Have you been to a cocktail reception?

Re: Have you been to a cocktail reception?

• BlueBirdMB member

  

  February 2014

  I'd have a bunch of passed apps so that people don't rush to the buffet.  We had a cocktail hour and dinner in the same room.  The cocktail hour consisted of passed apps and two stationary app displays.  In both of our families, food is SUPER important. Like these people eat at weddings like they haven't seen food in weeks.  We knew there would be a rush to the stationary apps, so we warned the caterer and he suggested adding another passed apps and he would add servers.  There were tons of servers passing apps as people entered the room and they kept it flowing so that there were never lines.  

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• LondonLisa member

  

  February 2014

  What time is this happening? If it is a meal time, you need enough food to constitute a meal.

  
  

  Also, with chairs, if it isn't assigned, you will need more than guests, as people will sit with their friends and move chairs around. A good gauge is number of guests+20% for tables and chairs.

  
  

  More often than not, if it is a buffet, everyone will go to the food first. No one wants a cold meal or to have something they want to run out (I'm sure you will mitigate against this, but people are strange around buffets!). I agree that have a lot of apps passed in order to not make 1 big buffet queue. Also, have a few stations in order to break up the line into smaller areas. Also, have non-manned food scattered around on smaller tables, like veggies, pita bread and hummus, cheese etc

  
  

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• ei34 member

  

  February 2014

  I attended a cocktail reception last year and really enjoyed myself.  There was an open bar, passed hors d'oeuvres and lots of different stations already set up as the guests entered the room.  From what I remember, the stations were a seafood bar, pasta station, carving station, mashed potato bar, fruit/veggie/cheese display, hot and cold antipasti, and sushi station.  There wasn't a long buffet set up an hour in...since the stations were in different parts of the room and were constantly replenished, there weren't any long lines.  Towards the end, desserts were brought out but even they were separated to avoid one long line.

  As another PP said, there were more seats available than guests- we all kind of moved around a lot to mingle since there wasn't assigned seating.  There was a jazz quartet playing nice background music but there wasn't really dancing.  The reception was around 2.5 hours which felt about right.

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• Fairyjen1 member

  

  February 2014

  One of my cousins had one. She had an 8pm wedding, but they served more than enough apps to make up dinner if you were hungry. She had both passed apps and stationary app stations. There wasn't assigned seating, but plenty of seats and small tables all around. she did end up with an 8k bar bill, but that's a whole 'nother story. She is the only one in my family (at least until my wedding) to not have a cash bar.

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