Food for my wedding reception?

Your guests will expect a full meal at this time.

Remember that if your wedding in on Halloween, people with young children may not make it. It is a big day for kids.

If people are not actually sitting down to eat and mostly moving around the room to socialize, you want to minimize the effort involved with eating, so yes, finger foods are the best idea. Avoid anything that will require a guest to use a fork/spoon/knife. Veggie trays and wings etc that you already suggested are pretty low budget to put together and popular. Mini quiches are easy to make too, despite that they maybe sound otherwise. You can either buy a big stack of pre made tartlet shells at a big grocery store, or make your own. Not sure how much time or inclination you have to do that. A stack of 30ish will only set you back a couple of dollars. Because they are mini, the amount of ingredients you need to make 2 or 3 different kinds is really minimal (say like ham and cheese is one, and cherry tomato and basil is another). The reason these are also recommended is they can be made/cooked well in advance and frozen and just popped in the oven to warm through or served room temp day of. A couple types of sushi go over well with lots of people, but it depends where you live how accessible your ingredients are whether you want to undertake that or not (nori and wasabi and pickled ginger for instance are quite cheap here and sold in regular grocery stores in the Asian section). You didn't mention how many are going to your reception. But if it's not a sit-down dinner, just cocktail hour type meal, then allow for about 3-4 hors d'oeuvres per person. And yes, most of all, have fun!

If your wedding ceremony starts and it's right before the reception, then people will assume that you are serving dinner at the reception. Like if your ceremony starts at 7:00 and the reception is at 8:00, people will be hungry for dinner - in this case I would do either heavy hors d'ouvres or a full meal (sit down or buffet is your call)

If your ceremony is earlier in the day and then there's a break in between before the reception, say if the ceremony is at 10 am and then the reception is at 8:00 pm, people will probably eat dinner before they get to the reception and they won't expect a full meal. In this case I would do either hors d'ouvres (tapas would be cool) or a dessert buffet (which would be really different and fun.)

Just make sure whatever you end up doing that you let your guests know. Like insert a line on your invitation that says "dessert reception to follow" so people know what to expect.

For me, if it was 8 I would assume that it would be "formal" dinner hour and I would probably come hungry. Given, I haven't read all the wedding etiquette books out there but I'm answering from your average enthusiastic wedding guest. :)

I'm always a fan of either buffet style reception food or at least some sort of "station" menu (either with live chef stations or at least different varieties set up in stations throughout the place.) You can vary the food and have some from various ethnicities to allow for any palate.

You can be silly and title the dishes with Halloween themes, or just go for a Halloween/harvest decorating theme and have a lot of fun with it!

As for particular dishes? Italian is a crowd pleaser, as long as it's chicken parm and marinana from scratch and not the lukewarm from-a-can variety. :) People tend to like hispanic food (that's great for a live station, like burritos or fajitas), greek, and Asian as well (perhaps a station with dumplings, skewers, teriyaki veggies, etc.

Or just ask a few of your guests and take a poll! I would be prepared to offer enough that would constitute a whole meal though.

You could do a cheese/wine/dessert type of thing. Or you could just do a bunch of different desserts. Whatever you decide, just make sure you clearly indicate it in the invitiations. Unless stated otherwise, people assume that a wedding reception includes a meal. But if you say "desserts and beverages will be served at a reception immediately following the ceremony" then everyone will know to eat dinner beforehand.

Not sure what part of the country you are in, but I have seen dessert/coffee/wine bars for late starting receptions. It would honestly depend on what time the service started. If the service begins after "dinner" time and your guests have already eaten prior to your wedding service, then a dessert buffet may be a fun way to hold the reception and could also prove to be budget friendly!

You have so many options!

You could have...

1) Dessert buffet

2) Hor'durevers

3) Fruit and meat trays

The possibilities are endless!

However, I would be aware that most guests with young kids or those who go to church the next morning may not be staying until 8:00/8:30.

I think hearty appetizers are a great option at this time of night. Buffalo wings, egg rolls, potato skins, etc. People can grab a light dinner and then fill up on appetizers at the reception. You could do a dinner of some sort, but I really think most people would grab something ahead of time so they might be full. Whatever you choose to do make sure you make a reference to it on the reception invite.

hoursedourves the entire party could be like a giant cocktail hour with dancing! Those are the best parts anyway in my opinion, a meal is nice, but I'd rather have a bunch of little things to pick at all night than a meal that I have one or two choices and that's it. You can also have a desert buffet.

I think you should still serve dinner courses, because people expect a meal at a wedding. If you disagree and think everyone should have something a little lighter, then go with appetizers and skip the meal.

Dessert should keep everyone happy, too. :) Congrats!