Guests' expectations food and drink wise at evening do?

I think thats perfectly fine RE evening food. You have covered / warned everyone by putting drinks and NIBBLES!

Arrival drink - I've never had an arrival drink as an evening guest and wouldn't really think anything of your situation.

All sounds fine to me. I've never actually eaten the buffet at a wedding before even when I have been catered for!

I don't think you look tight at all, personally.

My Dad always talks about one of the best weddings he went to was one where the food was a load of cheese and bread/crackers! It sounds great, I shouldn't worry

I think it is totally acceptable, I didn't provide food for my evening guests, we had cup cakes and a sweet buffet. I have no idea why it has become the norm to keep feeding everyone. By the time they get there they should have all eaten tea/dinner so why would they even want to eat again.

I actually think the drinks and nibbles thing is a lovely idea.

Food - I think what you suggest is fine. Putting nibbles on the invite suggests that they will need a meal at home before heading out.

Drinks - I wouldnt bother about a welcome drink for evening guests, we didnt, I've never been to an evening reception where this has been the case, and I can assure you people wont expect it and will be just expecting a pay bar.

I think i would save the money from the arrivak drink and put it towards a few extra nibbles for the evening guests, something non cheesy maybe even some crisps or some meats to go with the cheese and crackers.

iv never had an arrival drink as an evening guest before so would be expecting to buy own drinks all evening.

Personally I don't think it's enough food. I don't think I've ever been to an evening do where there was one glass of drink, so I'd save the money you'd spend on that and put it towards food.

If you do decide to go with your suggestion, then I'd make it clear to people what they're going to get. Whether you like it/believe in it or not, it IS the norm to feed people at an evening do, so that's what most people will expect. I wouldn't eat before I arrived and I'd end up having to leave early to get food. That's just me though, I'm a pig and I don't think about anything other than food!

Nothing wrong with "drinks and nibbles" (a nice way to phrase it on the invitation) but agree with the others that I never expect a welcome drink at an evening do. This would be a very obvious place to save pennies.

As for the "nibbles", I think the provision of cheese only might be a little limited. My Boy absolutely hates cheese - it makes him gag - so I have to speak up for all the cheesephobics out there! But more worrying, you'll exclude anyone who is bad with dairy as well, which is probably more frequent than out and out cheesephobia. Is there a way you could provide a meat platter as well (maybe with the money saved on drinks?), to give people more options?

Completely agree with the others that I would scrap the welcome drink and put a bit more food on.

You'll already have cheese, crackers and bread etc - as footlong says, a meat platter and maybe some crudités and dips?

Wow, wasn't expecting such speedy responses, thanks very much to all of you for your time and input. REALLY helpful, especially your experiences as guests and how you felt about what you were or weren't offered (and the dad who liked the cheese option!) Clearly I'm worrying needlessly about an evening welcome drink as no one here would expect one and after all there is a bar there so I suppose people have access to buying as many as they want whereas obviously they are limited foodwise to what is provided.

I can see that getting rid of the drinks idea and using that money to pay for some cold meats etc to go with the cheese (hadn't thought about dairy allergies, good point) would be a much better use of limited resources. I'll definitely stick with the 'nibbles' wording - better that people find there may be a bit more than they were expecting than less! Thanks again!

If you already have an evening buffet for 20 being catered why don't you just increase the numbers for this. You'd never cater for all the guests so you could cater for maybe 50 and I'm sure with the cheese too there'd be plenty of food.