A latest trend in wedding food is substituting a traditional stuffy sit-down dinner, buffet style or what have you, with a hip cocktail-hour reception of heavy hors d’oeuvres, giving guests the opportunity to mix and mingle over bite-size delicacies, carried to and fro by servers in tuxedos.
The heavy hors d-oeuvres option does have its pros. For one, you usually don’t have to assign seats or deal with table numbers and seating charts. Your guests will feel free to sit wherever and speak with whomever. They can dance, or stand, or sit, relax, eat now and then more, later (if the coveted mini crab cakes aren’t all gone by then). No need to include the not-so-romantic words “chicken or fish” on your lacy, calligraphed invitations. It’s a laid back approach to celebrating a new marriage. That said, it’s not for everybody.
For the bride on a budget, this option is not always cheaper. While it depends on your caterer and reception venue, a heavy hor d’oeuvres reception can actually cost more. And some caterers and venues won’t even go this route so make sure you decide before you make that first deposit. It takes more manpower for waiters and waitresses to cruise the outskirts of the dance floor, the bar, and elsewhere throughout the reception, for the duration of a few hours. And the mere cost of hors d’oeuvres may be equal to that of a sit-down dinner, depending on the size of your wedding.
In addition, you won’t be able to adequately guess how many trays of what sorts of appetizers to order in advance and you may have trouble deciding what to offer guests. Mixing up too many flavors, with too much variety may hit a sour note with guests. This can be a sort of planning nightmare in a time that by itself, can be a planning nightmare.
And lastly, if you are a controlling, Type A bride, an all-reception-long cocktail hour may not be for you. If you close your eyes and envision yourself, mid-reception, attempting to round up semi-drunk guests, like roaming cats, in one spot for toasts, speeches and announcements, and you envision yourself losing it like one of those brides on Bridezillas, hollering over a loudspeaker, you’d better stick to the sit-down meal.
