. So the main difference comes down to whether you’d like to get everything ready well in advance, have your food grilled fresh for the meal, or some combination of the two.

Come Up With A Detailed Grilling Plan

So assuming that you're going to be serving a cookout-style wedding BBQ menu, you’ll need to make a detailed grilling plan. That includes three main things:

• What you’ll be grilling
• How much you’ll be grilling
• What order you’ll be grilling in

Deciding on your grilling menu is the first step—and don’t worry, we have plenty of recipe ideas coming up soon.

Then you’ll need to go back to your headcount from earlier and calculate just how much meat you’ll actually be grilling. For example: Serving 30 guests, firgue on 15 pounds of meat. That’s the total amount of meat you’ll be serving, split up between any different dishes you want to serve (hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, etcetera).

Lastly, you’ll need to determine what goes on the grill first (and what you can save to throw on last).

• Whole cuts of meat like steak and pork chops take the longest to grill and will need to go on first.
• Raw meats like hamburgers and chicken take quite a while to cook and should go on close to the start of grilling.
• Fully cooked options like hot dogs and some sausages can go on last. They don’t take long to fully cook.
• Veggies are a wild card. Whole ears of corn can take as long to grill as a rare steak, while pepper and onion skewers can sear up quickly and easily. Squeezing in vegetables on the edges of the grill is a good idea here.

Those are the basics for determining grilling order: Whole cuts of meat first, raw meats next, pre-cooked meats last, and vegetables on the sides of the grill while you’re cooking everything else.

Different BBQ Serving Styles

As mentioned earlier, there are two main ways to serve your BBQ wedding menu: Cookout style, or buffet style. Let’s look at what type of wedding each style might serve best.

BBQ Cookout Style

Cookout-style BBQ is best served at weddings where you have plenty of friends and family who want to help out with the cooking. That’s because someone will have to be manning the grill throughout the entire cooking process, and you’ll need other people to help plate up and serve the freshly grilled food.

BBQ Buffet Style

If you’re short on help or just don’t want your friends and family to be working during your wedding, a buffet-style BBQ is the way to go. For this, you’ll smoke the majority of your meal prior to the wedding, then keep it hot and ready to serve come mealtime. The same goes for sides: Pre-make as much as you can, and then get a few helping hands to set up the buffet table when it’s time to serve.

Combo Style

Of course, you can also mix and match the two serving styles. Why not smoke the majority of your meats and pre-make a selection of sides, then cook up some burgers and hot dogs to go with it? This way you can get all the tasty benefits of freshly-grilled foods without having someone dedicated to slaving over a hot grill for hours at a time.

Casual wedding BBQ menus will look a lot like a classic cookout in your backyard, perhaps with a few fancier touches. Here are some easy-to-make recipes that will make your casual wedding feel special:

• You can’t have a casual BBQ without burgers, and our Traeger Jack Cheeseburger is as tasty as they come (but not difficult to make).
• Hot dogs don’t have to be dressed up to be especially tasty—you just need to know How to Grill the Perfect Hot Dog.
• Grilled Chicken Thighs can take on extra spice and flavor with the addition of honey, soy sauce, and a little bit of ancho chile powder.
• Smoked Smashed Potatoes are pre-cooked, and then given a final crisp on the grill for a fast and easy (but delicious) side.
• BBQ Maple Baked Beans are cooked low and slow overnight, so they’re ready to serve whenever your main courses are finished grilling.

Frequently Asked Wedding BBQ Menu Questions

Before we go, here are the answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about planning a wedding BBQ menu.

What Do You Serve at a BBQ Wedding Reception?

You can serve grilled and smoked meats and sides either cookout style or buffet style at a BBQ wedding reception. For more menu ideas, check out the above sections of this article.

What Should Be Included in a BBQ Menu?

A basic BBQ menu should include a selection of proteins (steak, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, etc.), a few sides, and alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks at your discretion.

What Food Is Good for an Outdoor Wedding?

BBQ is perfect for an outdoor wedding, as it’s easy to serve to large groups and can be cooked and served outdoors.

What Sides Do You Serve With BBQ at a Wedding?

There are dozens of classic BBQ sides to serve at your wedding, from coleslaw to mac & cheese to corn on the cob and beyond.

Is BBQ a Good Idea for a Wedding?

BBQ is a great idea for a wedding menu! It’s a versatile food option that can be served in a variety of styles, and offers something for every guest’s taste.