Jamie Wolfer explains how wedding planners can extend the cocktail hour by 15 to 30 minutes. Most catering teams can delay meal service without compromising food quality, turning a rushed 10-minute window into a meaningful 25 to 30 minutes for guests to mingle.
If I saw a look of disappointment on my couple's face about cocktail hour, I would have been like, ideally would have remembered this. But if, let's say, let's say for example, that there could have been some miscommunication or a couple changes their mind on the wedding day, which is perfectly fine and totally happens, and they say, hey, we actually really want to be a part of cocktail hour a little bit longer. Is there anything that we can do to like extend the experience, etc.? And I'd be like, bet. Hold on, let me just go talk to whoever we need to talk to. Make this happen. And usually that'd be the chef. That'd be the person, whoever is in charge of the meal, whoever's in charge of the temperature of your food. I'd go check in with them and be like, hey, they actually want to spend a little bit more time in cocktail hour that we didn't have allotted for. We're going to extend cocktail hour by 15 minutes. Are you okay if we push the meal by 15? Why is this important? Because nobody wants cold chicken or a hot salad. We want to make sure that food comes out at the proper temperature and it's ready to go. Most catering staffs are okay with like a 15-minute flex time, but that to the couple that extra 15 minutes of mingling with the people that they love, giving them 25, maybe even 30 if we're pushing it just a little bit, giving them 25 minutes instead of 10 minutes is going to change their entire wedding day experience.
