Critique my catering plan

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Give me your most viperish take - I’ve got 18 months to sort this.

Plan: early June. 2pm ceremony, 2.45/3pm reception. Gorgeous huge local garden, marquee/stretch tent for cover as needed. Seats and occasional tables scattered about. Circulating staff facilitating the food. Vintage china (hired). Buffet food tables/tablecloths.

Fizz on arrival (cremant de Loire) or sparkling elderflower. Jugs of water available.

Cocktail bar making jugs of 4 different cocktails for the staff to circulate- likely Pimm’s, a gin cocktail and 2 nonalcoholic ones.

Vegetarian sandwiches from local sandwich place: cheddar and chutney, Brie and grape, roasted veg &hummus, cucumber.

Crudites and 2 dips, probably tsatziki and hummus again.

Cake: 2 mini scones per guest with clotted cream and jam (300 scones). Choice of rich chocolate cake, lemon drizzle, Victoria sponge with strawberries and cream. Additional gluten free and vegan option depending on numbers needing this.

Wedding cake bought from local
cake maker: fruit cake layer, gluten free layer, vegan layer.

Also plain strawberries with/without cream on offer (the venue is a farm that does pick your own strawberries).

Big question: is it crazy to think I could make the scones and basic cakes myself and freeze them over the months, and hire someone to defrost them over the previous 24 hours, ice them and manage them on the day? Money isn’t necessarily the issue so much as preferring my own baking. 300 mini scones, 10 each of the large cakes above.

SORRY SHOULD SAY WE DID NOT HAVE AN EVENING DO, FINISHED AROUND 6.40pm. Lots of our friends went on to pubs etc together.

Yeah, but there's no dancing?

@Cherrytree86 it's quite possible that many of the guests won't have had lunch before the ceremony so afternoon tea is their lunch. Also, if you eat the afternoon tea at 3 most people will want something else to eat before they go to bed

@sittingonabeach

not a pub meal though!

Blimey - not all weddings have to be the same.

If you invite people to a wedding 'to be followed by afternoon tea and fizz' everyone knows what to expect and I think it sounds lovely.

And I wouldn't add pizza, I think that doesn't fit with the rest of the vibe, if you want an addition to the sandwiches I would add quiches. Or vol au vents - mushroom? And cheese straws?

I think vegan / gluten free options are good but I honestly wouldn't attempt to provide baked goods etc for coeliacs , as the responsibility is great and they would need to trust the sources before eating anyway. And do you even have any coeliac guests?

is it crazy to think I could make the scones and basic cakes myself and freeze them over the months, and hire someone to defrost them over the previous 24 hours, ice them and manage them on the day? Money isn’t necessarily the issue so much as preferring my own baking. 300 mini scones, 10 each of the large cakes above.

You're thinking about making these in a residential kitchen and freezing for months in a residential freezer?

Yuck. Long term frozen baked goods and pastry, nope. Your gluten free things need to be made and stored separately. It sounds like you're going to have big cross contamination issues. You also have the issue of possible power interruptions and losing that food or spoilage.

Not enough protein and savory and food. You're basically serving sweets and munchies when people will be drinking alcohol and getting hungry. The pizzas are a start. Taco bar, caprese salad, grilled veggie plates, spring rolls, think food station type food.

The food police have entered the building!

In fact afternoon tea was always intended as a bridge between lunch and dinner. Ask the Duchess of Bedford!

Besides which you’re missing the point- the whole purpose of including that information was so that the OP could make it clear that she expects everyone to go at 6 and that she will not be serving dinner as part of her reception.

From experience - scones freeze well but really do need to be popped back in the oven to revive them before serving

Why would that be a problem?

I don't get the cake layering thing - as pp has said, coeliac people will not be able to just scrape off the gluten-free layer and eat that. It will all be cross-contaminated before you even begin to slice through it.

Why not just three cakes? The gluten-free and vegan cakes don't need to be as large.

haven't read the whole thread but i think sounds a bit heavy on carbs - would you add a couple of lovely colorful salads?

You can also give your scone and cake recipes to a baker and see if they will do them for you.

Alternatively have fun going and tasting every scone available in the city to find the best ones!

So what are your dietary requirements? Ang helpful suggestions for the OP?

It's not not coping without meat, it's not coping with all veggie sandwiches being dairy (cheese). Maybe offer some salad sandwiches.

Egg and cress isn't dairy, nor is roast veg and hummus.

The crudites are salad in another form so ticks that box.

Roast veg and hummus isn't dairy, nor is egg mayonnaise. So 50% of sandwiches are non dairy.

Glad someone agrees with me @helpfulperson. It's like there's a whole other load of information that I'm not seeing, judging by some of these responses.

I’d definitely up the food quantity and add more savoury options too: veggie sausage rolls, mushroom mini tartlets, tomato mozzarella skewers, black bean mini burgers, goats cheese & fig mini oatcakes, etc etc

There is a lot of cheese! I love cheese but am lactose intolerant and although I have pills to take to mitigate against this I'd be necking them all day. Also cream on the scones/cake/strawberries, and I would be nervous about potential milk content in cakes and some kinds of icing as well. If nobody coming is lactose intolerant, you are probably fine.

People aren'tbothering to read the OP's updated.

I reckon she knows her guests better than we do and will cater for them accordingly, so the fact that some posters hate cheese or won't eat refined carbohydrates on just one occasion is neither here nor there.

I think it sounds lovely - really relaxed and intimate. And there’s no reason why people couldn’t stop for a brunch/early lunch beforehand even if they’re travelling, and then get something to eat on their way home.

Logistics of defrosting and reheating to freshen up a mountain of scones could take some thinking through, but certainly not insurmountable

@Cherrytree86

Lots of people on the thread have said that they would need more than an afternoon tea.

Putting in the bit about where you can get a meal serves a number of points:

• makes it clear that there is nothing in the evening. People sometimes don't pick up on this just from the timings, and as a wedding finishing at 6pm is unusual there may well be an assumption that it will be going on into the evening. Several posts on here have assumed that, responding that the afternoon tea is fine as long as there is more to eat later in the evening.
• if people have come a long way, or were expecting the wedding to go on until late, this prompts them to make arrangements for after the wedding.
• it makes it clear that the B&G are not funding any food outside of the afternoon tea. A colleague didn't make this clear with her wedding and had some of the groom's relatives charge bar snacks and a lunch to the B&G's room.

Just to say, your plan sounds wonderful and exactly what we would have done if we hadn't eloped.

Hope you have the most amazing wedding day!!

Only thing for me is the fizz/ elderflower alternative.i don’t drink and neither does my partner but neither of us can stand elderflower.
Much prefer orange juice or something like raspberry spritz ( concentrate fruit syrup and soda) so maybe have this on hand or in mind too :)

Ah yes, a lovely intimate afternoon tea with 150 of your closest friends...

Sounds great!