Unique Passed Appetizers Guaranteed to Elevate Your co*cktail Hour (2024)

Wonton Spoons

Ensure your guests still have an appetite come dinner by serving some lighter offerings during your co*cktail hour; these tuna tartare bites from 24 Carrots, which were passed around on edible wonton spoons, are a great option.

Oysters

Let the locale of your wedding guide your co*cktail hour choices. If you're tying the knot by the sea, you can't go wrong with a raw bar—but there's no rule that says your raw bar can't be transformed into a passed appetizer. At this wedding, servers moved about the co*cktail hour with freshly-shucked oysters in galvanized trays.

• Nautical Wedding Invitations Perfect for a Waterfront Celebration

Down Under

If there's a meal you really love, but it doesn't necessarily lend itself to appetizer form, try scaling it down to a snackable size. Make like this duo who served Hawaiian tuna poke on nori crackers rather than an entire poke bowl.

• How to Build a Raw Bar

Options for Everyone

Be sure to take your guests' dietary restrictions into consideration and have options that everyone can enjoy. We love the offerings at this Norfolk Country Club catered event, which featured a vegetable option of cucumber rounds alongside chicken skewers and Italian meatballs.

• What to Do If Your Caterer Can't Accommodate Food Restrictions or Substitutions

Spring Rolls

Don't feel required to serve appetizers that fit perfectly with the rest of your overall wedding theme. At this Paris-inspired event, for example, co*cktail hour featured spring rolls for a welcome twist.

Pizza Slices

Get inspired by your childhood favorites and serve something like this couple did. Tiny pizza bites reminiscent of pizza bagels made the rounds during co*cktail hour—a tasty throwback that everyone loved.

Tartelettes

Turn to your wedding's theme when considering your co*cktail hour menu. If you're planning a light and carefree event, like this couple's floral-filled outdoor wedding, serve something equally as inviting—they opted for goat cheese tartelettes.

Canapes

Your co*cktail hour is the perfect time to let some of your personality shine through, and that's especially true if you're a self-proclaimed foodie. This couple wanted the entire day to be a culinary experience for guests. To do so their menu—which was dreamed up by De Bouche en Bouche—featured an array of offerings including 10 different hot and cold canapes.

Charcuterie Cones

Everyone loves a charcuterie board, but they're not easy to serve as a passed appetizer. After all, it takes time to curate a plate with your preferred cured meats, artisanal cheeses, fruits, and nuts. Instead, try serving the fixings for antipasto charcuterie in individual cones, as seen here, so guests can conveniently grab-and-go.

Soup Shots

Are you planning a winter fête? Help guests warm up from the cold weather by serving shots of creamy tomato soup and miniature grilled cheese sandwiches, like Constellation Catering crafted for this event.

• Winter Wedding Ideas for a Cozy, Festive Fête

Seafood Snacks

Seafood lovers will rejoice over a few fish options being served at your co*cktail hour. Looking for inspiration? This couple's wedding has plenty of it. They offered a variety of appetizer options including cantaloupe-wrapped crab and truffled salmon tartare.

Elevated Toasts

Avocado toast is great, but it's a predictable daytime co*cktail hour food. Switch it up by topping flaky ciabatta with all kinds of unexpected combinations, like pickled veggies, chicken salad, and more, just like The Girl & The Fig Caters did here.

Crab Cakes

If you're planning on hosting an extended co*cktail hour during your celebration, you'll want to serve food with more substance than traditional bite-sized snacks. These hearty crab cakes, provided by Montage Palmetto Bluff, were topped with a tartar sauce aioli and filled guests' bellies until it was time for dinner.

Mobile Fruit and Cheese Plate

At weddings, meat, cheese, and fruit offerings are often grouped together and displayed on a long grazing table. We're all for serving these crowd-pleasers, but why not reinvent their presentation for a fun twist on tradition? This couple enlisted their staff waiters from Seasons Catering to pass around their favorite small bites on chunky wooden boards.

• How to Keep Food Safe at Your Outdoor Wedding

Colorful Ahi Tuna Bites

An easy way to elevate sliced ahi tuna, a classic big-day snack? Make like Field to Table Catering and Events and serve bite-sized pieces on flaky sesame crackers, and top the snacks off with colorful watercress and colorful edible flowers.

A Little Bit of Everything

If you're catering to a crowd of foodies on your big day, an assorted collection of co*cktail hour bites (like this tray-full of Le Papillon snacks) will surely impress. Guests will enjoy the experimental approach and engage more with your big-day cuisine, since they'll likely have to ask waiters what, exactly, it is that they're trying.

Sliders

Burger and chicken sliders are a traditional co*cktail hour appetizer, but feel free to make them your own by serving them with your favorite proteins, like pulled pork, pork belly, and more.

Pairings

Let your co*cktail hour menu offerings complement your beverage selection, as this couple did at their celebration. Attendees were offered an assortment of passed appetizers that paired nicely with their wine offerings. The duo even provided tasting sheets so guests could snack and drink accordingly.

• Four Ways to Highlight Wine at Your Wedding

Pizza Bites

Pizza lovers, this passed appetizer is for you. Instead of serving regular slices, present teeny, tiny pizza triangles in miniature boxes emblazoned with your names—this approach, coined by Peter Callahan, is about as creative as it gets.

Experiential

Try something interactive at your co*cktail hour and take a note from this couple's book—they enlisted roomforty to cater their insanely-creative offerings—and bring an experiential quality to your co*cktail hour appetizers. Guests were encouraged to run these unique bites through the panko line down the center of the serving board (take that chips and dip!)

Spoon Me

The biggest downfall of passed appetizers is that they're often messy or require two hands to eat (which is a dilemma if your guests are already holding your signature co*cktail in one!). Remedy this common issue by serving precarious bites (like tuna tartare) in oversized spoons for easy snacking, like the caterers at La Valencia Hotel did at this event.

• 35 Signature Drinks That Will Personalize Your co*cktail Hour

Taco Time

Just as important as the flavor of your co*cktail hour offerings is how you present them. Take tacos, for example—they're made even cuter when served inside lime wedges, as evidenced by these Omni Catering bites. Bonus points if you pair this miniature dish with a margarita as your signature co*cktail.

• 29 Ideas for an Elevated Beach Wedding

Ricotta and Fruit

Let the time of your celebration guide your menu choices, as Omni Catering did at this event. The brunch-time co*cktail hour featured offerings that fit the mid-morning affair, like these ricotta and berry topped toasts.

• Unique Alternatives to the Traditional Post-Wedding Brunch

Miniature Pizzas

Pizza is a classic co*cktail hour appetizer, but pulling slices from a tray can often lead to a mess of spilled sauce and cheese remnants. Keep things nice and tidy and make like Modern Art Catering did here and serve miniature pies in tiny boxes—each bite was topped with arugula for an added twist.