Heavy Appetizer Reception

If the appetizers aren’t enough to constitute a full meal I would say have everything between 1-4 or after 8.

View Quoted Comment To clarify, it will be heavy appetizers, not just a snack.

You cannot do this to your guests unless your reception ends at 4pm or is after 7pm people expect dinner. If you cannot afford a meal for all your guests I suggest only inviting the number of people you can afford to host properly.

View Quoted Comment This has nothing to do with budget. We do not want a sit down dinner and are not interested in the traditional wedding and reception. A ceremony, heavy appetizer, cocktails and dancing is what we will be doing. Suggesting that we are not hosting a proper wedding due to the style of our wedding/reception isn’t the advice I was looking for.

I’d think you could end as late as five, that would be fine for anyone I know. But I also think there’s a way to add that information on the invitations so the guests know in advance. Ours is a dinner, so we put the ceremony time and “dinner and dancing to follow”. Can you consider maybe putting your start time and then “cocktail reception to follow”? Cocktail implies the appetizers and drinks but not dinner. Might be a good compromise!

View Quoted Comment If there is a ton of appetizers it fine to have it over a meal time. Just make sure it’s enough to constitute a full meal. Also I know you don’t want a sit down style meal but just make sure there’s enough seats for everyone!

At 6:30 you really have to serve a full meal. If you want to have only appetizers you have to do it at a non meal time (ceremony at 2 reception ends by 5).

If I went to a 6:30 wedding and was not served dinner I would leave really early (by 7:30) to go get dinner.

I feel like a LOT of appetizers COULD work if there's enough variety and volume enough for like a full plate of food.

Many people dislike standing while eating so at least consider standing tables.

As a guest I probably would eat before to make sure I wasn't cranky and hungry.

I think a cocktail reception can work at dinner time if you have more than just passed apps, like chef stations or appetizer displays with more substantial options. Otherwise people will definitely be hungry.

I also agree with having plenty of tables, including seating!

It really depends on the type of appetizers you are offering. If it's fruit, veggies, cheese and crackers then an early ceremony of 2 pm. If you are offering heavy apps like chicken buffalo dip, eggrolls, and wings then a later ceremony will be fine. You don't want your reception to start thinning out because of a lack of food at dinner time.

We r doing exactly what u want to do ..... are appetizers is a pizza bar and we r having mostly having lots of desserts our wedding will start at 6:00pm

You could do food stations. Still gives you the stand and mingle vibe of apps but heavier food.

View Quoted Comment I think it sound fun. I think more 7 would be good. More or a evening cocktail vibe.

I would plan on several more appetizers than originally planned per person because I’ve heard other people here say at appetizer-only weddings some people loaded their plates or rushed the servers and others got hardly any food. I like including Megan’s food station idea too.

Oh my wedding ceremony is starting at 6pm and on top of appetizers we will have a buffet dinner. My wedding isnt for people on diets so they better come with empty stomachs! I suggest maybe putting that in your invitations because if I went to a late wedding I would save my appetite for dinner and if I got appetizers I would be disappointed for sure.

This is what I wowould suggest:

5pm first look
5:30pm Wedding party pics
6:30pm Family pics
7:30pm Ceremony
8-11pm Reception

Since you are going a non-traditional route and going with a ceremony followed by a cocktail reception with dancing, I think cocktail party ettiquette is a better guide. Typically cocktail parties last 2-3 hours. I don’t know what your venue’s time slot is. I also don’t know how long your ceremony is going to be.

One thing should be certain: your invitation wording should put to rest any question as to whether you are serving dinner or not. Don’t leave room for your guests to look at the time and assume dinner—that’s too old fashioned and ambiguous to account for the variations in most modern weddings.

So here are the neon signs in your invitation to your guests:

1. Assuming you are having the ceremony & reception at the same venue:

A. Last line on invitation card: “Cocktails and dancing immediately following.” Done. Short & sweet.

B. Reception Card(normally forgone when the location is the same for both): “Celebrate with us with cocktails and dancing after the ceremony.”

2. If you have your ceremony in one place and your reception at another location, you also need to factor in travel time but that may not need to be in your wording if your travel time is within 15 minutes(as a courtesy you should try to book your venue within that traveling distance time), if further out you’ll what to list the time so your guests don’t get confused.

A. Reception Card: “Please join us at the [Insert reception venue here] at [Insert venue’s address here] for cocktails and dancing after the ceremony.

B. Reception Card: “Please join us at the [Insert reception venue here again] at [again inset venue’s address here] at [insert reception start time] in the [afternoon/evening].

It’s always better to give your guests more information about what is happening at your event than less so if there is travel between venues, you have out of town guests, parking information and anything that could be unfamiliar to your guests, that’s best resolved with an information card inserted with your invitations. This can be very cleaverly done by printing it out on a blank 3
x 5’notecard using your main wedding color & the clearest font used on your invitations(DIY).

My approach to wedding invite wording has been shaped by my experience writing philosophy papers with some of the most obscure terminology imaginable. I was told by my teachers “assume your readers are lazy, stupid and mean” in other words write it in such a way that a total stranger can understand it. While your guests probably don’t fall in that category, covering your rear socially is always smart.

For the record FI is an appetizer/finger food type of guy so he would totally love a wedding like this. But this is where the bar is raised high. You got to make sure guests won’t even think of dinner with all the appetizers, cocktails, dancing and dessert. That actually sounds like something that could be a lot of fun!

Maybe 7 to give the chance for some people to have something to eat before they get there if they are not that into the appetizers? My SO has very severe food allergies so cross contamination is a big worry with passed apps and he wouldn’t be eating if that was his only option. I guess I’m just thinking from a dietary need standpoint this could stress some people out because appetizer options aren’t usually provided on RSVPs and could be harder to accommodate. Having stations could really help with this because they wouldn’t be passed and you could provide the station options to guests ahead of time so they know what to expect! I would say allow people time to have an early dinner if they feel like they need to, have tons of app options and lots per a person, stations if possible and plenty of seats.

View Quoted Comment

You're fine. We're doing the same type of dinner, passed canapes. Our venue is known for this type of dinner and I have read many reviews about their meals and not a single person said anything about it not being enough food. Most said it was amazing to try so many different things and that they were all stuffed by the time dinner was done.

Honestly, it's my favourite type of dinner. I hate eating a large portion of one thing, I get bored. I usually end up eating more when it's loads of little things. Also, people typically end up eating way more with this style of dinner even if they don't realize it.

I don't know if your venue does this, but ours will also ask us and some of the guests if they're still hungry or if there was anything they wanted to try again before they stop serving dinner. We are also doing some snacks (fruit, cheese, & sandwich platters), an ice cream machine, and snacks later in the night.

Also our menu includes 10 mini canapes and 5 main dish canapes. We also get to choose 3 mini desserts and we have a wedding cake.

I love this style of wedding reception, it allows for more mingling, just make sure you're serving a lot of canapes to make it a full meal.

I think that a 6:30 pm or 7:00 pm ceremony start would be good. That gives people time to eat an early dinner beforehand, if they choose. The ceremony is usually around 30 minutes, so sounds good to me.