Fingerfood or Brunch Wedding

Looks fine. how many ppl are you expecting on the GL? From the wedding shows I've seen where its heavy apps instead of a seated meal the main compliant is not getting food. If you have waiters going around some ppl or areas might get missed or people feel as if they have to chase a waiter down for a particular item or as soon as the waiter gets to the them with popular items they run out. If its sitting out (like buffet style) you have to keep going back because the plates are usually small. That can be a hassle or embarrassing for some. (I am not ashamed... I love food) but some ppl dont like walking back for more food, makes them feel greedy. If you do this I would suggest having the reception inbetween meals Like Ceremony at 2:30 and reception at 3pm.

Wait so would you be using the whole venue from 10-6? Eight hours is a REALLY long time to go without a meal, no matter how heavy the appetizers are. In my regular life, I could eat 2-3 meals in that time... The general rule is that if the reception is at a mealtime, a full meal should be served.

Princess, no that's just the time we have the venue, the standard time is 8 hours. So we would have the set-up at ten at the earliest and then guests coming around 12, 12:30. It would probably be till around 5PM the latest and so that everything can be broken down by six. FH really wants to head to a bar with whomever is still up to it, but I can already see myself being tired

Finger foods often end up more expensive than a meal - you need so many little tiny foods to replace a meal. And you'd still need plates so it probably wouldn't save that much. People want a plate for their food, even appetizers. They'll want to get a plate of apps, sit down, eat, then dance. Passed is fine for a cocktail hour, but for a whole reception it would be pretty annoying to wait 20 minutes or so for each bite of food you're going to get the entire night. Brunch will probably end up saving you more money in the end when you talk to the caterers.

Our venue is the same way, we have the venue rented for 16 hours in order to do set up / tear down. If you're going for an earlier start time I think the brunch should be fine. We're starting later so we have decided to serve dinner

In that case, I'd suggest brunch over finger foods. If guests arrive at 12-12:30, they've probably gotten up and ready, driven there, and had breakfast already and will be expecting a meal by the time your ceremony is over. If there are only finger foods, you run the risk of people leaving early due to hanger (at least I would). You could do a sit down brunch with mimosas!

I get two totally different vibes from brunch versus finger foods (like french fries etc that you posted photos of). Either option would be ok, but even if you don't have a sit down meal you still need adequate tables (could be cocktail tables) and adequate chairs. Imagine this: holding your plate and your drink. How are you actually going to put your food into your mouth? Or are you holding a napkin with a one-bit item?

We are having a Saturday afternoon/evening wedding (ceremony at 4pm, reception at 5pm) and we are doing heavy appetizers. Our guests will not leave hungry and we didn't want a sit-down meal.

I would prefer finger foods to brunch in this case, and I love brunch!

BRUNCH! You will still need plates for finger foods (and lots of little plates, so it may cost ever more). Brunch food is delicious and you could still have an awesome vibe with sangria and mimosas.

You are still going to have seating right? Ppl will want to sit.

I was thinking of going the finger-food mingling cocktail style afternoon party route. Just some things that I considered to eventually made me change it to a seated lunch:

-If it is cocktail style you don't have to technically have seating for everyone, but people do like to have some where to sit and put their belongings.

-If people are not seated all at the same time and are possibly mingling in and out of different spaces (in my case in the courtyard and in the hall) how will you work in key wedding activities like toasts, first dance etc without it being awkward (I was struggling with imagining someone announcing and people stopping their mingling to listen to toasts and a first dance, it can be done though)

-If it is not a full meal then the reception should be limited to between meal times such as 2-5, would it be disappointing to plan this whole wedding and feel like I needed to end it early.

In the end I decided to do a seated meal (tacos, rice and beans and salad) for an affordable price. My reception will start at 2 and go until about 6:30. This is not to say you can't make it work. Cost compare brunch finger foods and and a normal brunch menu with various caterers. For a 12:30 wedding I would serve a full meal and provide seating for everyone. I think you can get creative like I did and still make it work in your budget.

If it starts at 12:30 you have to serve lunch, which typically is the cheapest of MEALS.

If it starts at 12:30 you have to serve lunch, which typically is the cheapest of MEALS.

Brunch is fine; finger food doesn't really make sense until about 2-ish. Whatever you do, make sure your guests know what to expect.

What time is your ceremony? For noon until late afternoon, I think a meal is in order. I think heavy apps would likely add up to being similar in cost anyway.

Serve brunch. Yes, heavy apps will save you money on rentals, but it will cost more in food.

Besides that time frame people expect real food.

Thanks so much for all the input!

Seating would be there in any case, but we're just trying to avoid the need of everybody having to eat at the same time, so people can have more flexibility. But SimpleSeamstress brought up a great point with the problem of then not being able to coordinate toast and first dance etc. Tacos sound like a great idea too! We were originally toying with the idea of a taco truck, but since we have to go with a preferred caterer, that unfortunately won't work.

I think either would be ok.

If you are thinking brunch, keep tabs on the bird flu that is in the US right now. It has not hit the east coast yet, but it now goes from California across to Ohio. Millions of chickens had to be slaughtered in those states. These farms that produce the bulk of the chicken and eggs that we eat will be out of business for a year. The USDA won't allow new birds into these farms for a year.

So if you are thinking of budget concerns, the price of eggs, chicken, turkey and other poultry will be going up.

12-12:30 is lunch time. Serve brunch.

I would go with brunch. I looked into a cocktail style reception, and at least for me it was not cheaper than a dinner. You also need more plates because people will graze and go back for more.