The second half of the day, and the food most guests actually remember. Fish and chips in newspaper cones at ten o’clock does more for a wedding than anything served at two.

Evening — savoury

• Cheesie Toast — Toasted Sourdough and Farmhouse Cheddar
• Pimp your Hot Dog or Burger
• Fish and Chips — Newspaper Cones of Fish Goujons, Skinny Fries

Evening — sweet

• Churros, with Hot Chocolate Sauce or Sweet and Salty Caramel
• Warm Doughnuts Dipped in Cinnamon Sugar

Street food

• Mac N Cheese — vegan, simple and classic, or crispy bacon
• Bang Bang Chicken — Panko Chicken Goujons, Sweet Chilli Mayo
• Lebanese Lamb — Slow Cooked Lamb, Pomegranate and Tzatziki
• BBQ Jackfruit — Pulled Jackfruit, BBQ Sauce and Crunchy Lettuce
• Loaded Chips — Fiery Triple Cooked Chips with Paprika Salt
• Cheesy Melt — Fries with Creamy Cheese Sauce
• Après Ski — Rosemary Fries with Swiss Cheese, Jalapeños, Pickled Onions and Gherkins

When to serve it

After the first dance rather than before it, and not everybody eats it — evening guests arriving later change the numbers, and we will work them out with you rather than guessing high.

Two options is plenty. Three is a queue.

In a marquee

All of it comes out of the same field kitchen that cooked lunch, which is the advantage of bringing a full one. There is no second supplier, no second van and no second set of timings to coordinate.

Allergens

All fourteen declared allergens are listed against each dish on request, and we ask for every dietary requirement in writing before the tasting. Our kitchen handles nuts, gluten, dairy, egg, fish, shellfish, soya, celery, mustard, sesame, lupin, molluscs and sulphites, so we cannot guarantee any dish is free from traces. (gf) gluten free · (gfo) gluten free on request · (v) vegetarian · (ve) vegan · (vo) vegetarian on request Reeves Events holds a 5-star food hygiene rating.

Evening food is a different job from the main meal, and it is the one people most often over-order. There is more on getting the timing and the quantity right on our wedding buffet catering page.

The most over-ordered meal of the day

Evening food is where couples most often spend money that does not need spending. The instinct is to cater for everybody again. In practice, a good proportion of the room has eaten a full meal four hours earlier, is several drinks in, and will eat one thing standing up if it is put in front of them.

Plan for around two thirds of your guest number rather than all of it, and put the saving into making it better rather than making it bigger. One excellent thing beats three adequate ones at eleven o’clock.

Timing it

Later than you think. Around nine is usually right; half past eight if the wedding breakfast was early, and later than nine if the dancing has only just started. Food that arrives while people are still sitting down after the speeches gets ignored, and then reappears as waste.

The other reason to hold it: evening food restarts a party that is flagging. Bringing it out at the right moment is a deliberate act, not an item on a schedule.

It should be eaten standing up

That is the design constraint that decides everything else. It needs one hand, no cutting, and no plate balanced on a knee. Anything requiring a knife and fork at this point in the night will be abandoned half-eaten on a windowsill.

Baps, cones, boxes, warm things wrapped in paper. Cooked in front of people where we can, because the smell does more to bring people over than any announcement.

Evening guests, and the second wave

If you have invited additional guests for the evening, they arrive hungry while everybody else does not. It is worth telling us the split — a hundred and twenty day guests plus forty evening arrivals is a different order from a hundred and sixty all day, even though the headline number looks the same.

Night shoots, wraps and late finishes

The same food works for anything that runs late: a film unit wrapping at midnight, a company party, or a festival style wedding where the whole day is eaten standing up. Hot, handheld and served late is a discipline of its own.