Do people expect food after dinner at wedding?

If people are hungry enough they need to nip out for food they’re unlikely to return to the reception

This has now reminded me of a wedding I went to in the 90s, quite a close friend in fact. By around 9pm me and my then dh were really hungry so we nipped out for fish & chips, sneaked them into the wedding hotel and ate them laying on the bed. Then fell asleep and woke up about 3am, got undressed and went back to sleep. Nobody noticed us missing, probably all too drunk. We woke up next morning fresh as daisies and the envy of all our friends who were nursing hangovers. It was fun being one of the first down for breakfast and watching all the others arrive, pretending to 'feel fine' and looking like death warmed up 😇

People are normal very hungry at wedding due to timings meaning a meal , normally lunch, is missed.

People will he ravenous by 3.30pm and fill up on what sounds like a evening buffet, rather than canapés.

I'm not sure guests will then be ready for a meal at 5.30pm..The reality is the canapés will run into the meal.

Can you not do the canapés and cocktails straight after the ceremony, maybe 2.30pm?

It also doesn't matter how much good you have provided earlier, guests will be hungry about 9 ish onwards.

I'm just going from years of wedding attending, and seeing the good, bad and ugly when it comes to catering

A friend with a fancy central London wedding did this & skimped on catering. We’re not sure how deliberate it was as it was otherwise very lavish with free flowing booze. We gave up at just after 9pm and hailed an Uber to take us home.

If anyone ever brings up her wedding the first comment is how hungry we all were. No one remembers the ceremony, flowers or decor - just that we were hungry. It was a long day.

If people are hungry enough they need to nip out for food they’re unlikely to return to the reception.

Thank you! What a mean and inhospitable thing to do! Imagine having to go away for hours and occupy yourselves while they have the reception! Rude.

I think it all sounds fabulous @Budka You've thought of everything and your snack table sounds ideal (more than a snack table implies!). As you say, people can easily nip out for a quick something if they are starving later on, but I very much doubt it with the amount of food that is on offer.

Incidentally, Scottish wedding are bang on those timings - with a decent sized gap for wedding photos, lots of socialising, canapes and drinks after the ceremony. This is fairly standard.

Congratulations and have a magical wedding day.

I’ve only ever been to one wedding that had “evening food” and I’ve been to a lot of weddings. I think your food and timings sound fine. You can bulk up the snack table with savoury as well as sweet so I think that’s more than enough food.

This thread is such a pleasant juxtaposition against the one where poor old OP has been invited to the ceremony and evening do without so much as a cup of tea provided in between. Various other posters - who have arranged their own reception in such a miserly fashion- are trying to make out that this is totally normal.

Personally coming from NI, I've been taught that guests must leave any occasion clutching their tummies and groaning at their overindulgence or else you're a bad host. I think OPs spread sounds fine and doesn't need hot food at 10pm.

Surely, people know dinner is served at 5.30pm.
Then it’s up to them to decide how much to eat etc…

Im amazed at how much thinking for people is going on there.
’Guests migut be too busy chatting and miss half of dinner so you need more food fir those who couldn’t be bothered to sit down’.

Ive never been to a wedding where food was provided ON TOP of dinner.
When a van type of things has been there, it’s always because it was THE food p, not as an addition.

OP have you never been tp a wedding? Pissed people get chatting, some stand at the back of the room and miss all the canapés as the gannets at the front hoover them all up. People get more pissed through the course of the afternoon and might not eat much during the dinner as they're drinking and chatting. So then yes they are hungry later. If there was no alcohol involved you'd need a lot less food but do you really want people to be complaining at your wedding about you being stingy? You are being incredibly judgemental here of people.

I would just expand your 'snack table' to fill it out a bit more and that should be fine.

Your attitude towards the amount of food available is making me laugh 😂

I think the canapes and drinks reception sounds nice and really normal for a wedding so ignore all the comments about it being ages to hang around, the idea is that you're chatting and having a drink and socialising. All fine.

But I do think after picking at canapes at 3.30, people might not eat as much at 5.30 as you are expecting. You keep going on about how much food there is - but just because the food is there, there's no guarantee they'll eat loads and then people will be starving by 9. If I'd had bhaji and stuff at 3 I wouldn't be in the mood for my dinner at 5.30 and it would seem like a long time to wait until midnight.
The snack table sounds nice - can that not just come out around 8/9? If not then I think rolls or burgers or pizza sound good.

Nah, if you are not doing evening guests then it’s fine to just have a dinner imo. Most weddings I’ve been to did put out bacon/sausage baps type food around 10 pm - but I think they all had some evening guests “only”.

I’m sure pizzas wouldn’t get wasted as most people will usually manage free takeaway type food 🤣 (I include myself in that!). But unless everyone is doing a lot of dancing and only drinking water (and not ordering any alcohol or soft drinks which can sometimes be filling in themselves), I doubt many people would be that hungry by 10 after a big meal that finishes at what, about 7/7.30? Especially if they are able to help themselves from a cake/savory snack table afterwards which is what it sounds like.

Where I live weddings would usually be 3pm for the ceremony then drinks reception till around 5 while bridal party do photos. Speeches then dinner 5-7 ish, first dance 8pm light buffet around 10-1030 finishing up at midnight. I’ve noticed in more recent years it gets earlier and earlier! Cynic in me thinks its the wedding industry squeezing as much as they can out of their customers. Its a very long day & there is a lot of hanging about for guests .I much prefer a 3-4pm start & then there is less need for endless food! And nobody’s tipsy at 230 in the afternoon!

A Group of us left a wedding to go to the nearest chip shop to grab good once as nothing was provided in the evening.

Weddings can be boring especially if you’ve been there all day so food breaks it up a bit.

But it's not 5 30 - midnight.
They're sitting down for a (3 course?). Meal at 5.30, so they won't be finished eating til 6.30/7

@Budka when are speeches?

In that case I think that's plenty of food.

Yes if goes on longer than 6-7pm. If wedding finishes at 6pm that's ok. Weddings make you hungry especially if dancing....

We had similar timings and I was like you, not sure it was necessary. My DH over-rules me and we served cheese board/crackers and bacon butties at around 9pm and it was all devoured! We didn’t have evening only guests either.

Agree with this.

There seem to be two main opinions on here (apart from those who think it’s fine as it is):

1. That the main meal is too late - I don’t necessarily agree with this as the ‘canapés’ sound substantial and most people will be able to organise a decent brunch before they travel if they are aware of timings for the day.
2. That food is needed later on in the evening - I do agree with this but some of the replies don’t seem to account for the snacks that the OP has already said will be provided.

Like you, my thinking would just be to make sure the snack table is substantial enough (and of course it’s hard to judge but it might mean adding a couple more options) and have it brought out around 9pm.

We didn't - we did canapés and drinks on arrival after the ceremony, about 3:30 ish

Then 3 course dinner at 4:30

The venue offered a bbq for an evening buffet but at the cost per head we decided not to, as it made it so much more expensive, and we'd been to someone's wedding at the same venue and they said the bbq wasn't used enough to have made it worth it

Instead, we provided a couple of big boxes of crisps they could help themselves to, and a sweetie cart. The cake was also cut and available for people to eat.

The crisps and sweets went down well, people used them - there were left overs i think we ordered way too many sweets and I was sick of the sight of them by the time we worked through the blasted things, despite giving bags away!

We did pop a note on any evening guest's invitations that there wouldn't be food so they knew to eat before coming, but we only had a very small handful of those so it's not like a load of people were arriving, probably only around 5 or so were evening only

You would be best doing the sit down meal earlier and the canapes later on. I can guarantee a lot of meals will go to waste if they have had canapes a few hours before.

Anyone else fancying a bacon roll now? 😂😋

That sounds like a YOU problem to be honest.

People are going to be hungry after a 5.30 meal, ridiculous and quite selfish not to feed them.

I would like something to soak up the alcohol. A bacon roll would be perfect.

If already doing a snack table, just make it more substantial? We had sausage rolls, cheeses, that sort of thing at our evening food buffet thing and it was all eaten and went down a treat. I wish we had thought to cut up more cake as the tier we cut all went and there was loads of it left for us to take! Bring the snack food out at 9ish and it will be fine.

If last meal is 5:30pm and everyone is going to be drinking and partying then I’d defo offer more food at 9-10pm, be it a burger/pizza van or something else.