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They look good to me. Very heavy/substantial. I only worry that at 630pm, that is definitely "dinner time", and your guests may eat A LOT of appetizers. So much to the point that it might cost-wise balance out that you may as well serve dinner.
Could you go heavy on dessert, too? A few cakes and pies and whatnot are heavy, and people may skimp a little on the appetizers so they can have like, two pieces of dessert
Personally, I would try to change the time of the reception if I were only serving hors d'oeurves. That is right around dinner time and people will be hungry. If this is the only time you can have the reception, I would just make sure people know it is an hors d'oeurves only reception. And I would make sure to order a lot!
Will you be serving drinks and cake as well?
If you are going to do only appetizers, I suggest holding your wedding earlier in the day or later in the evening. 6pm is dinner time and guests will be expecting more food than you want to provide.
I am having an appetizers and desserts only reception at 3pm in the afternoon. People can eat what they want, then go out to dinner or go home after the reception is over. It's saving my FI and I a lot of money and I think everyone will still have a great time.
6pm is right around dinner time...even if you make sure to note on the invites that it's an appetizers only reception, people will likely still eat a lot more than they would at another time of day. At the end of it you may end up paying just as much as if you'd paid for a meal. Is it possible to change the time of the reception?
First of all I love the idea of an hors d'ouvres only reception, and it's what I would have done if (1) my family weren't so old-fashioned and (2) FI agreed with me. ;) But I agree; if you're doing it at dinner time, you should serve dinner, so I'd move the reception to later in the evening (or earlier). Even if you have plenty of substantial appetizers (and I'd say four options probably isn't enough if you're trying to substitute dinner), people don't feel as full and fed if they graze. Or at least they don't realize they feel that way.
I have been to two receptions that were held at dinner time. The first one was at 7 but the bride and groom were an hour late so they didn't "serve" food until 8. It was not communicated to the guests that dinner would not be served. I'm sure you can imagine how annoyed people were. The mother of the groom, who planned the wedding, said "I can't believe people just assumed that we would be serving dinner." Needless to say, most guests left around 9 to get food and they didn't come back. Then I went to another reception that started at 7 also. They put on the invitation that the reception would be Hors d'Oveurves. Everyone had a light meal before hand and snacked through out the night. It worked really well.
I guess my point is, make sure that your guests know that they won't be fed a full meal. Also make sure you allow enough time between the ceremony and reception for people to go get some food. Otherwise you may have most of your guests leave your reception to go get dinner.
I would rather not change the reception time, because I want to have the ceremony right as the sun is going down...
We're not having any alcohol at the wedding, so the cocktail hour is actually going to be a tea party. There's going to be a couple types of tea and four or five types of cookies- not super sugar bombs, more like digestives and shortbread and that sort of thing.
We're also having multiple layer cakes, rather than one tiered cake, so there's going to be plenty of dessert.
Copper Kettle is just an option at the moment. Our only other option is a catering company we have connections with. Their food is pretty good, and we might be able to have a sit-down meal, I just didn't want to go into picking a caterer with only one option on the table.
Also, Copper Kettle is DELICIOUS! It's the epitome of Southern comfort food. :)
As other posters have said, hors d'oeuvres are fine for a reception, the only problem is your reception is at dinner time. Guests will probably eat a ton of hors d'oeuvres and they may leave early (if they are still hungry). If possible, consider moving the time of the reception to earlier or later and make sure your invitations indicate you will only be serving hors d'oeuvres.
I agree since it's at dinner time, you definatley need to make sure people know you're not serving dinner.
Yummy! They definitely are substantial. But if you're on a tight budget and you only wanna do hors d'oeuvres, then changing the time might be ideal because a lot of venues lower the prices for a day time wedding. Maybe something like 2 or 3pm? If not, be sure to somehow mention on the invitation that there won't be dinner. I think that's totally acceptable, the hors d'oeuvres and the alcohol are my favorite part!
We're having an hors'doeuvres reception only as well. Our ceremony is at 3:30, with the reception following.
Seems like it's filling. Just make sure people know that it's hors'doeuvres only or have an amount that's comparable to a meal. We're speading the word by mouth to our guests, but we're only having 50 guests so it's not that hard.
I was just at a hors'd reception this weekend, the food was really good and filling even though it was around dinner time, and no one was hungry. It stated on the invite that there would be a cocktail reception following, so guests got more than expected! My one major complaint was that there was nowhere near enough seating/tables for the guests. It sucked trying to balance a plate of food and my clutch and my wrap all while trying to eat with high heels on. My feet hurt too much to really dance later, it was a bummer.
I'm doing what I consider to be an hors d'oeuvres only cocktail reception (phenomenal dj, lots of dancing, hopefully) and we also want to get married as the sun goes down. this is a formal sat evening deal in nyc... but along with the hors d'oeuvres, as the evening progresses, carving stations, pastas, salads and so forth will come out on tables with wait staff. but all this, according to the caterer, is still a (formal) cocktail reception. it's true, we're paying nyc prices, but maybe your caterer should throw in these so-called "stations" to round out the passing of appetizers?
This is exactly what we are doing too - I was told by most of the venues around here that if you do that, you should have about 8-10 pieces of heavy hor'deourves per person as opposed to the 3-5 pieces you would have normally if you also had a dinner.
-Bella
We had our ceremony at 6:30 pm and all we served we hors d'oeuvres. Everyone loved the idea and no one said anything about it being around dinner time. We included a note in our invitations that it was an hors d'oeuvres only reception, but I don't think it would've mattered because everyone got full on what we served! I debated back and forth also on this very subject, so I asked my family and friends and they all said it was a great idea!!! Good luck!!
Etiquette states that if you are hosting a reception AFTER 8:00pm that it is acceptable not to serve dinner. If you do not want to serve a meal (which I'm all for by the way), I definitely suggest making it very clear that it will be a "cocktail style reception" or something of the sort.
Gidgett,
That's a fantastic way to go! As a bride who was on a tight budget, we realized that most of our guests were going to eat before, during and after our wedding and so we kept it simple.
We started with an appetizer, then to a salad, 3 entree meal and then to our cake. It was more than enough and with your Hors d'oeurves I'm sure they will be fully content. :)
Good luck and congrats!
If your hors d'oeurves are heavy and numerous, I think they move out of the land of hors d'oeurves, and into the land of small plates.
We're doing "small plates" for our evening reception, simply because I love love love 3 bites of a dozen different foods and so it is very "me". So we're basically having a tapas reception, except it's not spanish food.
I say go for it, just make sure you've got some heavy, meaty appetizers and plenty of them!
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Our reception will be starting around 6pm, maybe 6:30. There's going to be between 150-180 people, and we're on a really tight budget. I was thinking of selecting four or five different hors d'oeurves from one of my favorite restaurants, Copper Kettle. (If you're ever in Nashville, you have to go there!)
The hors d'oeurves are really substantial and they'll be right in our budget, but I don't know if it's going to be enough. Any thoughts?
(This is the Copper Kettle catering list)