Weddingbee boards

For mine, we will have about 67-75 people and we are ordering 56 dozen different Hor D'ouerves, we will have a cheese/fruit/bread station, several olive stations, and a cold veggie station.  This was reccommended by the venue for the time of our reception (about 6:30) and the number of people.  

We are also having a candy buffet & cupcakes (no cake).

@MrsReidizzle:  10-15 does seem like alot for one person... but look at it this way, the servers with the hors d'oeuvres probably come around every couple minutes or so, which means that it takes more for people to get full opposed to eating an entree all at once.  Hopefully that makes sense.

But I am a big believer in sticking to your budget.  So maybe try to chose less expensive hors d'oeuvres (if possible).

We had our tasting on Friday, and there were enough that my FI and I each had 9 "pieces."  I thought that I'd still be hungry, but i was actually quite full with what we had selected.  My FI even mentioned that he wished we could take the leftovers home after the wedding because he anticipates extra food.  I don't think our guests will be hungry.

If guests want to gorge themselves, they can suck it. 

Can you not start your ceremony later?  If you start at 5:30, then as a ceremony guest, I am going to be leaving my house probably not later than 5:00 to make sure and get there on time.  It's a wedding, so I need 10-15 minutes to get ready before I leave the house.  I would need to finish dinner by 4:45, which just seems unreasonable.  I've never eaten dinner that early in my life.

Maybe people "should' know that light hors-d'ouevres means they should eat first, but with that timing, I guarantee you that your ceremony guests will be hungry by 7 or 7:30.  You need to have enough for them to eat the equivalent of a meal.  How many portions that means will depend on the portion size and what you are serving - you should follow your caterer's recommendations there. 

@MrsReidizzle: Are you serving alcohol? If so, then you want to take into account that it's better to have plenty of food in your stomach while drinking. 

Is there any way you could serve a meal? Children's meals are often $10 or under, so that would be less expensive. You could serve a less expensive chicken dish. That way you don't have any worries about having enough food for all.

I'd cut the candy/sweet buffet if you're short on budget. Yes, they're cute and all over the place right now, but you have an awfully long reception that occurs right at dinner time. Serving dinner should take precedent, IMO.

The catering standard is 10 bites (and hors d'ouerves are usually 1-2 bites each) per person PER HOUR if no meal follows (5 per person per hour if there is dinner following). For a 5 hour reception and a ballpark of 75 people, that's a minimum of 3,750 bites or pieces.

Sounds like a lot, but it's really not. 7pm is an iffy hour on the meal versus nibbles debate. And most nibbles-only receptions only last 3 hours, not 5.

You'll want a variety of foods that makes sure everyone has something they can happily consume. Balances between sweet and salty (yes the cake/desserts figure into those "bites", but hopefully not more than a third of your total), crunchy and soft, meat and non-meat, hot and cold are also important to achieve. And if there's an open bar, amp up the heaviness of some of those bites to help soak up the alcohol.

@MrsReidizzle: We were going to go this route too. I think will need to go more towards heavy since around dinner time. And also something to consider, if need be, is cost. It was actually less expensive for us to serve a full meal than to serve heavy appetizers. Best wishes!