Do people expect food after dinner at wedding?

I'm going to start calling my local the hydration station

I think people are more inclined to not eat so much at the dinner after all the canapés and then be starving after drinking and dancing. I’d do lighter canapés and then something more substantial after. The wedding that I’ve been to that people keep talking about are always those who had fun food after the dinner (fish and chip cones, pizza van, etc.).

I would make sure you have plenty on the snack table, cheeses, bread, maybe fruit platter and wedding cake and serve about 9.00. If they have had plenty to eat earlier you should be fine. It's usually the evening only people that need more substantial food.

5.30pm is early for dinner. I think best to offer evening food too

Good idea to offer jugs of water but I hope you don't pay a premium cos caterers are calling it a hydration station

P yuI've only been to one wedding without an evening buffet. A light wedding breakfast was served at around 2 30pm and come the evening, the all day guests and evening guests were all absolutely starving butty I absolutely myth else appeared. We had to buy food on the way back to our hotel.
Your wedding breakfast with canapés and snacks sounds much more substantial and is being served later, but I would definitely suggest having something available in the evening. A few crackers, cheese, crisps, sausage rolls, chicken wings fruit and a couple of cakes. If you have evening only guests you will need a more substantial buffet.

I’d find it strange to have a mini buffet before the dinner buffet. Serve the chicken skewers and onion bhajis later in the evening and just have drinks before the dinner.

This!

If the ceremony is around an hour you need to move canapés and drinks much earlier.

If thats not possible for some reason you need to move the dinner earlier and scrap the canapés or serve canapés with welcome drink pre ceremony.

I think the wedding industry is very good at upselling stuff you don't need and wouldn't miss, so a pinch of cynical detachment is necessary unless you have unlimited funds
...I do sport out of a club that's used a lot as a wedding venue. You would not believe the piles of unused stuff that gets tossed out or 'rehomed' every week during wedding season

As a premises manager I saw much the same so can believe it only too easily, @TunnocksOrDeath, but then when a provider's charging ££££ per head for something you can see why they're so keen to push it

I've always thought the key is to do your very best to think of guests (which OP clearly has) and then to just relax and enjoy the event, remembering that no matter what's offered someone will always, always complain but most will have a darned great time

I'm in Scotland and people often offer bacon and sausage rolls in the evening.

All this talk of cheese. I hate the stuff and would have been thoroughly miserable if this were the evening option.
I appreciate, however, that this is my fault for being a weirdo

I’ve never been to a wedding where there hasn’t been an evening buffet/ hot rolls/ hog roast etc about 9/.9.30 pm.

would be weird to not have anything.

And just to add the timings worked fine, nobody went remotely hungry and the cocktail/canapés gap worked brilliantly.

It sounds perfect OP.

Hi OP we had similar timings to yourself and no evening only guests.

We hired in a pizza by the slice van for around 9.30pm.

They offered GF/Veggie/Vegan slices.

Went down really well and imho better than a burger van as covered multiple dietary requirements.

Also "by the slice" worked much better than whole pizzas. Cheaper for us of course but also most people wanted a snack to dry up the booze but not another meal and most people only wanted a single slice if anything at all.

Tbh we had tons of food during the day and the canapés we very substantial and abundant - think mini Yorkshire puddings with beef/horseradish, glazed tofu skewers, mini fish and chips in a cone etc

Of course people who were more hungry had multiple slices - that was fine. But it meant we didn't waste money on masses of pizza being churned out for people not to eat it all.

From memory we paid a set fee for the van and then a by the slice charge on top.

@Budka -it sounds like the snacks you are offering on the snack table are pretty substantial/filling, so as long as this will be available during the evening, I don’t think you really need to offer burgers/bacon rolls. Maybe you could put a bigger selection of snacks out instead, if you are worried that people will be hungry.

Honestly, it sounds like a lovely day - I’d love to go to a wedding like yours!

Your wedding sounds amazing! I don't think you need a taco truck or whatever, just boost the contents of the snack table to include some cheese and lots of bread.

One note of caution around the dinner buffet, please make sure it is refreshed and all the guests have equal opportunity to fill their plates. I have been to weddings where - as a member of one of the back tables- I felt rather unwanted and hangry because there was no food left for me.

We put out bacon sandwiches at about 9pm (and vegan sausage sandwiches because we had a few vegans/vegetarians). Because we didn’t have extra evening guests we only catered for 70% of the guest list as we assumed (correctly) that quite a few people would leave early (old, childcare, etc).

I think the wedding industry is very good at upselling stuff you don't need and wouldn't miss, so a pinch of cynical detachment is necessary unless you have unlimited funds.
People started putting out a buffet in the evening when it became a thing to invite evening-only guests, which is fair. But if I'd had a sit-down dinner at 5:30, I wouldn't expect pizza or anything substantial after that. People eat it if it's there but don't miss it if it's not.
I do sport out of a club that's used a lot as a wedding venue. You would not believe the piles of unused stuff that gets tossed out or 'rehomed' every week during wedding season.

How many guests are you having?

If they arrived at 9.45 then they're not going to be serving people until 10pm by the time they're organised.

If you give a minute per person for serving - even just 45 guests will see people still being served at 10.30.

I'd say you want them serving at 9pm

Do you want people sloping off early to find more food, or getting absolutely wankered as the alcohol levels increase and food decreases?

If not, supply more food after about 8.30pm.

I'd amalgamate the snack table with some sort of bacon rolls/pizza type offering after 8.30pm. I would not be offering brand new food an hour before i want people to piss off home though.

Also, canapes by definition are not filling and no one will eat sufficient of them to be filled up.

Well, I certainly wouldn't want any more food than that but some people seem to regard a wedding as an excuse to not have to eat for the next three days!

If you don't mind people nipping out to grab a bite to eat during the evening then just make sure you let people know. Tell the bridesmaid and best man to do a chippy run and let people know they are welcome!
I think people would be worried about offending so just go home once they are hungry if it looks like no evening food is arriving.

Definitely need to offer food in the evening but doesn’t have to ge complicated. Cheese, French stick, crackers, grapes and wedding cake will be fine.

I think if you’re in a city it’s different to people being ‘at your mercy’ in terms of what good is produced.

I don't think it's the answer your hoping for but I do think you need evening food. People won't have lunch because they will be traveling to the ceremony. Burger or pizza type food at about 9 will go down well. All the weddings I have been too have evening food and 5.30 is very early for an evening meal.
Basically weddings throw off normal eating times so don't consider it like a usual day. Drunk people get snacky!