H'ordeuvres only reception

Absolutely! Meatballs, finger sandwiches, cheese platters, meat platter, artichoke dip, might wanna get a chocolate or cheese fondue and you will have everyone full and having fun! They won't need a full meal.

View Quoted Comment That is exactly what I was thinking. Have a bunch of food items! Thanks for the input!

If the reception if over a mealtime, you'll need enough appetizers and a wide enough selection to equal a meal. This often means that the food ends up more expensive than serving an actual meal. Don't get me wrong, I love cocktail parties and the appetizers that come with them, but they aren't always the most economical option.

I think its fine as long as you have a nice variety of items. My friend did this last year and it worked great. She had 3 appetizers of each type of cuisine. It worked well and we were full.

As long as you have a non meal time reception, that should be fine.

View Quoted Comment I was going to get quotes for both and see what the better option was financially with the guests in mindnof course

Hors d'oevres are often more expensive than a plated meal or buffet because they are so labor intensive.

It is not uncommon to have heavy apps substitute for a traditional dinner, but you do need to make sure you have both enough food and appropriate food. Finger sandwiches and cheese trays would be fine for light refreshments mid-afternoon, but you need more hot apps for dinner.

If budget is an issue have this go from 2pm-5pm, anything later and you need to make sure you have enough for a meal. With that you are right back to the Buffett.

I'm doing exactly this, though it was the only option I got lol. This is totally fine! Just supply a variety of foods and make sure everyone gets enough to eat. Serve the cake a little later, towards the end, so people have a chance to eat and enjoy the cake without scarfing it down and eating more meatballs right after.

Be aware this can cost a lot more than a buffet. I'm sure you'll do your cost analysis and go with what you're willing to pay.

I think it's a fine idea as long as the quantity of appetizers are the equivalent of a meal. I am doing a few passed appetizers prior to my plated dinner and based on the cost of those, I am guessing i would actually spend MORE if that was going to take the place of a meal (certainly not less).

I didn't discover the WW forums until two weeks before my wedding, so I didn't realize we were possibly committing a faux pas. We did it successfully over a meal-time, but our all-inclusive had a huge variety of options that included lots of protein and heavy apps, two pastas, a potato bar, and a variety of choices. We were able to include salads as well, so it was almost like an appetizer buffet instead of a traditional buffet. We also included gluten-free, vegan, and any other dietary needs. We chose to go that route because we had already booked our venue, but we weren't impressed by any of our tastings for the buffet or plated options. On the other hand, the appetizers were fantastic! The appetizers were specifically chosen to be equivalent to a meal. Our guests raved about our food, and almost a year later still remember it fondly. It was tricky making sure we had enough food to replace a meal while taking dietary concerns into account, and our caterer was fantastic about making special varieties of certain foods to account for dietary issues so everyone had more than enough to eat.

We also noted on our invitations that we were hosting a heavy hors d'oeuvres reception. We just wanted to make sure no one was surprised. We got lots of positive feedback about the variety and taste of the food, as well as the way we handled letting guests know.

If you choose to go that route, just be very careful about your choices so there are several proteins, vegetarian, gluten-free, etc. Adding action stations is also a great help!

View Quoted Comment Thanks for the input!!

View Quoted Comment That is a good idea to put it on your invitation!! I might do the same thing. I am glad all your guests enjoyed the food

We looked into this at first, but the good places wanted between $2-$3 per individual app. That just wasn't going to fly for us.

This is what we're doing for our wedding! It was the most budget-friendly for us and we have 85 guests. We're also buying our own alcohol which help cut down the cost. We labeled it as "tapas" instead of "heavy hors d'oeuvres" because people tend to freak out at the latter haha. But our wedding will be a late Friday afternoon so it'll be like a giant happy hour, which is what we wanted - more of a mingle and party than the traditional dinner.