vip brides...

forever718

Did you add any stations to your cocktail hour? I feel like it's not going to be a lot of food. I feel like I need to see a mock up of what it's gonna look like when it's all set up. We can choose 6 stations and then 5 passed o'erderves..
Also, is anyone having the viennese hr? or that dessert cart they have? Alot of people are telling me the viennese hr isnt woth it, bc by then no one eats it. But it looks amazing!! but its so expensive!

sjsphish

I added two stations only because my husband is Pakistani and we were having some outside food brought in. Let me tell you, it was more than enough. We also added the martini luge to the cocktail hour - it was a huge hit.

We did not have a viennese hr because our favor was a candy buffet and we also had a groomscake. Again, it was more than enough food. We took home so much candy it wasn't even funny. I agree, I love the idea of a vinenese hr but I don't think anyone will eat it since VIP feeds you SO much and it is so expensive.

If you want to see pics of the cocktail hr set up, let me know.

TerriandJoe

We didn't have our reception at VIP, but our package was similar.

Our catering halls package included:

10 passed and 4 displayed items.

Because soooooo many people on here talk about how much food they get at their venues, and because some places that I looked offered more items in their package, we went over how many things we were getting and compared it to other places.

And after realizing that the 10 passed items was quite a bit, it was the (only) four displayed that kind of bothered me.

So after talking with DH (then- FI), and my parents, we opted to add two items to the displayed items.

So we planned on 6 displayed and 10 passed. We lucked out because our venue included an additional one on the day of! so it was a nice surprise!

We ended up with 7 displayed and 10 passed items. But we went over the offerings with a fine tooth comb to make sure that everyone could find something to eat. Not sure if that helps, but as long as you have a wide variety of foods you should be fine.

(Most catering halls refill the trays if they run out, so even with six things, there should still be enough food)

As far as the viennese, we did pastry and cookie trays (some places call this a table side viennese). It still gives the pastries, but usually costs a lot less than the full viennese hour spread.

Good luck! Hope this helps!

Crissyo

Our venue does a mini-viennese and it worked out really nicely....It had pastries, chocolate covered fruit, cookies, etc....just no pies and cakes.  See if VIP offers such.
ALso,when you say six stations...is it a station or a tray of food?
We had seven stations...but at each station there were different options. For example, there was a chinese station which had assorted dumplings, a chinese chicken dish and a chinese beef dish.  Then, another station was the italian station with prosciutto, different types of cheeses, breads, olives, etc.   So if you are having these kinds of "stations" then I think six is plenty!  But if it is just an actual food tray, then yes you may want to do more.
Hope this helps!

forever718

Sorry I should have been more specific. 6 stations meaning one italian, one chinese, etc.. each has more than one option like yours. So, yeah 6 should be enough.. maybe we'll just add this shrimp cocktail/vodka luge thing my fiance wants, depending on how much more it is.

I was thinking of maybe having a candy buffet. I've seen that some people actually get the glasses and candy on their own and its much cheaper. That's not a bad idea, but Idk how much candy to get.. and when do you set it up at the venue? or do they set it up for you?

TerriandJoe

Crissyo makes a good point.

Are they stations or displayed items?

Our package gave us 4 displayed items. We added 2 and then the venue gave us another. So we had a total of 7 displayed items.

Having the 4 that were included and after seeing how much stuff other girls had, I felt I wanted more offerings. Which is why we added 2 additional items.

And then with the venue giving us one we had 7 displayed items. Which I felt was adequate. In the last couple of years, DH and I had been to weddings with tons of food displayed, only 2 or 3 items displayed and ones that had no items displayed (only passed).

So we felt we had enough for our wedding. But yeah, hearing how much food some places give with cocktail hour did get to me.

So, if you are getting six items, think about if that's enough for your crowd. If you want to add to it, adding 2 items would probably be enough.

But, if you have six actual stations - you have more than enough!

sjsphish

In response to forever718, at the vip they will set up whatever you want them to. I had lots of little extras and little to do projects for them, and they accommodated every request.

I ended up purchasing all the candy dishes from girls off of hte knot and from christmas tree shop. I bought all of the candy from bulkfoods.com. It ended up being much cheaper than candywarehouse and other websites because as long as your order is over $75 (and trust me, it will be), shipping for the entire lot is only $5!  I got chinese togo boxes really cheap on papermart.com and I had sticker labels made on etsy.

I don't remember how much candy I ordered, but it was definitely too much.

In any event, I simply dropped off the candy bowls and candy the night before during rehearsal (along w/ all our other items, i.e. bathroom baskets, cake topper, toasting flutes etc). They were very meticulous in that they asked fro instructions re: how to set it up, pics of what I liked, but frankly, I could have cared less which candy went in which bowl so I left it up to them.

They set everything up so that all the candy was laid out on a long table in the back by the fireplace and the DJ made the announcement (after cake cutting) that the candy station was open.

huggable

Hello,

I got married a year ago at VIP and there was a ton of food at the cocktail hour.  We did add an extra station but there was more than enough food before it.

Hope that helps!