to not serve coffee at a wedding?

[ikeaismylocal]

I think I must have asked the most aibu about a wedding in the history of mumsnet. It's the same solo waltzing uncle wedding.

Wibu to not serve coffee? We are putting the buffet together ourselves and the practical challenges of making enough coffee for 100 people is overwhelming me a little.

In my dp's culture coffee is very very important, I have been to alcohol free weddings but never coffee free weddings.

In British culture would it be incredibly odd/rude not to have coffee at a wedding? If it wouldn't be rude we will have no coffee and I'll just say it's British culture.

I honestly can't remember if we had tea and coffee at our wedding. And DH loves coffee, as do all his family. Mine are tea-bellies. But no idea if we had any which leads me to suggest it's really not that important.

Isn't coffee just bitter water.

Does your DP's culture serve coffee at buffets and, if so, how do they get round the logistics? And what does he think about serving it or not?

We have a coffee machine which makes 8 cups at a time, we'd have to run it 12ish times to get enough coffee for everyone. I wouldn't mind doing that if we could do it in the morning and put it in thermoses but that doesn't seem like an option (serving bad coffee is like serving bad wine).

Ironically dp doesn't drink coffee, I do drink coffee but only one cup a day.

The wedding doesn't start until 5pm so it isn't as if it's awhole day affair and people will be suffering from caffeine withdrawal.

It's good to hear no coffee with a buffet is normal in the UK.

Funky, I love this. I'm going to invent a friend to do all sorts of things that don't need doing in future.

My secret is out. Bummocks.

In dp's culture they do serve coffee with buffets, they serve coffee everywhere even in the midwife's waiting room

We can't be true to all Swedish and English traditions, for example we'll do the speeches the Swedish way which is yo stagger them throughout the meal, the food will be extremely Swedish, we'll have smörgåstårta (sandwich cake) and other traditional Swedish foods, we'll drink snaps and sing special snaps songs and our actual wedding vows will be in Swedish so it isn't as if we are neglecting dp's culture.

I read that as they serve coffee with bullets,and was rather . Off to Specsavers I go.

OP As others have said:

1. find a friend or relative to help
2. ask friend/relative to arrange sufficient coffee cups and saucers on a convenient side table together with thermos jugs of milk/cream and bowls of sugar, plus teaspoons
3. borrow 3 or 4 electric kettles or an electric hot water boiler
4. borrow around 6 x 1 litre heatproof jugs
5. borrow or buy around 6 LARGE plastic filter cones (very cheap), plus a packet of the largest filter papers (ditto)
6. get stocks of nice strong fine-ground real coffee, suitable for filters
7. ask friend/relative to make filter coffee - should take 10-15 mins for six big jugs full ( a bit longer if huge hot water boiler involved)
8. repeat as required

If its a buffet they can help themselves. Let them make thier own coffee from a machine.

Well, if you could find a willing guest who was in charge of the coffee machine and nothing else, running it 12 times wouldn't be that onerous. Or two or three people could run it in shifts.

Does it have to be made in a specific way or be a specific type of coffee eg. espresso?

If not, hire a water urn (like the sort you get in village halls) and borrow a load of cafetieres.

Starbucks (blueugh) much as I dislike them..donate huge flasks to all our community fund raisers. Can you buy/hire from them if you have one local?

I've never seen hot drinks at a wedding, ever. Then again in my (Yorkshire) culture weddings are mass pissups.

Well personally I'd be annoyed if you served coffee and no tea, I hate coffee!

If it's important to your DH's culture then yes you should do it. I haven't been to a wedding where tea and coffee hasn't been served, ours included.

Oh and we had a buffet/BBQ.

Make it the problem of someone who cares.

If (say) your FIL tries to insist that it's vitally important in their culture, put him in charge of the logistics beforehand and on the day. If nobody from the Swedish side of the family cares enough to organise it, then it's clearly not that important to them.

Make it the problem of someone who cares.

If (say) your FIL tries to insist that it's vitally important in their culture, put him in charge of the logistics beforehand and on the day. If nobody from the Swedish side of the family cares enough to organise it, then it's clearly not that important to them.

how about serving pocket coffee

in germany usually coffee is served after the main meal and for the cake at midnight.

Provide the means for guests to make their own coffee. Job done.

I like inertia's idea, I'll casually mention the lack of coffee and if it's seen as scandalous they can make coffee themselves.

It just seems like such a faff for a cup of coffee!

ikea, I am a big coffee drinker. Trust me on this one: get several plungers/cafetieres, buy some coop own brand fair trade coffee (strenght 3-4) and 2-3 kettles. Job done.
If you are anywhere near me I am willing to come and brew and serve it for you for free :)

Could you get two or three cheap filter coffee machines and just have them on the go throughout the wedding?

Borrow filter machines? I know we bought ours really cheaply for say a fiver (supermarket one) a few years back, and you can get about 8-10 small cups out of one.

The Swedish peeps I know really do love their coffee!