Food!

I think it really depends on the timing of your day... If you have the ceremony at, say 2 or 3, then you can realistically expect people to have lunch first, serve your breakfast at 5.30 or 6 and maybe have something light later in the evening, just snacks ratehr than a full meal.

Our ceremony is at 11, with the breakfast at 1.30 and evening food at 7, and probably some nibbles through the night do.

Over here the night do tends to go on for the whole night, and with often some heavy drinking so food is quite essential!

As you say, for me the worst bits of some wedding sis the sporadic food - nothing for hours and then a massive meal, followed by a buffet a few hours later!

I don't know if you have found a venue yet, but alot of them stipulate that you have to have a breakfast and evening food and a drinks package, especially for weekends and summer weddings.

That said there are plenty that don't so don't let that put you off!

Also, if you are concerned about times and people being peckish, you could look to serve canapes before or after the ceremony to keep people going!

Hope this ramble has been of some use!

DM x

In Australia (where we got married) you only have 1 meal, and the same amount of guests come to the ceremony & the whole day. I'd never heard of day/evening guests before moving to the UK.

Our wedding was at about 2.30pm ( guests had already eaten lunch), then canapes while we had photos done, then a sit down meal about 6pm. Dancing till 11pm. I'd prefer to keep on dancing rather than stop & eat more food.

If you are worried, you could have more canapes and nibbles come out later in the night, but why pay for 2 meals if you dont need to?

We're having ceremony at 2pm

Possibly canapes at 2:30pm

Five course meal at 4:30pm

buffet served around 9pm

I also think it depends on the timing of your wedding, if it were up to me I would have a later ceremony say 2 or 3, then you just feed people once. With our venue it was actually cheaper to have one of their packages (a late deal one) so we pay £75 per adult and have sit down meal which I think will be about 4pm (1pm ceremony) then a buffet maybe around 8/9pm. I would have to pay extra for canapés before the meal which I am considering because some people might be too hungry by 4pm. I'm hoping people have the common sense to eat a brunch before they come to the church ?

Thanks all for the feedback so far! It's helpful to see what everyone else is doing. Timings definitely have a large part in it.

We think we might have the ceremony earlier in the day, just because a lot of guests will only be invited to the evening and travelling from far. So instead of them arriving at 8pm, they can arrive earlier and it will be more worth the travel then. So wedding breakfast will hopefully be about 2pm - perhaps 3pm, maybe that's not enough time for ceremony and pictures.

So I'm concerned about a couple of things if not serving food later on:

1. Day guests will go hungry having finished the breakfast by about 4pm (ish)
2. Evening guests will be getting no food at all if we don't serve anything

What does everyone think with these kind of timings? Of course, nothing is set in stone yet. We haven't even booked the venue yet!

Things that have worked well at weddings I've been to have been the lighter buffets - the traditional hotel buffet didn't have much dent made in, while the cheese and biscuits and wedding cake buffet filled what holes there were without being too much left.

We're going for a light evening buffet - cold meats, mini pasties, mini devon cream teas, wedding cake, chunky chips and dips, homemade rolls. Might add to that with a cake of cheese and extra edible "favours" (fudge/shortbread/flapjacks).

Hmm it's tricky, you'll have to see what different venues offer and the prices I think. You could give edible favours as randomsabreur said or make a big deal of the cake cutting in the evening and serve that then...? Our hotel is providing mini sandwiches, samosas and dip, chicken wings and mini jacket potatoes...can't remember what else. And we will have cake as well then.

Totally depends on timings. You cant expect to have a 12pm ceremony, which means people can be out the house at 11am, going on till midnight and only give them 1 meal. The will be starving either before or after, or both.

We got married at 4pm, had a posh buffet and cake at 6pm and food was out to nibble on all night.

On the other end of the spectrum, just been to a wedding starting at 1pm, canapes at 3pm, wedding breakfast at 5pm, cheese board and cake at 9pm

I have been discussing this with my friends as i was in two mins about food, and a friend said at a wedding she went to where the food was only an early wedding breakfast people were getting really hungry and leaving to find food, or people who came in the evening expecting a buffet and hadn't eaten were getting quite drunk on empty stomachs.

The important thing is to do what you want, and suits your budget. Have you thought about something like bacon sandwiches in the evening - cheap and easy but still providing something to keep hunger at bay?

Hi,

We are having our day structured so that the ceremony is at 2.30 so guests will have eaten lunch before they arrive, we are then having a light afternoon tea or canapes throughout the afternoon with our 'wedding breakfast' as an evening meal at 6.30pm. This way you are only providing one main meal but having something to keep people going throughout the afternoon.

Don't know if this helps at all, good luck with whatever you chose.

I think you will need to provide food in the evening if you have the WB at 2/3. I for one would be starving by 8/9.

Thanks everyone, some really great thoughts here!

I think a lighter buffet option might be suitable for the evening. At first, I was set of having a really fabulous evening buffet as well as the WB, but I think due to budget we'll need to provide something less than originally hoped for. I was adamant at first about not providing a finger buffet, or sandwiches in the evening, but I think it might be the better option now. Definitely still want to have the nice wedding breakfast for the day guests, but gotta keep the hunger away for all guests in the evening! Possibly add some canapés in if budget allows as evening guests are arriving