Timings help

Hello,

First of all congratulations!

Are you having a church ceremony or register office? I'm just wondering if it's register office that's only about half an hour what are your guests doing from 4.00pm to 05.00/5.30pm whilst you have your photos taken? Or is it quite a drive to your venue? If it's a church wedding then I guess the ceremony takes longer and it should work out alright.

What would worry me is that it's quite a while for your day guests until they get anything to eat. Assuming they will arrive about 3.00pm for your ceremony it's 4.5 hours until they get anything to eat. If you want to keep it this way I would make it clear on the invitation that there will only be evening food so they can have proper lunch at home. Or if your budget allows it serve some canapes with the drinks upon arrival at the venue.

Also I would swap the timings of the cake cutting and the buffet food. Half an hour seems a bit tight. People will walk about to get food, still eat or pop out for a cigarette after they have eaten. I think it might be a bit difficult to get everyone together for the cake cutting moment. Maybe do it right before the buffet food is served so you can still have it as dessert what I guess was the idea for your above timings.

I hope this helps. Good luck with planning everything!

Sandra

Hi Sandra

Thanks for the reply. Hadn't really thought what the guests would be doing post Ceremony. They can go to the reception venue anytime once the Ceremony has finished. It's a civil ceremony in a grade 2 listed building near the reception venue. It will literally be just the ceremony and our photos there.

The food situation has bugged me since day one. The canape idea could work as the guests arrive at the reception venue. Having looked at this just now have noticed various menu options. How many would be acceptable per person to 'get away' with this idea and the evening buffet. We are looking at 60 day guests and 120 evening. Im guessing once arriving at the reception, a drink some canape's a bit of mingling and an open bar would be adequate until the speeches at about 6.30pm.

Are you suggesting cake cutting at 7.30pm and buffet at 8pm?

Really appreciate your help

Just a thought, if you have a bar serving alcohol I would have nibbles available anyway as there is the possibility of people ending up a bit light headed.

Hello,

sorry I haven't replied. I haven't seen your reply and didn't get a notification.

I'm not sure but I think we have about 4-5 canapes per person. However we only have about 2 hours from arriving at the venue until the wedding breakfast. I guess you could go for about 6 canapes per person. Your venue probably knows better than I do how much people eat.

Yes I think it might work better if you swap the cake cutting and buffet times. 7.30 for cake cutting and 8.00 for buffet should be fine.

I've also just decided last minute (I'm getting married in 3 weeks) to DIY some garden games (Ring toss, bowling, TicTacToe and bean bag toss). Hopefully the weather will be alright! I'm always worried that people get bored and since we have a break of around 2 hours after arriving at the venue I thought that be a nice idea to offer some entertainment. Maybe you want to think about something like this too? Maybe it's just me but I think 3.5 hours without any "action" is a bit long. I'm happy to sell my garden games if they work out nicely (it's only in my head at the minute but I craft a lot) should that be something you're interested in.

Let me know how you get on I'm always happy to help!

Sandra