Wedding Forum - Evening Reception Catering Numbers. Helppp!...

Hiya all, Sorry its long

I know that this has probably been done lots of times on here already, but I'm really stuck on how many we need to cater for in the evening reception :(.

We are having 60 guests (50 adults and 10 children) in the day, so are already catering for 55 people in the evening because we are having a package deal with our venue. I'm working it out on 55 because the children are half the adult price in the day, so counting 2 children as 1 adult for the buffet, the children will still be there in the evening, but didn't know how the venue will work it so being safe :). 3 of the day guests will be leaving early so wont be there for the evening and we are inviting 84 more guests for the reception. We are not getting married until 2.30pm so should be sitting down for the 3 course wedding breakfast at about 4pm. We are also having a chocolate fountain between 7-10pm, which is catering for 150 guests and people say our venue is usually pretty good for portion sizes. So how many more people do you think we should cater for in the evening? Our venue said that they don't mind if we under cater, but said they will cater for what we tell them and won't be held responsible if we run out of food (which is fair enough).

I am so all over the place with this and am lost on what to do :(( We dont want to run out of food, but at the same time I dont want to waste food or money over catering, its £12 per person for additional guests and we are trying to spend as little as possible. I've also been told by people to factor in that not everyone will show up, but thats like asking what came first the chicken or the egg!! lol. Its just so hit and miss! I have asked for RSVPs but not everyone tells you :((.

How are you all planning on working out your numbers?

well we've got a package and we're paying for each guest that will be there in the evening as its part of the package. But I'd say for you, if you're inviting an additional 84 guests, then I'd cater for around 65 of them, plus whoever was there in the day. That way if some dont show up it won't matter, and there ought to be enough food without there being too much.
Now that's just my opinion of course, and it may be wildly inaccurate, but thats just what I'd do :o) xxx

i'd cater for 75/85 % of the guests...

Because:

1 - people that don't arrive
2 - people that don't eat buffet food
3 - people that are too busy to eat buffet food (major components to wedding party, bride groom etc etc)

:) hope this helps xx

iw dunt cater for 150 onchocolate foundation at nite, cos no offence not alot gets eaten, choclate n beer dont mix i wud knock that down to 80ish!

we areinvitin about 160 to evening and catering for 100 x

Our venue suggests catering for 80% with the buffet x

There's a thought hails... we're going with bacon rolls too... it's one thing to run out of general buffet stuff but imagine only having 80% of rolls then everyone wants one. Hmmm, might need to rethink that! x

the venue are gunna tell u to cater for more... wat company wudnt wanna make more money? am doin wiv mel did x

I wouldn't add on anymore as I was told to cater for 70-80% of evening guests plus your having a fountain.
We're having around 110 during the day and more at night but not adding on any extra as having a sweetie buffet 2 x

I always advise to cater for approx 75% of total guests regardless of age. So if you are having 50 day time guests and another 50 for the evening so there will be 100 guests total so you would cater for 75 guests. this way you are not likely to run out of food but at the same time if some of your evening guests have not eaten a full meal expecting to have a buffet available they will not get hungry

Our venue has told us to cater for 80% of total guests which ours is 72 day guests and 88 evening guests