Friday Night Hors Devours only reception?

gochicagobears · July 2013

I live in a small area, and the only decent place to have my wedding isnt available on a Saturday for months, and we want a quick engagement SO we were thinking of doing a Friday night hors devours only and dancing reception. Ceremony at church at 6, reception starts at 7. Thoughts? Ideas for hors devours?

MayDay513 · July 2013

Unfortunately, your wedding is occurring at a meal time, therefore you should provide a meal.

Normal work schedule gets out at 5pm. Most people will want to go home, change, and commute to your ceremony, attend then reception. There is absolutely no opportunity for them to eat. So they will be starving and you are only serving apps? If you only serve apps people will not stay long.

Another option is move your ceremony to a later time like 8 and have just hors devours or desserts.

EDIT to add:
Or if you do HEAVY hor devours that would be enough to suffice as a meal.

Jen4948 · July 2013

If you want hors d'oeuvres and dancing only, then I'd move the time of the reception forward to about 8pm. If you leave it at 7pm, then I agree with Huynhette: serve heavy hors d'oeuvres or a meal.

itzMS · July 2013

Serve a meal. It is much easier (and often cheaper) than hors d'oeuvres.

I had a heavy hors d'oeuvres reception, and people honestly inhaled them. Far more than the estimate from the caterer. I'm glad they were tasty...but we had to order more.

QueerFemme · July 2013

Liatris2010 said:

huynhette said:

Unfortunately, your wedding is occurring at a meal time, therefore you should provide a meal.

Normal work schedule gets out at 5pm. Most people will want to go home, change, and commute to your ceremony, attend then reception. There is absolutely no opportunity for them to eat. So they will be starving and you are only serving apps? If you only serve apps people will not stay long.

Another option is move your ceremony to a later time like 8 and have just hors devours or desserts.

EDIT to add:
Or if you do HEAVY hor devours that would be enough to suffice as a meal.
This.

I'd also beware of the heavy hor devours option. My mom, sister and I would be perfectly fine making a meal like that, but I know my H, his parents, and my dad would not be. If it isn't a big portion of food all on one big plate, it isn't dinner to them, and I don't think that is an uncommon opinion.

I agree with this. Also, I really think people tend to under order when doing an appetizer only reception. I've been to a few that clearly did not have enough food. Unless you move your reception to a non-meal time (as Stage suggested, either 2pm or 8pm), you need to provide hearty, heavy appetizers, and a lot of them.

Viczaesar · July 2013

QueerFemme said:

Liatris2010 said:

huynhette said:

Unfortunately, your wedding is occurring at a meal time, therefore you should provide a meal.

Normal work schedule gets out at 5pm. Most people will want to go home, change, and commute to your ceremony, attend then reception. There is absolutely no opportunity for them to eat. So they will be starving and you are only serving apps? If you only serve apps people will not stay long.

Another option is move your ceremony to a later time like 8 and have just hors devours or desserts.

EDIT to add:
Or if you do HEAVY hor devours that would be enough to suffice as a meal.
This.

I'd also beware of the heavy hor devours option. My mom, sister and I would be perfectly fine making a meal like that, but I know my H, his parents, and my dad would not be. If it isn't a big portion of food all on one big plate, it isn't dinner to them, and I don't think that is an uncommon opinion.

I agree with this. Also, I really think people tend to under order when doing an appetizer only reception. I've been to a few that clearly did not have enough food. Unless you move your reception to a non-meal time (as Stage suggested, either 2pm or 8pm), you need to provide hearty, heavy appetizers, and a lot of them.

But also, keep in mind that if you have your wedding at 2 pm on a Friday the number of people who can/will attend your wedding will probably be drastically cut.

RebeccaB88 · July 2013

An 8pm ceremony followed by a dessert reception would be lovely, yummy, and appropriate.

jessicabessica · July 2013

If I had just had a full day of work, I don't think I would last very long at a late reception that wasn't serving a meal. I'd be hungry/tired, and I wouldn't be able to dance the whole time--dinner also provides a time for people to sit down for a stretch. I don't know how many of your guests work a M-F schedule, but that's how I would feel.

julesinthesand · July 2013

You can also do a bit of both. Some tasty apps and then a simple buffet featuring a chicken dish, lasagna, salad and veg/cous cous type of side. Agree that "lots" of apps can add up quickly.

thisismynickname2 · July 2013

I attended a Friday, 7pm chapel ceremony with an 8pm appetizer/dessert bar/dancing reception and it was the best wedding ever. I'm not being sarcastic, I'm being honest. By not having a sit-down, we got to mingle more, and we got to the dancing that much faster.

The couple had a carving station with meats, cheeses (which by the way in summer kind of smelled, but oh well), seafood salad, and like I said- huge dessert bar (no official cake).

Go for it! I enjoy non-traditional.

d2va · July 2013

I usually eat dinner at around 8pm. So, If Im leaving work at 6pm run to take a shower I can maybe be there for a 7:00 - 7:30pm ceremony... but I would be starving, and extra super judgy if there wasn't a full meal provided.

MandyMost · July 2013

thisismynickname said:

I attended a Friday, 7pm chapel ceremony with an 8pm appetizer/dessert bar/dancing reception and it was the best wedding ever. I'm not being sarcastic, I'm being honest. By not having a sit-down, we got to mingle more, and we got to the dancing that much faster.
The couple had a carving station with meats, cheeses (which by the way in summer kind of smelled, but oh well), seafood salad, and like I said- huge dessert bar (no official cake).

Go for it! I enjoy non-traditional.

If there's a carving station and stuff, that's more than just appetizers the way I think about it...it's almost more like a buffet dinner. If you're going to do an "apps only" reception (is that usually called a "cocktail reception"?), then you should have some really heavy stations, such as a pasta station and a carving station, along with salads, bread, cheeses, and traditional appetizers.

MyNameIsNot · July 2013

jessicabessica said:

If I had just had a full day of work, I don't think I would last very long at a late reception that wasn't serving a meal. I'd be hungry/tired, and I wouldn't be able to dance the whole time--dinner also provides a time for people to sit down for a stretch. I don't know how many of your guests work a M-F schedule, but that's how I would feel.

This. Most people with M-F jobs are not going to have time to get a meal and before a wedding on Friday night, even if it is at 8-8:30.

If you're talking about heavy hor d'oerves (e.g. carving station, pasta station, fajita station), you'll be fine. Those stations and heavy apps actually work well for a Friday night, because you save some time on the dinner portion. If you're talking about some stuffed mushrooms and bruchetta, you aren't going to have enough food.

Friday Night Hors Devours only reception?

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