How Many Meals?

What time are your evening guests arriving?

I do think 3 full meals is quite alot and you will end up with wastage. However if evening guests are invited from 7 or 7.30 they m,ay expect food unless you say specifically that you are not providing food.

I went to a wedding once where they had tea and cake right afetr the ceremony which kept everyone going till the breakfast, and then a buffet in te evebing - this would be a bit less food.

Or could you beef up the afternoon tea with quiches and tarts etc to make that the breakfast, maybe put on nibbles or the wedding cake mid afternoon to keep people going and have just the one evening buffet for all guests?

Could you perhaps have any leftovers from the wedding breakfast buffet be covered and refigerated and brought back out later, along with a few bacon baps or something?

That may save you money, and if there are no left-overs then there would always be the bacon baps. To be honest, I think evening guests are a bit daft if they turn up as an 'evening guest' at 8pm and expect a full dinner. Whatever food is on offer is surely a bonus.

Thanks guys. I think the reason I can't decide is I'd really like the afternoon following the ceremony to be a kind of like a village fete, with afternoon tea & homemade cake / scones, a three piece jazz band / gramophone, garden games etc so that people have time to relax and enjoy themselves. For part of this time will used for photographs too.

I was thinking the bbq / fork buffet would be slightly more formal and seated in the marquee while the afternoon tea would be informal 'mingling time' and would just be laid out for people to help themselves in the garden. I quite like the idea of using the leftovers for the late nibbles so maybe we should just have bacon butties or burgers later in the evening along with any left over buffet food - I don't think our budget would stretch to laying on a buffet for all 150 evening guests...ouch!

Your afternoon sounds quite like mine!

I would be aware that you want to make sure you serve enough afternoon tea to keep people going the rest of the day till whatever other food yous erve.

Check with the cateres about whether they can reserve the food - I am not sure if they are allowed to do this... though I may be wrong!

A simple buffet (the bacon sarnies , or even simple bbq food) is not tha expensive, compared to the more complex buffets.

I agreewith the poster above that your afternoon tea and fork buffet are possible too close together. I woul;d have a bigger afternoon tea, but still with mingling - some people will mingle, some will want to sit somewhere to eat, so make sure there are tables and chairs available.

Then a simple buffet later in th evening for all the guests - by not having the bbq and fork buffet your budget should stretch.

Also, if you were envisaging that the afternoon tea would stay out for several hours while people mingle I would check that with the caterer too - I think there are strict rules about how long food can stay out for.

It does sound a little too much for me - I'd be full up after sandwiches and scones, and probably wouldn't want to eat again until early/ mid evening which would mean a fair bit of wastage if you have lots of guests like me!

Could you just do canape sized (i.e. really really mini) sandwiches and scones for the garden party? That would be really cute!

Oh heck, I'm even more confused now. I don't really think we can cut out the wedding breakfast bbq / buffet (or whatever we end up having) as this will be the more formal part of the day in the marquee when people are sat down according to the table plan and when the speaches will take place. If we cut this out, the day wouldn't really have much structure?

Likewise, I'm really keen to have a homemade afternoon tea after the ceremony (we won't be using caterers for this). It won't be a big 'meal' per se - I'm thinking teeny little finger or 1/4 slice triangle sandwiches, homemade lemonade and cakes for example. More snacks / light refreshments than a whole meal.

The only bit I'm not convinced about is feeding all 150 evening guests later on. Surely day guests would have enough to eat having had a light afternoon tea at say 2pm, sit down bbq/buffet or meal of some sort at approx 5pm? I just can't get my head around evening guests turning up later and expecting a full-on buffet. Personally, I'd have my tea before I arrived if I was only arriving at 7.30 / 8pm so if anything I'd say anything to mop up the booze would be ok eg. bacon butties or even just bowls of crisps and nuts?

Confused.com..... :-(

That is a good alternative idea - make the afternoon tea more of canapes after the ceremony - for the mingling etc to keep people going and then have your planned sit down buffet at an early tea time so people aren't fainting with hunger - and a basic bacon sarnie type food in the evening.

I think it is the 'norm' to provide food for evening guests now, so if you weren't providing anythin then I thibnk you'd need to specify that. However, that doesn't have to mean a full buffet.

I have been to several weddings where bacon sarnies and sausage sarnies and bowls of chips were the evening food and just the right sort of thing. TBH at weddings where a reasonable proportion have been there all day with a late wedding breakfast and here is a larger buffet in the evening alot goes uneaten.

as long as your afternoon tea was light ebnough so that people didn't stuff themselves meaning wastage on your main buffet this sounds lovely - I would think of the afternoon tea as an equivalent to canapesto bridge the gap between breakfast and the later wedding breakfast.

Thanks all - I think afternoon tea in lieu of canapes is a fab idea. And the bacon butties and chips sounds good (and hopefully cost effective!) for later in the night x

I am quite jealous of the afternoon tea canapes now... your day sounds similar to ours, but better - possibly just because I am getting bored of planning ours now and yours is new and just a bit different!!

I know it varies with caterers, but I think our caterer does a bacon buttie evening buffet for about £8 or £9 a head - or it may even be less. You could also ask whether you have to have it for the full 150 on the basis that not everyone will eat ionce they have been drinming, some day guests will still be full etc so doing it for 120 could be enough. Your caterer should be able to help with that.

I've been to almost 30 weddings (both as a day and night guest) in the last 5 years, so I feel I can speak from a bit of experience!

As a day guest, I'd appreciate a little nibble after the ceremony, particularly if I'd travelled a long way and/or had missed breakfast or had an early breakfast. It's a long time to go from breakfast until 5pm. After having a big meal at 5pm, 9 times out of 10 I will skip any buffet that comes out at, say, 8ish, but am usually peckish by about 10.30.

As an evening guest, I will never eat beforehand, usually because I'm rushing around getting ready and I find it too early to eat. I would personally, therefore, be disappointed if there was no food and would probably leave earlier to get some food. However, if the invitation specifically stated there was no food, I'd make a point of eating before I went.

Something small like bacon butties and chips would be fine.

Thanks Knees - think I'm happy with butties or something simple for later on now, though I wasn't loving the idea / cost of another huge buffet for 150 eve guests...

DarkMoomin - when/where are you getting married? Are you also planning on doing lots of DIY stuff too? I'm intrigued now that you think your day sounds similar... :-) I'll have to do a flash of our vintage / diy plans soon. Our day is not until July 2013 but I'm already fully stuck into booking and planning things - too organised for my own good I think!