To serve a dinner? We are getting married at a local park. It is beautiful, there is a gazebo for the ceremony and then a renovated barn for the reception. I was thinking of having the ceremony at something like 4PM, the FI and his brother think 2PM. Since we dont have a travel time to get from one spot to the other, I am worried this is a little early to have it! The park closes at 11PM so that would be when it would end and I dont want people to leave early...... The FBIL thinks that since there is a sandy spot that people swim on that people will want to go swimming (August 17th is the date) but honestly..... it is a wedding. People arent going to want to go swimming and then come in and have a wedding reception. I am just looking for opinions on whether having it at 2 is too early..... we are having a semi-pro photographer in the form of my brother so we will need time for pictures but that would only put us at 3PM at the latest!! HELP!
Re: How Early is too Early.....
[QUOTE]I think snippet's timeline is fine (I agree that it's fine to eat early), but it will be too early if you want people to stay until 11 pm. I think it's unlikely that people will stay nearly 10 hours, and you would definitely need to have more food later on if people were dancing for that long. And I agree with you that they are not going to swim in the middle of a wedding. Also, what are you going to do when you want to take family photos that include your brother? Are you having a second shooter? I would hesitate to use a member of my immediate family as the photographer because I'd want them to enjoy the wedding. Also, it can be risky to mix friends/family with work, because any kind of professional issues will be harder to handle.
Posted by jessicabessica[/QUOTE]
Well, it is a very casual wedding that we are planning. As it goes with the food, I was thinkin about a cocktail hour type of time, we are paying for everything ourselves so I am trying to trim the cost as much as possible. I was thinking that for cocktail hour, we would serve things like bacon wrapped franks, a cheese platter...... and after that I am out of ideas. Dinner is going to consist of chicken (done over a fire on a rotisserie) a variety of pasta and potato salad, mixed fruit and a green salad with a few different dressings. Oh and some type of roll with butter. We are having a cake and I was thinking of later on in the night, setting out a dessert table with cookies, brownies and mini cheesecakes.
Would it have been weird to eat a huge meal that early on a normal day? Sure. But since it was a wedding no one even blinked an eye that a big meal was being served at 3pm.
[QUOTE]I recently went to a 1:30pm wedding. The ceremony lasted about a half hour and then they had a cocktail hour. Everything was at the same location. So they served a huge buffet at 3pm. Would it have been weird to eat a huge meal that early on a normal day? Sure. But since it was a wedding no one even blinked an eye that a big meal was being served at 3pm.
Posted by Maggie0829[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: How Early is too Early..... : I think the issue is more that OP seems to want guests to stay until 11 pm. I agree that it's never a bad time for a huge meal at a wedding.
Posted by jessicabessica[/QUOTE]
Oh. Her OP was hard to follow.