Just having ceremony and reception... no sit down meal. Anyone done this?

duchy

For me the people good enough to attend the ceremony are my guests and some of them may have travelled some distance/taken time off/refused other arrangements to share our day ......so the very least I can do is ensure they are fed at appropriate times and not left to wait to eat later.

A later ceremony time can mean you can get away with one "sitting" but the idea of a "ceremony" buffet is a nice one. If the evening is (say) a hot and cold buffet maybe have sandwiches and cakes for the earlier smaller one ?

arbrighton

We are having ceremony at 3(I think, I've booked it but can't quite remember!), then moving about ten min up the road for drinks in gardens then sit down meal for everyone, no buffet later on etc.
Only one list of guests for all bits

mickym

Those that had hot buffets... what did you guys have, and how many did you cater for? Could you give me an idea on price, and suppliers?

We are based near bedfordshire/hertfordshire.

We are looking to have 200 guests at the reception, with a smaller amount for the ceremony. Havent decided on this figure yet though.

daivid

No idea on price but a cousin's wedding a few years ago had a hot buffet - a bit of a cavery affair. The food was excellent and I'm sure cheaper than comparable full table service. They had around 120 guests, I believe the caterers that do this sort of hot buffet cater more for baptisms, parties and funerals so may not advertise for weddings but at the end of the day good food is good food I think.

One consideration would be older or less mobile guests, my granfather was about 90 at the time of the wedding so I was asked to collect his food for him - you may want to make similar arrangements where neccessary - I was happy to do so as I got my food before everyone else

nearlyrich

Many years ago when I married my first husband we had a late morning ceremony at the registry office and an evening do with the afternoon dedicated to sandwich making etc for the evening do. The ceremony guests were all close family so many of them came to help with the food for the evening.

mumtosix

I got married in Kew Gardens on a Sunday, we didn't have a sit down meal or in fact any meal, we asked people to bring a picnic & we provided the champagne & cake. It was a totally relaxed affair. My wedding wont be everyone's taste, but it was what we both wanted. We didn't have a photographer or flowers either!

PinkPrincess83

When we got married (just over two years ago) we were stuck with ideas that could work on a low budget.

I looked into a bbq or hog roast but these worked out quite expensive (for what you actually get), we then decided that we (well, mostly My Mum) could do some food for the day guests (about 45 people) and then we would get our venue to cater for the evening guests (about 100), but when I spoke with my venue they could actually do our day time food really reasonably priced so in the end we had:

3pm wedding

4:30 we had a sit down buffet - which had things like cold meats, salad, new potatoes, coleslaw, breads etc which worked out really well as it was such a warm day I'm not sure I cold have eaten a heavy hot meal), and pudding but also included setting up the room ready for us

9:00ish we had a hot buffet - things like sausages, sausage rolls, indian and chinese snacks, chips (and quite a few people actually commented that it was the nicest buffet they had had a reception)

In total I think our food bill came in at about £1000 which I think is great value for money.

I think I would work out the numbers that you have and then start looking at venues and getting ideas of what they can do and the costs and then compare it to other ideas (like catering yourself, hog roast, fish and chips seems to be quite popular at the moment, or bacon butties/ cheese on toast in the evening seems to be a cheaper and popular alternative). Also, I was advised that you don't need to necessarily cater for every guest, so we had 100 evening guests but I think we catered for something like 75-80 which saved us some money- and no one went without, there was still plenty there.

Good luck with your planning.

Evil_Olive

We did:
Ceremony at 4pm, light cream tea at 5pm, cold buffet at 8-9pm.
We made it clear on the info sheet sent with the invitations what food would be served and when so that people knew to have their own lunch beforehand.
The cream tea was just to fill in time and make sure people didn't get hungry before the evening buffet.
My stepsister was so taken with how it all went that she is changing her own wedding plans for next year to pinch the idea

We went with venues that were happy to let us use their kitchen facilities and provide our own food (village hall and pub function room). We had about 120 people daytime and 150 evening.

We bought all the scones/jam/cream/teabags etc from Asda and loads of frozen fresh cream cakes/eclairs from Iceland.

We spent about £100 on the cream tea and another £100 on one welcome drink and one glass of fizz per person for toasting. We did also spend about £120 on hiring some pretty crockery/cutlery/glasses though to make it look 'posh' but we could have used paper plates etc if we'd had to.
We gave two of my sisters friends, who weren't invited to the wedding, £50 each to prepare/lay everything out and serve it.

For the evening buffet we took up offers from good friends and close relatives who are decent cooks to make things for us instead of a wedding present. We ended up with loads of home made pies, quiches, pasta dishes, salads, cheesecakes, a pavlova, and - the piece de resistance - a whole poached salmon complete with the full 70s style aspic, langoustine and olive garnishes from an elderly relative who used to be a chef in a London hotel
plus we spent about £50 on extra bits like bread rolls, dips, picky bits and paper/plastic plates & cutlery.
Our evening venue had a paying bar, so that cost us nothing.

There was more than enough food - we lived off the leftovers between the wedding and honeymoon so that we didn't have to go food shopping (our wedding was at the end of the month)

A lot of people told us it was one of the best weddings they'd ever been to, so it didn't seem like people missed the formal sitdown meal.....

mickym

Some cracking replies here I'm liking the cream tea idea on arrival. Thanks all and keep ideas and suggestions coming

Skintski

We got married at 4pm and had afternoon tea afterwards for our 14 guests. Then we had a big party in the evening where we had a buffet. People were free to choose where they sat, there was no top table and we did the speeches before the food came out.