@toledo, depending on how long the cocktail hour is – a full hour?? – you will need 360 pieces, or three per person. Presumably the cocktails will be right after the ceremony, so there will be a full house – no people dribling in over time – and three appetizers per person over the course of an hour is not a lot. The caterers have a pretty good idea of how much food to prepare for these numbers.
Is the coordinator increasing her charge to $1,250 for you, after you’ve signed on the dotted line? That would be a no-no in my book.
If you are having 120 guests, it’s highly likely that most, of not all, will have more than one of each appetizer during the cocktail hour. 360 appetizer pieces doesn’t sound like a lot to me for 120 people.
Did you already sign a contract with this venue? If so, was the price of the coordinator in the contract?
Ours was a venue with catering onsite. We knew that we had to go with what they had before we signed a contract.
As another reference…we had 40 people for a meet and greet. We got 100 pieces of three appetizers, and two additional appetizers that had supposedly enough for 40 people. So…we had about 380 pieces for 40 people…for only two hours. There wasn’t much left…and most of it was gone within the first hour.
@thumper1 - did you have dinner besides the appetizers? If there is dinner following cocktail then you wouldn’t need as many appetizer pieces. Most caterers do $X/hr/guest, and you get to pick which appetizers you want.
For our meet and greet, we did not also have a dinner. But it was after the dinner hour.
We had 4 passed appetizers at our wedding reception, and we had 1 per person of each appetizer…so 125 times 4…500 pieces…plus a generous and nice crudités table. This WAS followed by a dinner.
Like I said…each person had more than one appetizer bite at the reception too.
@toledo how many pieces of appetizers do you want to order for each of the 120 people? One? Two? Three? These are tiny bites…I don’t think three each person sounds like too much.
Thanks Very Happy and thumper1. The cocktails are only 30 minutes. One serving of bruschetta is 3 pieces, so technically there would be 360 of them. I envision it taking up the whole appetizer table. So it sounds like some people would easily eat 6? If I have to order in servings of 120, how many more appetizers should I get? I can’t just offer bruschetta.
D’s wedding is in a year. Our venue has one caterer, no exceptions, but I’ve eaten quite a few of their entrees at conferences and they are fine so no problem for us. The cocktail hour will be before dinner, with per person charges for individual items; they suggest a mix of cheese/cracker station, crudités station and individual platters. We are planning 3 per person plus the stations, so I don’t think 360 for 120 people is unreasonable. I would worry about running out.
The venue comes with a day of coordinator, included with the venue charge, additional fee if you want her for actual planning during the year before the wedding.
@toledo for our meet and greet, one of the appetizers was a make your own bruschetta…and there were three choice of toppings. It did not take up a whole table. In addition we had chicken sate, and chicken empanadas. And a middle eastern platter, and a party pizza.
None of these were passed appetizers…and the table wasn’t even close to full.
Our meet and greet venue did not put the whole amount out at once. They put out what looked to be about 1/2 and then replenished.
For our wedding reception, we had the crudités, but the other four appetizers were passed.
3 appetizers will probably cost about $20 per person. Our plated dinner (chicken, beef short rib, or salmon) should run around $70 per person. What do you think? 3 appetizers? The area for appetizers is only about 5’ x 3’, so they are going to have to keep restocking. It is not near the kitchen, either.
I’ll have to see if the venue can enlarge the appetizer area. My husband wants to have someone walking around with appetizers. That adds 50 cents to each appetizer. I suppose they will want that for all 360 appetizers, adding $180 to the bill for 30 minutes of work. Do you see why this is driving me crazy?
No curidites on the menu. My other choices are, brie and bacon cups, candied bacon, smoked salmon on cucumbers, stuffed mushrooms, caprese skewers, rosemary steak tips, and crispy salami cups.
Those appetizers sound yummy!
DS and DIL handled the arrangements for their recent wedding, and some was part of an “all exclusive” package, but they probably could have/should have stepped up the appetizers served after the ceremony. That said, it was probably a passing thought and quickly forgotten by anyone. As others have said, be mindful of the big picture. But, that said, if you have a tight budget, it’s fine to do what you need to to stay within it. Best of luck!
@toledo yes, these costs do start to add up if your venue or caterer doesn’t provide a package that includes a certain number of appetizers, salad, entree, cake or other dessert and even coffee.
If you want to have coffee/tea service or a station with that…check…we found that some venues did NOT include that and would have charged us extra for this.
@toledo - when working with a tight budget (we all have a budget), I would suggest to cut number of guests and look at what you could do DIY. I wouldn’t cut back on food and drinks. I would also look into a banquet venue rather than a venue where you would have to bring everything in. A banquet venue would have their standard appetizers/dinner menus with tables, linens, silverwares all included. You can do very nice flower arrangements yourself by ordering from Costco or Sam’s.
@toledo, is it possible to negotiate some sort of package with the caterer? For that number of people I actually think it would be money well spent to have passed hors d’oeuvres. In that short time period, people will, I assume, also be getting a drink and, without passed appetizers, your guests will have to stand in line or crowd around both a bar and a fixed table. I suspect you will have more waste in that situation then if you pass the nibbles. I’d rather pay a little more and avoid waste. The cocktail hour was included in our caterer’s package and it offered a fixed crudité table and 6 passed nibbles. Our guests (200) seemed to enjoy wandering around the space and there never seemed to be a back-up at the bar or table.
How large is the area where the cocktail hour will take place? Is there room for an additional table for food AND still have room for 120 guests.
I really didn’t want a crudités at all. Our wedding planner was insistent that this was a good thing to have because folks will immediately have drinks if you are having alcohol, and some kind of food should be at the ready. I’m surprised a crudités isn’t an option as it’s usually one of the choices. Ours included cheeses (lots of different kinds), crackers, veggies, fruits, dips, hummus, olives, crostini…plenty for people to nibble on before the passed appetizers were served. BUT this was included as part of the wedding package we purchased from the venue.
Many crudités have cheese crackers veggies and dip…so not all that costly. I’d ask
If this is just 30 minutes of cocktails, some will arrive at the start, others will wander in. Some will head to find their tables before the 30 minutes is up.
So if it’s followed imediately by the sit down dinner, honestly, I don’t think I’d be going for all spectacular appetizers. Crudites does sound good for one element. It takes a little extra time for guests to pick them up and maybe a dip. You’d want more than one table. But it’s a good balance to the dinner.
Also, when appetizers are passed by servers, at any function I’ve been to, you generally get just one per server visit. 30 minutes isn’t much time for several servers to make their way to you.