What food are you having

[sillygal]

I need a bit of inspiration + I am a nosey mare.

I dont know where to start. I haven't even decided if I am having a proper wedding breakfast or just a buffet or what.

Whats everyone else doing????

[Derekpen]

More information needed before an informed piece of advice could be offered.

How many guests attending?

What kind of venue?

What time of day are you marrying?

Time allowed for photos?

What time would you want to eat?

Are any other guests arriving in the evening?

[sillygal]

Thank u Derekpen, i hope u can help

(guests) rough estimate is 80 day guests and an extra 30 - 40 in the eve

(venue) We are having a church wedding and the masonic hall after (outside catering reqd)

(wedding time) Wedding is at 2pm

(photo time) I am asking for short photo session as i don't want it taking up the bulk of the afternoon (1hr ish)

(what time to eat) This is the problem I am thinking that by the time everyone is settled we will have to rush a wedding breakfast so we are all finished for the evening guests

Hope u can help

[titianmac]

Hello!
We've literally just finalised our plans with the venue and can therefore confidently report they are as follows:-

Ceremony, wedding breakfast and evening reception with buffet all in one venue- A hotel that is an old victorian mansion.

Ceremony at 3pm. photos blah blah and welcome drinks. (Gone for tea and orange juice instead of pimms) Receiving line at 5pm. Sitting down for meal at 5:30pm.

We opted for a simple 3 couse- We're having
*Cream of tomato & basil soup as a starter,
*Traditional Roast beef dinner for main,
(the vegetarians had loads of choice but decided on the roast without meat for which we received a discount)
*Vanilla cheesecake with raspberry coulis for dessert.
They're then serving the tea and coffee for slurping while the speaches are done.
We have 50 adults,3 children, 1 toddler and a baby attending! Orange juice, chicken nuggets,peas & chips for the little ones )

The evening do is starting at 7:30 and there are about 150 attending. At 9pm we're having the buffet served... we chose from the various options and came up with-
*assorted sandwiches,
*melton pie,
*veg samosas,
*assorted quich (inc veg),
*Deep fried chicken with lemon & herb dip(posh drumsticks ;o)),
*sausage rolls,
*Ham cheese and pineapple pizza slices,

We're serving the wedding cake as the evening sweet.

We're happy with this but it varies massively wedding to wedding. I think if the wedding is late enough you can get away with serving a hot buffet at about 7 but earlier weddings hold better with a meal then buffet later- as heavy or light as you choose. We opted for simple, boring and traditional but to be honest with the cost mounting to about 3,500 including the wine at the table we wanted to be sure there was nothing quirky that people could leave on their plates.... its value for money!
These days its quite trendy to theme the food and have Pie and chips, sausage & mash etc- and a good old sticky cake and custard pudding so the choice really is yours. You've got outside caterers so you can play with the menu to your hearts content cant you??!! We had some scope but were basically working from pre set choices.

Give some thought to how many old/young, vegetarian, allergies, diabetics, etc are attending. It sounds daft but they add up! Ask if you can vary the menu or are allowed only one choice for each set of people- it can open up a whole new world if the chef lets you... lastly, chose something you will enjoy! Tweek the menu to suit you... all good caterers work from scratch so if you want gravy with no onions tell them! if you want plain chessecake with a fruit side tell them! Dont turn into bridezilla but remember they are working for you and you have the ultimate say. Just dont forget to listen to their advise because we do this once, they do it at least once weekly!!!!!

[Lynnms]

We've finalised our plans too.

Ceremony at 12:00, followed by photos outside church (20-30 mins), then on to the venue, welcome drink - we've gone for Bucks Fizz, more photos (another 30-40 mins), sit down meal for 70 at 2:00 consisting of coarse pate with melba toast(melon for vegetarians & as backup), chicken with white wine & mushroom sauce(optional) and seasonal veg(salmon for vegetarians & as backup), apple lattice with fresh cream(fresh fruit salad as backup) & followed by coffee & mints. We decided, as the only children we're having at the wedding breakfast are our nieces & nephews, that we'd give the children the same as the adults only smaller portions for the younger ones.

Then for the evening we're having a finger buffet, served at 8:30 - sandwiches, quiches, cocktail sausages etc, but instead of cattering for the 120 guests we're inviting, our venue has recommended that we only cater for 80 as most of the guests will have eaten a 3 course meal earlier.

We're also looking into having a chocolate fountain in the evening, 10lbs of chocolate & lots to dip in it such as small profiteroles, strawberries, grapes, marshmallows etc. This is my H2bs idea - never realised he liked chocolate so much, I'll have to hide my stash better!

We were given a list of meun ideas, but the venue told us, that as long as the chef was happy to cook it, we could have anthing we wanted. The only draw back would have been the price, our catering & drink is nearing the 3500 mark.

At least that's one more thing of my to-do list, only another 101 things to organise!

[Derekpen]

Let's see;

Wedding 2pm -2.30ish

Photos 1 hr 2.30-3.30ish

Drinks & Receiving line 3.30-4.30ish

Sit down & Eat including speeches 4.30 -7.00 ish

Turnaround time / flexi buffer 7.00-7.30

Start evening reception 7.30

Meet and great extra 40 guests 7.30 - 8.30

First dance 8.30ish

Buffet / supper 9.00 or 9.30 [depends on finish time]

12.00 / 1.00 finish.

I've had to make some assumptions regarding distance from church to the Masonic hall and your preference for receiving lines and drinks reception but this time line appears to be both flexible enough and practical for a traditional style wedding day.

The unknown [X] Factor is SPEECHES!

Speeches can disrupt time lines and extend the wedding breakfast in some cases by more than an hour.

Titanmac's time line only allows 2 hours for the breakfast and the speeches. In my experience this is being very optimistic. I would wager that this will overrun by at least thirty minutes. This in it's self is not a problem, after all you want to enjoy the proceedings and take in the moment.
It may leave your guests outside in the bar for half an hour but they will understand and go with the flow. Also, most guests do not turn up dead on 7.30 do they.

[Derekpen]

Lynnms;

Great to see you have a venue that is flexible regarding food.

Most of the venue I visit regularly insist on providing plates on a one for one basis; ie; 150 guests = 150 buffet charges.

My only concern is time. Your 70 daytime guests will have eaten between 2.00 - 3.00. That means a gap of five and a half hours before your buffet.
I would expect them to be hungry again by then. If you were eating at a later time of say 4 / 5 pm I would not think it would be a problem, but as it is, together with another 50 evening guests, catering for only 80 in total may be a bit thin?

I guess it all depends on the chocolate fountain. I have not seen one at a wedding so far, mainly corporate events and the like. I suppose its a question of balance, choice and cost.

[titianmac]

We were advised by the venue the meal and speeches will be about 2hours and 30 on average. I know however that the grooms speeach will be over in record time and joking aside we've asked that the coffee be served in an informal fashion while the speeches start. Also, we requested that cooking times permitting we do not wish to have lenghty gaps between courses. Add to all this as its been said, people will be flexible and turn up late, we're cool. Best bit is that the evening reception is in a different room to the wedding breakfast so there's no lurking in the bar required if it does run over for some abnormal unplanned reason.
The receiving line if anything is going to be the nag as there is 30 mins for that slot but if done early the dinner cannot be served sooner. We've got 55 attending, 3 are children, ones a toddler, one a baby... that leaves 50- take out the bride, groom, bestman, both sets of parents and 4 bridesmaids and you're only left with 39 people to say a quick hello to!

Its all an individual thing at the end of the day- and still depends on your chosen dinner!
Have fun planning and keep smiling.

[titianmac]

argh yes.. the chocolate fountain... Mmmmmmmmm!

Sampled the delights at the wedding show held at birminghams nec september 2003. YUMMY!
It is absolutely awesome and a fantastic idea, pricey but stunning...

[Andi]

We have decided on tomato and basil soup to start. Roast chicken with all the trimmings. Roast vegitable lattice for the veggies (all 2 of them!!) and for desert there is a choice of toffee cheesecake or a chocolate gateau (both for me). Night time is going to be a buffet with all the usual stuff, sarnies, quiche, sausage rolls etc

[KRISSI]

i dont really want a sit down dinner,


would this seem takky and cheap to not have the sit down dinner,

id prefer just a larger better and earlier buffet,

any got any views on this

[bullet]

I went to a wedding last year that had no sit down meal. It was great because we were all moving about and mingling - which you can't do when you are placed in a seat and food brought to you. They had a huge buffet too which was great because often you get several plates with very little variety at buffets

[KRISSI]

yes thats exactly what i like, i love the mingling part, and having as much or as little to eat as you want,

and with a sit down dinner its hard trying to decide who's going to sit where!

[wonderys]

i agree you can save so many headaches of seating plans etc if you scrap the sit down meal. Our friends are having a hot buffet with all sorts of nice things like samosas and spring rolls and little hot finger food so its the best of both worlds maybe. I would have liked to have done the same thing but did not want to look like a copy cat