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.

When people drink alcohol it's always a good idea to give them food to absorb it. A pizza van sounds a great idea.

Those are not the type of canapés we are having. Think kebab skewers, samosas etc

Nope, I wouldn’t provide evening food beyond cake and snacks. We did a hot buffet (our ceremony was at noon so we provided an afternoon tea, three course dinner, hot buffet) and the buffet was hardly touched. We did have evening guests arrive too, but there was so much waste and at £800 it wasn’t an insignificant cost.

Yes, just have a sit down meal straight away.
The canapés won't be filling.

5.30 to midnight is a long time if you're drinking and dancing. I'd want something to eat in that time, personally.

But there is cake and a snack table.

That should be enough.

That’s not what we want. I think it’s nice to mingle with drinks and food between the ceremony and evening meal imo. Especially as there is a gorgeous terrace/view. We are also having it at a central London attraction which people will be able to enjoy. There is a lawn where people will be able to sit on picnic blankets. And enjoy some lawn games.

I think people will expect something yes - my DB and SIL had similar timing at their wedding and had bacon/sausage baps around 11.30pm (I was still full so didn't have one but a lot of people were tucking in!)

Yes, exactly the style canapés we are having. Not a blini in sight.

Just a word of caution - you're having the canapes because of the photographs? Just don't keep the guests hanging around for hours while you have them taken. Apologies if you're planning a shorter episode!
Yes, get more food for 8-9pm.
It does sound like a beautiful venue, though.

Rather than a burger van or whatever, can’t you push your snack table back a few hours and add some more to it? Then at least you’ve got something for those that want something but unlikely have lots to t waste:

I think you might need to think about some of your timings. Our wedding was at 1. Canapés at 2.30 and dinner at 4, and we had a hog roast at about 8ish.

As others have said, most guests will have missed lunch to get ready and get there, so canapés need to be absolute latest 3pm, with dinner 4.30 and substantial evening snack (bacon rolls/hog roast/hot dog with rolls, chops salad etc about 8.30. Dainty picky food won't cut it at that time when people have had several drinks.

You need to serve something or people will get really drunk.

Put the cake and snack tables out later, around 9pm. There’s no need to provide more hot food later if there are no evening guests arriving. It’s a ridiculous extra expense, as is having a burger van arrive, unless you are made of money. Including your substantial canapes, there is more than enough food by anyone’s standards.

I'd describe those as more than canapés - they sound tasty!

Welcome drinks and canapés are very normal actually!

Our wedding was a long time ago now & we had similar timings.

We had 70 guests, no evening guests, everyone was there for the full day & lots stayed over at the venue

We had a Christmas weddin & got married at 2pm & afterwards had canapés & mulled wine & bubbles with a jazz band.

We had a sit down 3 course meal for everyone at 5pm. 3 choices for each course & the waiting staff then brought seconds around to everyone too, fillet of beef, lamb cutlets etc - the food was memorable & still remembered v fondly all these years later. We served as much red & white wine as you could possibly want & bubbles for for toasts

Open bar after that

We had a live band from 8 - 10.30pm playing funk disco & everyone was up dancing..

At 10pm we served bacon sandwiches & we had cupcakes instead of a wedding cake & they got inhaled too - the band were delighted to have some sandwiches & cakes

We also had a cheese board at that stage with fruit & crackers.

After the band we had a dj & we all danced till 2am followed by late drinks in the residents bar with a sing song

Best day ever 💓

Get an 'order of the day' printed up in the same style as your invitations and 'order of service' (if you have one). Send it out with the invitations. It is basically a timetable, so guests know exactly what to expect when, and can plan their lunch to suit themselves.
Then keep to the timings, e.g. don't let photos over-run.

Some may usually eat at 5.30-6.00, especially if they have children, whereas others will usually eat at 8.00 or later, so you are not going to please everyone with the timings of the main meal.
If you want a late-night party, provide a second meal 3-4 hours after the first one is due to end (allowing 60 mins for the first meal, so say 5.00 to 6.00 for first meal, then second meal starts about 9.00 or 10.00.)

If you are not having a late-night party, everyone will go home about 3-4 hours after the main meal.

I've just seen your update about the canapés and it's not what I imagined, so scratch that.

(sorry, by 'no lunch' I meant no lunch of their choice or usual time, I wouldn't eat the canapes you've mentioned as I don't eat meat and don't like falafel or samosas)

I just want to say, though - and to others who did the same - it's great that you're not having evening guests and everyone is invited to the whole event 👍

I wouldn’t expect it, but would be a bit disappointed if there wasn’t any evening food.

We have printed a timeline in the invites. I’m assuming adults can feed themselves lunch appropriately knowing there will be drinking. It is Central London. Plenty of places to pick up a sarnie 🤷‍♀️

I think it sounds lovely, OP (and I'm trying to guess your venue - Kenwood House?). Can I come?

I do think you should provide some food for after. We went to a wedding recently and by the time we left at almost midnight we were absolutely starving. We'd arrived with just time to get changed and get to the venue, which was very rural, and nothing was open after. I would have bitten someone's hand off for a burger or pizza or a bacon sandwich!

I think with the cake table and the snack table you're fine as dinner is pretty late (for the same reason you definitely need the canapes at 3.30!). Sometimes at weddings they start setting up the hog roast or bacon sandwiches only an hour after everyone has finished a 3 course dinner and no one is interested