Reception ideas and help! ( brunch or lunch ideas)

hales2010

So my fiance and I are talking about having a lunch or brunch reception. This is mostly to save money on food cost and alcohol (if we decide to have it). I am just wanting to hear from people who have had these and see what timelines were for their wedding. Obviously will be more like a cocktail reception than a normal night "party" reception. Thanks!

vsgal

I would do this:

Ceremony @ 11:00
Reception   12:00-4:00 (depending on length of ceremony.  You should allow about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes for travel time and photos.  You do not want to have a long gap. )
Do pictures with bridal party before ceremony

You will have to have a full lunch/brunch since you are going over the meal time. 

Keep in mind that you will have to be ready by 11:00 or sooner to take pictures.  Depending on how long you think it will take you to get ready on the day of, you may have a very early start in the morning.

AddieCake

Our ceremony was at 10:30 followed by cocktail hour from 11-12 and then lunch from 12-2.

LondonLisa

vsgal said:

I would do this:

Ceremony @ 11:00
Reception   12:00-4:00 (depending on length of ceremony.  You should allow about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes for travel time and photos.  You do not want to have a long gap. )
Do pictures with bridal party before ceremony

You will have to have a full lunch/brunch since you are going over the meal time. 

Keep in mind that you will have to be ready by 11:00 or sooner to take pictures.  Depending on how long you think it will take you to get ready on the day of, you may have a very early start in the morning.

I love brunch weddings, they are such a great idea!

I agree with this, however, there should be no gap whatsoever. The cocktail hour is for when you take photos if you don't want a first look (this doesn't need to have alcohol, just hosted refreshments and nibbles). Cocktail hour needs to start immediately  after your ceremony (as soon as the first guests arrives). If the venue is 10 minutes from your ceremony, your cocktail hour should start 10 minutes after the ceremony and go for no longer than 1 hour.

How long is your ceremony? And how far from your ceremony site is your reception venue?

hales2010

I was planning on doing most of the pictures with the bridal party and other wedding party pictures before the ceremony and then any of the ones where it will be my fiance and I ( husband at this point I guess lol) will be taken after the ceremony ends. It is litereally maybe a 5 - 10 minutes drive from the ceremony to reception. We have also talked about having just a heavy hors d'oeuvres reception which means we could have the reception around 2 or 3ish. Just mostly looking at some ideas!

LondonLisa

If you do hors d'oeuvres only over a meal time (12-2)  you need to have enough to constitute a full meal (which can actually be a lot more expensive than a brunch or lunch meal). Yes, lunch tends to be a lighter meal, but often people take more than they normally eat at weddings and want to try everything, so you end up spending more if you have it over a meal time.

You can definitely have hors d'oeuvres only but this should be your timeline:

2 Ceremony

2:30 cocktail/ hors d'oeuvres reception

5/6 (end)

A brunch buffet is actually very economical if you would like to have a 10:30/11am wedding. This could consist of eggs, bacon, pastries, breads, jams, pancakes/waffles various juices, teas, coffee etc.

Brunch timeline:
10:30 Ceremony

11 cocktail hour (Mimosas, Bloody Mary's, coffee/tea bar, scones, pastries, fruit)

12 Brunch Buffet

3/4 (end)

for lunch timeline I would do

11:30 ceremony

12 cocktail hour

1 Lunch served

 4 (end)

They all sound like nice options! Brunch buffets tend to be the most inexpensive alcohol wise, as most people will have just a bloody mary, mimosa, white wine or light beer and you can get that easily in bulk. A lot of the expense of a bar is having the variety of drinks to please everyone. 

hales2010

Yeah we were mostly leaning toward the brunch wedding to save on cost and alcohol or the hors d'oeuvres one. I just needed some ideas on it. I have only been to 2 wedding that just did hors d'oeuvres and one of them was at 6:30 at night which was kind of awful because it was on Friday so we all had to drive over right after work and they only had light ones which I was ok with. It was just the fact it didnt end until 8 and by that time I was starving. The other one their ceremony was at 1 and they had a long ceremony so it was over until 230. We went to the reception which got started around 3 and it ended around 430. I was just wanting some other examples. thanks for all the ones so far!!

hales2010

One thing I have been thinking about (for either of these) is what type of small food to have at the cocktail hour.

LondonLisa

You really could do anything. It could be as fancy as hot passed hors d'oeuvres or as relaxed as trays of cheese, crackers, fruit and veggies.

If you are doing brunch, I would suggest a more breakfast focused, but really anything works. 

Afternoon tea food works well for lunch, such as finger sandwiches, scones, pastries etc, works well for daytime events.