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.

It sounds fine and weddings I have been to haven't had more food available after the wedding dinner. There is usually just the leftover cake and drinks.

If you are having evening only guests then there should be some sort of food provision for them (could be a buffet).

Drinks and canapés after the ceremony is also very normal, I'm not sure why people are getting angsty about this.

Sorry if I missed this. Is there a world-class attraction where the wedding is being held?? 😁

OP, you have good views on the food. The rest of it, forget the miserable responses. Have a beautiful day, and soak it all up. It takes so much planning and then is over in the blink of an eye!

Congratulations ❤️

I don't think you need substantial food at 9pm if you are having a three course meal at 4/5pm then a snack table a few hours later. If you're in Central London, most people will leave ~11pm to get the last tube home and can easily find snacks if they are particularly glutenous. It's not as if you are in the middle of nowhere and people have to drive or go back to a hotel.

Yes I think I would like to do something like this for the snack table. Right up my alley.

Honestly with that and the homemade cake seems like plenty of food. We’re talking half a day, not a week!

Im questioning the burger van now.

I think it depends on what time the wedding finishes tbh! If it's 11pm or midnight I think you're fine and don't have to offer anything else. If it's 1am or 2am then something to soak up the booze around 10.30/11pm is welcome!

Canapés and drinks at 3.30, dinner at 5.30, which will be about 2 hours, then a snack table available? that's plenty

I'm so sorry you clearly said in the OP it finishes at midnight! Therefore I think you're fine 😁

sitting on picnic blankets with only "lawn games" for entertainment sounds utterly shit and I would be bored senseless
And you sound utterly rude, and rather childish actually, needing certain kinds of entertainment all the time and sneering at someone who has different ideas.

Your wedding sounds great - can I come!?

Thank you!

I think that's. Cute and practical. What Is on your snack table? I wouldn't bother with burger vans it's just another hoha, maybe do a finger buffet

Maybe good to have anyway for people who aren’t keen on sitting on the ground in fancy dresses etc.

Burger van sounds good OP! If buffet table is going to end up inside choose a big enough room - I went to one where there was a very smelly cheese board in a very small and very warm room. I like cheese but the smell was absolutely wild!

Oh go on…. Tell us where it is? I think it sounds ace OP. I’m sure you’ll have a cracking day. Don’t let the miserable buggers bring you down 😊

ETA..,. Is it the Natural History Museum?

ETA2 - I can’t think of a terrace with a view there do scrap that 😂

anyone whose hungry can stop off at the hundreds of fast food places on their way home

I don't think it's the answer your hoping for but I do think you need evening food. People won't have lunch because they will be traveling to the ceremony. Burger or pizza type food at about 9 will go down well. All the weddings I have been too have evening food and 5.30 is very early for an evening meal.
Basically weddings throw off normal eating times so don't consider it like a usual day. Drunk people get snacky!

I think if you’re in a city it’s different to people being ‘at your mercy’ in terms of what good is produced.

Definitely need to offer food in the evening but doesn’t have to ge complicated. Cheese, French stick, crackers, grapes and wedding cake will be fine.

If you don't mind people nipping out to grab a bite to eat during the evening then just make sure you let people know. Tell the bridesmaid and best man to do a chippy run and let people know they are welcome!
I think people would be worried about offending so just go home once they are hungry if it looks like no evening food is arriving.

Well, I certainly wouldn't want any more food than that but some people seem to regard a wedding as an excuse to not have to eat for the next three days!

Do you want people sloping off early to find more food, or getting absolutely wankered as the alcohol levels increase and food decreases?

If not, supply more food after about 8.30pm.

I'd amalgamate the snack table with some sort of bacon rolls/pizza type offering after 8.30pm. I would not be offering brand new food an hour before i want people to piss off home though.

Also, canapes by definition are not filling and no one will eat sufficient of them to be filled up.

How many guests are you having?

If they arrived at 9.45 then they're not going to be serving people until 10pm by the time they're organised.

If you give a minute per person for serving - even just 45 guests will see people still being served at 10.30.

I'd say you want them serving at 9pm

I think the wedding industry is very good at upselling stuff you don't need and wouldn't miss, so a pinch of cynical detachment is necessary unless you have unlimited funds.
People started putting out a buffet in the evening when it became a thing to invite evening-only guests, which is fair. But if I'd had a sit-down dinner at 5:30, I wouldn't expect pizza or anything substantial after that. People eat it if it's there but don't miss it if it's not.
I do sport out of a club that's used a lot as a wedding venue. You would not believe the piles of unused stuff that gets tossed out or 'rehomed' every week during wedding season.

We put out bacon sandwiches at about 9pm (and vegan sausage sandwiches because we had a few vegans/vegetarians). Because we didn’t have extra evening guests we only catered for 70% of the guest list as we assumed (correctly) that quite a few people would leave early (old, childcare, etc).

Your wedding sounds amazing! I don't think you need a taco truck or whatever, just boost the contents of the snack table to include some cheese and lots of bread.

One note of caution around the dinner buffet, please make sure it is refreshed and all the guests have equal opportunity to fill their plates. I have been to weddings where - as a member of one of the back tables- I felt rather unwanted and hangry because there was no food left for me.

@Budka -it sounds like the snacks you are offering on the snack table are pretty substantial/filling, so as long as this will be available during the evening, I don’t think you really need to offer burgers/bacon rolls. Maybe you could put a bigger selection of snacks out instead, if you are worried that people will be hungry.

Honestly, it sounds like a lovely day - I’d love to go to a wedding like yours!