Non-veggie evening food?

[boredboredboredbored1000]

I'm planning a wedding and, despite my best efforts, have blown my modest-medium sized budget already. It's an evening thing, ceremony at 530, dinner after, "evening" guests arriving at 9. There will be canapés, dinner, wine and an edible wedding favour for those invited to the whole thing. The "evening" guests will get a welcome drink, then everyone can have some wedding cake (I've bought 3 big tiers in different flavours) at the celebration afterwards. I'd also like to get a "pork pie wedding cake" from M&S (3 pork pies in decreasing sizes, stacked and decorated to look like a wedding cake) as additional food in the evening (cost about £80, I'm allowed to bring this to the venue as it's another "cake"). The alternative would be a cheese board from the caterers costing £520 (can't afford this, also means I can't bring my own cake of stacked cheeses). It's been suggested that the pork pie thing is not fair on vegetarians (we have about 4 coming). I can't find a veggie friendly version, or alternative veggie tier. If I don't get the pork pie cake I won't get anything else. Would I be unreasonable to get it for non-veggie people?

Some vegetarians (nearly all of the ones I know) wouldn't eat food that had been touching a meat product so I would probably also steer clear of balancing anything forbthem vegetarians on top of the pork pies. You can buy vegetarian 'pork pies' though if that helps.

Uninvite the veggies

only half jokingly

Picture here

If you cut out the candles and edible wedding favours from the main meal does it free up some money to provide your evening guests with something a bit more substantial than a slice of pork pie and a bit of cake?

Nemesia that's amazing! I'll delicately balance a couple on stilts so they're not touching the naughty meaty pies and clearly label them!

Canapes, not candles!

Just buy the veggie pies, put them in the kitchen and tell the veggies to ask the kitchen/staff to get them their meal. I'm a veggie and I'd be very happy with that. Don't balance on top, as others have said, most veggies wouldn't eat it after it's been touching the meat.

Ditch the pork pie cake idea and just have a cheese stack cake (make sure cheeses are non animal rennet). Everyone gets cheese and wedding cake.

This might be another thread, but I had thought as evening people are coming at 9, they will have already eaten so I wouldn't have to worry too much about providing lots of food. There will also be tea, coffee, a (cash) bar and a live band as a reason to come (other than to celebrate our wedding with us)

As a veggie I wouldn't feel hard done by with only having cake!! It is your day not theirs after all , things like weddings I am just happy to be invited to :) xxx

I'm veggie and if I was going to an evening do, I would assume that I may not be catered for and eat before I go. Then if I am catered for, happy days!
But then I would also eat vegetarian food that has been 'touching' a pork pie too...

Can you really not compromise on an alternative with the caterers? I'm not convinced people will expect food if invited at 9pm - surely 9pm screams "feed yourselves first"? Just a pork pie is a bit odd with absolutely no accompaniment, not even a bit of salad or pickle. I'd be inclined to go without the pork pie or work out a compromise with the venue. Or as PPs suggest, switch canapes to later. Do you really need to feed people 3 times between 6pm and midnight?

I couldn't get past the 520 quid for the cheeseboard! I know caterers have to make a profit, but, crikey...

The pork pie cake sounds epic, I'd love that. Yum. Have seen one like the one you describe on Facebook.
However, for the vegetarians it's really crap if all they get is wine and a piece of cake and the carnivores get pie and cake.
You're going to get a lot of pissed people falling about all over the place as they've got no food to soak it up with.

However many of your guests aren't expecting to be catered for, I would consider it bad form to cater sufficiently for the omnivores but insufficiently for the vegetarians.

And those porkless pies are minging (I'm vegetarian).

Sorry, meant to add, I would not go for pork pie, but a few quiches suitable for vegetarians, some dips, crudités and olives etc, nuts and crisps, just to soak up any booze. Then cake to follow.

Buy veggie pork pies and put them in individual boxes with your veggie guests names on-that way no one should eat them and the venue won't be any the wiser for the 4 guests.

I do struggle a bit with the idea that the only savoury choice for over 100 people is pork pie. It may be that everyone you know loves pork pies but I would imagine there will be a percentage of the meat eaters who don't like it either (and maybe even someone wouldn't eat pork for religious reasons).

I made my own cheese cake tower thing and it didn't cost anywhere near £520! More like £100. It looked lovely with grapes etc around it.

I can't understand your timeline. 9pm is very late for evening guests (but I suppose inevitable if your ceremony is 5.30 and then you have to squeeze dinner in after that). I suspect you'll still be finishing dinner when evening guests arrive. If you do have to have evening guests arriving at 9pm, I wouldn't expect to feed them or for that matter the day guests again. They'll not long have had dinner surely?

gosh 9pm is very late to have guests arriving misses point of thread entirely

I'm not trying to be critical - I honestly know how tricky it can be.

I know that people will have eaten but probably much earlier - if I were going to an event at 9, I'd need to leave at, say, 8, start getting ready from about 6.30 and so will have eaten about 5.30 so at 9 with booze, I'd be peckish and expect some nibbles.

If your guests are eating after a 5pm ceremony why not dispense with canapés before dinner and serve those when the evening guests arrive? That's what I'd do.

Buy veggie pork pies and put them in individual boxes with your veggie guests names on

Putting them in a box doesn't make them any less minging.

I do eat meat substitutes sometimes but even I think trying to make a vegetarian pork pie is completely pointless.

I don't think I'd be attending if I wasn't invited until 9pm. If I did, I'd be tempted to combine it with dinner out first - so whilst cake on arrival would be nice, pork pie (only pork pie as opposed to a variety of lighter things?!) wouldn't really impress me, vegetarian or not.

I'd do the whole thing veggie to be honest. I say that as a meat eater, but I along with many other meat eaters in my circle would go a long long way to avoid a pork pie. And then you get vegetarians accusing meat eaters of 'snaffling' (never eating) 'their' food.
I imagine three whole tiers of pork pie to be pretty universally picked at, stodgy pastry being peeled off when people are really pissed, and everyone raucously drunk because they're bloody hungry.
Saying that, I don't actually eat when I'm drinking, I lose my appetite, even at weddings that last all day, so I do usually get pretty drunk anyway!