anybody planning a wedding without a wedding breakfast?

Im getting married at 4pm too- we arent having a breakfast.

we are having:

4pm ceremony

4.30 casino games, photos, background music from dj, sweetie table

7pm evening guests arrive

7.10ish cutting cake

7.15ish speeches

7.45 ish buffet open

8.30 first dance

then disco opens until 12

We're getting married at 12pm, having a very informal afternoon-tea style lunch (so not a traditional 'wedding breakfast') and then what we're doing is having a sit-down meal in the evening with all our evening guests and do speeches.

I can't see a reason why you shouldn't do speeches with the evening buffet if you want to

We are getting married at 2pm and then having the guests who attended at our house for a BBQ, drinks and some garden games. Then everyone has time to freshen up before the party which starts at 6:30pm. We are only offering canapes at the party as we want it to be very informal. There is no first dance, speeches or cutting of the cake!

Our chosen venue won't let us not have a wedding breakfast, unfortunately, but we're moving our speeches to the evening so the wedding breakfast is a less formal affair for closest friends and family only with the evening celebrations starting at 5.30pm with a welcome line, then speeches, then cake cut, first dance at 7.30pm (ish) and party going on till late - we plan to leave about 11pm and non-residents need to have vacated by midnight. As most of our guests are travelling there and back in the day, several hours each way, we don't expect many people to want to stay that late anyway and probably it'll be winding down about 10.30pm-ish (but that's fine for us as we're not late night people anyway)

We're getting married at 4pm and having a BBQ at 6pm. We were going to do canapes and bubbly in between, but it's an added expense so we've decided not to bother.

Although the BBQ is pretty informal, I'm still doing a kind of table plan, in that guests will be allocated tables, but not a strict seating plan. Tables will then be able to go outside to the BBQ when called. Cost of the BBQ is more or less the same as the buffet.

Not sure if we're doing speeches, but if we do, then they'll be very short.

We were but we arnt anymore!!!! thus saving over 3k and makin the day alot more relaxing (wedding stresses have caused OH alot of problems) so we are now getting married at about 2pm then get to venue at about 3.30, then photos and a drink or 5, then afternoon tea at maybe 5ish with some very informal speeches and then night do at about 6.30/7pm. we have also cut back on numbers for the day, down from 90 to 60. i think the only reason we have got away with this at our venue is because the other 2 weddings booked that weekend have cancelled. then night do we have about 130/140 people coming

I'm surprised to hear that venues insist on wedding breakfasts... I know nothing about such matters, as you see we did "dry hall hire" for our venue so get no interference at all, but the flip side is blimmin' organising everything ourselves! (Well, myself!)

I did that first time around. 4pm church wedding, 6pm for big buffet, speeches, cake, the whole thing, followed by disco.

Our ceremony is at 2pm, then we are having an afternoon tea for our guests. Evening reception starts at 6pm and we are having a sit down meal for everyone then with speeches etc.

I've been debating this aswell! Lots of good ideas here! xx

I'm in the same boat aj- we get married at 2pm then have full 3 course meal, speeches etc- all the traditional bits which is fine as the majority of the guests are comming to the whole thing. We also have a buffet in the evening (again included in the venue package) which I think is served about 8pm- I hoenstly think this will be a bit of a waste as we're not going to finish the meal till about 5:30 and it's a full buffet which I'm convinced won't get eaten. I would much prefer to serve the wedding cake and a smaller buffet- maybe a cheesebored or ploughmans style buffet but we will have to see what the venue say.

Bottom line is it will still cost us the same amount but will stop a lot of food being wasted and prob save the venue money oh well!!

In regards to the origional post I think it's a great idea but i would suggest having some nibbles- especially if there will be drinks between the wedding and food- alcohol on an empty stomach is never a good mix!

Were not having a wedding breakfast either, our day will go something like this(hopefully):

Cermony 3.30

Photos at the church and get to the reception venue around 5pm

A few more photos there with a drinks reception (may have canapes yet, depends on money)

Evening do to start at 7pm with cake cutting/speeches ect. Food would be served at about 8pm

Originally we were having the full day but have decided to spend the money on the honeymoon instead. That whats more important to us.

La1510 have you thought of having bacon baps or something similar served later about 9-10? know a few people who have done this and went down a storm. whod turn down a bacon/sausage/chip buttie after a good few drinks. i know id be up for it.

as were not doin the sit down meal though we really want to have a full more formal buffet to fill our guests up.

we are planning something along these lines

4pm- ceremony

4:30pm- photos

5-5:30pm ish- canapes and punch

6pm casino

7pm evening guests arrive

8:30 pm buffet

not sure when to do speeches, on evening or after photos

What a differance a day makes after talking to family my FIL to be has very kindly offered to pay for our wedding breakfast so we are now having a 2pm ceremony with a sit down meal at 4