Appetizer/Dessert Reception Menu- thoughts?

I think it sounds great. What time is your reception? It would be better if it were in the afternoon, between meals.

It's starting at 8pm, right after the ceremony. I know people have this thing about these kind of receptions being during the day, from 2-5pm or something, but I prefer nighttime receptions, so we decided on a later evening one. I calculated the time that would be late enough for dinner to be eaten beforehand. BUT in case people forgot to eat, I wanted there to be enough savory food for them not to be overloaded with sweets- the savory options is about 10 pieces per person, and 6 sweet pieces per person

I like the concept. However, my concern would be that you don't have enough of some menu items to serve even half your guests. If you're setting it up for "grazing" throughout the night, you might be okay, but I wouldn't risk having unhappy guests who weren't able to eat much at your reception because you ran out of the majority of the menu items before they had a chance to get to them. The risk of doing that gets even higher if you do buffet style, as the people at the front of the line will likely take one of everything, leaving the people at the back of the line with a couple of meatballs and the leftover baby carrots.

I'd recommend if you are on a strict budget or overly concerned about waste, to have less variety, but more of each menu item.

I agree I don't think this is enough! At least enough for guests to have one of everything and then 2-3 of the smaller things. I would inhale some mini quiches so you definitely don't have enough of those!

I think you both might be right about not enough for each person. So cutting out one or 2 options, and doubling the amounts of some of the appetizers? The quiches and spirals are easy enough to double amounts of! The meatballs are the most expensive item, so I'd rather not add more...but I will if needed. Maybe cut the potatoes completely and add more meatballs. I can easily make more desserts, so that's fine. I'm only making 30 gluten free brownies because my future SIL is gluten free and a few others are as well, but I don't think others would choose the gluten free over regular? Hmm. Thanks for your opinions! I really appreciate it

Sure cut the meatballs if you have to and do double of something else. Definitely better to have fewer options than to run out of a favorite item!

All the options sound delish though

That is very true. I just know I like having options, so thought maybe people would be disappointed if they only had a few things to choose from. But good to know that's not what people will be worried about!

Oh! And it'll be from 8-11ish. We have about 15 families with kids who I assume will leave by 10, and about 6 older ones who also will most likely leave early too. My plan is to have 3 long tables set up double sided, so people don't have to be in that many lines. One table for cake and some desserts, one table for appetizer foods, and one table for drinks and other desserts. I'm trying to make it as easy for my guests as possible!

I agree with everyone who's said your menu might not be enough. I'm concerned with 120 guests, you're not going to have enough food. How many hours is your reception? I would actually cut the potatos altogether and add more meatballs. You want to be sure you have enough food to feed everyone at least once, ideally a second round since it's just appetizers and a lighter fare. If you're having a reception that will last at least 3-4 hours, I would make sure you have enough food for seconds for 75% of your guests, at a minimum.

It's 3 hours long. Also, 25 of those are children under 13, with 15 of them 6 or younger. I'm not so much worried about feeding them seconds, since they have desserts to go to. If needed we can add a bunch of sandwiches, it's not really a problem, and I already cut the potatoes and added more meatballs...but I will say that 10-12 appetizer pieces per person is what I've read is enough food. And we have 10-11 appetizer pieces plus 6-7 dessert pieces per person as it is after adding the extras I mentioned in my edited post! But I'll keep that in mind about people possibly wanting seconds!

I think you need soda. preferably booze, but at least soda.

Do you have a station option? Like tacos or pasta or carving?

I was thinking of soda, but then I thought it might be too much sugar. I'll consider it though! And no alcohol; I've heard bad things of people getting sick with mixing too much sugar and alcohol No station either. If we could afford to spend more on the wedding, believe me, it would go all toward the food. Unfortunately we can't, so I'm trying to work with what I have!

It's not enough. And it's dry? No. Do it in the afternoon, let people know, on the invite, that it's cocktails, but at 8;00, they will assume it's dinner.

(Join us for a cocktail reception following the ceremony.)

You can do a wine punch or sangria for not a lot of money (probably cheaper than soda).

I think you have too much dessert and not enough apps. I'm not a dessert person, so I might be biased. Have you considered doing tacos or pasta instead of dessert/apps? It might end up saving you money in the long run.

Not enough apps, especially the spinach dip - people love that shit.

Celia- It will be mentioned on the invitation that it's apps/desserts only, so that people don't make that assumption. The venue time is already booked, and I wanted an evening wedding. We specifically made it at 8 pm so people would have time to eat dinner beforehand. And most weddings we go to are dry, so that's not a problem around here!

Samantha- We originally were just going to do a dessert reception, because we both love desserts, but I read a bunch about it, and I know there's people who don't like desserts so we added appetizers. I have considered tacos, and there's plenty of taco places around the area, but honestly that's not very me and I wanted something that was more us. Pasta was an option though!

Rachael- Yeah that's what I was thinking. My fiance lovesssss spinach dip, so maybe I'll at least double the amount of that haha

I can always add more food if necessary, but it IS supposed to be an after dinner thing, so I was thinking 15 or 16 pieces of food per person would be plenty. Everyone seems to think it's not enough, though, so maybe I'll add a more filling option! $10/person is not a lot of money for food, especially not in this area, so I'll see what I can do :/

But it's *not* and after-dinner thing! 8pm reception following a 30 minute ceremony means I have to be at your venue at 7:15 pm. That means to make sure I can get there in time I'd be eating at 5pm and even then nothing can go wrong or take too long or involve traffic. That's even crazy early by parents with kids standards. *And* it's 3 hours long. You need *a lot* more food - or to bank on the fact that a lot of people will leave after an hour to go get late night food or later full dinner somewhere.

Just because you prefer an evening reception, doesn't mean it's actually the best choice. I honestly think that you and your guests would enjoy this more as an earlier event.

As others have said, it's definitely not enough. If you were serving this before a meal, you'd want about 5 - 6 pieces per person, but in lieu of a meal, you want about 10 - 12 per person because people are going to be hungrier and eat more to stay satisfied.

Lindsay- It is 10-12 per person More actually, since I didn't include the fruit or veggies in that count. Plus desserts is another 5-6 per person. That's why I thought it was enough. I'm guessing kids will have 5-6 pieces plus dessert and grown men will have more like 15 or maybe more.

The updated list looks much better!

Are you able to add a couple of extra, heavier app's? Spring rolls, ham biscuits, sliders, a carving station (just an idea), a taco bar, or small slices of pizza (doubles for kid food)? If you get more protein in there except just spiral/meatballs, you can get people to fill up faster.