To think I'm not starving my wedding guests.

[MBlaze]

Helpful Mumsnetters, please let me know if this is enough food for a wedding. I think it's more than enough, but DP thinks we need to add more food!

Timings are approximate...

2pm - Ceremony
3pm-5pm - Crepe or ice cream van, canapes (3 each) and drinks
6pm - 3 Course dinner (Vegan and Gluten-free options so nobody should go hungry.)
7ish? - Cake after dinner
9pm - Cheese board with bread, crackers, grapes, figs etc

Surely that's enough food considering the ceremony is at 2 and people can have breakfast beforehand?

DP thinks we should provide more than a cheeseboard after dinner and should hire a fish and chip/burrito van or ask the caterers for something more substantial. We aren't having any evening only guests, so I really don't think people will need another meal 3 hours after a 3 course meal.

What do you think?

Oh I see 100 guests....are these crepes being made by the caterer and out on platters or is it a novelty van that does Crepes etc? These novelty extras are just that, extras. They do not substitute catering. They serve slow and steady and are fine if they run alongside the standard catering. I mention again the wedding where dessert was substituted by an ice cream bike, it took over two hours for people to get the little scoop and many people never got anything because they couldn’t face standing in a queue for up to an hour, that’s not a celebration, its torture, especially in heels. We left when we found the evening catering was a pizza van, so yet another epic queue to get sustainance. Nice idea but totally impractical once you go over 50 guests unless you are providing a separate buffet.

God I'd love a crepe

Anything is better than the one I went to today

Started at 5
First course - 7pm
Main course - 8:30pm
Pudding - 9:30pm

I didn't even stay for the dancing. I was ravenous and just went home

Personally I think it’s fine.
If it’s “too” anything, then IMO it’s too much food - but then that’s my opinion as a light eater.
Are you set on the pre dinner sweet crepes? Perhaps these could be swapped for savoury appetisers and have the crepes later instead of cheese?

Was it because if the food helpatron

Raindrops was what because of the food? The long wait? They'd actually planned it that way so people could get drunk and do activities between courses but it meant nobody got full

OP I don't hate it, I promise!!!! It will be awesome whatever you do!!!!

Afternoon tea would work. Everyone is happy with a sandwich and a bit of cake. Ultimately people will remember being hungry or the lack of food over any other carefully planned detail if you get the catering wrong. It doesn’t need to be expensive or original, there just needs to be plenty of it and it needs serving in a timely manner.

I don't hate it either, it all sounds yummy! I just think you need something more substantial in the evening 9pm ish as people will be falling down lol or have the drinky munchies

I don't see the problem. The ceremony isn't till 2pm so people will have lunch at the usual time. Then dinner around 6pm. Why would they need another meal after that?

This is a total off the point comment.....

From going to 5 weddings in the last year, being a wedding obsessive plus getting married myself a couple of years ago PLEASE consider reducing the time between the ceremony and the sit down meal. Guests WILL get bored. Max two hours between ceremony start time and the sit down meal.

Just on the unlimited crepes... In my teenage years I used to make these in JL. They take longer than you think especially if there are fillings. I would question how many they can make in an hour.

Thankyou MissDuke

I'm just joking - we know we can't please everyone. As long as there is food everyone CAN eat and enough of it to go around, there's not much more we can do so it's not really our fault if people are hungry because they don't like it.

Most people seem to like afternoon tea, so we will probs go with that!

Sounds fab op! I hope OH didn't gloat too much that most seemed to agree with him

Ok mabey mini cones of fish and chips, and cheese on toast, perfectly fine imho, instead of cheeseboard.

Dinner is really late for a 2pm kick off even with the crepes people will be hungry and rather drunk by dinner.

In fact the trick to any wedding is make the guests feel looked after. Spend your money on things that will make people’s day, hire extra outdoor furniture if there is due to be a long drinks reception and the venue is light on seating in that space. People will find time flies far quicker if they are comfy. Have a staffed crèche if you have lots of guests with children. This will be a huge treat to find lovely qualified nannies ready to play parachute games or supervise a bouncy castle, kids can then leave the meal midway having been served a simplified kids meal and parents can relax. You want your guests to find the day has finished and they are left wanting more, not leaving because they have reached their endurance threshold. Whether you had a flash wedding car or really elaborate cake will not be remembered but they will remember a great, relaxing, fun day.

If you're going to have a drinks reception with food- and realistically you probably do if you plan to have photos- then the food needs to be accessible, easy to eat without plates/ cutlery and plentiful.

If your guests have to queue for ages at a crepe van because there's 100 guests and they can only serve one at a time, and Uncle Geoff is getting his and Auntie Val's and Grandma and Grandad's , but everyone wants a different filling and he can't quite remember which , then the rest of the queue gets a bit fed up. They might start out thinking that it's a nice idea, but standing in a field for an hour while 80 people dither over pancake fillings can soon become tiresome.

IME people don't care about innovative food at weddings. They care if they're hungry, or queueing for ages, or there isn't enough to go round. The good thing about canapes is that they're easy to serve and eat, the bad thing is that they can be expensive for what you get, and it's very easy for some people to get nothing at all.

Waaau change the timings!!!

I don't understand this thread. The timetable outlined is exactly the same as most weddings. People should know to eat beforehand.

3 canapés is a bit stingy though and the points raised about the crepe van are valid. I'd forget the crepe van and double (triple) the canapé order.

Then I'd swap the cheese board for fish and chip cones, not because it's not enough food (they'll have barely finished a three course meal) but because it's easier and more fun to eat on the go.

I got married almost 3 years ago.

We had the ceremony at about 1pm, then went off for pics until about 330. Guests had canapes & drinks while chatting to each other for a couple of hours. We also had a guy there doing everyone's caricatures.

Sit down 3-course meal was 4-630pm.

Disco kicked off at 7pm with a huge chocolate fountain. Then evening buffet was served at about 9-930pm & cake after.

We also had a magician & photo booth. Nobody was hungry & many people said it was the best wedding they had ever been to because our food & entertainment was so good!

Wish we could do it all again! Want to watch my wedding DVD now!

Normal people would grab a McDonald's on the drive, be fine with crepes (which are really filling, has no one ever had catered crepes at an event before?!), given that on a normal day no one eats between 3 and 6 anyway, then a sit down meal and then more food! It's a lot of food but nicely spaced so stick with your plan.

Firstly, I think it's enough food. For a 2pm wedding people should know they need to eat lunch first.

That said, I think your timings are really off. You won't get a three course dinner served in an hour. It will be tight to do it in two (especially if you're putting the speeches in here), so I'd bring the meal forward to 5pm. Otherwise you have 3 hours between end of ceremony and meal which is about 50% too long. It's fine for people who know 50 people they haven't seen for ages, but for people who maybe only know a few, it's a really long time to be standing around. If it rains, even worse.

I would not serve cake right after the meal unless it's in lieu of pudding.

ps I'm assuming it's a single venue wedding. If there's a transfer from church to reception venue then that's not so bad. However, you still need to double the time for the meal.

People will not have had lunch, they will be starving by 6pm.
Definitely not enough canapés. The crepe & icecream van sounds a bit meh. Ok if you have a sweet tooth.
So what if you & your partner are veggie, you should be catering to your guests & do bacon sandwiches.

Ditch the crepes - no one wants to stand in a long queue when they could be chatting / socialising. The "unlimited crepes" thing is a con because no one will want to queue more than once.

Unless you have a canape monitor strictly counting them out then the first 30 people will have canapes and the remainder will have crumbs.

If you do want to only cater for 50 for canapes rather than your 100 invited guests then you will need to supplement the canapes with trays of sandwiches, sausage rolls, crisps, dips etc.

At a relative's wedding the couple went off for their photos while everyone waited for them getting completely pissed because of the lack of a reasonable amount of food. This is the time that people need to eat, to stop the alcohol going to their head.

Have you considered having a decent, filling amount of canapes etc at the reception and then having just two courses for the main meal? Who honestly cares if they have a starter? Save the money there and spend it when people will need and appreciate it.

I've been to a wedding where guests ended up getting a pizza delivery, and another where someone went and did a take-away run and was running a buffet and drinks service from the boot of their car. Don't be that host.