Do people expect food after dinner at wedding?

Bowls of chips and rolls. Chip butty station at 10. Not too expensive and welcomed

And in any case, if you can’t be gluttonous at a wedding, when can you. Relax a bit!

OP it's not just half a day though. From beginning to end including travelling for your guests, its going to be well over 12 hours for some people. Yes you're feeding them 3 times but imo these arent 3 full substantial meals, there's one meal. The canapés are a small plate, and not everyone will choose to have their full allocation. Often people will have one or two so they dont over indulge and leave enough for the other guests. And your evening snacks are basically cheese and abit of cake. You say you cant control what others choose to eat, and whether they will feed themselves beforehand. But what you can do is anticipate that not everyone will eat absolutely everything they are offered, and as others have said its better to over feed than under feed. Its not gluttony for a special occasion like a wedding to ensure your guests are well fed.

People skip the canapes because they are chatting and saving themselves for the actual wedding breakfast. I've got an outbreak of family weddings at present and the general advice seems to be that it is better to overfeed than underfeed. Nobody ever went home from a wedding saying 'that was too much food' because if they aren't hungry then they simply don't eat it. But you should hear the complaining if there ISN'T enough food.

Always over cater. It's better safe than sorry.

I was thinking the same. Can people really not function without a steady stream of heavy food?

Though in fairness it's a long day. 10pm is sufficient for any event.
Remember when marrying couples used to be eager to head off alone on their adventures?

OP your wedding sounds like a wonderful upmarket London wedding and people are being ridiculous. You are having a free bar, wonderful reception food and a huge buffet meal.

given it sounds like a top end event, the reception food will be plentiful, presumably the wait staff know to make sure they get to everyone.

in my experience a reception with lots of food is totally the norm. We had mini fish and chips, mini burgers, mini mac and cheese, Thai chicken skewers, little bowls of veggie chili etc.

you say the main buffet is being served at the tables lovely. Even if it’s not then surely each table gets called up in turn for food and the caterers are used to this and a) are behind the table serving some of the food and keeping an eye and b) they bring out more as it goes along

people are being ridiculous. Nobody is going to go home bored from a wedding like you’re describing. It sounds wonderful

In that case I’d move the dinner back to 6pm and serve bacon/veggie sausage rolls at 10pm

My god - all the food people want is just gross.

Canapes, big lunch/dinner, snacks, cake and late night food.

I'm surprised no-one has suggested you lay on breakfast for them somewhere!

That’s absolutely nothing like what the OP has described. She’s not dumping them in the bar for 4 hours, she’s serving them drinks and canapés for significantly less time than that, and it sounds like they don’t have to go in their pockets at all during that time. Bit mean to bandy words like shitshow around when you’re talking about something quite different.

Well don’t eat any of the pizza then and leave it to those that want it

Plenty of people on this thread have said that it is fairly normal to have something like that at the end of the evening

Personally I wouldn’t thank you for lawn games and a table of samosas and cheese but I wouldn’t judge the bride for it if that’s what they want to have

Snobbery is not a good look

Unless you are feeding guests the buffet meal exceptionally early or you have additional guests coming only for the evening reception, no there is no need to provide more food than you already are

yes, food for people late at night if they ate at 5.30pm (early for dinner) will be much appreciated. We had a cheese/ meat board was all eaten up! we also had canapes then dinner.

You have a very early starting wedding - people who have to travel will not have had lunch.

Personally, if I went to a wedding and was offered pizza at the end of the evening, I would judge. And it wouldn't be a positive judgement. I am well aware this makes me a snob on this particular point.

What OP is offering sounds like an amazing afternoon and evening. I cannot get me head round the idea of needing another meal later on after a large meal at 5.30. It may be a buffet, but it is being served to the table, so it is more that there are multiple options than a typical self service buffet. And there are snacks/cakes available to graze on. People are not going to be 'starving'. Ridiculous hyperbole.

I think some of the problem is that you said you are serving canapés when you are not and are actually serving a full buffet before dinner.

Canapés are one mouthful so that you don't get anything stuck in your teeth and don't smear your lipstick. They are not intended to be filling!

There ‘not much you can do’? There’s a very simple thing you can do. Just provide pizza or similar at around 10ish. Honestly, even more so if you’ve got an open bar! Problem solved. Or be prepared for people to leave early or to remember your wedding as ‘the one where there wasn’t enough food’

I'm going to be honest here my cousin had a wedding very much how yours sounds and it was a complete shitshow she didn't do the evening guest thing either and everyone was leaving by 7:30/8pm because they had run out of money from all the waiting around earlier in the day and the place was EXPENSIVE , the guests were bored to tears by the time we sat down for food as we had been sat in the bar for 4+ hours ,after food we were then waiting around another few hours before the evening reception began
Evening food was being brought out as everyone was leaving to go home .

@theyoungishman that is what it is traditionally called, whatever time you eat it. It is the first main meal after you are married, so you are breaking fast

I'm irish not sure where you are from but here there might be canapés and welcome drinks then the sit down meal and later in the evening there would be more food but there again no wedding would end at 12 so it would be needed. Maybe just chips and goujons or sandwiches. This would apply with or without evening guests

Why are people referring to the dinner as a 'wedding breakfast'? I'm completely baffled!!!

My wedding timings are similar to you and we’re also doing canapés and a buffet dinner but we’re also having rolls and bacon at 10pm. I would expect some sort of food at around then because people will be pretty drunk by that point.

Yes good a nine, I’ve been to weddings where the meal was awful and relied on the evening buffet

Haven’t RTFT but read your posts OP and I see your wedding is being picked apart.

I think it sounds great and your timings and food are fine. I also got married in central London, slightly earlier ceremony in church, also did drinks and canapés before the meal (that time slot included a line up which I imagine people on here would hate as it meant they couldn’t eat at the same time) then meal at about 4.30 as I recall. No burger van, just cake and loads of cheese. Like you, no evening guests. I’m confident no-one thought there wasn’t enough food.

I think central London makes a slight difference. It’s not like you’re stranding them in the middle of nowhere.

I’m intrigued by where it is. Are your guests walking from church to big venue? Ours were right next to each other.

Especially don’t listen to those dissing the drinks on the terrace. A lovely totally normal and expected gap between ceremony and meal where you can relax after the formality and chat to your guests.

OP, as long as there is a decent amount on the snack table, and it's out late enough in the evening (because people will want something after drinking probably, rather than quickly after meal), that sounds good. Ignore the people being deliberately argumentative. It sounds like a fantastic and generous event.

The last wedding I went to has similar timings and the evening food was a pizza oven, but they had evening only guests as well and to be honest I think they ate most of the pizza as it was quite early in the evening do. I wasn't hungry when it came out, and by the time I did fancy some they'd stopped making it, so I just had a leftover slice which wasn't the best. But I wasn't really that hungry, and I also had some wedding cake, so I hadn't thought about the disappointing pizza again until this thread, and it certainly isn't what I think of when I think of that wedding. Unlike some who seem to claim food disappointment is the only thing they'd remember! Ultimately if you are in central London, it's not like they can't get food on way home if they are hungry by then. It's very different from being on a country hotel middle of nowhere where you can't get anything else until breakfast next morning.

Yes wedding timings can be awkward for guests but that's normal in my experience (so are lots of events - had to fit in a brunch / early lunch yesterday to get my son to a kids party for example). As long as you are clear about what timings are, then if guests can't look after themselves properly (eat 'brunch', wear shoes they can walk a short distance in so they can take part in the arranged activities and dancing etc) then that's their problem. Most weddings now seem to have a long gap between ceremony and sit down meal, especially if different venues. I'm surprised people are surprised by that.

I'm interested to know more about how the buffet works though - what makes it a buffet if it's brought to the table, as that messes with what I thought the definition of a buffet was? I'm not familiar with the concept.

@Budka
Instead of having the burger van at 10pm, have the cheesecake, crackers & pickles later in the evening instead of serving with the canapés.

If you serve cheese at 3:30pm, it'll fill people up so shift the cheese to the evening instead. I see your timings are set so you can't move the dinner to 6:30pm so serve the cheese at 9pm instead.

The thread below suggests all the things that go wrong at weddings are mainly down to lack of food:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5290523-weddings-you-went-to-where-things-went-wrong

How is a guest going to eat those canapés if he or she is holding a glass of champagne in their other hand?