should you

[josali5]

Preparing for a wedding should you have an appetizer hour if your wedding starts at 3o'clock and the reception is at 5o'clock or do you think it would be okay to skip appetizers altogether?

[PartiesToGo]

Since your wedding will be at a time when most people will have already had a lunch, the gap in time is not suffucient enough to "require" that you serve appetizers. It really becomes more of a matter of preference. With a reception beginning at 5pm, usually dinner is started around 6-6:30, which is a reasonable gap between meals.
Although if you have alot of out of town guests that will be waiting between the ceremony and reception, it would be nice to provide them with a place to go and a few snacks to enjoy.

I think this is your call. It's not like you have to serve appetizers ever, but it can certainly be helpful if your wedding is later in the afternoon and people might be hungry.

My timeline is similar. The wedding is at 4 and the reception portion will start approximately 5:30/6 (it's all in a backyard so the exact timing is kinda not necessary to hammer out). However, our caterer is going to put out drinks (soft drinks, lemonade, water, and wine) and some light refreshments (crustinis and a cheese / grape platter) once the ceremony is over just to give the guests something to DO while we have our pictures taken. I thought that having food and drinks would keep people somewhat occupied and happy while the pictures are being done; but I also didn't want full appetizers because dinner will probably be served around 6ish and I don't really think that fancy passed appetizers were worth the expense...and would probably fill people up so much that they didn't eat the dinner.

This idea came from my mother who liked it when a wedding she went to had cheese platters at all the tables during the picture time -- my mother is shy and didn't know a ton of people at the wedding except the bride and her mother, so she appreciated having something that kinda anchored people to their tables and gave my parents something to do without looking like they were the rude people avoiding talking to others.

I went to a wedding last summer that started at noon and fed us around 1:00, but put out really basic munchies (Chex mix, peanuts, pretzels, etc...not from the caterer I would guess) and water for the period while the bride and groom had pictures taken. I thought that was very nice; I wasn't terribly hungry, but the wedding day was VERY hot and just having something to do when we all escaped the heat was a considerate touch.

So to answer your question -- no, you don't have to. The rule of thumb here seems to be that you should probably at minimum serve cake and punch but you don't HAVE to do ANYTHING else. BUT if you anticipate having a long picture period, maybe consider talking to your caterer about something simple just to keep people from being terribly bored?

[optimistvik]

well, this entirely depends on what you think and want. if the guests are with you before the lunch s4ession, then you should have appetizers before lunch, if they have joined you at the time of the reception then you should keep it optional, either way, no ones gonna complaint.

[Heather]

This thread is a year old.