No full meal - Thoughts

So you wanna get your guests to pay for their actual dinner before the wedding (which I'm assuming will be at like 4 or 5) and then service them soup and later pizza for a snack after the ceremony?

Regardless of the soup/salad/breadstick/pizza conversation, it's super rude to ask your guests to pay for their meal at the wedding, which is essentially what you're doing.

By party do you mean just the reception or the ceremony as well. If you are saying ceremony as well, you could slide with it because most people will probably eat something before. If it is just the reception, I would just serve the pizza. Soup is also kind of hard to walk around with if you are doing a buffet. I just see lots of soup all over someone's shirt lol

I wouldn't be offended, but confused. If you are serving something like soup and salad, you obviously expect that guests will be sitting down to eat. These two courses are typically the start of a plated meal, so maybe pivot away from soup and salad. If you are trying to save money, maybe doing passed apps, or larger food stations with things like cheese, shrimp, etc so that people have options. I honestly don't understand why soup, and then pizza is very random.

Also 7pm isn't late for dinner, its actually a typical dinner time for many people. If I went to a wedding that had a reception that started at 7pm, I assume the ceremony would be before that and as a guest when am I supposed to eat an actual meal?

Makes no sense to me. I do not like to drink on an empty stomach. I would suggest cutting the pizza and adding some protein to the salad. GL

No - 7:30 is still a meal time. If you want to get away with not serving a full meal you would need to have doors open at 8 or later, but then people would have eaten dinner already and soup is an odd thing to serve in that case.

I would make it clear on the invitations that reception will be light fare and also build in time between ceremony and reception for guests to get dinner somewhere. If you want your reception to end early or it's a more causal affair it will be fine, but if you want the full formal reception you will need to provide some type of meal. Why are you getting the pizza's so late? My cousin had a brick-oven pizza buffet at their fall wedding with salad and most people were happy with that offering. My daughter and myself don't eat pizza so we weren't thrilled, but I stuck to the wine and she ate salad and desserts

I'm confused about the plan for the day. Are you having a ceremony at all? Is this a delayed reception (aka did you elope or have a destination wedding) or will only some be invited to the ceremony? What kind of entertainment are you having? What is the full timeline for the day? You mention food earlier in the day and I feel like I'm not getting the full picture here.

Personally I would think a soup/salad/bread buffet would get messy/difficult (I agree about soup down my clothes and having to carry multiple plates) and wouldn't really give off a party vibe. Maybe stations or more passed apps (think cocktail reception with multiple filling apps) over the soup/salad/bread would make more sense.

Pizza is often ordered late - as a "sober up" option. No kids at the reception. No wedding ceremony before. Delayed reception - ceremony is a few weeks before. Entertainment doesn't start until 8pm. Doors open at 7:30pm. The party wasn't intended to be in any way like a formal wedding reception. That's why we were not doing a full meal.

There is no ceremony - that's a few weeks before.

No wedding before. Wedding is a few weeks before the event. Private wedding - this is just the party - not formal - never intended for it to be formal.

The wedding is a few weeks before. I can't imagine anyone actually leaving hungry. There will be soups, salad, breadsticks, cheddar rolls, dessert breads, pies, cheesecakes, cupcakes, pizza, and probably pretzels, and nachos. Possibly even wings. There will be a fruit tray and cheeses as well. This is considered an "after dinner" party event - not a formal reception. I guess I didn't spell that out well in the original post and I am getting so beat up over this . ....

Ohhhh so this is not a formal wedding reception. Got it. Sorry, I misunderstood. In that case, I think what you are planning is sufficient. I was not meaning to make you feel beat up. I was just under the impression that this was a formal reception and when you were initially asking for peoples comments, I was just saying what I would think as a guest in that situation. But now that I understand, I think you are good to go. Good luck!

I would find this odd. I don't like eating meals late at night so why can't the pizza just be earlier for dinner? One wedding I went to the cocktail hour had sooooo many options and by the time dinner time was it was like 9pm and by then I was disinterested AND on top of that 9pm is in no way shape or form dinner time. So I would suggest re-figuring the timeline cuz 10:30 is really late.

EDIT: as I read your posts I still would move the pizza time up even if it's not a formal wedding reception. Treat it like a party you'd throw for a holiday or birthday! Do you really serve pizza at 10:30pm? I wouldn't think so!

I just want to make sure that I understand correctly. So there is an early dinner at a restaurant, right? If so that's cool and then pizza, but no soup or salad. That doesn't say party.

Now, does everyone that goes to dinner have to pay for their own???? If so that's not cool at all.

Maybe you could do apps/finger foods. You will have a lot of soup left over. People will be hungry/hangry. Soup is something you want to eat in the comfort of your own home and MAYBE at a restaurant before a full meal, not with pizza. I would rethink the entire thing