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

A question about : Just having ceremony and reception... no sit down meal. Anyone done this?

Hi MSErs
After a long engagement, we have decided to bite the bullet and attempt to get married next year (probably between March and May).

We have to do this within a pretty small budget, so already looking to book it for a Friday in an attempt to get cheaper prices.

However, have any of you got married or been to weddings where the traditional sit down meal has been skipped?

If so how did it go? My worry is that there will be that short bit of time around tea time where people will be feeling hungry.

I thought of maybe a 2 part buffet where early attendees to the reception from the ceremony have a selection to eat from, then have it replenished for the night time gathering?

I did think of hiring a small restaurant for ceremony attendees only for a meal as thought it may be cheaper than arranging a sit down, however I cant think of any reasonably priced, whilst decent restaurants locally that could be up for the job.

Thanks

Best answers:

• I has this dilemma.
  You could opt for a late ceremony I.e 4pm so people are likely to have lunch etc. we have ended up with 4pm as the registrar couldn't do any earlier and actually it's fine for us.
  You could possibly serve some canap!s at the ceremony depending on where you do it-the venue we are using is council approved and can bring in food and drink providing you pay for the hire which in our case is minimum 2 hours anyway and thy ceremony should only take 15-20 mins. We aren't bothering now but would have maybe done this if ceremony was earlier.
  Afternoon tea style is quite popular. Sandwiches and cakes etc.
  I wouldn't bother with 2 actual buffets personally as think it could get complicated.
  Guess it kind of depends where your ceremony is etc.
  In the end I was lucky to find a reception venue doing a per head cost of Ј31.50 pet adult for 3courses, and includes welcome drink/toast/wine with meal. Perfect for us and they are happy with our low numbers. Incidentally they were no cheaper on a Friday!
• I got married at 3pm went straight to a reception with buffet and was home all done and dusted by 9pm.
  The food was out about 4:30 so 'tea time' and everyone went home not long after.
  Noone seemed to complain, not that I would have cared if they did, it was about me not them and I needed to go home to sleep!
• We got married at four and had a hot buffet at eight. Worked fine for us, I think it's not unusual nowadays.
• As a child attending extended family members (mostly my Dad's cousins)weddings in the 70s and early 80s, it wasn't unusual to have a buffet as the meal. It followed exactly the same format as a sit down meal with line up of bridal party to greet guests, speeches, toasts etc but then the buffet would 'open' and usually the bride and groom would get their food first. I did go to one wedding where the buffet food had already been spread amongst several plates on the different tables people were sat at.
• Thanks all for your info.
  What are the options for hot buffets? Do they work out quite expensive?
  Ive heard people mention hog roasts are pretty good for price per person, haven't a clue how much they can be though?
• My friend had a hot buffet at her reception last year, purely (I believe) because it was so much cheaper, then a hog roast in the evening.
  However, when I was looking at evening food options I've found hog roasts really unreasonable We're now having a BBQ in our evening - chicken wings, sausages, veggies, burgers etc - and it's worked out cheaper than a hog roast!
• Oh sorry meant to say, my friends hot buffet (if I remember rightly) was the choice of lasagna and hot pot.. I think. With a few bits on the side like salad, red cabbage etc.
• We had hot buffet for my daughters January baptism and it was a lot cheaper than the cold run and grab style.. and we had leftovers to bring home! NOM!
• First of all, congratulations! Please remember the line you'll see in signatures about it not being about the day but the marriage thereafter. Quote it as often as you need when dealing with those suffering from hallucinations of tulle & tiaras.
  The families may want (& in some cases, need) a place to sit & will expect food & drink. Which makes afternoon tea really canny timewise but may not suit everyone. Or their expectations.
  We had a registry office ceremony, family meal & then changed into the Great White etc for the extended family remix on no-longer-sanctified but still credibly devout ground.
  I'm guessing a family huddle at a Wetherspoons isn't acceptable? Or a chip supper in a park?
  Almost everything is possible with judicious planning & detailed expectation management.
  Wishing you all the very best for a long & happy marriage!
• We are having the registry office session at 3.30pm for close family only, with people then moving on to the reception venue half an hour away, and a buffet at about 7pm.
  People have asked us about the meal etc, but there really wouldn't be time for a sit-down meal after the registry office to finish in time for a decent evening reception unless it was all in the same place which we just cannot afford.
  Cheap and very cheerful is our theme!
• 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 ?
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• 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.
• 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!
• 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 Ј1000 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.
• 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 Ј100 on the cream tea and another Ј100 on one welcome drink and one glass of fizz per person for toasting. We did also spend about Ј120 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, Ј50 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 Ј50 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.....
• Some cracking replies here I'm liking the cream tea idea on arrival. Thanks all and keep ideas and suggestions coming