30 ideas for your wedding canapés

From miniature morsels to bitesize bakes, your wedding canapés offer a whole host of possibilities with which to reflect your personality and inject creativity

Typically served after the wedding ceremony and before the wedding breakfast, canapés are the perfect way to keep hunger pangs at bay while offering the ideal accompaniment to your drinks reception.

Although not essential, canapés are a great way of giving your guests a taste of what is to come with the wedding breakfast and can also serve to set the tone of the day. From more formal gourmet treats to simple childhood favourites, there are a wealth of options for your wedding canapés.

It is advisable to work with your caterers to ensure a complementing combination. Your wedding drinks will typically last 1.5-2 hours, dependant on the venue's turnaround time of the wedding breakfast room, so a selection of five or six canapés is ample. Canapés are usually charged at a 'per head' rate, if not included in your package, so factor this into your wedding budget early on if you are set on the idea. 

However, with so much choice available to you, the hardest part is whittling down the selection. Most venues and caterers will have a set menu for you to choose from which makes the process a little easier, but if your caterer is open to ideas or you are even thinking about creating your canapés yourself, here's some food for thought...

1. Mini burgers 

2. Arancini balls 

3. Mini sweet or savoury tartlets

4. Chinese spring rolls with beansprouts

5. Tempura prawns with garlic aioli

6. Mediterranean platters (featuring olives, pittas, hummus and meats with tasting forks)

7. Potato and pea or chikken tikka samosas 

8. Spiced pea soup shooters 

9. Tomato bruschetta 

10. Mini Toad in the Hole 

11. Flavoured popcorn 

12. Macarons

13. Satay chicken skewers

14. Feta stuffed Peppadews 

15. Salmon or caviar blinis with crème fraîche

16. Falafels and tzatziki 

17. Spinach and goats cheese pastry puffs

18. Halloumi skewers

19. Sweet and sour chicken lettuce boats

20. Seared scallops with sweet chilli dip 

21. Mini doughnuts with selection of dipping sauces

22. Savoury profiterole pops

23. Mozarella bites

24. Duck liver pâté toasts 

25. Minted lamb meatballs with mint yoghurt dip

26. Brownie bites

27. Mini tacos

28. Mini duck pancakes with hoisin sauce

29. Proscuitto wrapped olives

30. Sushi rolls

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