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| I love donuts, and will snack on them anytime, anywhere. |
Recently, we’ve had several couples
express an interest in providing guests with a late-night snack at their
reception. Usually, this interest is followed by: “Can we do this?”
This question is always a loaded one
for planners, mainly because the answer is always: “You can do anything you
want, but… (insert relevant considerations here).”
When it comes to providing guests
with a late-night snack, that ‘but’ consists of:
What’s
your budget?
Your ability to provide a late-night
snack mainly depends on your budget. If you’ve the money for a late-night
snack, then go ahead and plan for it, but you might want to think twice about spending
dollars on a snack that would be better spent elsewhere. The reason for this is
that a snack is a bonus and not something traditionally provided to guests.
Therefore, including it as part of your wedding festivities is not required.
What
time do you have?
The second most important
consideration when determining whether to serve a late-night snack is your
event’s timeline. Almost every venue requires you to vacate its premises by a
specific time and most charge penalties for not meeting that time. This means
that you and your vendors must begin the break-down process well before your
rental time expires, usually an hour before the premises must be empty.
The time required to serve a snack requires
1) time for setting up the snack, 2) time for allowing the snack to be chosen
or delivered to guests and 3) time for the snack to be eaten. There’s no
specific time to allocate to serving and eating a snack, and the time for its
setup and removal depends on the snack you serve. A good rule of thumb is to
consider whether you’ll be delivering the snack right on the heels of your
dessert. For example, if you serve your first course at 7 PM, your last course
will likely be delivered at approximately 8:30 PM, resulting in your guests
being done with their dessert at approximately 9 PM. If you must begin
breakdown by 11 PM, you’ve only got two hours to serve a snack in. In this
instance, the snack you so carefully selected starts to appear as though a
final course.
How
will it get to your guests?
Having waiters deliver the snack to
your guests might cost more, simply because it requires more waiters to be
on-site for longer. Additionally, some venues might charge for delivering the
snack because you’re asking its staff to do something unusual, namely serve a
fourth course. But, even if the snack is placed at each individual place, what’s
the likelihood that your guests will stop their dancing and eat it?
If it is not directly delivered to guests
via waiters, how will your guests learn about and access the snack? Moreover,
will the method you choose actually allow guests to acquire the snack, or does
it leave open the possibility for the extra food going to waste?
What
will you serve?
A late-night snack consists of
anything edible, from treats selected from a candy bar to piping-hot-and-fresh
tacos served from a taco truck parked next to your venue. However, a snack
should be just that, a snack. It should not be a full meal or anything other
than a treat to top off a semi-full stomach. After all, you will have just fed a
multi-course meal to all of the guests to whom you are now offering a snack –
do you want that meal to have been in vain?
What
is your favor?
Handing out a snack immediately
before giving guests a favor consisting of food is redundant. A favor consisting
of food can be eaten almost immediately and – since they’re usually small –
serve as a snack. Therefore, serving a snack and then handing out a favor consisting
of food is akin to serving two snacks right in a row. And, although snacks are
awesome (writing this has definitely made me consider what’s in my pantry), two
snacks just might be overkill.
If you’ve a favor made of food but
also really want to serve a snack, consider the distance between the delivery
of the two food items and the intention of when the favor is to be consumed. A
favor consisting of a treat intended to be used on something else (such as a
special marinade or a jar of homemade jam) goes nicely with a snack since it can’t
be eaten immediately upon its delivery.
Happy snacking!
