Afternoon tea & hog roast?

Blue_Monkey

We're in the early days of planning our wedding and it's been a while since I've been to one, so I need your help on timing/logistics/keeping guests entertained...

We like the idea of afternoon tea straight after the ceremony whilst people are mingling / photos being taken... I also like the idea of a hog roast in the evening.

Now I might have it wrong in my head (baby brain at the mo), but would a hog roast work as a sit-down meal? If it doesn't, then there's two lots of food with no real structure and I wonder if this would make things a bit haphazard. We are after a fairly informal day....

Also, what about timings? What would we do in between the two lots of food?? We'll probably have just all-day guests - around 120-130, and as we're hiring a pretty expensive marquee, I'd like to get maximum use out of it... Would this work:

Ceremony - 2.30pm
Drinks/photos/mingling/afternoon tea - 3.00pm
Speeches - 5.00pm
Hog roast - 6.00pm (or should this be later?)
Disco - 7.30pm

Or does a sit down not matter so much? How would we gather people for speeches? Surely with a hog roast some people would've finished by the time the last people get theirs if it's a buffet-basis?

Argh - being pregnant has scuppered my ability to think about this clearly...

lollyb84

It's entirely you're choice (it is your day after all), but I would suggest evening food a little later, depending on what you are having for afternoon tea, and how many 'extra' people are attending the evening. To give you an idea our timings were;

2pm - ceremony
2.30pm - drinks reception and canapes
4pm - receiving line then speeches
4.30pm - 3 course meal
7pm - disco
8.30pm - bufffet

As we had a 3 course meal, we wanted to make the evening food a little later - as it was, lots got left. We catered for 75% and about 25 of the 60 people we had in the evening hadn't been there for the meal.

HTH

dally1

Hi
My daughter is having this for her wedding next June, her afternoon tea is going to be fairly substantial and 'fully served' so guests will be seated as for a traditional meal. The timings she has worked out are:

1.30-2pm - civil ceremony
2-3.30pm - photos and drinks reception
3.30pm - people get seated
3.45pm-4.15pm - speeches
4.15pm-6.15pm - afternoon tea
6.15pm-7pm - contingency time and chilling time
7pm - evening guests arrive
7.30pm - first dance and disco starts
9pm - hog roast served (buffet style)
12 midnight - end


Hope this helps.

Gill


12 midnight - end

Brighton_belle

Just a thought; people will still probably want to sit down for afternoon tea as you can't stand and hold a tea cup and a plate of cake/sandwiches.
We got married last week and did afteroon tea as the whole reception. We started out thinking it would be an informal thing but came to realise that a seating plan would work much better and it did. Pepople who wanted to mingle were still able to after the speeches, which we had straight away.

Blue_Monkey

Thanks all, I hadn't thought of doing it that way around - ie Afternoon Tea sat down and the hog roast as more of a buffet... Kind of makes sense if I think about it........! I like the idea of tiered cake stands instead of centrepieces.... Plus I imagine less of a faff to get sandwiches and scones out to people than making sure everyone gets their pork at the right time!

Brighton_belle

Blue_Monkey wrote: »

Thanks all, I hadn't thought of doing it that way around - ie Afternoon Tea sat down and the hog roast as more of a buffet... Kind of makes sense if I think about it........! I like the idea of tiered cake stands instead of centrepieces.... Plus I imagine less of a faff to get sandwiches and scones out to people than making sure everyone gets their pork at the right time!

We borrowed vintage china BM, (all unmatching, collected from charity shops by various people) and used cake stands as the centre piece and it looked so pretty - everyone went 'wow'.
Much less faff. We have had so much complimentary feedback on the whole look, taste and experience of the afternoon tea. People loved it's simplicity too.
We had 4 differnt kinds of cake - all made small enough not to need cutlery (therefore less expence and hassle) and 4 differnt types of sandwiches, mini bite size pasties (ricotta and musroom) and small savoury biscuits. These were ll laid out ready (for max decorative effect) for when we came into the reception. Then my DH and I formed a 2 'man' greeting line and everyone came up and to gret us, a table at a time and then collected sandwiches form a table next to us and went back to their table. We had a small reeption for 35 so it worked well for us. If you 150 you might want the sandwiches served,lol.
Having the seating plan made everyone fell confident of what was happening next really and mingling began to happen naturally after the first hour.

Rotherham_Lass

We are doing exactly the same at our wedding next June. We are going for the whole shabby chic/garden fete theme with antique trios and cake plates from ebay and charity shops and bunting etc as decoroations.

We are getting married at 2.30pm then drinks and photos, then afternoon tea all seated with table plans then hog roast much later in the evening at about 8-8.30pm.

For our afternoon tea we are planning on traditional sandwiches, scones and pastries with tea/coffee/pimms then with the hog roast bread and salads.

lizd87

All good ideas doing it that way round, but it is possible to do a hog roast buffet as a sit down meal if you're having this sort of reception. We're having canapes when everyone arrives (4pm ish - all our guests are coming for everything) and a hog roast at about 6pm. everyone's going to go up table by table and then have the hog roast sat down.

Blue_Monkey

Thanks all... My next question is if we do seated afternoon tea and then hog roast in the evening - where will people sit for that bit? We'll be clearing some tables for dancing etc, so would they just mill about and sit where they want/can?

Rotherham_Lass

A lot of people will stand for a hog roast as it is just sandwich/salad etc. Maybe clear the tables away but keep some extra chairs around the sides?

Blue_Monkey

Ooh I can almost smell it all coming together!

Now - what do you think about the idea of having some bits like sports day races or giant games (the more traditional ones like Pick Up Sticks or Bowling, rather than Connect 4)?

Obviously weather dependent, I'd love to get a game of rounders going! Not sure how practical this would be in wedding attire though!!