Ordering food question

[WillyNilly]

I would go for small platters. I don't think the adults will assume they are being offered a full meal at a 2 year old's b-day party at a play place, so anything you offer will be seen as a "oh, wow!  how thoughtful and generous!" Plus a sandwich, wings, steak tips, cupcakes and presumably excess pizza makes for a really nice spread.

Even if the party takes place over what is traditionally "dinner time"?

Just curious if this is an exception to the "feed your guests if the party is scheduled for meal time" rule, and if it is, then why?

Well... for one IMO its not at dinner time.  In my family and my social circles 6:30/7:00 would be called "an early dinner" with actual dinner time being somewhere between 7:30 and 9:30 pm.  So a 4:30 to 7:30 party would be to me, an afternoon, between meals party.

Now for little kids, an early dinner at a party makes total and complete sense to me.  But not for adults.

Also though, its a child's party at a child centered place (as opposed to a party that's really as much for the adults as for the kids) with the kids being the invited guests and the parents simply sticking around (due in large part I suspect to the children's ages), so yeah I think the kids should be fed, but I think the adults will view it as extra, and wonderful no doubt, hospitality, not an 'of course' situation as it would be in the case of a dinner party or something.

[purplemuse]

I would go for small platters. I don't think the adults will assume they are being offered a full meal at a 2 year old's b-day party at a play place, so anything you offer will be seen as a "oh, wow!  how thoughtful and generous!" Plus a sandwich, wings, steak tips, cupcakes and presumably excess pizza makes for a really nice spread.

Even if the party takes place over what is traditionally "dinner time"?

Just curious if this is an exception to the "feed your guests if the party is scheduled for meal time" rule, and if it is, then why?

Well... for one IMO its not at dinner time.  In my family and my social circles 6:30/7:00 would be called "an early dinner" with actual dinner time being somewhere between 7:30 and 9:30 pm.  So a 4:30 to 7:30 party would be to me, an afternoon, between meals party.

Now for little kids, an early dinner at a party makes total and complete sense to me.  But not for adults.

Also though, its a child's party at a child centered place (as opposed to a party that's really as much for the adults as for the kids) with the kids being the invited guests and the parents simply sticking around (due in large part I suspect to the children's ages), so yeah I think the kids should be fed, but I think the adults will view it as extra, and wonderful no doubt, hospitality, not an 'of course' situation as it would be in the case of a dinner party or something.

Which then raises the question of "what constitutes meal time for guest-feeding purposes?" as I would call your normal dinner time a late dinner... But I don't mean to derail the thread.

Ah, I see. I was looking at things as someone who doesn't have kids.

[WillyNilly]

Well I also don't have kids and from that perspective I would call a 4:30-7:30 party a "cocktail party", I was saying an afternoon party specifically because it is kids and... well no cocktails for kids! 

I think if it went from 4:30 to 8:30, yes it would be spanning a mealtime, but starting in the afternoon - as in before office hours even end - and ending 1-2 hours before sundown I just can't see as being dinner time as a standard.  It can be for sure, its not a clear "not dinnertime" just not a default "of course dinnertime".  But again I'm looking this specifically from the angle of it being a kids party and the kids are the primary guests with adults there simply as a default.

Its sort of like feeding the photographer at a wedding.  Its lovely to give them the full catering option, and its rude to give them nothing, but you can give them a lesser meal then the invited guest's full on catered plated feast so long as its reasonable.

[Roe]

IMO, the party is being held during what is known as tyical dinner time.  There are some days where we have a late dinner (8 or 9-ish) but for the most part, 6:30 is dinner time.

I would go with the large platter, just to be sure the adults had a meal during dinner.

I'm hosting a lunch party for my son in a couple of weeks and I am planning to order an entree for any of the parents that show up.  It's during lunch...it would feel odd for me not to have something for them to eat as well.   

[Hmmmmm]

I would go with the smaller platters.  While sandwiches and wings are great snack food for the time frame you are suggesting, I wouldn't view it as my dinner.  I'd have a wing or two or a half sandwich, but I'd probably still have dinner with my spouse later that evening. 

I personally would do just two items, probably the sandwiches and wings.

[shygirl]

I ended up ordering the small platters of sandwiches and the steak tips.  I also ordered 2 extra pizzas.  I decided not to get the chicken wings, because the only reason I was going to get them in the first place, was because my son used to love them.  But he recently stopped eating anything at all, so decided against them.

As it turned out, it was too much food!  One whole pizza was not touched, there was a little bit of the steak tips left over, and the sandwich platter had about 15 pieces left.  I tried to get a bunch of people to take some food home, but still a whole bunch here.  Guess we'll be eating leftovers for a few days!

[EmmaJ.]

Oh, it sounds like it went well.  Much better to have too much food than to have hungry guests!  (Pizza freezes very well.)

[Roe]

Oh, it sounds like it went well.  Much better to have too much food than to have hungry guests!  (Pizza freezes very well.)

Yep, definitely better to have more food than not enough. 

Glad it turned out well!