Do people expect food after dinner at wedding?

[Budka]

Ceremony is at 1:45 pm. We are serving very filling canapés and cocktails at 3:30pm and dinner at 5:30pm. There will be the actual cake, a homemade cake table, hydration station and a snack table. The wedding ends at midnight. The meal itself is A LOT, we are doing a sit down buffet (think Las Vegas buffet).

I've seen trends where a pizza/burger van turns up as guests are leaving.

Would you as a guest expect more food after dinner?

I personally wouldn’t. I do feel people get weird at weddings re good where they almost expect to be fed and watered on the hour, every hour. But in everyday life you would probably be happy with eating far less (I do appreciate dancing, drinking causes hunger).

But would you expect to be given more food after dinner and cake?

My sister thinks we should order a load of pizza to send people away with.

i dunno i find the idea a bit ott. We are serving a lot of food. People are not those bottomless pits! But I obviously wouldn’t want people to actually be hungry.

But we do have a snack table and homemade cakes for anyone who is peckish.

The amount of food blows my mind tbh.

I think it depends on what time the main meal is. Your guests will presumably have lunch before the ceremony. Then they’re having filling canapees at teatime and what sounds like a very big meal at 5:30. That’s a lot of food in a 6 hour window. Then they’re having filling get nothing else until midnight.
I would suggest moving the evening meal 60-90 minutes later, personally, so it will fit with most people’s mealtimes. Then you won’t need anything else.

If you can’t move it later, then I think a cheeseboard or something is called for at about 9pm. You can serve the cake then too.

ETA: Just seen you can’t change the timings, tbh I think if you just keep the snack table till later it will be perfectly fine.

There’s no way I’d be going to a wedding at 1:45 without having eaten any lunch. I’d have eaten a sandwich while getting ready for sure. I don’t think people will be ‘famished’, or if they are it’s their own fault!

I don’t understand this. How can a service provider be really strict? It’s your wedding and you’re paying them a huge amount of money. You’re the customer and you determine the timings.

The kicker for me is alcohol.

5.30-midnight is a long time on snacks if you're hitting the beers hard. Also, not everyone will finish their meal and they are likely to e really hungry come 8-9.

Pushing some starchy carbs and soft drinks on people in the interim is a good idea, I think.

Please make sure you tell your guests when they are eating so they eat a early lunch /brunch/ big late breakfast before the day kicks off as main meal at 5,30 is long time to wait/ get pissed .

Then it will have to be in the very pretty room where we will eat our evening meal unfortunately

I'd be fine with it as is, but then I'm not one of those people who needs a snack every 5 minutes.

a timeline is included in the invite

What would be the best time for a burger van to turn up? I’m I’m thinking 9:45?

Agreed! Most of those travelling won't have chance for a proper lunch and the canapes no matter how filling won't be enough for many guests who will be chewing off their arms by 5.30.

I'd bring the meal forward or push the ceremony later if possible.

I also think this is a really long gap. What are people supposed to do in that time? I’m not being snarky, honestly. I went to a recent wedding at 4pm and food was at 7.30pm. It really dragged…..

I think if you aren't having evening guests and there is something to nibble on for those that are hungry then that would be ok personally.

In that case I thinks that's fine . All people will want in the future evening are snacks and those snacks along with the cake sounds perfect to me as long as you provide enough

9 ish?

There are loads of travelling van options now - bhajis &samosas/kebabs/ pizzas/ fried chicken/gyros/burgers....

I'd just go cheapest. Tipsy folk are just happy to scoff anything!

Yes, please do this. The last wedding we went to was at 1.30, which was just a really awkward time as we were travelling over lunch and didn’t want to risk eating in the car and ruining outfits and make up. Food wasn’t served until 5 and everyone was starving, despite the canapés. We’d have brought something to eat between the church and the reception if we’d known!

Some of the replies are just gluttonous. Canapes, sit down meal and a snack table and people expect you to pay for more food at 9/10pm.

Do people eat that much food on a normal day or a night out?

Get absolutely smashed😁 I think the secret is to keep things moving along at a wedding. Even more so if there are kids or older people present.

I wouldn't expect anything really. If you tell people on the invite it's canapes then a meal then they'll know they need to clear their plate at the meal and possibly get a kebab on the way home if they think they'll starve.

People shouldn't be thinking about how much food they can cram into their gullets for free anyway. I'd be happy with a sandwich buffet only if that's what they offered.

To me an open bar would be more valuable and appreciated! 😂

i dunno i find the idea a bit ott. We are serving a lot of food. People are not those bottomless pits! But I obviously wouldn’t want people to actually be hungry.

This reminded me of something an old mate said on socials over Christmas (she works in a pub kitchen) - 'FFS people, will you stop EATING! You only have ONE ARSEHOLE!!'

😂

I wouldn’t bother.

Most weddings people actually start leaving by 10pm.
For 1pm wedding that would be people leaving home by 12 latest, probably earlier. So I think afternoon food, dinner which always drags on so it’s more like 7pm finish. Then cake after around 8pm.

The last wedding we went to was meal around 5pm, they were rushing to clear away meal around 8pm to bring out the next meal by 9pm and hardly anyone was hungry. As realistically they had been eating 5.30-7.30pm with starters, main, desert. Still full when cake came. Then not at all hungry for more food at 9pm.

If we’re brutally honest, we eat loads at weddings because there’s nothing else to do.

If you have some sort of entertainment that will help pass the time and limit the amount of food people go looking for.

There is an open bar

Lawn/wedding games

The wedding is also at a well known attraction which people will also be able to enjoy before the evening meal or whenever really

Your venue/wedding planner should be guiding you on this. Put the cake and snack table out at 9pm, sorted. Don't put it out with dinner when people are already eating/full and it just sits to go stale and unappetising.

Our timings were 1.30 ceremony, 2-4 drinks reception and canapes, 4-5ish speeches, 5-7 dinner, 9:30 buffet. Not sure why PPs are so baffled by the timings, I think that's pretty standard, but Scottish so maybe it is different down south.

That sounds nice :-) lawn games are always fun. And sounds like the venue is lovely.

I don’t think they’ll have time for lunch if they’re travelling more than 10-15 minutes tbh. I don’t think most people want to eat while getting ready to go somewhere dressy either. I think it’s a difficult ceremony time that’s been picked but it seems to be popular now.