How much are you paying for canapés?

We are paying £6 for 4 canapés each which I thought was a lot but OH insisted.

I would see if you could either knock the price down or get more canapés for that price? If not I don't think crisps and nuts would look cheap at all...guests will be grateful for something to graze on before dinner.

We opted for strawberry platters with chocolate and cream dips, only £10 per platter and 5 was plenty for 80people. Everyone commented on how nice they we're too x

I think that you are right that your guests will be starving by 4.30, so you need to give them something. Your quote for canapés is very high! Have they recommended very complicated snacks? I'd suggest going back and saying that you would prefer 4 each of something simpler and what can they recommend? Otherwise go for the nibbles idea as you'll save some money and your guests will get more to eat!. I love canapés and think that they are always appreciated, but 2 isn't enough unless they turn out to be mini meals (We had tiny fish and chips in paper cones at a wedding last year served as canapés and they were like a little starter: 2 of those would have been more than enough).

I do think you need to provide something as people will have likely missed or had a v early lunch. We are having our starters served canapé style (smoked salmon and raclette) and then only having a two course sit down, would that work instead of the canapés? Or could you bring the meal forward? Personally I don't think crisps/nuts are substantial enough for a 3 hour drinks reception - why is it so long?

Fortunately we're getting married at 2pm and sitting down at about 4.30pm so we should be ok to go without as our venue is expensive for canapés too! I did however ask them if they could serve chocolate covered strawberries with the Reception fizz and they quoted me £1 each so I'm going with 100 of those.

Why don't you negotiate with them? Or have the canapés instead of a starter when you sit down and save a bit there?

We were going to have canapés but scrapped them because way too expensive! Opted for chocolate covered strawberries and was quoted nearly £3 per person! So no I'm not offering anything apart from reception drinks!

ceremony is 3-4 and then dinner is served half 5!

I'm just hoping people have lunch before coming out!

Wow, that price is steep! We're paying 60 pence per canapé, so at 3 per person and 100 guests it's coming out at £180. And I was thinking that was an expensive snack! You can take the girl out of Yorkshire.......

I think ours are £4.50 per person which we had to choose 3 options. I'm guessing OH and I won't even have any of them as we'll be having photos!

Hmm so the general consensus is that it seems to be a bit expensive!

Basically what we are having is the ceremony in the village hall then over to this hotel for a drinks receptions/photos then back to the village hall for the meal and dancing. What we originally wanted was package deal in Edinburgh (half way between our two families and where me and OH met) with no DIY involved however my parents thought it was going to be far too expensive to have a wedding there and having one near home would be easier. Needless to say its been full of complications!!!

The reason for the big delay between the ceremony and meal is that originally we had looked at having our ceremony in an old church up the road that has been converted into an arts centre so we set the date, booked the band, caterers etc but parents didn't realise this old church wasn't available! so now we have to have the ceremony in the hall but the caterers need two and half hours to turn the hall around :-( As its in a village hall we are having to do loads of the decorating, setting up etc so way more DIY than we wanted plus its costing £1000 to hire plates, cutlery etc so not even saving much by having it in a hall!

I'm surprised by the price of the canapes from the hotel as originally we had looked at them to provide the catering and they had quoted us £22 per head for a three course meal but we haven't gone with them as they didn't think they would be able to cope with our numbers.

May just have to go with crisps and nuts as I don't think we can't give guests anything but giving them a couple of canapés is hardly going to fill them up anyway!

Oh well, less than 3 months to go and it will all be over!!!

We're having 4 canapes each and it's £4 per person - I thought that was quite expensive but it seems like a pretty good deal now. I don't think crisps and nuts would look cheap, it might be worth another chat with the venue though as they may have some more ideas that are on budget!

Oh gosh, that does sound complicated! I can see the dilemma and it does seems a lot of money for very little food! Like someone said already, canapés can be pricey because they are fiddly to make so could you maybe ask the hotel to do platters of crudité & dips, or cheese/charcuterie/smoked salmon and see if that would be cheaper? If not crisps/nuts are definitely better than nothing and am sure will be appreciated.

Our timings our quite similar to yours (church ceremony at 12 noon, arrival drinks at the reception venue around 1-1.30pm, first course probably served at 4pm).

We're having canapes and are being charged £6 for 3 each. One of our canapes is the fish and chip cone which someone else mentioned though and having tasted the canapes at the venue this week I'm glad we're having them. Whilst I agree they're expensive I get quite grumpy when I'm hungry so I want to make sure our guests are well fed!

Wow that is something I would love!

We were quoted £4.95 per person for 5 canapés

We have to pay £7 a person!! I asked for alternative (chopped up raw veg, crisps, dips, etc) and they wanted to charge me the same. With 90 guests it's ridiculous! We are putting on our own popcorn bar

Agree with Foo that generally you can ask for an alternative to traditional canapes, which are often not filling enough anyway, and you have to be standing in the right place when the waiter comes out to even get a look-in, LOL !!!

To the OP, I think you're stuck with that price though (for canapes or any platter alternative to canapes), or go with the cheaper crisps/nuts. You aren't actually holding your wedding at the hotel, so they have ZERO incentive to help you out at all. They will try and get as much money from you as possible for the drinks reception since you're leaving straight afterwards.

Our venue quoted us £7 pp for canapes, which we turned down flat a year before the wedding when we signed the contract for the venue exclusivity, 3 course meal, drinks packages etc. We just said 'none' for the drinks reception.

Two months before the wedding we got in touch with them and negotiated for some reception 'nibbles'. We asked for olive/feta pots, and spicy sausage pots, to be picked up and carried off by guests with their drinks. They agreed to charge us £3 per person. We asked for those items as thought our guests might like them a little better than canapes. More substantial.

I was far too busy (LOL) to even notice what nibbles were there on the day, but I've since heard that as well as the olive/feta and spicy sausage, there were hot meatballs, crisps and nuts. I specifically said no crisps/nuts as I thought they'd look cheap too. Don't care now, and I presume with that variety of nibbles everyone probably found something they liked to nibble on. Hopefully.....

Thanks for the replies everyone,

I've sent an email to the hotel to say we can't afford the price as it is just for 2 canapes per person and asked if they had a cheaper alternative to canapés. This was 6 days ago and not heard anything back. I may have to give them a ring on Tuesday if I haven't heard back by then to have a chat....I'm useless at this sort of thing! Its not really the price thats the issue....its that we don't seem to be getting much to go with the price if you get what I mean! I guess they could be quite large canapés in which case it would be ok.

To say the hotel isn't getting any business other than a drinks reception from us isn't totally true. We have fully booked the hotel with wedding guests for 3 nights and on the friday night everyone will be eating dinner in the hotel together in a separate room from the restaurant so they will have their usual friday night business plus an extra meal for approx 25 people. They were also initially going to provide the catering in the hotel but turned it down when our numbers increased. I don't think they have much experience in the way of weddings as when my mum asked about it they said it was something they were hoping to get into so I'm hoping we might have some room for negotiation!

Blimey, in that case they should be bending over backwards for you! You'd better remind them about the extent of your booking. Really, they should be offering to provide them as a freebie if you've booked out their entire hotel for 3 nights. Good luck!

So to update I finally got another quote back from the hotel. They are willing to do crisps,nuts, carrot/cucumber sticks, dips for about £4 per person. I asked about sandwiches but they said this wouldn't work out any cheaper than they canapés but they didn't say how many sandwiches they could do per person. Think we may just go with the cheaper option and hope its enough to tide people over!

Thanks for the help

Too much (at work, can't remember exact amount)- part of me wishes we'd cut it out all together however I love canapes. The money we are spending on canapes we are planning to save back on the evening buffet by fibbing to our venue about the evening numbers *deceitful laugh*