Anyone not doing tea & coffee after meal?
Polly27
Posts: 659 
in Receptions
Have been looking at ways to possibly cut down on the price of food and drink. My h2b has suggested not having canapes, but as we're getting married at 12 and probably not sitting down until about 3.45 I think the canapes are a must to stop the guests gnawing their own arms off
To me the most simple thing to remove is after dinner coffee and tea, but this hasn't gone down well with my mum who thinks my older relatives will be expecting it! What do you think?
To me the most simple thing to remove is after dinner coffee and tea, but this hasn't gone down well with my mum who thinks my older relatives will be expecting it! What do you think?
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Or maybe you could ask your venue if they'll do a coffee station, but for a lesser percentage of guests. eg 25 of 80 guests.
Maybe another option could be to ask the venue if they have a cheaper option to canepes. (Canepes are fiddly, time consuming and expensive to make and serve so are normally overpriced) Like a buffet of cheese and crackers, bread and dips etc.
If you want canepes as you don't want guests to be hungry while they wait, (good idea IMO!) then how about doing more filling ones and skipping the starter? This could save 20% on your food bill.
If you want to reduce the food bill, talk to your venue, they may have good ideas that still keep their margins, your guests needs and your budget in mind.
We have exactly the same problem though, that we'll prob eat about 4pm and I think we really need to give them canapes straight after the service or they'll be starving (and drunk off one drink haha!) but it is so expensive. Our venue charges £6pp for canapes based on 4 or 5 each, but that's £600!! We would have loved a cheese & biscuit table in it's place but they charge about £11 pp for their standard cheese course so we worked on doing that between 3 people, but when we asked about portion size it worked out at about £3.50 for one slice of cheese and a biscuit! Wonder if you could get around this by asking if you could have cheese wedding cake as well as a wedding cake, then "deciding" to serve it earlier instead of canapes??!
We have agreed that instead of paying for 100 regardless of whether people want them, it will be available at the bar upon request (free to the guests). Its really the older relatives who would appreciate one, and I will just make it known that it will be there if they would like it. i wont over advertise them at that price!
I know what you mean about the canapes, and I hadn't originally planned to have them. As we get married at 12:30 and my mum (again!) helpfully pointed out that most people will either be staying at the venue or travelling a couple of hours in the morning so they'll otherwise not eat for about 6 or 7 hours after breakfast = very p1ssed guests very quickly!!! Going to have to suck up the £5 a head - might only cater for 80% though and definitely won't go for the usual fare that people don't eat 'cos they don't know what it is!!
None of our parents are contributing to our wedding (well h2b's are giving us a £1000 and my brother has bought my dress but the rest is down to us) so it is our decision but I still would like to try please everyone so the coffee station seems like a good compromise.
We're offering tea & coffee and just paying for those who want it.
As a guest, I wouldn't notice, but I guess there are coffee addicts and other people who wouldn't dream of having a 3 course meal without a coffee at the end
xxx