Suggestions for an affordable cocktail hour

Are you talking hors D’oeuvres? If it’s just for an hour, give or take, and you’re hosting cocktails during the transition prior to a full meal, just light snacks, if any, are necessary. This would eliminate the need for a caterer. Am I understanding your question?

You can get trays of pre-sliced cheeses, boxes of assorted crackers, and large amounts of veggies from places like Costco for a very good price. That's what we're doing; just enough to give people a nibble if they need something to hold them over until dinner. I did some estimates in my head last time I went in the store and think my total for 130 guests was around $175.

Do you have a caterer for dinner? Do they allow you to bring in your own food for cocktail hour? Many don’t so I would look over your contract with them first. Fruit and veggie trays along with cheese and crackers is a good start but if that’s all your doing I’d try to limit this to 30 minutes. At least where I’m from, cocktail hours are huge with several passed apps, cheese/veggie/fruit platters, and sometimes stations as well.

If there is going to be a time between the ceremony and dinner where guests will be drinking then there should be some sort of food involved. If you have a caterer for dinner, I would speak with them about cocktail hour food. A lot of caterers are willing to work within a certain budget and they know best what they can create and serve. Where I am located most places are priced per person and that includes the cocktail hour. Food for the cocktail hour varies from venue to venue. Our venue package we went with offers either a bruschetta bar or cheese and fruit display, a long with 2 passed appetizers. Every wedding I have been to has at least had a cheese/crackers display along with a fruit and veggie platter during the cocktail hour.

Who is providing your dinner food? It may be cheaper for them to bundle the cocktail hour in, that’s what most do. If you go to Costco route as listed above who will keep the food cold? Who will put the food out? What about booze?
The average room flip is about one hour so you need to feed and booze people for that long too.

If you have a separate space, you could have a couple “serve yourself” tables set up. Have one with drinks, you can have bins with beer, cute cans of sparkling wine, and some water.

You could have another table with large container of various sizes and shapes with different things like popcorn, trail mix, nuts, dried fruit, and candy. You can have Little custom paper bags printed up so people can make their own snack mix. You could make it really cute and simple... with no hot or cold food that requires set up, monitoring, and maintenance.

Thank you everyone for all your help!

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I love this idea!

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We have a caterer that will be providing dinner. I want something simple and low maintenance.

I think we will limit this time to only 30 minutes. Everything will be set up fr the reception, chairs 50-60 just have to be moved to the tables.

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I'm sure your caterer can help you with this, and keeps things reasonable, cost-wise.