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I think you definitely think you need to say something on the invite. Cake and punch sounds good. Because of the time, people are going to expect to eat unless you say otherwise.
It's a little sneaky, but "cake and punch" will save us a lot of headaches. I think "cake and punch" is going to become slang for "subterfuge"...;)
I agree that the invite needs to indicate you will not be serving dinner.
'cocktails and hors d'oeuvres to follow'.... 'cake and punch' sounds like something for an afternoon wedding. Are you having cocktails?
How long is your reception? Do you also have dessert?
If your reception is only a couple hours and you have dessert, I think that would be enuogh food. If it's longer and you don't have dessert, then I don't think it would be enough food. My concern is that your logic says 8 apps per person, but I don't really consider veggie and cheese plates as apps. I could easily eat a few carrots, a couple tomatos, some cucumbers, a couple pieces of cheese and not think twice about continuing to eat heartier appitizers and returning to pick at veggies/cheese.
Can you DIY some of the food, or are you restricted with your venue? I would say you could make the cheese and veggie trays pretty inexpensively. And then add another app that is heartier.
We're not serving alcohol at all because our families are riddled with alcoholics and it'd just be a bad mix. :( The ceremony and reception combined will go from around 7:30 to 11pm, and our only dessert is cake (venue is outrageously expensive for dessert and cake is the only thing they'll allow us to bring in from somewhere else).
We have a HUGE restriction--we have to either get the food from the venue or we're SOL. We're doing veggies and cheese because a lot of my friends are vegetarians...I mean, we could do mini-sandwiches instead of one of those, but then it's way too meat-heavy and expensive, imo (the sandwiches will tack an extra $200-300 onto our bill).
We're in the same boat as you, although we will be having slightly more food. Our invites said "Snacks, dancing and merriment to follow." I feel like most people (men in particular) would grab more than 2 meatballs and I don't think I've ever gotten as little as 4 veggies. I'm afraid the people in the front of the line will get as much as they want, thinking more food is in the back, and the people in the back of the line won't get anything.
Could you scrap the apps all together and just do cake and punch?
That's what I'm afraid of, too...his family likes to eat and has a reputation for being, well, gluttonous. We want to do just cake and punch, but don't want them to bitch if that's the only food we have...
IMO, you need a little bit more food. Even if people eat dinner beforehand (assuming there will be no food at the reception besides cake and punch), it’s easy to eat veggies and dip and a couple of meatballs without thinking about it.
I could easily eat 2 meatballs, 2 cheese/crackers and 4 carrot sticks (or other veggie) after eating a meal (but maybe I am a pig lol) – and I would guess that many guests, once they get there and see meatballs, etc., might take more than 2 meatballs as a serving size.
But, not knowing what else the caterer offers, and knowing you said you want to keep costs down, I don’t really have a solution. I think you should keep “cake and punch”, since there won’t be cocktails, and if I saw “hors d’oeuvres” on an invite, I, myself, would think more food would be served. I don’t know if my assumptions/opinion are the norm or not though!
Have you thought of just doing desserts instead? You said they were expensive, but would they be more expensive than the food you have listed? Then you could say a “desserts and punch reception”?
I thnk you need to add more food. The timing of it (smack in the middle of dinner time) really means that you need more than 2 meatballs, a couple of pices of veggies, and 2 crackers with cheese per person. I really, really don't think that is enough. i think you should double the veggies and crackers/cheese, and add in the sandwiches. Is an extra $200-300 realllllly that big of a deal? It seems like it would add a lot of enjoyment for your guests, and that's the whole point of the reception. If it is that big of a deal, start your wedding later. Don't have it at dinner time!
Dinner time around here is 5-6 pm. We've pushed it back a lot already by having it at 8, and I really don't want to do it later than that because then we're basically screwed out of our deposit because we can ONLY go until 11. :( I'm tempted to just take on the attitude that hey, invite says cake and punch--anything extra is a blessing. We could see if the venue can maybe serve at the tables so people aren't tempted to take more, but really? At 8 pm on a Friday, that should leave plenty of time to grab food (most people get off at 5pm at the latest) and head to a casual evening wedding/reception.
I guess I'm just getting tired of having to rearrange our plans because it seems to be all about the food...we really, REALLY can't afford to drop $1k on food (I'm a student and FH is currently unemployed--got laid off).
The dessert menu at our venue is tiny, and I don't want people to go into sugar shock if that's all we have...
And before it gets brought up--our venue fee was only $500. I'm not doing real flowers, might not even have a bouquet. We're cutting costs wherever possible, but the food cannot exceed our budget of $700 at most. =/
I think maybe your timeline should be adjusted further. 7-11 is an awfully long time if no dinner is being served, Will there be dancing?
Also, I am a vegetarian, and I don't really consider veggies and cheese "apps". It may be cheaper if you forgo the meatballs and do some other vegetarian option (caprese kaboba, mini grilled cheese sandwiches, spanikopita) that meat eaters and veggies would both enjoy.
I know my SO can eat 6 or 7 cocktail meatballs without even thinking about it. And he's a thin guy. He likes to eat. :-)
Regardless, I wouldn't mention snacks or apps on the invite if this is all you are doing. This way, people will eat before they come. But I wonder if there is a better phrasing than "cake and punch" , I agree that sounds like an afternoon wedding.
Yep, there will be dancing. Our venue doesn't really have much in the way of vegetarian-friendly food (they said they can make us anything we want, but it'll be hella costly--something to the tune of $2 a piece!), unfortunately.
Maybe I could put something like "Please join us for cake and dancing immediately following the ceremony"?
I don't know about others, but I don't get out of work until at least 6, so with a ceremony starting at 7:30, I really don't think that's a lot of time to get ready for a wedding and get dinner. I think you should definitely add in some sandwiches!
I think one of the previous poster's suggestion of "snacks, dancing and merriment" is a good one. That way people know it's less food than an appetizer reception. Is there a way you coud add something like a fruit plate with a marshmallow dip? Or maybe something like chex mix, mixed nuts, or gourmet potato chips? Those things tend to help people fill up and maybe they wouldn't be too expensive.
I think you might need a little more food. We usually have about that much food for parties at our house, granted we make it all ourselves, for parties of about 50-75 with other things as well. Is there anyway maybe you could ask your venue if they could do a buy out fee for the food. Even if it's $300 you could easily make tons and tons of app. type of food for $300 to feed 80 people!
That sounds too light on food to me too but what if your table centerpieces were edible? Like bowls of pretty colored hershey kisses or bowls of assorted fruit? That would be super cheap (think bowls at dollar tree/salvation army/home goods, etc) and could look really pretty and elegant and would also give guests something more to snack on....
Assuming you can't afford more food, putting the food on tables family-style is definitely preferable. I've been to (non-wedding) receptions where the food was gone in 15 minutes, before I got there. It was disappointing. If there's a plate on each table people are more likely to make sure everyone gets some before taking seconds.
I agree thats not much food. Yes, people should be happy with anything, but when JimBob eats 15 meatballs so there aren't any for other people, the others are going to be annoyed--maybe even more than they would have been if you hadn't offered any meatballs at all. So, is there any way to get more food?
You can't bring in food, but what if your favor was food? (that people could eat there if they wanted)
And you can bring a cake--is that a single cake, or could you bring several and make a cake buffet? (cheap, if you have friends and family make them)
Or, if your only options are what the venue serves, I'd probably pick whatever will give you the most volume for your money (so maybe more veggies)
I would also ask if you could pay a fee to the venue in exchange for bringing in your own food- DIY veg/ cheese and cracker trays are really inexpensive. I think that your timing, for this area anyway, is well past dinner time- and if you specify that on the invites people will know to eat something beforehand. Assuming you have to go with venue-provided food, I would skip the meatballs- people go through them like potato chips! Try nuts, sourdough pretzel chunks (mustard dipping sauce) and lots of crackers. Ask about a simple cheese fondue w/ bread or a warm dip, maybe a bruschetta- try a white bean and olive top for a veg friendly, cheap and filling spread. I agree with PP, whatever you do should be spread out, some on bar, on seating tables, with maybe one other area. Also, consider small sandwiches instead of one of the veg trays- people don't really love them anyway and they're not that filling!
Have you considered earlier in the day? 2pm ceremony/ 2:30-4:40 cake and snacks. I know you consider 5-6 to be dinnertime, but if I went to a wedding at 7:15, I would be suprised that there wasn't dinner.
We're going to call tomorrow and see what they can do for us, both in terms of bang for our buck and if we can do family-style serving. The other option would be to put half the apps out at first, then have them replenished when it runs low so people don't think there's more food than there actually is.
We can't do it earlier in the day because our date falls on a Friday (this is the one thing FH and I will not budge on--we want our 11.11.11 date) and the people who do work might have a hard time coming in earlier...
@Statutory Grape: I like that! - "Dancing and delicious cake immediately following the ceremony" - (I added the delicious! LOL)
I think that's great! I like putting the merriment ahead of the eating!
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Since a plated meal is not in our budget, FH and I have decided to push our start time to 7:15 or 7:30 for the ceremony, with the reception beginning at about 8:00 or a little before. MOH advised me to put on the invitation "Please join us for cake and punch" instead of saying there will be apps, because people will undoubtedly show up planning to pig out on those if we do, and we'll run out (sad, but true). Plus, it's better to have people be pleasantly surprised by there being apps than having them come expecting there to be more food than there actually is...
Anyway, here's what FH and I are thinking for food (we have 80 people).
200 meatballs, which is about 2 per person: $140 (We have to decide between teriyaki, barbecue, and Swedish)
1 large, 1 medium veggie w/ herb dip = about 4 pieces per person: $120
1 large domestic cheese and cracker platter = about 2 pieces per person: $160
FH, for some reason, wants to double up on the veggies (hence why we're doing medium and large instead of just a large).
All in all, it comes out to roughly 8 apps per person. Should be enough, right? It's a little more than we'd like to spend, but I think we can manage to come up with $700 (food and cake total, roughly) by our date.