Evening Food

We’ve got similar timings: canapés, then a 3-course wedding breakfast at 5:30pm, followed by cake cutting at around 8:30pm. We have a small amount of evening guests but not many!
Our caterers suggested evening food at 9pm for 50% of our day guests, plus all of the evening guests. We’re having various pizza slices, with chip cones - which is affordable per head, and the cake will be sliced/served at the same time.
Could you consider having a cheese board alongside the cake in the evening? A cheese board was one of the options recommended to us at £6 per person (anything left over could also be packed up/taken home to avoid any waste) and we would have opted for that if we didn’t have any extra evening guests.

Hi Patricia,

We have similar timings and same size party of 50 people. Our wedding ceremony is at 3pm. Followed by canapés. 3 course meal will be about 6pm. We spoke to the owner of the venue who said that as our wedding won't start till late we won't need full on buffet in the evening. She's allowing us to bring our own snacks like crisps and nuts. We finish at 11pm.

Another cheaper idea is bacon or sausage (or veg sausage) baps which is what we did this Saturday for our wedding. We were told to cater for 80% of our wedding guests as we had the main meal earlier and it was finished by 6.30. Evening sandwiches plus the cut up wedding cake was served at 8.30/9. The baps were only £6 per person so much more reasonable than a wasted buffet!

Will your guests have had time to eat lunch before your ceremony?


We are getting married at 3pm so everyone would have already eaten twice by that point. With a 3 course meal around 6pm, why would anyone need to eat AGAIN before 11pm? That was our thinking so we are just having cake later in the evening.

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Oooh, pizza and/or chip cones sound like a good idea! I wouldn't mind a cheeseboard but while fiance and I like cheese, we don't particularly LOVE it. All our guests are travelling from out of town as well, so it'd be a hassle with taking away anything!

Would have to check with the caterers on this! 50% of the guests sounds about right.

Thanks!!

Our venue have suggested catering in the evening for 80% of guests but I think that’ll be too much. Another option I have seen is getting a graze table where you just have meats, veg, savoury bits etc all laid out and people just pick at it. This might be a better option if people are full from the wedding breakfast. It’s more like a buffet you can keep going back to. That way you could just cater for half the people.

We are having a 4pm ceremony and food will be around 5:30 -6pm. We will not be serving evening food on top as, unlike some weddings, people will have eaten at a pretty normal dinner time. Add on cake later in the evening and they will be fine - an evening buffet will just go to waste I think (it did at my brother’s wedding even though they had evening guests and wedding breakfast was 3:30pm). Our venue is slap bang in the middle of town so if people are really starving they can just nip out for a kebab 😂

I’d say you really don’t need evening food and if you have to, choose something light. I’m a venue owner with tons of experience if I say so myself 😊

Went to a wedding on Saturday, 3pm ceremony. 6pm BBQ, 8pm desert followed by cake if desired. Absolutely no need for “evening food”. We as guests had bacon rolls about 11:30 and I had some emergency flapjack in my car for between ceremony and reception (split venue) because lunch was so early,


Think of it this way: do you normally require another meal at 9pm after eating at 6?
We are having a 4pm ceremony and will only be doing food once and then cake later. Let you guests know and they can make sure they have eaten a decent sized lunch/brunch beforehand.
Even at weddings where there are earlier meals you always see so much of the evening buffet go to waste!

It's great that you're considering your guests' needs and minimizing food waste for your wedding. Whether or not you should provide evening food depends on several factors:

1. Timing: Your wedding meal is at 6 PM, and you plan to end at 11 PM. If your guests are accustomed to eating later in the evening, they might get hungry again after a few hours, especially if they're dancing and expending energy.

2. Alcohol consumption: Alcohol can stimulate appetite, so if there's a significant amount of alcohol being served, guests might be more inclined to want snacks later in the evening.

3. Guest preferences: Consider the preferences and dietary habits of your guests. Some may prefer to have a little something to nibble on later in the night.

4. Wedding activities: If you have a lot of planned activities, dancing, or games, guests might appreciate some late-night sustenance.