So whose Wedding Breakfasting it and who is just Evening Do'ing?

Wow, weddings and funerals are the only times my masseeeeve family see one another. We are having a sit down lunch for approx 60 peeps,

The evening do will bring about an extra 40 people but im only ordering a buffet for 80, not 100, coz not everyone eats and a lot is left behind usually.

We're having a small sit down meal for 35 and then a bigger night do for 130 for a hot buffet (curry, fish and chips etc) as H2B's extended family are big and we couldn't afford to have them all the the whole day.

Quite looking forward to an intimate day do with immediate family and closest friends followed by a good old party to finish!

(Scary thing is that it's in less than a week!)

I had a sit down meal and then finished with fireworks so it didn't stop immeadiately after the wedding breakfast. we had 34 there.

i did have the buffet/evening do too but that was on the saturday after the wedding (which was on the 5th Nov) enough for 100 people!!! ?

We are having a sit down meal at around 4pm (wedding @ 2pm) for around 70 people, and then hot buffet for around 100 people in the evening

HTH

Am sure there is going to be TONS of food left over but my MIL is paying for the buffet and doesn't want to look *tight* x

We had a sit down 5 course meal for 100 people then an evening buffet for 50 (our caterer advised for eveing receptions carer for half of the number of guests you have as not everyone eats plus you've already fed people at tea time).

There was another 50 odd came to the evening recption only.

We got married at 2 had the drinks reception at 3 while we were having photo's taken etc then seated everyone at 4.30 did the speeches first then started the meal just after 5pm. The evening reception started at 7.30pm.

I've honestly never been to a wedding where there wasn't a sit down meal.

HTH

Luv Victoria

xx

Hiya, I got married on 29th nov and we didn't have a sit down meal. We got married at 4.30, drinks reception with lots of canepes, evening guests arived at 7 after speaches and a hog roast was served at 7.30 for everyone!!!

This was exactly what we wanted, neither of us wanted a long day, it wasn't about money but it does make it a lot cheaper. I think it is ideal for a winter wedding.

This probably isn't going to be a ton of help but I've been to all variations of wedding that you are thinking of... (i.e. just buffet evening, just wedding breakfast and both).

They were all lovely but all very different iyswim. Do you know how many people are coming/what your budget is? Maybe that will help you decide - all can work just depends what kind of day you want...

FWIW - we are having a drinks reception, wedding breakfast and then a cheese board in the evening.

I did go to a wedding last year wHere we went straight for a sit down meal after the ceremony and then the bride and groom left pretty quickly after that, mid afternoon by that time. We didn't really know the couple that well but it was the father of the bride who my OH knows well who invited us. TBH I thought it felt a bit rushed and flat but then again I think they just wanted something really low key so suited them fine. Maybe the fact that we didn't really know many people there contributed to that - just my opinion.

We are having a sit down meal for about 70 people. Will probably also have an evening buffet though it is likely to be the same crowd plus maybe the odd one or two extra.

HTH.

We are having a sit down meal for about 70, and then an evening reception with buffet for about 80.

I have never been to a wedding there was no sit down meal. What time are you getting married? if the time isnt booked, you could get married late, say 4pm and just have an evening buffet.

We're getting married at 12.30! We're having a hot and cold lunch buffet for around 40 after the ceremony about 1.30, then for the evening we're expecting about 90 guests so we'll have another buffet for that!

We're having quite a big wedding as both our families are pretty huge. We're getting married at 2pm, having a sit down meal at 4pm for 110 people and then having a buffet from about 8pm for the evening party where we expect to have 200 people in total. Will under-cater for this as a lot of people are, because most people will have been there for the meal.

Thanks everyone, we haven't booked a thing, still discussing idea's TBH. The wedding planning starts at the weekend (getting chrimbo out the way!)

We have lots of venue brochures and a photographers on it's way!

We like the idea of getting married in our local church but it's BIG and would look weird with a few people their!

Budget is about £6-8k?

If we were to have the sit down it would be for 50 people and 80-100 on the evening. We are also looking at mid-week and this would mean people having to take a day or 2 holiday. We don't want to promote heavy drinking as my family don't get on and I don't want to "fuel" anything.

We are not fussed on what time of day, although having the photo's is the issue with the early sunset if we have a late wedding.

Weare planning New York for honeymoon and I'd love to see New York at Christmas/Thanks Giving time!

Misskd - how did it work with your photos? Yours sounds lovely, any pics yet?

We got married at 1pm, sit down meal for 54 day guests at 3pm, then an extra 50 evening guests arrived at 7.30pm and had buffet at 8.30 for 75% so 75 guests - was plenty.

You need to find your venue/agree guest numbers kind of together as some venues have min & max numbers for spend or health & safety purposes but one venue may be expensive (but worth it!) so less guests vs another venue where you could afford a sit down & buffet.

For info our total budget was £10k, venue hire alone was £3k, day food was £2k (plus £700 drink) and evening buffet £1k so basically 70% of our budget on the reception. But we cut down in other areas with free cars, less flowers, DIY table centrepieces and stationery, M&S cake.

Bear in mind that I think NY is very quiet and not lots open around Thanksgiving/Christmas so maybe late Nov might be better.

Also a mid week wedding can save money but give guests plenty of notice for booking time off and bear in mind some people like teachers may not be able too. You could save with a late Nov weekend wedding anyway although I think Dec is more like summer costs in some places due to popularity!

Ours is a bit different because we're getting married on a Thursday and having the reception on the following Saturday.

We are not getting married until about 4pm and we're looking to have a sit down meal at about 8pm. There will only be 23 of us on the actual day.

On the Saturday there will be about 150 so we will just be having a buffet

We had a 4pm ceremonry followed by a hot buffet and used the wedding cake as dessert, then went straight into the evening partay! worked really well and was much cheaper (£18 a head plus the cake from m and s).

Leni most of our photos were taken indoors because it was dark, but the venue had lots of nice features, staircase, open fire, christmas trees. We had a couple taken outside, we stood infront of the building and there were flood lights lighting the building up, still waiting to see them though as my photographer was taken into hospital a couple of days after the wedding!! The group shot was also taken outside, with the phoographer up on the balcony outside our room.

Our ceremony is March 7th, we are getting married at 4pm, followed by canapes, kids party food, drinkies and photographs. Informal speeches then the evening do starts at 7pm with buffet at 8pm for all guests

Lol Clare xxx