The lunchtime “buffet” reception at Buckingham Palace resembled a formal cocktail party, it was a break from the traditional sit down wedding breakfast.

There were around 650 guests who represented both the couple’s private and personal lives.

Approximately 10,000 canapés were prepared by a team of 21 chefs, led by Royal Chef Mark Flanagan, says an official royal statement.

The palace says all the ingredients for the canapés had been carefully sourced from Royal Warrant holding companies using UK-based ingredients. These include:

• Gressingham Duck
• English Goats cheese from Paxton and Whitfield
• English Asparagus
• Welsh organic Celery Salt
• Langoustines from the North West Coast of Scotland
• Pork from the Cotswolds
• English Crayfish
• Windsor Estate Lamb
• Smoked Haddock from the East Coast of Scotland
• Beef from the Castle of Mey Selections in the North Highlands of Scotland
• English Rhubarb

So, what type of canapés can you expect to be served by the Queen?

Guests  at the event were offered quite a few options:

• Cornish Crab Salad on Lemon Blini

• Pressed Duck Terrine with Fruit Chutney

• Roulade of Goats Cheese with Caramelised Walnuts

• Assortment of Palmiers and Cheese Straws

• Scottish Smoked Salmon Rose on Beetroot Blini

• Miniature Watercress and Asparagus Tart

• Poached Asparagus spears with Hollandaise Sauce for Dipping

• Quails Eggs with Celery Salt

•  Scottish Langoustines with Lemon Mayonnaise Pressed Confit of Pork Belly with Crayfish and Crackling

• Wild Mushroom and Celeriac Chausson

• Bubble and Squeak with Confit Shoulder of Lamb

• Grain Mustard and honey-glazed Chipolatas

• Smoked Haddock Fishcake with Pea Guacamole

• Miniature Yorkshire Pudding with Roast Fillet of Beef and Horseradish Mousse

•  Gateau Opera

• Blood Orange Pate de Fruit

• Raspberry Financier

• Rhubarb Crème Brulee Tartlet

• Passion Fruit Praline

• White Chocolate Ganache Truffle

• Milk Chocolate Praline with Nuts

• Dark Chocolate Ganache Truffle

What about the entertainment?

Entertaining the guests was Claire Jones, the official Harpist to HRH The Prince of Wales.

The People:

During the course of the Reception, Governors-General and Prime Ministers of Realm Countries were presented to The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall and the Bridal Couple.

What else?

The Reception included the cutting of the wedding cake and some speeches, says an official statement from the royal representatives.

Want to know more about Prince Harry’s antics at the royal wedding after parties?

Well, he really took the party up a notch once the conservative guests left Buckingham Palace, say various reports.

“As revellers were served Laurent Perrier champagne, mojito cocktails and Sambuca slammers the prince lunged around with his shirt unbuttoned, danced on windowsills and stage-dived into the crowd,” reports the Mirror.

One guest said to the Mirror:“William and Harry were both very tipsy and calling each other Willy and Hazza, putting their arms around each other. They are genuinely like best friends. He tried to get Kate and William to ­break dance. He was doing ‘the snake’ across the ­dancefloor, doing windmills and robot body popping. Kate was watching him in stitches.”

Another guest said to the Mirror: “He was the host of the evening. He wanted to make sure everyone had a brilliant time. He was acting like a rock star and making sure all the girls had a cocktail and all the lads were trying the Sambuca shots.

They said “Harry was also getting pretty merry. He was jumping off the stage and dancing on window ledges.”

The guest said at one point Harry and some pals locked themselves into Princess Margaret’s old bathroom.

Empire State Of Mind by Jay Z and Alicia Keys, Pass Out by Tinie Tempah and Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen, were a few of the songs reports say were played by the DJ for  guests to dance to.

One guest told the Mirror: “There was a chicken dance with lots of arm-flapping. Everyone was on the dance floor. The guests were really up for partying.”

Harry left the party around 3 a.m. after saying a tearful farewell to his brother and Kate.

Then he and Chelsy left separately, only to meet up again at Kate’s parent’s Goring hotel after party, say various sources.

Reports say they called it quits around 5 a.m.

After all the pomp and circumstance Kate can let her hair down (so to speak) at the reception dinner hosted by Prince Charles, and attended by 300 of her dearest friends.

She emerged for the evening in a fresh Sarah Burton outfit for party time!

The second dress is a strapless white satin gazar evening dress with a circle skirt and diamante embroidered detail round the waist, reports the mail. Kate was also wearing a white angora bolero cardigan.

“The couple left with Charles and his wife the Duchess of Cornwall. The royal party looked happy and relaxed,” reports the Mail.

Mr. Middleton joked about the awkward conversation he had with William when the Prince asked for Kate’s hand in marriage.

One guest said to the Telegraph:“Mike’s speech was all about Kate, and he did very, very well – what a difficult speech to do, but it was very well delivered. He talked about her childhood, how the couple met and what a wonderful couple they make.”

In a display of father son camaraderie, Prince Charles and his son threw around a few sparring jokes at the Queen’s afternoon champagne reception.

Various reports confirm:”His father [Prince Charles] said he hoped Prince William would look after him in old age before joking that William would ‘push his wheelchair of a cliff’,” says the Telegraph. And, The Mail reports another particular incident, where Price Charles was throwing around quips about his son’s hair loss and William struck back with a joke about his father’s waistline!

It was around 11:30 p.m. when Prince Harry told the reception crowd “Now, we have a bit of a surprise for you all.”

What was it?

He led the crowd into the throne room and showed them what one guest described to the Telegraph as “a massive nightclub.”

The setup of the room was described by a party goer in detail to the Telegraph:

“The huge chandelier in the Throne Room had been cleverly covered with a kind of curtain or cylinder which had laser and strobe lights on it for the dance floor. There was a huge bar in the middle of the room, lots of sofas for everyone to lounge on when they weren’t on the dance floor, and a stage for the band.”

What about music? Who performed?

The British Award winning singer Ellie Goulding and her live band performed a two hour mixture of her own songs and popular “Sixties rock and roll hits,” reports say.

Around 1.30 a.m. that Guy Pelly, night club owner and close friend to both the princes, instructed the DJ’s to play a range of popular chart hits “including “Mr Brightside” by The Killers.

This was followed by “club” and “rave” music, Sixties songs were played to “wind guests down,” near the end of the party, reports the Telegraph.

The official “last dance” of the evening was “She Loves You” by The Beatles at around 2.30am.

However, reports say many guests stayed even after and partied into the early hours of Saturday morning.

“Everyone was on the dance floor for the last dance, singing their hearts out with the couple,” said a guest to the Telegraph.

“The bride and groom looked so happy all the way through that it was infectious,” said a guest to the Telegraph.

“They danced together non-stop, as did Harry, Camilla and everyone. Prince Charles, Camilla and the Middletons looked absolutely delighted the whole way through.”

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Elspeth Lodge Apr 13, 2011 – 2:59 PM ET

The menu for the royal wedding sit down dinner and wedding breakfast will not be revealed until the day itself, but there are certain things that can be predicted by looking back at past royal wedding menus, examining British wedding traditions and talking to royal chefs.

Below, what we know about the food and drinks for April 29th’s big day — and what other royals have been served.

The menu will be in French

In contrast to the very English day, the menu will almost certainly be en français.

This has been the case at all past royal weddings and fancy royal functions; there is never any translation on the menu, even for foreign politicians.

(The Queen, of course, is fluent in French.)

A dish will probably be named after Kate Middleton.

At a British royal wedding it is a common practice for the chef name a dish after the new bride, Chef Darren McGrady tells epicurious.com. (Mr. McGrady worked at Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace as the private chef to the late Princess Diana.)

What dish took Diana’s name at her wedding reception? Suprême de Volaille Princesse de Galle — basically, a chicken breast stuffed with lamb mousse, wrapped in brioche, and garnished with asparagus tips and Madeira sauce. She loved poultry, said Chef McGrady.

He said Kate’s dish will probably be revealed at the evening, sit down meal— not at the first reception known as the wedding breakfast, which will be served buffet style.

Take a look at the royal wedding menus from the past (below)  and see some other specially named dishes:

Wedding of future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1923

• “Consommé à la Windsor [Windsor Consommé]
• Suprèmes de Saumon Reine Mary (Queen Mary salmon filets)
• Côtelettes d’Agneau Prince Albert (Prince Albert Lamb cutlets)
• Chapons à la Strathmore [Strathmore style capons]
• Fraises Duchesse Elizabeth (Duchess Elizabeth Strawberries).

Princess Elizabeth’s (the Queen’s) 1947 wedding to Prince Philip

• Filet de Sole Mountbatten (Mountbatten Sole filet)
• Perdreau en Casserole (Partridge in a casserole)
• Haricots Verts (Green beans)
• Pommes Noisette (type of mashed potatoes) and Salade Royale (Royal Salad)
• Bombe Glacee Princesse Elizabeth (Princess Elizabeth ice cream)
• Friandises (delicacies).

The wedding breakfast

Around 600 guests will assemble at Buckingham palace for the wedding breakfast after Will and Kate share a traditional kiss from the balcony of Buckingham palace.

In a break with the sit-down wedding breakfast traditional at royal weddings, the meal will be served buffet style.

But, “… don’t expect French toast and eggs:” says Chef Darren McGrady to epicurious.com.“It will likely resemble an afternoon cocktail party, with butlers passing appetizers and canapés…It’s where you’ll see the Archbishop of Canterbury and heads of state milling about,” says Mr. McGrady. “Given the guest list, it’s a great way to socialize and make everyone feel important, since you don’t have that top table and then some people pushed to the back of the room,” says Mr. McGrady.
For the food, Mr. McGrady is guessing “substantial canapés” will be served, such as smoked trout with cream cheese crêpes, English sausage rolls, mini croque monsieurs, and smoked salmon tartlets.
“Chefs are preparing 10,00 canapes for the lunchtime reception after the ceremony and a special beer is going to be brewed just for the occasion,” reports CelebrityCafe.com.”There will be 21 chefs preparing around 18 varieties of different temperatures and flavors, all of which have been approved by the royal couple.”

As for dessert, it was revealed the the couple will have both a traditional fruit cake ordered from famous patissière Fiona Cairns, who counts ex-Beatle Paul McCartney as a customer. At the request of Kate Middleton, the cake will be adorned by 16 flowers symbolizing, among other things, happiness (rose), tenderness (lily) and marriage (ivy).

The cake will be revealed at the reception, which will take place in in Buckingham Palace’s majestic “Picture Gallery,” under the gaze of Rembrandt, Poussin and Rubens paintings.

Next to the wedding cake will be a more humble chocolate cake favoured by Prince William, made using the supermarket staple McVitie’s tea biscuits.

Of course, there’s always beer

Looking to celebrate Britain’s royal wedding with a pint or two? You can indulge in a brew created for the occasion in the shadow of one of the royal family’s most famous residences.

The newly established Windsor and Eton Brewery is taking advantage of the town’s royal connections to produce “Windsor Knot,” a beer dedicated to Prince William and his fiancee Kate Middleton who will marry on April 29th.

Windsor was once a traditional brewing town, and a hundred years ago there were at least half a dozen breweries making beer to be shipped to London and elsewhere. However, the last brewery stopped production around 1931 and the tradition died out until Windsor and Eton launched last year.

Master brewer Paddy Johnson told Reuters that he wanted to produce an ale which would have broad appeal and be suited to the barbecues and street parties across the nation on the day.

“So we tried to design a beer that’s light in flavor and color, so that it will appeal to a lot of people, but has also got a very memorable flavor to it,” he said.

Windsor Knot is an ale made with a combination of hops from England and New Zealand, which the brewery said represents the far ends of the Commonwealth.

There will be a plethora of other beers, ales, stouts and bitters produced for the royal wedding, which brewers hope will help showcase what is a very English refreshment.

Prince Charles says “no” to Foie gras at the evening dinner

Prince Charles will be hosting and paying for the more intimate evening reception dinner.

Many sources predict the menu will feature seasonal spring ingredients such as lamb, leeks, and cabbage from Highgrove, the Prince’s organic farm and homestead in Gloucestershire.

“One thing that will almost certainly be left off the lineup: foie gras,” says epicurious.com. “… the Prince of Wales banned from all royal menus in 2008, due to his distaste for the way it is produced,” they say.

“I think they’ll have as the first course some sort of salad with a terrine,” said Darren McGrady told AFP (the personal chef to Princess Diana). “I know that one of the most popular is the Gleneagles pâté, which is like a terrine of smoked trout, smoked salmon and smoked mackerel pate”, explained Mr. McGrady.”For the entree, I would see Gaelic steaks, tenderloin steaks in a whisky mushroom sauce, or an organic lamb from Highgrove.” 

With Files from AFP

“We start planning as much as six months in advance, so there is an awful lot of details to go into,” said Edward Griffiths, deputy master of the royal household,” talking about the drinks and how people will move about the rooms.

It is expected that guests at the reception will want to look at the royal family’s art collection that dates back to 1837.”When you come into the state rooms,” said Jennifer Scott, the assistant curator of paintings to GMA, “the works of art you see beside you are really wonderful.”

The security

“Police have announced they are considering using stop-and-search orders, which would enable them to stop anyone on their way to central London,” reports ABC.