Do people expect food after dinner at wedding?

I

It fills the time when your musicians take their break. Stovies are good, bacon rolls are good. We went with a hog roast on rolls. The evening guests will need food.

Nobody needs deliveroo do a nice snack table people can pick away at. One of my dc had bacon and egg rolls the waiting staff was dumping half eaten plates,

If people have been steadily drinking all afternoon/evening, they’ll need some fatty food later in the evening to soak it up, otherwise you’ll end up with people getting Hangry.

My wedding starts at 3 and I’m doing canapés at 4.30 and sit down meal at 6.30. Finishes at 1am. Can’t afford anymore we have 100+ guests at £150 a head for the day! They can get some crisps from the bar 😂

I’ve been to a fair few weddings in my time and I’m telling you, extra food is always a WINNER especially closer to the end of the night! Need to soak up all that alcohol!! 🙈🙈

I'd go for 9pm and one of these options that @JustSawJohnny has given because they sound more like they compliment your snack table.

I am guessing too late now, but if you have the option I would ditch the snack table or replace it with something simpler like a chessboard, and add the food van at 8/9pm with something substantial.

It's a buffet.

We went to loads of weddings in our twenties where there was a huge evening buffet that barely got touched.

When we did our wedding we had the breakfast as late as possible (6pm) and didn't bother with a buffet. We had the cake served up at something like 9pm. Some of DHs mates grumbled a bit to him after. I think a lot of blokes get a bit pissed and then want food at the end of the night. I regretted it as i hated that people thought we'd scrimped on it as I'd genuinely happily have paid for it if i thought it would be eaten.

Do something but keep it simple - if there's an option to avoid paying for something huge & wasteful via caterers especially, as they always only have an option thats more than is needed at high cost. Pulled pork sandwiches, bacon rolls, a big cheese & cracker buffet with a few pork pies.

London Zoo is an amazing venue. We were able to go round and look at the animals!
Be warned, the photo shoot seemed to take hours, I think there were so many nice spots.
Apologies if it's not LZ, just recounting my experience.

we went to a wedding and had 3 courses late afternoon very small portions - there was no evening food - every one was so drunk so many of us left at 11pm to go and get fish and chips.

I’ve never been to a wedding where there isn’t evening food. We did pulled pork barns at ours. Others I’ve seen pizza, cones of fish and chips. Bacon butties etc.

Yes! People will be hungry in the evening and everyone will wonder where the food is 😂

All weddings I've been to have a buffet around 9pm. Soaks up the alcohol. Plus often the meals at weddings aren't exactly huge.

This sounds like the perfect amount of food, I bet your guests loved it!

If this is London Zoo (no need to confirm or deny) then I have run an event there and no-one actually did go and look around. I guess wedding shoes, etc, are not great for wandering around alongside school kids and toddlers.

At the weddings I've been to, people have left early when there hasn't even evening food. A long day of drinking and dancing makes guests hungry. But if you don't plan to have a big party in the evening then I think that's fine!
I would make it super clear to guests in advance that you're not serving the main meal until 5.30, as most won't eat lunch before a 1.45 wedding. I went to a 2pm wedding where the main meal wasn't served until 6pm, so similar timings.. The canapés didn't touch the sides and a few guests snuck out for fast food once the canapés had run out.

I'd move dinner back an hour and you'll be spot on. No need for anything else.

Making everyone wait until 3.30pm for canapés will be the hardest thing though but I appreciate it'll take hours to do the pics....

We had canapés at 3 (ceremony was 2:30), three course dinner at 5, fish and chips at about 9 followed by wedding cake.

we didn’t have evening guests but I was just conscious that I’m usually hungry in weddings and certainly on the way home (we usually go to Burger King) so really didn’t want guests to feel like that.

It sounds like your main meal though will be very very filling so maybe you can get away with not having anything. Having said that, we thought food at nine might help soak up some booze and reenergise.

what are your canapés if v filling? Sorry if you’ve said. Ignore if you have. I wouldn’t have them too heavy before the main meal, esp if a huge buffet.

As long as the snack table is reasonably well laden, then I don't think you need extra food later!

I wouldn't eat anything further after dinner if I'm staying later at an event. I won't want to still be eating at 9 in the evening, that's usually when I'm getting ready for bed lol.

Like most, I think your meal is too late (after a 1.45 wedding, when people will not have had a substantial lunch). But either way, you need something between a 5.30 meal and midnight. That's a long time to be drinking and not to have food. I suspect people will drift off from about 10pm.

Sounds like a fabulous wedding and plenty of food! My only thought is that snack tables can look picked over and unappealing as the evening goes on so maybe stagger when things get put out? Perhaps have your savoury snacks out then put out homemade cakes (and tea?) an hour or so before carriages - whatever order you think.would work. Also ask the service team to keep the buffet tidy, seems obvious but can get overlooked.