Finger foods at a wedding?

First, you will find, both in real life and here, all sorts of people saying they've seen something or done it themselves. This has nothing to do with whether it's ok :)

And wedding etiquette is clearcut on this. If you invite people to a a wedding that includes dinner hour, you must serve either dinner or a substantial substitution. For example, a term like finger foods is tricky. I had "finger foods" at my reception, but it wasn't to save money. More importantly, it was very substantial - chicken sate, prime rib mini rolls, shrimp kebabs, bacon wrapped scallops, massive cheese, cracker and fruit tray, several dips...anyway you get the gist.

But if someone invites 100 people to a Saturday evening reception and serves a few veggie platters, and some pinwheels or deviled eggs, this is extremely rude. It's never happened to me, but in the few cases I've heard about, people were grousing because they felt...well, hungry. They also felt like the bride was throwing a party she couldn't afford just to get as many gifts as she could.

Most of the weddings I've been to have served full meals, but I've also been to a couple where there were just some finger foods. It's really up to the bride and groom. I served a full meal at my wedding since most of the guests had drive four hours to get to where we were. I felt in that case it wouldn't be appropriate to have everyone drive that long and not even get a meal out of it.

Under most circumstance, though, I don't see a problem with only serving finger foods. The point of a wedding is so people can celebrate a meaningful moment in the bride and groom's life with them, I don't see why a full meal should be required for that. Some food needs to be made available, just because it's always rude to invite people to a party without feeding them anything at all. But there's no reason a meal has to be any more a part of it than any other gathering.

For one, when the focus is on the joining of two people, you don't have to spend much money to make it special, beautiful, and meaningful.

Number two, some people who serve finger foods, still have expensive formal weddings, and just put a lot more money into the alcohol and the venue. There is nothing wrong with celebrating the marriage that way either if that's what the couple prefers.

If you're not serving a meal, you should make sure the wedding doesn't conflict with dinner hour, either have it later in the evening or between meals. As long as people are doing that and serving some food as well, I think they're fine though.

It's not tacky if your reception is not at a mealtime.

It's only tacky if it's held during dinnertime and people are hungry for dinner.

It's usually a cultural/area thing. In my area, nobody ever has a wedding that's not a full dinner. But I've heard of other parts of the country doing this all the time.

A dinner has been served at every wedding I've ever been to.

I have heard of the finger food thing, however. It is becoming a common way to control costs. Wedding costs are becoming ridiculous, and some couples just don't have the money for a formal"sit down" meal for all of their guests. It is more common in younger couples just starting out. It is considered tacky if the wedding reception is at a traditonal meal time.

The foodstuff community website has some great thought for fancier chilly sandwich and finger ingredients. i think of that Semi homestead made extremely did a instruct on it and that they do instruct it frequently lower back. yet another thought is see what your close by deli can do for a deal. Fruit consistently looks to bypass quickly and that they are in a position to do some extremely elegant set united stateswith the fruit that still upload to the ornament. I basically did a extensive great bowl occasion for 40 5 people and do you be attentive to what each physique raved approximately? I have been given a huge sub from Walmart and cut back it up in skinny slices. each physique stored asking me how I made it and it became in user-friendly terms a generic sub.

It's inconsiderate to invite guests at meal times (11-2pm or 4-8pm)and not feed them a proper meal.

The only way you might be able to get away with it is to have the wedding ceremony at 2pm, with a very short reception from 3-4pm

The only time I experience something like this was when the couple got married in the afternoon at the church and only served cake & punch afterward in the vestibule area. The "reception" was over within an hour.

Personally, NO, I have never been to a wedding reception with only finger foods. It IS fine, however, but needs to be done at a non-meal time....something like 2-5 p.m. I don't know what time your friends reception was, but it seems that many people are opting to have finger foods instead of a dinner, but AT the dinner time, which is not acceptable.

This is common for afternoon weddings. Many couples are having afternoon weddings instead of evening weddings so that they can serve finger foods, soda, lemonade, snacks, etc. instead of dinner because it saves them $.

Many people are doing it these days due to budget restrictions. If a reception is held during a non-meal time, it's perfectly acceptable to serve appetizers only. Many people are just not willing to spend thousands and thousands on food for a party..there are more important things to spend money on!

Ive only been to one wedding where there was a dinner. The rest were finger foods. Maybe its a southern thing...but we can afford to feed 200 people.