BBQ at a wedding.....too tacky and cheap???

[Janeymoo50]

my wedding is booked for 3pm on a Sat afternoon. Tight budget (about 6K all in), roughly 45-50 guests for the whole day. Ceremony at 3pm, informal photos only, then a cream tea with cake, scone and cream, couple of small speeches. Guests will have a drink served straight after the ceremony and there'll be tea/coffee and more fizz with the tea. Then we're having a BBQ as the main food about 7pm. Not having wedding cake but hoping to do either a Krispy Kreme donut cake or some large pavlovas with fruit for pud. A couple of people have "made a face" when I mentioned BBQ???? Would any of you feel it was a bit tacky??

Do what you like, it's your wedding. We had a lovely tender lamb meal served at our spring wedding and an Aunty is still complaining about it 3years later. Needless to say I don't spend much time with her.
You are not going to please everyone.

Sounds fantastic. Much more fun than the usual.

Naice salads, sides and condiments
yes coleslaw and potato salad just wont do

Many thanks for all your answers and tips, they have certainly given me food for though (pun entirely intended), especially regarding the floury rolls! People can either eat outside or go back to their seats at the tables where we'll have the cream tea, all on proper plates with decent cutlery etc (and posh paper napkins, well as posh as paper napkins can be. It's being held on the Bank Holiday weekend next year, at the end of May and naturally it is bound to be lovely and sunny!!! *crosses fingers

Watch this space for possibly more questions re my Windmill Wedding!

Janeymoo

Ask the caterers to set aside some of the food for veggie guests.

It sounds brilliant. I've been to lots of wedding barbies and love them. Please 'over cater' for the veggies though as, invariably, the meat eaters have scoffed the lot. On one memorable occasion all that was left for me was an apple which had been done with the meat.

Two separate grills would be a good idea. That means there'll be no cross contamination between meat and veggie food and it will be easy to judge if vegetarian options are running low.

As people said - lots of food so at least 1 burger and sausage and chicken per person plus a bit extra added on.

If your cooking your own I'd precook as much as possible before and warn over bbq that way everyone gets served quickly and you can keep extra in oven to pop on grill for extra

My SIL and BIL had this and it was one of the best weddings we have been too.

We had a hog roast at our barn dance wedding. Ceremony at 4pm, drinks and canapes at 5pm, speeches then pig at 7pm. We had cake (M&S wedding cake) and local strawberries for pudding.
I love BBQs so would have been up for that had the hog roast not been available. We had so much pork left over as well, it was a bit silly but kept the family fed for a few weeks.

Sounds fab to me. Haven't read the whole thread (sorry!) but if you're having people sat at tables, could you have bowls of salads, condiments etc on the table and then just deliver platters of meat/veggie options? I know it takes away some of that bbq atmosphere but also speeds up service

I was at a wedding once where half the guests (inc. non drinkers) woke up with dodgy tummies the next day. The hog roast was believed to be the culprit.

Don't poison your guests!

After reading the other comments about 'greedy' guests:

Are you doing the catering yourself Janey? I.e. buying it all in then getting someone else to cook it.

If so, to make sure there is enough - have you thought about doing large joints of pork/lamb/beef instead of burgers? Then once it's shredded there will be enough to go round without having to have a set amount of burgers iyswim?
I'd also suggest doing thin sausages rather than thick ones, mini chicken fillets rather than one big one. People like to take an amount of a specific food, eg, 2 sausages, 2 pieces of chicken, rather than think that 1 thick sausage is equivalent to 2 thin.

thin sausages rather than thick ones, mini chicken fillets rather than one big one
with the added bonus easier to cook right through.

sounds lovely and I've enjoyed similar weddings.

To speed up serving

have separate veggie and meaty grills/cooks and areas - this cuts down queues and also stops meaties from eating all the veggies' food.

Have BBQd items served from BBQ but have a separate area at a bit of a distance with salads, breads etc. It's the faffing about with those that slows things down and stops other people getting up to the grill quickly. These can also be on a table that allows access from both sides to speed it up.

I love BBQs, just please make sure there are vegetarian things to eat more then just salads and potatoes on the side if you have any veggies coming that is.

I think it all sounds lovely! Wish I'd had cream teas and BBQ!!

We had a pig roast at ours.

I find wedding food is often not that great -- buffets with chafing dishes of limp food. A barbecue/hog roast is delicious. Obviously you have to think about how to serve it so everyone's comfortable, as you would with any menu.

I've been to a wedding with a BBQ, and it was great! Ignore the sneerers.

We had a BBQ, it was fab

We had a BBQ, it was great! We still had a sort of seating plan, in that we told people which tables to sit at but not where to sit. So everyone got a seat.

I would love to come but would also have reservations about being left with the dregs friending in how long it takes to serve it all. Who will be responsible for all the cooking?

Depending

We had a sit down afternoon tea and a casual BBQ later on. We over catered the veggie options (I'm not a veggie, but had 2 halloumi kebabs) and had mushroom burgers aswell. We had proper plates and cutlery, burgers, sausages and marinated chicken. It was all local, nice food- not just Iceland mega packs of stuff. We also had salad and warm new herby potatoes. As far as I know no one complained and it meant that all of our friends didn't have to be separated for the whole day and could sit and chat to whoever they wanted.
Good luck with the weather, sounds perfect to me!