No food reception?

Chargers & name cards seem like a waste if no food is served. I'd have a very small flower arrangement or candles or something. Will your guests know this in advance? I'd be pretty surprised to not eat dinner by 6:30 PM at a wedding unless the invitation stated a dessert reception.

Hi Rose, if your guests will be there for approximately 4 hours, not adding time spent traveling to and from your wedding then I think that possibly some appetizers may be good to have for them. 4 hours is a long time to be without food if maybe you had a small breakfast or skipped it all together. If your ceremony is at 2:30 your guests will need to be getting ready and traveling to you for a while before that time and the same when they leave home. Say your ceremony is 30 minutes long from 3pm until 6:30 are your guests only supposed to sit around and play games? Will you be providing drinks(waters, sodas, juices, coffee, etc) during that time as well?

With the timing of your wedding I would think you would need to serve something to your guests, or move it up to a cake and punch reception between 1-4.

View Quoted Comment Agree with this. If you’re just having a cake and punch reception, it should be at a non-meal time.

View Quoted Comment Thanks for the tips all. I didn’t consider the travel and time spent getting ready. I suppose I’ll go back to the drawing board

Without serving a meal, it seems silly to even have a reception. I would just have a punch and cake reception for an hour following your ceremony and that be it. Having a reception during a meal time and not feeding your guests is horrible! Your guests are traveling, buying outfits, gifts etc for your wedding and they will expect a meal, not just a dessert during a 4 hour reception. I would just be sure to end your reception before meal time so probably no later than 4 pm.

View Quoted Comment Makes sense! Thank you

As pps have said you really need to serve food if your wedding is at a mealtime. Keep in mind if the send off is at 6:30pm, the amount of time it would take guests to get home AND make their own dinners, they would probably be very hungry and unhappy by then. I’d say you have 2 options:


(1) a cake and punch reception which is fine, but it needs to be shorter and further away from dinner. I’d say start your ceremony as early as 1:30 or 2. Then have your reception from 2-4 or 2:30-4.

(2) inexpensive catering. I know you said they said it needs to be “catered” but define that? Does that mean you need servers and stuff, or just that it has to be a legitimate establishment bringing food (as opposed to a potluck or bringing your own food or something)? If it’s the former, I’d say do something super inexpensive like... pizza and salads. Also really any Italian food or Mexican food restaurant usually has pretty inexpensive catering options so look into that. You don’t have to give people an extravagant meal or anything but if you want them to be there during a meal time you do have to feed them.

Also keep in mind these people are probably going to be giving you generous gifts as well, so it is really the right thing to do to feed them a meal to thank them for coming and for their gift.

View Quoted Comment

I agree to just end it earlier. Have you considered getting some party trays from your local grocery store? Cheese and crackers, veggie trays, fruit platters and maybe some chicken tenders or sandwich wraps? You could probably make these things and then save some money. This along with cake and punch? How big is your guest list? You could even do a pizza buffet. Just saying one of my sorority sisters had a budget friendly wedding at night and I was annoyed because I was hungry. Me and some other sorority sisters left and went out to a restaurant for food. I get the budget issue but would have rather a mention in the invitation or an earlier time.

If you ended a bit earlier, like by 5 pm, this would be fine - in essence a cake and punch wedding.