Late night food

wajohnson09

We want to have pizza and some other apps as a late night snack during our dance. Any suggestions for timing this? Dinner will be served at 6:30, cake to follow, and dance will run from 8 - midnight. We thought 10:30-11ish?

We are also debating how much food to order. A good amount of our guests are older and likely won't stay that long. Our venue only allows us to take leftover cake so we don't want food to go to waste, but it would be much worse to not have enough! Anyone else have this dilemma?

sarahjane222

We're planning on doing the late night snack around 10/10:30pm. It all depends on how long your dinner is going to last - so see if you can time that out. We recently went to a wedding where the late night snack was served so close to the dinner that the late night food was barely touched! 

Also, I understand not wanting to have not enough food, but I think by that time of the night most people will be full of food or drink (or both!) and not eating as much. We're planning for about 200 people and planning for about 125 for our late night snack....and I think that's probably maybe even too much. 

wandajune6

We were going to do the same but got talked out of it by our venue. Between a large dinner and lots of cake, it was suggested that we already had more than enough food. We decided to put the money into expanding our cocktail hour options and upgrading the booze (we would have put the money towards the food but didn't need to).

Our original plan was to bring in pizza. We were told to average 1.5 pieces per person- plenty of people won't touch it but others will go crazy on it. Most will only eat one slice. But we can bring home the leftovers so we had different concerns.

nicole4793

I think that 10:30-11  would be a great time for it because your reception is going to last quite a white. Not sure how much pizza you should order, however. I went to a wedding in August, and they had 10lbs of chicken fingers for about 110 people. It was gone within 10-15 mins, but everyone that needed some to sober up for the drive home was able to grab a piece! I guess you need to consider the amount of people that will actually stay that late to figure out how much food you need to accomodate everyone. 

atlastmrsg

We did ceremony at 4:30, cocktail hour from 4:50-5:50, dinner at 5:50/6:00.  Had "late" menu at 9.  You'd be surprised how many people get ready to go home early--they have sitters, are tired, etc.  While there certainly were people who stayed for whole reception, then after party after band was done, it gave everyone a chance to eat again.  We had breakfast foods--mini chicken and waffles, mini country ham biscuits, mini eggs benedict, and mini root beer floats.  All were a hit.  

For the really late guests--ones that stayed until midnight/1:00 a.m.--for after party, had BBQ to help soak up the alcohol.  It was out in the country, so there was lots of moonshine, BBQ, etc.

jenijoyk

Maybe there's a late night snack that can be flexible serving-size-wise. We are doing late night churros and asked the churro guy to make enough full size churros for 80 people. But if there are more still there at 10pm, he can just cut them smaller. Our venue also offers late-night California burritos... you order a certain number and if you need more, they cut them in half or thirds before bringing them out. That way you have a full size burrito for 50, or a half a burrito for 100, or you provide guests to take either a half or a full and feed some number in between.

Viczaesar

jenijoyk said:

Maybe there's a late night snack that can be flexible serving-size-wise. We are doing late night churros and asked the churro guy to make enough full size churros for 80 people. But if there are more still there at 10pm, he can just cut them smaller. Our venue also offers late-night California burritos... you order a certain number and if you need more, they cut them in half or thirds before bringing them out. That way you have a full size burrito for 50, or a half a burrito for 100, or you provide guests to take either a half or a full and feed some number in between.

What is a California burrito?

BrandNewJ

Viczaesar said:

jenijoyk said:

Maybe there's a late night snack that can be flexible serving-size-wise. We are doing late night churros and asked the churro guy to make enough full size churros for 80 people. But if there are more still there at 10pm, he can just cut them smaller. Our venue also offers late-night California burritos... you order a certain number and if you need more, they cut them in half or thirds before bringing them out. That way you have a full size burrito for 50, or a half a burrito for 100, or you provide guests to take either a half or a full and feed some number in between.

What is a California burrito?

I don't know of it's the same in all of CA, but where I am, it's a carne asada burrito with French fries inside.

Viczaesar

BrandNewJ said:

Viczaesar said:

jenijoyk said:

Maybe there's a late night snack that can be flexible serving-size-wise. We are doing late night churros and asked the churro guy to make enough full size churros for 80 people. But if there are more still there at 10pm, he can just cut them smaller. Our venue also offers late-night California burritos... you order a certain number and if you need more, they cut them in half or thirds before bringing them out. That way you have a full size burrito for 50, or a half a burrito for 100, or you provide guests to take either a half or a full and feed some number in between.

What is a California burrito?

I don't know of it's the same in all of CA, but where I am, it's a carne asada burrito with French fries inside.

That's odd.  I'm a native Californian and have lived in both NorCal and SoCal and I've never heard of it.  I have seen fries in a burrito before but only near my sister's house (N. San Diego county).

theartistformerlyknownas

We had a 4:00 ceremony, 4:30-5:30 cocktail hour with lots of apps, 6:00 plated dinner, cake served at about 7:00, and late night snack served at 10. I had requested 150 servings each of pretzel bites and turkey sliders (200 guests), but the venue coordinator arbitrarily changed it to only 90 of each because he was sure more people would have gone home. Nope, by the time I realized the snacks were served all of the pretzels were gone and there were only about 6 sliders left. A large portion of our crowd stayed nearly the whole time, and we had a packed dance floor the whole night, so people had worked up an appetite!

jenijoyk

BrandNewJ said:

Viczaesar said:

jenijoyk said:

Maybe there's a late night snack that can be flexible serving-size-wise. We are doing late night churros and asked the churro guy to make enough full size churros for 80 people. But if there are more still there at 10pm, he can just cut them smaller. Our venue also offers late-night California burritos... you order a certain number and if you need more, they cut them in half or thirds before bringing them out. That way you have a full size burrito for 50, or a half a burrito for 100, or you provide guests to take either a half or a full and feed some number in between.

What is a California burrito?

I don't know of it's the same in all of CA, but where I am, it's a carne asada burrito with French fries inside.

Yes. French fries in a burrito. A late night delicacy.

jenijoyk

 Viczaesar said:

BrandNewJ said:

Viczaesar said:

jenijoyk said:

Maybe there's a late night snack that can be flexible serving-size-wise. We are doing late night churros and asked the churro guy to make enough full size churros for 80 people. But if there are more still there at 10pm, he can just cut them smaller. Our venue also offers late-night California burritos... you order a certain number and if you need more, they cut them in half or thirds before bringing them out. That way you have a full size burrito for 50, or a half a burrito for 100, or you provide guests to take either a half or a full and feed some number in between.

What is a California burrito?

I don't know of it's the same in all of CA, but where I am, it's a carne asada burrito with French fries inside.

That's odd.  I'm a native Californian and have lived in both NorCal and SoCal and I've never heard of it.  I have seen fries in a burrito before but only near my sister's house (N. San Diego county).

I grew up in northern California but I don't think I discovered the California burrito until moving to Orange County about 10 years ago. But since then I've definitely had them in San Francisco. Basically, they should be served everywhere because they are uber delicious.