Finger foods vs. Dinner

If you’re having a reception you should be serving meals to properly host guests.

Those foods you described would actually be very inexpensive if you were to use a caterer. Find a BBQ caterer in your area that can do what you love, and give your guests a proper meal.

Anything less would not be properly hosting your guests. If you can't afford to give your guests a proper meal during meal time, you may need to cut down your guest list. In my opinion your goal shouldn't be to "save as much money as possible" on your reception food, but "give my guests a great experience".

The reception is where you thank your guests for attending your wedding.

Find a BBQ caterer to serve a full BBQ meal at your reception. Just serving finger foods is not properly hosting your guests.

BBQ catering is a great affordable choice. If you want to share your location, someone might be able to help you find some good options.

I'm with Gretchen. Depending on how late it is finger foods should be fine.

Appropriate refreshments depend on the time of day. If your reception spans the time when people would normally be eating a meal, you serve enough food to constitute a full meal.

I say go for your appetizers. Even if your wedding is during dinner time, lunch time etc... Finger foods can get someone very satisfied. Plus I don't think people eat much at weddings anyways and majority of food gets thrown away. Don't worry about being traditional especially if majority of your wedding is non traditional just go for it. Your wedding may be super awesome with finger foods. You just gave me an idea to think about so thank you!!

View Quoted Comment People eat a lot at weddings! Especially if they are drinking. Finger foods aren’t filling unless there’s a ton of them and that often ends up being more expensive than serving an actual dinner

View Quoted Comment Everyone I know eats more at weddings than anywhere else they go.

Personally you should hire a caterer .. but for all finger foods might cost just as much as a sit down meal .. also most venues require a licenced caterer ..

Why would any bride/groom want to cheap out on food? It's much better hosting to provide professionally prepared, good quality and tasting food to a smaller number of guests than to provide mediocre, cheap food to a lot of guests.

I go to an event almost every weekend of the year and people most certainly do eat more than they normally would, so if you do finger foods, I would do it at a non-meal time and do a lot of them. And I'm not sure where this idea is coming from that it'll save a bunch of money to make your own food. Buying quality food is expensive, not to mention your time for preparing it.

Hahaha yeah, I fed made my choice... some of you def aren't the niceiest on here just because I wanna save money.... And not do a dinner .. call me unclassy and a horrible host . Lmao 😂 because I'm sorry. I just wanted to know which saved money.. not which was more traditional. Because our wedding at the end of the day is OUR wedding. And if my family and his family is happy and were happy. . that's all that matters. 😊 thanks for some of positive feed back.

One thing I’ve heard about finger foods for a reception instead of dinner is that it can actually cost more. Simply because you need more finger foods to make someone as full as dinner would be.

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I have been an event planner for about 7 years now, food always goes to waste. Even if it looks like all the food was eaten, there is more in the back. Ultimately, the day is yours, you should do what you want. With that being said, whether you do apps or a full meal, you need to make sure there is enough for everyone to eat (my colleagues and I always remind ourselves, we are not raising these people, just feeding them dinner), you also need to make sure guests are aware of what to expect, ie state cocktail reception on your invites. And you should have a professional caterer, they will have the knowledge and experience that is required to successfully cater an event. If you love BBQ and want to save money, that is the way to go! You can do pulled meats and sides instead of full slabs or whole chickens to save even more. Just be sure your caterer knows what your exceptions and concerns are. Happy planning