Appetizer only Reception

If you have your event during dinner time, your guests will be hungry, no way around it unfortunately. You run the risk of people leaving early to go get dinner. As your guest, even if I ate “dinner” ahead of time at 3:30-4:00 in order to make it to your 5:00 ceremony, I’m still going to be hungry around dinner time, and appetizers are only going to hold me over so long. You already have Sunday night working against you a little bit, so personally I wouldn’t also add the risk of watching hungry guests leave early. That being said, have you looked into other more affordable options vs. catering? Mexican, Italian, Pizza, BBQ all might be affordable options within budget.

View Quoted Comment Our venue has a set catering company that we have to go with, so we can’t choose another company just another method of food serving.

I agree with PP, this is not advisable. My dinner time is between 5 and 6. And 10 is past my bedtime, so I wouldn’t want to eat after.
I would leave rather upset to get dinner

I agree with Stacey. With your reception being held during dinner time then a full mean is definitely necessary otherwise guests are going to leave early to go get food because they will be hungry. I can tell you from experience that my brother-in-law and his wife served a full meal, but the food they picked was rather unique and I'm a picky eater so I barely ate and by the time we left I was starving.

I agree with the others. If you want to do appetizers I would do an early ceremony like 1 or 2 then appetizers following but are you expecting a full late night reception??? If so, I would feed them well. I know I come to weddings that are in the evening hungry expecting a full meal. Are you looking for an evening wedding or would you consider an earlier wedding?

View Quoted Comment We can’t do an earlier wedding as there is another wedding at the venue the same day.

View Quoted Comment Even with heavy apps and small bites like sliders and meatballs and pasta cups? I’m talking real apps not just cheese and fruit

You serve dinner if it is during dinner time... this screams I could not afford to invite all of you, but here you are. Do an afternoon reception like 1-4 of appetizers if you don’t want dinner...

View Quoted Comment Ahhhhh I see. Well your best option if you're looking to save money is state in the invitations that appetizer reception to follow. I would just ask you to reflect on this because like others have said you're already having a wedding on a Sunday in which some people may not want to stay until 10 as they probably will have to go into work the next day and may not take the day off. Also, would you be offended if people stay for the ceremony and leave the reception early? I'm not saying that I would. I would try to be there as long as possible but for some people as you read above they may not stay very long if they know that there will not be a full menu served. However it seems like if you're going for a 5 p.m. ceremony and the venue closes at 10 I would say between the ceremony and Then followed by pictures and all of that by the time you do everything guess maybe ready to leave anyhow as 5 hours isn't horribly long for a full wedding. So realistically you could probably do everything from 5 until 9 but again I would just forewarn the guess that there's not going to be a full menu because I went to one wedding that was very meager and budget and it was barely appetizers afterwards and that's fine but I would have liked to have been notified because afterwards we all end up going out to eat.

View Quoted Comment

Honestly, sliders, meatballs and pasta cups really aren't that filling so you'd need to serve a ton in order for your guests not to be hungry which could very easily end up being the same cost for a full meal because of just how much you'd need to serve.

View Quoted Comment We can’t move it forward because of another wedding before ours. And yes we can’t afford to invite everyone anymore as we were not expecting everything in 2020 to happen, but I would rather cut our food than our guest list.

If you host people during traditional meal times, you must serve them a meal. In many places, restaurants will be closed by the time your reception ends, and so people will be left without a meal.

You can limit the menu if you need to save money, but it still must be a meal.

People serve heavy appetizers (coconut shrimp, chicken waffles, crab cakes, egg rolls, taco stations, carving stations etc etc) all the time and guests do not go hungry. It's very common in NYC cocktail hours where guests are so full they dont have room for the plated dinner following. Serving tea sandwiches and cheese trays only are not filling. During a meal time you need to serve 12-20 pieces per person of the hearty appetizers to equal/surpass the quantity of food of a plated meal. But it is not an inexpensive option.

View Quoted Comment Eeks, well, just put appetizer reception to follow from like 5-7. Best wishes!

This does not sound like a good idea, and I wouldn't recommend it. Your reception is being held at prime dinnertime, and not serving a full meal isn't very polite to your guests. I would downsize your guest list WAY before considering downsizing your food. Or, since you can't hold your event earlier in the day, switch to a different day. If you hold your reception during a non-meal time, appetizers only can work. Not during the timeline you're proposing though...

View Quoted Comment No. Cut your guest list. Or move your wedding to another time. If you invite guests to a wedding during a mealtime (lunch or dinner) then you need to serve them a meal. You don’t *need* to invite people you can’t afford to host.

So you're downsizing from a full meal to appetizers only and cutting the whole bar in order to to be able to afford to accommodate more guests? Please don't do this. Only invite the number of guests you can afford to host properly. Or, hold your event during a non-mealtime such as 2 pm. Not to be rude, but if I were invited to a Sunday dinnertime wedding with appetizers only and no alcohol, I would probably leave.

Unfortunately, there is really no good way to have a wedding during a meal time and not serve a full meal. If people are going to a 5pm wedding, they are expecting to have a full dinner. Personally, I would be more than a little annoyed if my husband and I came to a dinner time wedding, gave a $200 or so monetary gift and were handed some sliders and meatballs with some water to wash it down with. Invite the amount of people you can host properly. I feel like if you have to either cut the level of hosting or the number of people, cutting the number of people is the better option.

View Quoted Comment

It's very rude to cut your food if your reception is at a meal time. If you're hosting an event during a meal time, you need to serve enough food to constitute a meal (and if you do that with appetizers it's going to be more expensive than simply serving a plated or buffet meal because of the labor involved in the meal prep). You need to either figure out how to pay for a meal for your guest list or cut your guest list.

Heavy appetizers aren't necessarily cheaper. Trust me. I've crunched numbers to see where I could save


It's also crazy rude to have people at your wedding from 5 to 10 but not serve them a proper meal. You'll have a lot of hungry, grumpy guests leaving early. There are a lot of cheap catering options.
I agree you already have the Sunday evening time slot acting as a disadvantage. A dry wedding can work, but a dry evening wedding during mealtime, with no substantive food, for a total of 5 hours sounds unbearable. I'd rather have a cash bar to save money
Only invite the number of guests you can properly host. What you are currently contemplating screams of cheap, inconsiderate, and gift grabby