How long should i allot for eating?

You should do a full hour, account for food service time.

Do toasts while people are eating! It compresses the activities a bit and allows people to get to dancing once the meal is over.

View Quoted Comment This is what we did. We had a buffet, once everyone was seated and eating, BM & MOHs gave their toasts. Worked our fine.

I figured once my dad was done eating we would start the toasts, so maybe 30 minutes into eating. We're having no more than 100 guests so I don't think there will be much of a delay between the first people finishing and the last people. And I hate going to a wedding and just sitting around after I'm done eating waiting for things to start.
Also that gives me a good time to let the wedding crashers know when they can come! Lol

I would allow at least an hour so you have plenty of time to do your table visits.

I would allow an hour for dinner, some people are slow eaters so maybe 40 minutes into dinner you can do the toast and speeches.
If you're really concerned about your guest feeling bored after they're finished eating just look to see if your are guests are finish up eating maybe you can start the toast earlier

My venue allots 2 hours for dinner. However I think we may need less than that hahaha. I think we are going to have people do toasts/speeches during the soup and salad course. I am also toying with the idea of doing the first dances, father/daughter dance, and mother/son dance, and cake cutting right at the end of cocktail hour so that once dinner is done, its party time!

View Quoted Comment You have known wedding crashers? Why not have security for this?

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This is what we plan on doing as well!

I would say that is good if you are planning on doing the toasts while eating. If you were wanting to do toasts after eating I would say you need at least an hour.

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That's a good idea.. I was also trying to figure out when to do toasts with a buffet and not take forever!