10 Best Finger Food For Wedding Reception

Thankfully, you don’t have to go for one option when it comes to wedding finger food.

The appetizers must fit the overall event style, be small, and be easy to eat. Apart from that, there is no specific rule.

Appetizers are usually simple to cook and thus can be prepared at home, saving you money on professional wedding catering services. These include stuffed mushrooms, deviled eggs, and cranberry cheese bites.

The popularity of street food for a wedding reception is surging.

Today, you can eat your favorite burgers and corndogs, even attired in an elegant white dress.

However, sophisticated wedding reception appetizers such as seared scallops and oysters remain a favored choice.

Such foods are usually prepared by professional caterers and served at large formal weddings.

1. Pollo Asado Tacos

Pollo Asado tacos contain grilled chicken in citrus and spice marinade. The flavor is bright, refreshing, and slightly sour.

This appetizer is ideal for DIY wedding buffet style where guests make their food from provided ingredients. It fits an informal backyard wedding buffet and is easy to prepare.

You can mix orange, cumin, oregano, and chipotle sauce with optional paprika for the marinade. Optionally, use a combination of olive oil, lemon and lime juices, garlic, salt, and pepper.

Take any fresh chicken of your choice, preferably a combination of white and dark meat, and leave it in the marinade for a day.

Then, grill it until golden-brown, usually up to 10 minutes from each side at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

You can choose tortillas based on your preference. However, the traditional toppings for Pollo Asado tacos are lime wedges, chopped onions, and avocado salsa.

2. Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed mushrooms are a universal and versatile one-bite cocktail hour appetizer recipe. You can go full creative and use your favorite stuffing or go for traditional options.

It’s also easy to make, but keep in mind that it may be time-consuming.

Some of the best mushroom stuffing options are cheese, chicken, crab, herbs, and veggies. Wild mushrooms, baby Bella, shitake, and champignons are the most suitable for this appetizer.

First, remove stems from the mushrooms. You can chop the stems into small cubes and use them for stuffing.

Then, mix your filling, preferably with some cheese, to make it tangy and soft. Optionally, you can use creamy sauce.

Next, stuff the mushrooms and bake until they become golden brown. Depending on the chosen filling, you may need to pre-fry it.

3. Fresh Oyster Bar

Which occasion could be more suitable for such an elegant appetizer as oysters? This appetizer is especially great for formal or beach weddings.

Oysters are a perfect pair for cocktails and white wine. If you’re a real seafood admirer, you can even opt for a whole raw bar with scallops, lobster, and octopus.

When choosing oysters as an appetizer, you must ensure the bar is always filled with ice to keep them fresh.

Warm oysters don’t taste as great and can spoil quickly. Of course, you must ensure the tray stays away from sunlight.

An ice sculpture is an unusual and impressive alternative to a standard ice tray.

You can add a tasting component to your dinner by offering your guests different oyster kinds. Mignonette and lemon sauces are the best addition to oysters.

One point to be aware of is that high-quality oysters are costly. They also require proper storage and serving.

Thus, this isn’t the best option for a self-catered wedding. Better leave an oyster bar to wedding catering professionals.

4. Stuffed Eggs

Eggs are the second most popular ingredient for stuffing, right after mushrooms. Due to a plain taste, eggs go well with nearly everything, offering freedom of experiment.

The classic deviled egg recipe is DIY-friendly and affordable yet loved by people across the globe.

You’ll need boiled eggs, mayo, white vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, and optional paprika or herbs.

Cut boiled and cooled eggs in half and remove yolks. Then, mix the yolks with mustard, mayo, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Mash until the texture becomes creamy and even. Put the mixture into egg whites and sprinkle with a seasoning of your choice.

Apart from this traditional recipe, you can use cheese, caviar, beetroot, and sun-dried tomatoes.

5. Miniature Burgers

Burgers are considered a main course, yet miniature burgers can make a fun wedding appetizer.

It’s ideal for informal beach, backyard, or countryside weddings and can be ordered from a professional catering service or made on your own.

Just like with full-size burgers, you can use your imagination in terms of ingredients. Beef, chicken, pig, bacon, fish, falafel – that’s only some of the main ingredient options.

Then, you can create unique taste combinations by using different veggies, cheese, and sauces.

Caramelized onion makes any burger a bit more sophisticated. Jalapeno, peanut butter, mac and cheese, or omelet toppings certainly won’t leave your guests indifferent.

After all, a wedding is a memorable day, and so should be the burgers.

You may wonder, “where do I find mini burger buns?”. They can be bought in some hypermarkets and are often called slider rolls.

But if you can’t find any, bake them yourself or use regular bread cut in squares instead to make miniature sandwiches.

6. Seared Scallops

Seared scallops are an excellent addition to a sophisticated formal wedding with a seafood bar.

Typically, professional event caterers organize such weddings. However, the recipe is relatively DIY-friendly and straightforward, even if it seems intimidating at first.

First, purchase some fresh scallops at a local fish market or dedicated store. Frozen scallops aren’t as tasty and have a watery texture. Instead, look for slightly moist, white scallops without discoloration.

Remove chewy side muscles and pat the scallops dry. That’s important for them to get a nice crust.

Next, heat some butter in a pan and place dry scallops in it. Add herbs of your choice and lemon juice for flavor. Stir until the scallops become golden.

7. Corndogs

Corndogs are tasty, filling, fun, affordable, and simple as hell. If you don’t have prejudices about a wedding being a solely formal event, corndogs are your way to go.

To make corndogs at home, you’ll need cornmeal, flour, baking powder, egg, milk, olive oil, beef sausages, salt, pepper, and sugar.

Mix cornmeal, flour, salt, pepper, baking powder, and sugar in a bowl. Slowly pour in milk while stirring, then add an egg. The consistency must be creamy but not dripping.

Preheat olive oil in a deep pan. Pierce sausages with long skewers, roll them in the mixture, and fry until brown from each side. Drain on a kitchen tissue to remove excess oil.

Corndogs are best served with mustard, but you can offer several sauces for choice.

8. Cranberry Cheese Bites

The combination of cranberry and cheese on a buttery pastry is classic yet far from boring. Cranberry has a vivid sour taste, which you can soften with creamy melting cheese.

You can opt for any cheese kind, though I recommend trying out brie. It has a pleasant mellow texture, and nearly everyone loves it.

Cranberry cheese bites are easy and cheap enough for a DIY wedding menu.

To make them, you’ll need some crescent dough that you can buy in a tube, some flour, a wheel of brie, and whole cranberry sauce.

Chopped pecans and rosemary are optional. A mini muffin tray will be of great help, but a regular baking tray will do, too.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll out the crescent dough and cut in small squares, about the size of a mini muffin.

Then, put the squares into the tray and top them with brie, cranberry, and an optional spring of spice or nuts. Bake until the bites become golden.

9. Beef & Caramelized Onion Bruschetta

Nothing goes better with caramelized onions than thinly sliced roast beef and bruschetta. This wedding appetizer is straightforward yet has an interesting taste.

Plus, it’s filling, so you don’t need a lot of it. Beef and caramelized onion bites are yet another savior option for brides who chose a self-catered wedding.

You can eat this appetizer cold, though the warm bruschetta has a more pleasant, crispy texture.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and place bruschetta slices on a baking tray. Heat until it becomes crispy.

Heat up some olive oil on a pan and place red onion circles in it. Stir until it softens, pour in a bit of red wine, and continue to stir for another 10-15 minutes until it evaporates.

Take out the bruschetta and place roast beef and caramelized onion on it. Mix horseradish and mayo to make a sauce and spread it over the slices.

10. Pesto Polenta Bites

Pesto polenta bites shade an Italian vibe. Golden corn mush goes perfectly together with salty prosciutto and herbal pesto.

It’s a quick and simple recipe, yet so sophisticated you’ll inevitably receive compliments.

If you’re going to prepare the appetizer yourself, you’ll need a tube of polenta, some olive oil, Parmesan cheese, fresh prosciutto, and some red pepper. You can either use store pesto or prepare it yourself.

First, cut the polenta into relatively thin slices, brush them lightly with oil, and place them on a preheated pan.

When they become golden brown from both sides, arrange them on a serving plate and let cool. Put prosciutto and pesto on top and garnish with pepper.