what would you prefer for evening food?

I know this doesn't help, but I love both. I would say that the baked potatoes would be more filling, but leaning slightly towards prefering the pate and cheese, mmmm.

Honestly? I like neither for an eveing wedding reception, both are abit, well, faffy IMO.

We went to a reception recently and they had fishfinger sandwiches, the BEST buffet food i have ever had!!you want something people can munch on standing uop and with one hand (drink on the other!) Most people will have had dinner before going to a wedding reception...

I think it depends on what time your evening guests are due to arrive. Will they have had their dinner at home before they come? In which case, cheese, pate etc would be perfect as it's just posh snacky stuff ready. Baked potatoes would be more suitable if they are coming earlier so wouldn't have eaten.

Is a hog roast out of the question? Ours is £650 and will feed about 100 people. You could have that with bread rolls, stuffing etc yummmmmmmmm

I've heard of other people doing mini fish and chips, bacon rolls etc.

I agree that both options may be quite faffy, but out of the two, I would definitely prefer baked potatoes. Baked potato with cheese is one of my favourite things ever!

I agree that baked potatoes etc would be more filling. I do love cheese but think you need to be careful about having cheese out for too long in the evening because it can get really smelly if the room is warm. I was at a wedding where the couple spent a fortune on a cheese buffet and it was lovely but after a while it started to smell really bad and it took ages for the staff to come round the tables and put it away.

Out of the two, cheese and pate is a better option, as it is more of a buffet food. you'd have to sit down to eat the baked potato and it would slow things down a bit.

why not consider mini fish and chips? Bacon butties? carvery rolls beef/pork etc fish finger sandwiches?

I dont think baked potatos are a good idea for an evening reception, but i do like the pate and cheese idea. you may have to add something on for those who dont like it though, but if you have cake and possibly sweets, then they can have that!! Most people like bread and butter lol

I wouldn't eat either! What we're doing isn't for everyone but is increasingly popular, or so I'm told. Chips and gravy/curry and rolls n sausage/bacon!

I was at a wedding that done similar last year and it was awesome! x

Have you thought about mini hot dogs and burgers these can also be vegetarian with onion and relishes, went to a recently and they had this in the evening with chips in little news paper cones, very cute.

The evening guests would be coming for about 7pm but i would imagine with travelling and getting ready time they won't have eaten later than 5pm which is why im thinking something more substantial may be better...good point about the cheese going smelly! and i get what people are saying about the faffing...i'm a veggie so the idea of a whole pig on a stick isn't my cup of tea although it seems good value...did think about the bacon/chip roll option but worried they will go cold quickly and they have been at a lot of weddings we have been to so fancied a change... we'd have done a BBQ but can't rely on the weather and theres no under cover outside area... our venue is on two levels so the wedding breakfast tables will all still be available for people to sit and eat so they aren't stood up, i just want to go with some ideas so we can get a price before paying deposit...their suggested lower priced menu is like sandwiches which i thought might be a bit boring?!?!

what do people think of a table set up with 'afternoon tea' style things so like mini sandwichs, mini tarts, scones, mini cakes etc or is that too much sweet stuf?? x

I think the afternoon tea thing is a good idea. lots of different options. maybe have that set up already and have a big bowl of chips come out later for people who are a bit peckish?

As long as there is a good mix of sweet and savory then it will be great, maybe sandwiches, crisps, mini pizzas, sausages rolls?

We're having mini pizzas and bacon rolls.

Definitely agree that you need finger food for evening guests, it just makes it so much easier to mingle and get in the party mood! Stuff like sandwiches, mini quiches and pizzas etc all good!

We are just having sandwiches, big bowls of chips and cream cakes. I dont like traditional buffets, and OH is veggie, so this is something that we thought would be good for everyone - simple but you can have as much or as little as you want - our wedding breakfat is only 4 hrs before, so the day guests may not want as much as the night ones. I like the idea of baked potatoes over the cheese as i know i would not be full from cheese and biscuits! but i agree they are a bit faffy/ would need somewhere to sit etc

Will they not do mini fish and chips. OH's cousin had this for her wedding last year and was fab. Came in cones with the traditional wooden forks. Was filling but not overly if you had eaten.

Never normally eat wedding buffet food, but I made an exception for that.

Hog roast always goes down well (except with veggies sorry).

The afternoon tea thing is nice, but sounds like it will just end up like a buffet, which sounded like you didnt want.

Like cheese and pate idea, but again wouldnt want to eat cheese which has been sat out for longer than hour.

Baked potatoes dont feel very weddingy to me, and I love them. Maybe too filling for guests that have had the wedding breakfast?? xx

I recently went to a wedding and they had bacon rolls and chips for the evening buffet. It worked really well and was a great idea. It was easy to eat while drinking and everyone likes bacon or chips!! ?

Neither. I've been to a wedding with cheese pate etc in the evening and honestly it was cr@p. It was as if they didn't think about their evening guests, only considered the day guests who had already had a huge three course meal and only needed to pick at the pate and cheese.

As for baked potatoes, its a faff and not to everyones taste.

I would prefer the cheese and pate, but then I love cheese and not everyone does. I probably wouldn't go for either, just because cheese and pate wouldn't be to everyone's taste and jacket potatoes are a bit of a faff for party food. Like others have said, you're better off with finger food that people can eat easily and still mingle.

Neither to be honest. We had bacon and sausage butties, cones of chips and cheese toasties. Plus the wedding cake was sliced and served. If you have them brought out staggered(ie, not all at once) they wont go cold. We had ours taken round on trays by waiters and then just left on the bar to nibble at.

Im not a fan of buffets it all gets a bit 'mums gone to iceland' (but without the iceland price tag) in my opinion. I think cheese and pate would be great as it is something you can graze on and as and when you fancy it..... I imagine not all of your guests will be arriving or wish to eat at the same time and there is nothing worse then cold soggy chips if you decided to go down that route, as others have already mentioned it kinda slows down the party if everyone has to stop and eat while the food is still warm. Unless you could arrange to have staff walk through with trays at various intervals throughout the night as your would with canapes.

As you mentioned summer wedding cold cut meats with salad bar/mixed salad and bread rolls almost like a ploughmans with cheese or veggie quiche for vegetarians. coudl be a good option??

I am thinking of having a cheese board (I love the cheese wedding cakes) BUT we are not having any extra guests join us in the evening so the comments about evening guests only being hungry doesn't apply to us

I agree with others re finger food being easier to eat than jacket potatoes, but you could do jacket potato wedges or stuffed that would be easier to eat

I'm not wedding buffet fan!

We are currently looking at hot pork sandwiches from our favourite pork shop (northeners will hopefully know what I mean! Eith

Pork pies, sausage rolls etc....with bowls of chips and toasties for the veggies/kids....

id love a hot roast though! xx

Sorry this is really not going to help but i love all the options that everyone has suggested so far (except for piggie roast as it totally excludes all herbivores)...I would be happy to eat ANY of the choices. If you went for afternoon tea you could always do sweet stuff (cakes, biscuits), savoury stuff (sandwich triangles, mini pizzas or pasties, sausage or cheese rolls, baked potato halves etc), salads and cold meats...All this talk of food is making me hungry!

Can i just add to the hog roast thing - i went to a wedding where there was me and another veggie. All the meat eaters had hog roast AND helped themselves to the quiche which was supposed to be set aside for the veggies. There was only one quiche - and it was rapidly disappearing without either of us veggies having had any. I had to get up and actually tell the caterers to move it out of sight so that the greedy meaty sods wouldn't gobble it all up!! It really does wind me up, behaviour like that...

We are having cheese boards in the evening but we have no cooking facilities in the hall and no caterers as such so the waiting staff we have will serve the cheese and bread etc. I actually love the idea of the cheese boards and we could have gone down the sandwich line or other cold foods but I'm also not a fan of the traditional 'buffet'. I think potatoes would be too much hard work in terms of sitting down to eat so would say go for finger foods....but lots of it!

Cheese and pate with bread is probably my favourite meal but I wouldn't serve it at an evening buffet, too many people wouldn't like it I think. I also wouldn't serve jacket potatoes as I think it's too filling and I wouldn't want to tuck in to one wearing my best dress.

We're going for a finger buffet I think as hopefully it will suit everyone, I like picky food as well so like a buffet so I can choose what I want. I don't think we'll be hugely hungry so I'm going to arrange for a plate to be put in our room for when we go to bed.

I think you should do both! have the potatoes come out at 8 or half past and the cheese and pate at half 9 or 10.

We are having a buffet at 9 and bacon rolls at half 10, budgeting 2/3 buffet 1/3 baps.

OR (and I like this the best) do an afternoon tea but get your chef to think about how to include more savoury options, mini bagels, cheese scones etc for one 'set' of food and do sweet treats for another. It could all be set out buffet style, but on cake stands, teacups of toppings or displayed to complement your wedding style.

This is a really interesting thread.

We're getting married at 3pm and having meal at 5/5.30. We're probably having roast dinner for this.

We weren't planning on having much / if anything in the evening as people will be eating later than normal. But my mum said people expect evening food especially for the evening only guests. Personally having been an evening only guest this last saturday I could have quite happily not eaten. I arrived at 7.30 having had a snack and then was planning to just drink my way through the evening as I would at a non wedding party. My Mum was quite insistent that we must serve something.

So now Im planning on something really simple and easy to eat. I like the idea of mini fish and chips or mini burgers but we haven't budgeted for it so not sure what to do. Starting to be grateful when some people say they can only come to one bit or the other so it will mean we can afford to feed everyone!

I don't know if this helps...

But last year we went to a BBQ wedding in the summer, the weather was glorious so guests could go outside to the BBQ... But if not the bride and groom were assured that there was an under cover BBQ on which the food could be cooked. The food was then brought inside and laid out buffet-style. So actually in the end it didn't matter about the weather, and the food was lovely... Plenty of choice for everyone. If you did fancy the BBQ option I'd speak to the venue about how they organise it if the weather is bad.

I don't like the idea of cheese and pate. the smell also. thinking of my family, probably 1/3 wouldn't eat either. It's more of an after dinner sort of thing to me.

I like buffets! Also like the jacket idea.

I think if i were you, I would go for the mini fish and chips/sausage and chips or rolls etc.

We went to a wedding yeeeeeears ago and they had bacon/sausage rolls (must have been a veggie too but I like meat!) The waiting staff brought them around on a tray with napkins like canapes so no queueing, very portable etc. I thought it was great BUT everybody was all day guests so most wouldn't have eaten much more. If you have a lot of evening guests you would probably need something more substantial. I wouldn't have time to eat inbetween work, sorting kids out and getting ready if I were an evening guest.

I would like the cheese and the jackets. I wouldn't mind. All I'll say is that if it were evening only and I hadn't had a hot meal, then the potatoes may be better. I've been to a wedding where they had a hog roast for the evening and served pork rolls (I am veggie and can't remember what I had, but it would have been nice)

We're having an evening only do. We're starting at 5pm with champagne and strawberry tarts, having a hog roast and buffet at 7pm, then about 9pm having a huge cheeseboard (wedding cheese tower) and wedding cake served which will be available for guests to pick at all night.

IMO I think both are very limited I'd love cheese personally But I would serve just chese and chutneys! Sorry

We're having our meal late in the day so I originally thought of cheese boards to be served with our ( mine really lol ) chocolate fountain around 9.30 - 10pm, but my OH thought we'd still need something a little bit more substantial for those needing to soak up some of the days alcohol by this time, so have decided to add some sausage and bacon butties to the evening food menu.

Thanks this is all very interesting!! this is why it's good to get a different view!! i agree actually that the jacket potatoes are going to be a bit tricky to serve and eat...i do still like the cheese idea but i'd have to ask about the smellyness!! maybe the afternoon tea but with extra savouries might be the best option people can pick at it then, it can be there all night and not go cold and should provide something for everyone!

thanks for all the advice i think we have a few options to discuss with the venue!! x