It's typical to offer a fish main course option during a traditional wedding dinner—but if you are a real seafood lover, we suggest prefacing the meal with a raw bar at your event. A station of fresh oysters, shrimp, crab, and lobster can elevate your celebration in many ways. Plus, this fine-dining spread can speak to your favorite food while lending decadence to your big day.
Naturally, raw bars have a beachy look, so if you are getting married on the water, this spread can serve as big-day décor, too. Upgrade your thematic setup in a way that pays homage to your oceanside locale with a model rowboat, like this one by The Chef's Table and Dear Rose Studio. You can even add oars to enhance the station's realistic look. If you want a subtler display that still alludes to your nautical fête, try serving seafood in smaller shell-shaped bowls. Of course, you don't need to get married in the sand to offer a raw bar on your own big day—they're a guaranteed culinary crowd-pleaser for any event, whatever the location.
Besides fish, crab, and shellfish, all you need to finish off your raw bar is ice. After all, it's crucial that your selection stays cold all night long. For a unique twist on a seafood setup, an ice sculpture that holds your spread should keep things cool while making for a stunning design element. Looking for more raw bar examples to inspire your own? The ahead images prove that an interactive seafood station can be just as striking as it is tasty.
Fish Market
Make guests feel like they're at an authentic fish market by building your own seafood counter-inspired raw bar. To accomplish this look, top your display with a wooden plank; use the surface to offer cocktail, hot sauce, and oyster crackers, too.
Passed Seafood
Bring the raw bar to your guests by hiring servers to pass platters of oysters, shrimp, and fried clams (these were provided by Southern Inn) around.
Wooden Texture
A wooden ice box filled with freshly-shucked oysters is the perfect addition to a cocktail hour spread, as evidenced by Merren Events' setup.
Sushi Rolls
We love how Lowndes Grove used a wooden stand to display sushi cones over shrimp and oysters. Mirror this setup if you're incorporating nori rolls into your raw bar; elevating them slightly above the ice will prevent them from becoming soggy.
Single Serving
Create a single-serving raw bar (Toast Events made these hors d'oeuvres) by passing around ice-filled cups that hold an oyster and a mini Tabasco bottle in each.
Ice Sculpture
Turn your raw bar into a work of art that'll impress your guests by placing seafood on a tiered ice sculpture.
Sea Spice
Copy Urban Palate's appetizer if you're looking to spice up your raw bar with an array of dips that pair nicely with clams, shrimp, and crab.
Shell Bowl
Complement your seaside wedding locale by serving oysters in a shell-shaped bowl. Lindsay Bishop Events worked with Cru Catering to create this setup.
Icy Décor
Make like Sleepy Hollow Country Club and recreate this ice sculpture raw bar for a seafood station that doubles as elevated big-day décor.
Rustic Aesthetic
Recreate Lauren James Events' raw bar by displaying oysters in wooden crates to complement your wedding's rustic aesthetic.
Plate Seasoning
Model your raw bar after Roche Harbers' by offering sauces, lemons, and limes with your seafood so guest can season their plates however they please.
Thematic Canoe
Create a thematic display that speaks to your seafood spread by making a raw bar out of a tiny canoe. Magic Foods Catering made this station.
Fishing Boat
Turn a repurposed fishing boat filled with ice into a raw bar, like The Beach Plum Inn did here, to hint at your love for the sport.
Industrial Venue
Present your raw bar (Park Avenue Catering created this setup) in wood and metal barrels for a fun juxtaposition of the nautical and the industrial.
Oar Addition
Add oars to your rowboat raw bar—Boston Yacht Club made this spread—to create a realistic nautical setup.
Silver and Glass
Make like Alexandra Kolendrianos and enhance your formal wedding aesthetic with an elegant raw bar. The experts used chilled silver bowls on glass stands to hold different seafood.
Seaside Nod
Nod to your seaside affair by serving your raw bar—Cape Cod Celebrations and Clambakes, Etc. put together this station—in a boat.
Nautical Rope
Display seafood in a barrel decorated with rope to lend a nautical feel to your raw bar, like Three Three Five and Sash and Bow did here.
Asian Flavor
Take notes from Catering Costa and add Asian flair to your raw bar by offering sushi, too.