Cocktail hour menu

We did something in between -- passed hors d'eouvres (sliders and crab cakes) and a stationary fruit/cheese/cracker platter.

Our venue is a restaurant which we have dined at many times, which means we have a fair idea of how hearty the food will be, so we chose something between what you've described - we chose 3 hor d'oeuvres for our cocktail hour, and we picked:

pumpkin arancini

macadamia nut and chili crumbed prawns with lemon and lime mayonnaise

leek and potato soup shot

I know I'm lame, but I'm especially excited about the soup shots - I love leek and potato, haha!

Somewhere in between- we’re having a taco bar for dinner and our appetizers are 7 layer dip cups, Mexican deviled eggs (and regular), and a fruit tray. The eggs and dip will be passed and the fruit will stay put!

We are still deciding, but likely will have a mix of passes and stations. We are planning on:
-Mini Quiche Lorraine
-Teriyaki Beef Skewers-Mini Cordon Bleu Bites-Mushroom Caps (Stuffed With Crabmeat)-Caprese Salad Skewers-Fruit Kabobs-Spinach and Artichoke Dip & Chips

I’d love to hear what you’re planning on serving!


We had two stations (a variety of sliders and a mashed potato bar) and three passed apps (samosas, chicken tandoori cups and beef Wellington bites).

Fruit/cheese platter on a table, *stationary*!
As a person who was a guest at a wedding that had the fancy passed hors d’oeuvres, I can tell you it is extremely frustrating for guests. My family never got to try any because when the platter finally came near us, people had already grabbed the 5 or 6 that were on each platter. It may seem “cool” or “luxurious” but it’s not worth making your guests annoyed before they even get to the dinner.

I loved the idea of lots of stations, but our venue can only fit a few. We're having some passed hors d'oeuvre, a flatbread station, and a Mediterranean skewers station.

View Quoted Comment That’s actually great advice to know: what real person experiences are compared to the Pinterest/Instagram fantasy that is presented as the be all and end all. People tend to forget or don’t realize to begin with that not every idea is feasible from a guest’s perspective even if vendors love them.

I haven't planned this part yet, but I'm definitely envisioning passed hoes d'oeuvre because our wedding is in July and my brother also got married on a hot day and the cheese station looked sweaty and nasty and had insects all around... 🙈🙈 no one ate from it for this reason, so I want to skip it entirely.

We chose a very cozy, intimate venue, so stations weren’t an option for us. We will be having stationary charcuterie trays, and a seasonal fruit and cheese display. Then we will also have 4 passed hors d’oeuvres - creole deviled eggs, alligator bites, mini muffulettas and bacon wrapped shrimp. We wanted to make sure all the food we served for the evening reflected New Orleans cuisine!

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Great point. Everyone is hungry with a mid-day ceremony. As a guest, I always feel anxiety when there's only passed hors d'oeuvres and have had to position myself by the server exit to get a small bite. As a former server, it's also not a good feeling to be swarmed by guests, when your service goal is to make the rounds particularly older, seated guests.

View Quoted Comment You make some really great points that I hadn’t even thought of! Luckily, our wedding is only going to be 40 guests max, so there shouldn’t be any issues with everyone getting to try all the passed hors d’oeuvres. We are also going to have large stationery charcuterie trays and seasonal fruit and cheese trays, to make sure guests always have something there to munch on. The package we chose is 4 passed hors d’oeuvres (alligator bites, mini Muffulettas, creole deviled eggs, and bacon wrapped shrimp), plus the charcuterie tray and fruit and cheese tray, for 50 people (I believe they said three pieces for each person, so 150 pieces of each type of hors d’oeuvres), so we assumed there would be plenty for everyone, since we will have 40 guests or less. Our cocktail hour will truly only be one hour, then we are serving a five course dinner. As a former server, do you think the hors d’oeuvres we are providing will be sufficient? Or do you think we should add more? I definitely don’t want anyone being hungry at our cocktail hour! But I also don’t want to have tons of food left over or guests to be so stuffed they don’t want to eat dinner (or are too stuffed to party after dinner!)

We did something in between. we had eggrolls, fruits, some other simple mini desserts

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Hi Cece. Sorry to miss this! Yes, I do think you have sufficient food for cocktail hour. You also have a nice variety of adventurous NOLA bites, and more neutral charcuterie/fruit trays. Then the 5-course meal will be the topper. Does your venue suggest otherwise or less? Certainly I understand wanting to have enough without becoming wasteful. To be transparent, I did banquets a few times, but was more the bottle-service/cocktail side, hence, my enthusiasm for wedding bars. Best wishes

With our reception being at a restaurant, we're doing some plated appetizers while the guests get their drinks and FH and I finish up our photos on the beach! We're thinking edamame, baked crab and artichoke dip (they'll also make us one that doesn't have crab as FH and some of our guests are vegetarian), crabcakes, an ahi tuna poke platter, and the probably some scallops or oysters if my mom is picking 😂 It's a seafood restaurant, if you can't tell 😅

We're doing stationary crudité and and fruit platters. The rest of them will be passed because my caterer said people tend to eat less when the apps are passed. We're having Lebanon bologna cream cheese pinwheels, mac and cheese bites, soft pretzels, and caprese skewers.

The feedback about passed apps being annoying is concerning though. I'll definitely talk to my caterer about it.