Do people expect food after dinner at wedding?

Will people want guided tours, lawn games?

How many canopies each guest are being catered?

In the run up to our wedding, DH and I were guests at a friend’s wedding. We knew each other only (me and DH I mean) and I knew the bride - not even her husband.

It was a long day tbh, despite both being very sociable and being in a stately home we could explore, and this experience was tremendously helpful when planning our wedding and timings etc. We considered the experience of our guests who would know few if any other people.

Sounds like you’ve got a lot on though so that’ll definitely help with waits.

I agree Jellycatspyjamas. I'm also in Scotland and for every wedding I have worked at there was always a "Second Tea" consisting of sandwiches, tea/coffee and wedding cake later in the evening after a sit down dinner. Nowadays it's often bacon rolls, pizza etc. Was always considered "tight" not to provide food later in the evening and it would be considered to be very rude not to!

Canapés are too late and too close to the main meal. Should be straight after the ceremony, why the gap?

Yes people will need to eat again late evening. Always better to over cater for guests than under cater.

My son wasn't going to do the "second supper". I gifted it to him. He was very glad I did. Basically cheese boards, cold cuts, pickles, bread rolls. Served around 10pm.

His friends still talk about his wedding (even if the marriage only lasted six months). He paid for the sit down dinner. We paid for the drinks after the receiving line and wines with the meal and by 8pm, we realized we'd over bought and basically told the Barman that win was to be given to anyone who wanted it. The second supper was useful to soak up the alcohol, lol.

Military wedding and not sure how much would be consumed. It's a bit of a regional thing here to have a dollar bar. Where the family supplies the alcohol and Barman and he charges a $/drink. Basically it cuts down on excessive drinking.

The issue is the buffet
If it's help yourself the first half of the guests go up, gake far too much & the second half have hardly anything.
If it's a served buffet
Eg chicken or beef, veg served, one desert of choice per person (not one portion of each desert on offer)
Then it will be more equal and not much else required

Definitely this. That's the thing I regret most, a big chunk of 'canape time' was spent doing photos, group ones take forever as 1 person needed is at the bar/in the toilet/ having a fag/who knows where and they took so much longer than I expected and would have much preferred more time with my guests. My favourite photos are the non staged ones.

Sounds like if you have the snack table out for the evening then That’s plenty of food, no need for another food truck at all

Iv never been to one wedding where they didnt serve food in the evening. Id be starving by 9pm and probably want to leave to get food. Its your wedding OP, have whatever you want. But your guests are there for a full day and id be gutted if I knew half my guests were hungry in the evening. Its not much added cost to have a pizza van for an hour or two. We had similar timings to you, including canapés between ceremony and meal, our evening buffet was still absolutely demolished.

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a wedding where they haven’t served late night snacks. Seen everything from hog roast to pasties. We did a lush sit down meal and then cheese and crackers, nibbles and chips during the bands half time break.

Traditionally there is usually something to eat in the evening. It used to be pie and peas!

If you have evening guests, yes you need to provide some food. If not, no but make food timings clear on invitations. I’ve seen lovely sort of itineraries that people can send out to guests so that they know what to expect and know to eat before / after if they choose.

Also, it's not constant feeding, it's just timing it right!
I'd do lighter canapés, eat earlier at 4ish, then evening food about 7 or 8pm to tide everyone over (especially after drinking!).
Don't worry about the photos, you really don't need 50 different group pics with/without spouses, best friends etc. Do wedding party, each side of the immediate family, a big group one with everybody and then any special people you'd appreciate a photo with like grandparents.

I think when it comes to weddings, cater for more food than you would think would be necessary. For context, we had canapés then a huge 5 course wedding breakfast (salmon starter, soup, fillet steak with loads of trimmings, sticky toffee pudding, fruit cake). There was a cheese table groaning in cheese and in the evening fish and chips in a cone. At the end of the night, there was a bit of cheese left. The thing is, people want to indulge and they’re drinking and dancing

Shortbread is an odd option, I think something g more savoury would be better, but I'd just try and bring the food forward tbh.

70 is not a small wedding for most people! Also, what time does the ceremony finish? Canapés at 3:30, but how long are people waiting before that?

When planning our wedding, we were very conscious of the waiting around d we have done at other weddings between ceremony and food. Even with some canapés, it's a loooong wait until sitting down for a meal. We finished in the church at 2 and were sat eating at 3.30. We managed a few drinks and canapés, a handful of group photos and us as a couple disappearing with the photographer for some pics in that time. Please don't end up with everyone hanging around for hours bored, and being shepherded in and out of posed photos for ages.
Eat earlier and have some food for the evening if you're expecting guests to stay late and/or inviting others for the evening.

Sounds lovely @Budka but i would shorten the time between the ceremony and the meal. 4 hours is a lot of time. Not for you maybe as you will be occupied with photos etc but for your guests who are just sat around waiting. I know you said there is an attraction etc. I got married at 2pm and had our meal at 430pm and that was long enough.

It’s not. That’s the snack table in addition to the wedding breakfast.