To want to eat lunch at lunchtime on my wedding day?

[whatever22]

I have been to many weddings. A fairly normal pattern for me is, get up/eat breakfast/get ready/travel to wedding location/watch lovely ceremony that occurs when I would normally be eating lunch (1-2), then hang around for painful h-o-u-r-s waiting for food which is bizarrely served at about 4pm, even though people must know there guests haven't eaten since breakfast due to having to travel to a wedding. (Sometimes there are canapes which give me the dilemma of snacking then not wanting to eat a big dinner in an hour, or avoiding them and feeling starving).

Now I am planning my own wedding all the venues I have talked to go with a similar schedule. I don't understand why this is considered a reasonable thing to do! What do people expect their guests to do? find somewhere for an early lunch in an unfamiliar town/whilst all dressed up before the ceremony? Just go without proper food for 8 hours? Eat canapes at lunch time and yet still want a huge 3 course meal at 4??

What I would like is to get married at 12, and have the wedding breakfast served at about 2. (there will be a buffet later in the evening at around dinner time). I think this will be nicer for my guests (not to mention me! I also wont have eaten since breakfast!).

But when I searched around for other peoples 12 o clock start weddings I can't find any examples of people doing this, they seem to still have the main wedding meal at 3-4pm!

Am I missing something? Is there some reason for not just putting the wedding meals at normal eating times? Would you hate a wedding that did this?

We got married at 2 and sit down meal at 5. Seemed ok. Before the ceremony, I went to a cafe and had something to eat and drink, in my wedding dress, which was a light and airy summer dress; lucky given the scorching temperature! Oh, and morning sickness forced me through the doors of the cafe!

Do whatever you want!
I felt exactly the same, especially as i have a particular irrational dislike of hot meals at lunchtime and definiately at 4pm!!! Several weddings i have been to with my toddler have been anightmare of screaming starving child plied with snacks by grumpy hungry parents. Also lots of drinks on empty stomach = bad idea in my view.

Our timetable was chosen by me, had both civil ceremony and reception in same hotel and was as follows:
Guest arrivals and offered champagne/ juice
3.30pm wedding ceremony
After that tea and cake was served (i prefer to canapes)
General milling and my brass band played i nthe gardens (july)
6pm sat down to eat , food served about 6.15 i think
Had a country dance, i think that started about 8

This worked really well and lots of people commented they felt it worked better than a random meal mid afternoon.

We got married at 3.30, popcorn and drinks on a bus across town. Canapés at 5.30, only about half an hour of photos. Sat down about 6.30, food at 7. Later on we served cheese etc.

I hate waiting around at weddings, my priorities were making sure nobody was either hungry or bored!

Noon weddings just seem too early in my opinion, so much waiting around and unless you feed everyone twice and provide lots of snacks through the day you are going to get hungry people.

Can see why afternoon weddings are becoming more popular. I much prefer them!

I agree with the other posters about not understanding how grown adults can't plan their meals around a 'standard' 2pm wedding / it's not difficult!

When we got married we sent an information sheet with the invites with hotel/taxi details etc. we put a note on there to say that the meal would be around 5pm so guests should think about either a big breakfast or light lunch to keep them going. We also served canopes.

If I'm going to a 2pm wedding then we normally have a big brunch, although we have also taken a packed lunch and eaten it in the car before going into the church. It's really not that difficult. I think you are overthinking it!

My MIL told me, at my DS's christening, that my wedding had been a shambles because the ceremony was at 12 and the meal at 3, and we'd served Pimms and had an open bar for the intervening time, so that was why she'd got so drunk she threw up everywhere.

Funnily enough, nobody else had that problem. But in retrospect, I should have ordered some canapes as well - it was just that we'd expected to eat at 2. I'd never married before, and had no idea how long all the faffing could take.

Don't know if anyone has already said this, but later weddings are popular with people who only want to fork out for one big meal. As you're happy to have a lunch plus a buffet then plan your day your way.

The other reason for having a wedding later is to allow travelling time for those people who have a long way to come. I suppose people will have a very large breakfast to keep them going until 4pm. However, I don't suppose you yourself will want the full Fry Up if you've got a nice dress to squeeze into later on.

12 noon weddings invariably get a bit boring for guests. The bride and groom are in a wonderful whirl, but for everyone else it drags a bit. What are you going to lay on all afternoon? Not to bad if people are staying onsite so can have a nap or bit of downtime but otherwise this would cheese me off.

I think it depends on the wedding style. We only had 30 guests, 9 family (both sides) and the rest were friends. We had a country gastropub with lovely booze and food, it was a beautiful sunny day as luck would have it, and people just spent a sunny afternoon and evening drinking, eating and talking. Had the cake and champagne at teatime, then cheese plates for supper. People were free to leave whenever, but they actually had a lockin, and we left at 1 am, and most of our friends were still there.

I agree a formal, sit-down wedding in a hotel, making polite conversation with people you don't know, with all ages intermingled, can be a bit of a PITA at times. More like a work do than a party. We didn't want that, so only asked very close people and put all the cash into the venue, food and drink.

We got married at 4pm, had canapés and drinks for the day guests after the service then had a huge hog roast and buffet and 7pm when the evening guests arrived for the bloody fantastic reception.

at 7pm *

I'm impressed that you're thinking of your guest's comfort. So many couples don't do this so you're left standing around for ages while they take photos, often without any food or drink.

Have your wedding how you want it. We fed our guests afternoon tea, got married, had dinner at about 7 and didn't bother with an evening do.

Definitely do whatever you would like, but thinking of other peoples comfort is very nice as well. I was married about 12, and we then went to our local pub for a buffet lunch served at about 1.30. We had people travelling long distances, and some of them arrived off planes and trains very early and didn't have cars to be going and finding lunch venues. People started leaving the lunch about 5ish and we had an evening party at home starting about 7pm. Some people only stayed for the lunch, some went back to where they were staying for a rest, some came to help prepare the evening party and some stayed drinking in the pub. My worst wedding experience was when I was breastfeeding and weaning 6 month old. We left home 8.30am, drove 2.5 hours to collect MIL where we had a quick cuppa and sandwich drove an hour to the wedding (2pm ceremony), hung around tired and hungry til 5.30. Buffet laid out was totally inadequate for the number of guests. DH managed to get me a couple of little sandwiches, and a single potato wedge. When the deserts came out I went like a greyhound out of the traps and managed to get a piece of cheesecake. Drove MIL home, drove ourselves home. Demolished a takeaway at 10 pm. So hungry. Also only place to bf was sitting on the floor in an empty meeting room I found at the venue, and only place to change nappies on the floor in the loos. I drew the line at taking a whole days worth of used nappies home and shoved them in the wastepaper basket.

I really really think the very last thing on your mind on your wedding day will be sticking to your meal routine! Most people attending a wedding know the wedding breakfast will be a late-ish afternoon affair, and they have a larger than normal, and possibly later than normal, breakfast.

But why is it called a wedding breakfast when it's not eaten at breakfast time???? I have often wondered this!

First meal as a married couple....

Do what you like, obviously. It's your day. Hope you enjoy it.

But I can't understand what's so difficult about grown adults having meals at a different time or in a different order to normal. What to do if the wedding breakfast is at 4? Have a bigger breakfast, eat an apple before you get there, nibble on a canape or two, or let yourself be slightly hungry in the early afternoon. None of these things are much of an ordeal.

Ah thanks for that, learned something there!

We got married at 11am as it was winter and light faded rapidly from 1pm onwards. We had our meal served at 1.30 so plenty of time for church service (40plus mins), photos and travelling to reception (20min drive). the. had buffet around 7.30ish

should add it was only close relatives invited to sit down meal who were mostly staying in the hotel

I had an 11:30 ceremony and the hotel where we had the reception gave us lunch at around 2pm, iirc. Might have been 2:30 though, which is still just about acceptable. But they had a drinks and nibbles segment prior to the meal, from 12:30 til whenever the meal was due to start. We then had a break around 4:30, to allow them to clear the dining room and set it up for the evening, and to allow the band to set up - and then the evening kicked off at around 6, iirc (again).

What I did do, though, because of the extended nature of the day (not my ideal but I was constrained with dates and times) was to put a schedule into the invitation, so that people knew exactly when each section of the day was happening, and could plan accordingly.

I think the venues have so much experience of dealing with long wedding days, that they are quite helpful in suggesting timings - my hotel planner was very helpful indeed and we managed to work out a mutually acceptable schedule as above.

I had my ceremony at 2pm and advised guests that the wedding breakfast would be around 6pm. We recommended a nearby pub where those travelling a long distance could meet up in good time and eat if necessary.

The bridesmaids and I went to Morrisons for breakfast then for our hairdressers appointment!

The only glitch in the plan was that by the time the wedding breakfast had finished, the buffet upstairs was being laid out as the meal took a while between courses.

Assuming you are on one site (we has a drive between church and hotel) 2 hours is a tight window for a ceremony and photos as it takes longer to herd people than you think it should. Rounding them up later would be harder.

I got married at 4 and had dinner at 6, this worked well because we only had one invite list rather than day and evening invites, so we only had to feed people once.

Also I have been to lunchtime weddings and seen the state that some people get into into during the lull between the end of the meal and that start of the evening party where there is nothing to do but go to the bar. I wanted to avoid the paralytic at 8pm problem!