Appetizers at cocktail hour???

You should serve something, even if it’s just vegetables, cheese, and crackers. An hour of drinking with no food means drunk guests before dinner even begins.

Yes, it's always a good idea to serve food with alcohol. You don't want people drinking on an empty stomach. Even if it is just cheese and crackers, I would have something.

I agree with PP's! We're having a very simple cocktail hour (probably won't even be a whole hour) and we're having a meat & cheese tray, veggie tray, and fruit tray

I agree with everyone so far. You don't have to have anything passed around, but a grazing station with cheese/crackers/fruit should be done, just so everyone doesn't get drunk so fast.

I agree you should have a little something. You don’t want to have alcohol with no food and everyone was just sitting at your ceremony and is probably a little hungry

Our venue actually requires us to serve food during cocktail hour. So we decided we'd probably go with a mix of Chex Mix, pretzels, and Goldfish. Something light before our heavy meal.

You should have some type of snacks. Cheese and crackers, meat and cheese kabobs, veggie trays. Doesn't have to be much but you want to encourage people to not start drinking on an empty stomach.

In my opinion, yes. People are always hungry at cocktail hour.

I'd say yes to some sort of food. My FH and I are serving Party Snack Mix for the 45 mins before we arrive.

You can’t give people alcohol without food lol, they’re going to get drunk and sick!

Normally there's some very light bites that go around. E.g cut up fruit or cheese and crackers is common

I’d say you should definitely have at least something small. I was at a wedding once that started at 1 and we didn’t eat lunch beforehand because we were rushing to get there, and then the cocktail hour was at 3:30 with very little food and by the time dinner came out we were dying!

Our caterer/venue includes hors d'oeuvres for the cocktail hour, so we're doing it. But I think even if they didn't, we'd want to have some kind of snack bar/cheese and crackers, etc. 150-200 people drinking for an hour with no snacks could go downhill!

You should serve something with alcohol. It doesn’t have be to be a lot but people will likely be hungry and like to snack when they drink.

Im doing a fruit tray. Just something small to snack on

You should definitely serve something especially with alcohol.

View Quoted Comment Yup. This. If you need more budget and you have a ton of food at dinner, maybe cut out a side dish to allow for an appetizer budget?

Yes! i would absolutely have some type of food. finger foods or cheese/veggie trays. Especially when the guests will be drinking you want them to have a little something to put in their stomach so they don't get too drunk too fast.

So you think its okay to serve alcohol without food at all? There's a reason bars need to serve food to have a liquor license.

You definitely need to offer something, even if it's just a crudites platter. You don't need to do fancy hors doeuvres, but some munchies will be important for your guests. Also, I've never been to a wedding where I wasn't hungry and wanting to eat something ASAP.

View Quoted Comment I didn’t say I thought it was okay. I asked a question Kari and stated as if it was necessary. Thanks for your input.