Timing/Food question

tiffgriffin7

Okay, so we are getting married at 2:30pm. Reception starts and bar opens at 3pm and goes until 8pm. We are thinking of serving dinner at 5pm. Can we go from 3-5 without serving food or do we need to have appetizers since people will be drinking? We are trying to save money by not having appetizers and we are having a lot of food for dinner.

ac_in_dc

You definitely need appetizers, even if it's just cheese & crackers or whatever. And you may want to shorten the cocktail hour to 60-90 minutes. (this is based on personal experience and reading past posts here).

ThePinkSuperhero

Making people wait that long without so much as a nibble would be cruel.

gkb0910

I don't know that you need food during 3-5, per say.  It's not really a meal time, and I'd assume your guests would eat before the wedding and dinner at 5 would be fine.  However, what else will you be doing from 3-5?  Two hours of just drinking seems like it could be a bit dicey, so you might want to have some food to sop up the booze in people's stomachs.

tenofcups4me

I'd do a cocktail hour 3 to 4 (with hors d'oeuvres) and then serve dinner at 4. If you don't want to serve hors d'oeuvres, then I'd go straight into the meal. People typically expect to be fed shortly after arriving at a reception. If your wedding was at 2:30, odds are good that I would have eaten something like half a bagel at around 12, assuming that I'd be eating again at 3.

calle28

I think you will def need to have apps because people are going to be drinking. 2 hours seems kind of long for a cocktail hour, but I'm sure your guest won't mind too much with the open bar and apps.

ThePinkSuperhero

I would think you could keep it really, really simple.  A bowl of pretzels here, a plate of olives there.

tiffgriffin7

Thanks! I was thinking it was a long time too. We will probably start the ceremony later...that would save on booze too!