Buffet food that will keep all day without a fridge?

[MsMarple]

Hello friendly food people,

I'm getting married in 2 weeks time and need to sort out something for evening food. We are having fish & chips delivered for the wedding breakfast at 6.30 but now I think we need something for about 9pm ish, especially as some guests are only coming for the evening and there will no doubt be some heavy drinking going on.

Anyways, it has to be something that we can make in advance and leave at the venue in the morning, then whip out with minimal fuss in the evening. As there is no fridge available it also has to be something that won't give the guests food poisoning and will still taste nice after lying around in a warm room for 12 hours...

Does anyone have any ideas please? At the moment I can only think of crisps... there must be something else...?

I think that you may find it easier to buy a second had cheap as chips fridge to use in your venue rather than try and think of other options, but then maybe someone with more imagination than me will come along soon.
savoury nibble anyone?

I can't think of much that will be safe after 12 hours in a "warm" room.
Sounds like salmonella on a plate...

Thanks pippo, great idea - I knew someone on here would have lateral braincells!

Will have look and see what I can find (and persuade DP that it isn't too much faff: the reason he was against evening food in the first place and why we have left it so late!) but in the meantime fingers crossed for some other ideas.

had another idea, a bit chancy, but you could organise a supermarket delivery to the venue for 8.30?

posh crisps
posh cheese straws
posh nuts and crackers
dorito style dips in jars that don't need to be in the fridge
fruit
cake

Sweets crisps..er...

If you bought a second hand fridge would it be big enough?

I dont mean this to be horrible but sometimes its better to do nothing, than do something badly iykwim?

Not sure - its a Sunday night so unlikely, but again will check. Thanks!

Or could you deputise someone to nip home and pick it all up from the fridge then bring back in time for the snacks?

I'm with everyone else that things that don't go off over that time are limited.

"thinks". duh. Sorry.

bigchris - thanks those are all good ideas!

geordieminx - I do see what you mean and you are probably right that it will look a bit rubbish. What made me think I need to do something all the same is hearing from one of my friends about the wedding she went to in October with no evening food where there was much wailing and (futile) gnashing of teeth from drunken guests, who would have probably found it easier to stay upright with something more to eat! Not that my friends are all lushes but all the same...

Think tomorrow I will wander round costco/tesco and see what sort of things they have in jars and boxes on shelves!

Is there an oven?

Take-away pizza?

It depends how much you want to spend and how many people you need to keep sober feed.

I feel your pain, I'm getting married in October, its so difficult to please everyone.

We are going to casino for night-time do, starting about 8.30 - there will be no food - although if people want I'm sure they can buy some (((((tight-emoticon)))))

Aha! We had "dessert" in the old fashioned sense of the term served at our wedding at around 9pm.

A gorgeous cornucopia of cheese and fruits (apples, bananas, figs, dates, satsumas, litle melons etc - it was Xmas). It looked like a banquet out of a painting.

If you wanted to serve alcohol with it, sherry or port or muscat. And coffee. And savoury bicuits.

We had chocolate dragees and sugar almonds knocking around from the wedding favours too.

Both cheese and fruit are better for not being served straight from the fridge, though a) 12 hours is a longish time b) so maybe not for soft fruit or soft cheese.

we had an afternoon wedding with the wedding cake cut after the ceremony (about 4.30pm, so sort of tea time). Everyone had gorged their fill on cake. Then we had a Xmas party in the evening with lots of savoury food served on trays. Having a fruit hit at the end worked very well, as it was quite refreshing and not just more sugar!

Thanks for all your advice. Just thought I'd finish this thread off by posting what we did in the end just in case someone has an identical dilemma in the future:

breadsticks/cheese sticks
doritos jar dips
piles of crisp bags
huge bunches of grapes
mini cheeses (which we kept in a cooler box with ice blocks until needed)
little cakes
lots of glass bowls filled with different pick and mix sweets and funsize chocolates - with some little paper bags so people could pick a selection and then wander off with them.

Everyone seemed to like it and the pick and mix was popular with the grown ups as well as the kids!

Congrats MissMarple - hope you had a great day.

For anyone else doing this, I would suggest doing big bowls of Nigella Lawson's Union Square roast nuts. Yum.