To canape or not canape

Hello, we have similar timings.

Ceremony at 2:30pm (reg office so short), guests at venue for 3:30pm and dinner should be served around 5ish. So that's a gap of around 1 and a half hours.

I am providing drinks and "canapes" (the canapes are teeny triangular sarnies) as, due to the timing of the ceremony (around lunchtime) I fear that many people will be hungry. I always am after a wedding! Not only this, I wanted to mingle with my guests before the meal and like the idea of champagne and canapes.

Our timings are exactly the same and we will be providing canapes. For a 2pm ceremony lots of people will not have had a chance to have lunch before due to getting ready / travelling so we think if we don't feed them until 4.30pm they might start keeling over!

Yes, we are having champagne and canapes for the guests as it gives them something to do whilst we are away having pics taken... plus we too are gettign married at around 2.30 and not having wedding breakfast until 5ish so I think that little something will go down well in between times...

There will be about a 2 hour hap between end of ceremony and meal so we are providing a few canopes, we wont be going mad but I think its nice to have a bit of a nibble in between especaily as our speeches are pre wedding breakfast.

I would always say with canapes if you can afford it, then do it - I always think canapes are so nice and a good way of breaking the ice sometimes.

We are marrying a 1.30, service ends at 2pm and then there is a 90 minute "gap" so we are having canapes and pimms

Our ceremony finished at 3.00 and we sat down to eat at 4.30. Never even considered the idea of canapes because all our guests were local and would have had time to eat either a good breakfast or early lunch to keep them going - my sisters were trying to force feed me lunch at 11.30!!

I should add that my family are big eaters as are Hs and nobody said anything about being hungry and needing canapes, oh and we had a free bar for the wedding breakfast and nobody was drunk as the proverbial newt before we started eating either!

Our timings were not too strict but ceremony wasy 2.30-3ish and meal at 5ish, wasnt going to have canapes just reception drink but mum persuaded me to and Im glad I did they went down really well especially since none of us had any lunch before , I would go for it if you can

We are having canapes but our timings are different to yours:

ceremony - 11am - 12pm

wedding breakfast - 1.30pm

It's unlikely that most of our guests will have had anything to eat between breakfast at 8-9am and their 'lunch' at 1.30pm, which is why we're having them as a midday snack.

Its worth remembering that real wedding day timings often end up way behind what the b&g planned - so a meal scheduled for 3pm doesn't happen til 3.30 or 4. Also you need to take into consideration how far your guests are coming. If they are all local then they can have a snack before they leave home but if they are travelling for a few hours then they may not have time.If you don't have canapes then make sure the guests have somewhere to sit as hunger+alcohol+lots of standing around=fainting. Happened at 2 weddings I went to last summer.

We are having cupcakes with arrival drinks as we are getting married at 2pm wont arrive at reception til 3pm then dinner about 5 if you are having a sit down meal like us I would recommend it's great on the budget and also something a little different.

On my canape menu, it lists several things, and then three things that are listed as "spoon", What does this mean? They come on a spoon?

Yeah they probably do... I've seen it done once in the hotel I work in and the guests were looking at each other like 'huh?' lol

Our ceremony is at 1, not too sure about timings yet but wedding breakfast will probably be about 4.30-5 ish and so we are deffo having canapes at the champagne reception as we don't want hungry grisly guests!

However we're replacing the starter of the WB with the canapes, so it doesn't cost any more to have them which I think is quite a good way of doing it (3 courses always proves too much for me and OH- and with dessert, and cake and evening buffet there will no shortage of food throughout the day!).

I would love to have canape's, I just think they are really over priced at our venue. We are having 2.30pm ceremony and 5ish meal, I'm just advising people on the time we are eating so they can fill up before hand! Mean, but just cant justify the cost!

I've seen canapes that come on a wee spoon made of pastry like stuff before.

Last wedding I was bridesmaid at, I had picked at breakfast at 8am and then didn't sit down to the wedding breakfast until 6.30pm. I was about to faint too.. then bride said to me as we started meal: "I think you should go and take our bags to the room now"..... If I hadn't been so hungry she may have been wearing my soup, white dress or no white dress!!!!

x

Our church ceremony will finish about 2.45pm and the BBQ will open at 4.30pm. I think most people will eat lunch beforehand but we're having canapes anyway, in lieu of starters!

As our ceremony is at 12 we are having canapes. We're not eating until 3pm. I figured that if I was a guest I'd be starving as I'd only have had breakfast so didn't want people complaining about hunger!

We have ceremony @ 2pm and dinner @ 3.30pm so we're not providing them.

In your case OP I would suggest canapes is a good idea. We had them at our wedding (they were included in the package) and everyone really appreciated them, especially as we were still having some photos taken so it gave people something to nibble on with their welcome drinks. Our ceremony was at 2.30pm and we sat down to dinner by around 6pm, with canapes served around 5.15pm so we probably could have got away without them, but it was a very nice thing to be able to offer our guests.

Our canapes, for interest's sake, were:
- Smoked salmon bruschetta
- Beef & spring onion tartlets
- Crab spring rolls
- Artichoke hearts on a gem lettuce leaf
- Goat's cheese and onion marmalade tartlets

These went down very well ?

We had 6 or 7 different ones at ours.

I guess our guests arrived at around 3.15 or so and we were called through to dinner at around 5. I love canapes at a wedding and they seemed to go down well. The 3 I shared (they get in the way of posing for photos, booo, I was starving!) were delicious!

I'm keen on them as a guest and even more so as a bride. Mini food - you can't beat it!

We were originally having them, but at £350 for our 70 guests, my OH said that they were too expensive and that if people were hungry they could buy a packet of nuts! (typical man) so we took them off, but we've had a little chat and if we have enough left in the budget after everything is payed then we might put them back on.

I think they are a lovely little extra to the day and something to keep people occupied while the photos are being taken (although we do have a magician too) so like has been said before, if you can afford to do it, I would have them. x

They were scrummy and I think the guests appreciated them, when you are waiting around for pics & you can smell the food wafting around they are more than welcome.

Yes, if you can fit them within your budget then I would definately go for them as what others have said guests will probably not have had time to eat a proper lunch with getting ready and travelling so if they are anything like me will be absolutely starving by the time the ceremony has finished. xx

Hi

Ours are included in the package price not sure if i would if they weren't though! we are one venue all day, the ceremony should finish about 1.30p.m and wedding breakfast to start about 3.30, so i suppose people can snack as they will have only had breakfast. I am a ridiculously fussy eater so i know that i will not eat a thing but the rest of my guests will eat as long as they are not too fancy!

We have a five course breakfast and then evening buffet and cake so if someone doesn't like one part sure they will like something! i have only been to one day wedding so i have no idea what usually happens!!

xx

Our ceremony will finish about 2:30pm and meal will be at 4pm. Although there is only a short gap I did want to have something for anyone who may be peckish. Platters of canapes at our venue are £62.50 which were out of our price range. However, they also have the option for platters of olives/nuts/crisps to be placed around the room at £15 each. Not as sophisticated I suppose, but a cost we can meet so we will probably have a few of these.

Our ceremony is at 3:30pm, dinner served at 5:30pm and we're having canapés during welcome drinks and photos. Weddings ALWAYS seem to make me really hungry, even if there isn't a big gap between meals. Plus I think it's nice atmosphere-wise to have nibbles and drinks while everyone is mingling.

Our canapés are really pretentious and nobby though. Quail egg with avocado - wtf?? What's wrong with little sausages onnastick? Oh well. At least there's also mini cheeseburgers to balance it out!

We are getting married at 2.30pm then eating at 5pm and we are having a drinks reception with lots of canapes from 3pm -5pm...I don't think our venue even gave us the choice, but if they had I would have had canapes anyway. I just think they are a lovely thing to offer your guests and it helps pass the time during the photographs AND it helps to get people relaxed and chatting, I think.