I've heard that most places force you to have catering for 90-100% of the evening guests. I've also heard that you should only cater for 50-75% of evening guests as most of them aren't hungry. What would you do? I'd hate to send people home with food in napkins, and I don't want left over food!
Rosi
CommentAuthorDiana89
I'd cater for about 75% myself, talk to your venue and see what they say they'll allow, but if the figure is higher than you're comfortable with say so. Tell them how much you're willing to spend and ask them to work around that. Also see if you can get external cateerers and see if they are cheaper
CommentAuthorjodie
ive heard its usually around 75% im not catering 4 any guests as the wedding breakfast isnt till half 5 then they serve the buffet at half 7 so cant see any1 eating it x
CommentAuthorauntie.elaine
I'm planning on having a late wedding forgoing the wedding breakfast alltogether and just having the evening buffet so will need to make sure there is plenty for everyone. It really depends on what time you will be feeding the hoards at and who is invited. Elderly relatives usually eat less but teenagers can eat their weight in food and then some.
CommentAuthorJoolsy
I was told it was about 70% of the people!! Infact I told my venue I had about 150 coming at night and asked how many I should cater for and she said she would only cater for about 80 or 90 ppl xx
Mine were pretty good. It said in their booklet i have to have a buffet for 80% of the guests or I;d have to pay £300 room hire charge, but when I met with the manager, he told me I really only needed 70-75% so he has done my contract based on that and didnt charge me the extra £300 :)
18-09-10
Now a married lady :)
Im a rebel me
CommentAuthorflatellie
We have to cater for 80% of our guests. IIt is annoying, but I would rather have too much than too little! xx
CommentAuthorsbride
we are catering for 70%, thats what our caterer advised
I am now Mrs Stacey Stiles and loving it!
CommentAuthorNuttytart
We had a major problem with food being left over at our engagement, We order about 90% of what we needed and it was way too much. What a waste! Think we'll be ordering about 80%ish, maybe 75%. Depends on the avergae person size aswell.
CommentAuthorRelfy
I think the norm is about 75% of the guests - our eveing buffet is part of the package so im not sure what they are basing it on. as loong as there is enough food i wont mind. I personally would rather have food left over knowing that everyone is full rather then it all going with people still hungry. xx
CommentAuthorJessica
The venue will still make money on the bar so eont lose out, there just wont be loasds of food going to waste. Im probable cartering for 120 people when i will probably havr around 150-160 guests. x
CommentAuthorClaire Sky
this is a good post, i'm reading a modern day girls guide to getting hiched and they said cater for 50%, but we are inviting 250+ to the night do and to only cater for 125 seems a bit low to me! xxx so 70% does sound about right xxx
CommentAuthorginge23
We are have 60 guests during day and an extra 80-90 at night the hotel have recommended we cater for 100 ppl xx
CommentAuthorspooney24
we are having 112 to the wedding and another 48 to the evening do so we are catering for 75% for the evening buffet. As our wedding meal is at 5.30pm the evening buffet isnt going to be getting served til 9.30pm so by then some of the wedding party will also be hungry as well as our evening guests. Our venue is happy to cater for as many as we we wish for our evening buffet. x
26th December 2007 - the day I met my special man
8th August 2008 - the day he was mad enough to propose to me
24th July 2010 - the day I felt beautiful inside and out and
became Mrs Dickie for life. xx
CommentAuthorKaya
Our venues making us cater for everyone in the evening aswell... with a buffet that's min £21.50 a head. ******s!! :-)
Now Mrs Cobb!!!!!! :-D
CommentAuthorpringletwix
We were told 70%
CommentAuthorRaquel007
I have 150-160 people coming and my venue have told me 100 would be more than enough!!
CommentAuthorkittykat1986
im doing the same elaine
CommentAuthorkittykat1986
also raquel your getting married on my birthday
CommentAuthorRaquel007
Ar, great day alround then Kittykat!! Hope you have a great day!! xx
CommentAuthorkittykat1986
thanks you to hehe
CommentAuthorKevsgirl
We are having a late wedding so skipping wedding breakfast, and going for a finger or fork buffet instead, its £19.50 a head. i've been told you cater for 75% of your guests but not sure what we'd do now/if that still applies.
some people might not be able to make the service, but may turn up later for reception only.
They do leave food on a table for people to pick at during the evening they said.
x
CommentAuthorHoxxyhula
Hi
Reviving this topic because we are having a few issues with our venue. We won't be having the wedding breakfast until about 4 I expect and most of our guests will be at that anyway, as we are only having around 30 extra for the evening. They are trying to make us cater for everyone in the evening but we want to keep it at 100 at the most and say that they normally bring it out at half eight, which is ridiculously early. They claim to be flexible for the day but don't seem to have been flexible as of yet!
The difference will be about £400, but it's also the principle of the thing. We are paying for exclusive use and well exceeding their minimum number of guests for the evening (bar revenue etc), so why should we be dictated to how many people we should cater for? It's just a way of getting more money out of us. They were going on about their 'reputation' if there is not enough food but we all know that it never all gets eaten. It has put me off using them to be honest, but we have paid the deposit now (even though I instructed Chris not to pay until he had their agreement on this. Men!)
Do people think I'm being unreasonable? Am tempted to go somewhere else even if it means losing deposit, but then I am probably too stubborn for my own good!!
CommentAuthorCarlyroo
when i had my initial meeting with my venue they said i had to give exact catering numbers, which was 200, but when i spoke to them a week ago the guy said about 170 ppl to cater for, but it is also worth mentioning to them how many children you are having,as they do tend to eat less than adults so they might knock a bit off for that!also worth checking how long they leave the food out-most catering companies can only leave food out for a max of 2 hours due to health and safety laws!!!
CommentAuthorHoxxyhula
Yeah - I am defo going to ask them to serve the evening food later. People just won't want to eat at that time if they have just had a big lunch. I'm just going to say they should cater for 100, that's what we'll pay for and that's that!
CommentAuthor
edited
Hoxxyhula - problem might be that some of the kitchen people want to go home - I'm only guessing - it won't spoil immediately will it so if goes out at 8.30 and some of the people don't want to eat until 9.30 it'll be ok? Or am I being silly? How do they know how many people will turn up to the evening - do we really know? So if we say 80% and not tell them (so long as it's over their minimum) and more turn up at least they'll make more at the bar.
CommentAuthorRebecca
bugger! we've signed our contract and we were told we had to cater for 90% of our guests!!!! darn!! x
CommentAuthormagpie
our venue just has a minimum order on the room of 80 people which is the minimum for evening do anyway so we can decide how many to cater for we are going to do about 80% hopefully that will be enough we are getting married later in the evening and rather than a wedding breakfast(alot of our guests have children) we are doing a cold buffet whilst pictures etc are being taken so alot of people wont be hungry later on anyway...
CommentAuthorPossum
Does anyone know if we can just not tell them how many evening guests there are? Say it was 40 for the day and 80 for the night, just tell them you are having 60 for the night?
CommentAuthorcatch
our venue say that we must take 50% but we have decided to cater for 150 guests out of 200 as most of our friends would eat you out of house and home, l was at friends wedding last year and they ran out of buffet food we travel in same circle of friends so not takeing the chance, they can take it home if they don't eat it lol x
CommentAuthorHoxxyhula
Hee hee! Most of the weddings I have been to people are too tipsy and having too much fun dancing to stop for the evening buffet! It's a good point that you can just estimate how many evening people and put it at the low side to them. I was just worried that I would get stressed wondering if they had noticed there were more, but it's not like they will be counting (?!)
It's a good point about kitchen staff going home - I guess they could leave it out because it is in a separate room to the dancing and I suppose it would be nice for the evening guests to not have to wait too long for their feed!!
CommentAuthorMrs fairytale
our venue wanted to charge us 100% for our buffet but at £10 per head for 250 people they can jog on, so told them how much i was willing to pay for a evening buffet and not a penny more so they will have to work with that as will not be paying if they try and charge me more xx
cant wait to renew my vows, love my hubby sssssooooo much xx
CommentAuthorPossum
that is so poop!
CommentAuthorKizzy81
How do you know how many will be coming in the evening? We're only requesting RSVP's for the day guests...
CommentAuthorClaire Sky
edited
kizzy i've asked for rsvps off everyone! x
CommentAuthorLisa77
I think you could under-estimate your numbers and pass this on to you whoever is catering for you. My cousin wasted a lot of money cos people didn't turn up.
Hope this helps x
CommentAuthorMrs fairytale
kizzy we are sending RSVP to every guest as we are only allowed 250 there and we are inviting 242 so need to keep track of numbers xx
cant wait to renew my vows, love my hubby sssssooooo much xx
CommentAuthorJoneseygal
We have sent rsvps to everyone as we have to give exact numbers. The venuue is making us cater for 100% of guests in the evening but have said that they do not put it out and then clear it at a certain time, they leave it out for people to have their buffet and then pick at as the drinking munchies develop!
CommentAuthorOfficially Mrs Nicol
i thot it was around 75% u cater 4... i don't plan on anymore coz we have around 164 family then about anothe 40 work mates and partners so we have alot to feed... :)
CommentAuthorjellytot
we are having a hog roast for 100 people. ive invited just over 100 guests. the castle dont charge room hire if the evening food exceeds £500, which it does. this is just the for the evening though. we arent having a wedding breakfast and the hog roast will e served at 7, im hoping people will be hungry!x
CommentAuthoressexk
we're having to pay fro 100% of our guest for evening as we're having a bbq, did manage to negociate (sp) with the venue that the children would count as 1/2 as think the 3 and 4 year olds we're having will either be in bed or won't be that hungry by 8.30! x x
