How many to feed....please help me calculate!

I think your OH might be right! Cos if i was invited to an evening reception at 4.30, I would have had my lunch at lunch time and would be expecting my evening tea! I know its cheaper to count for less but still. If i was wanting to pay less, I would maybe add all up and subtract 5 or 10 people. Have you been at or know anyone who has been at a wedding there before who could tell you what their buffet size is like?

If day guests are arriving at 4pm and evening ones at 4:30, I'd count them all as full people for the catering. I don't think I'd eat a proper meal before turning up to a wedding at 4 or 4:30.

I agree with Debs - I'd have had my lunch but still be expecting a tea. Or I might even have not bothered with lunch!

I think I'd go for the full lot, but not serve the buffet till about six/630?

The evening guests could quite possibly have eaten, but if you say they are coming at 4.30, maybe they'll be coming straight from work, maybe its too early for them to eat. (just something to think about)

I would definatly cater for the day guests, maybe cater for 60 as some of them are children? And also with it being quite late in the day, some of them might have only just had there lunch, as they might think they wont be eating till late?

And then the eveing guests, going on what i just said, i would maybe cater for 10? Bearing in mind some are children?

So that means 70 in total, so maybe you could go for between 60-70?

Does that shave much off your budget?

Bit hard to judge as i'm not really in your situation, but hope i have helped.

x

I tend to agree with deborah. Your evening guests are hardly evening guests when they are coming in the afternoon, and dont know about you but I wouldn't have eaten by then. Also how can you be sure your evening guests with eat less than you day guests?!

That said, most venues will be honest with you and tell you you only need to cater for a % of the amount coming i.e 75% - 80%

Sorry! Just re-read my initial post and may a boo boo! Wedding is at 4pm.........evening guests coming at 7.30! (I'm an idiot!)

So there is no food for the day guests between the ceremony and the buffet? If that's the case, I'd definitely give them a whole portion as I'd be starving by that point.

As for the evening guests, you can decide whether you want to pay for full or half and word the invites accordingly (e.g. "a buffet will be served" vs. "snacks will be available" or something to that effect).

Hmmm well thats a wee bit different! I have gone to evening do's before and havent eaten before i went, and some had something small to eat. I think you could get away with not catering for the full quota of guests, but maybe 80% or something like that and dont include children or something like that! Im not at that stage yet! I have a meeting with the coordinator this sat so i must ask her how they calculate for the evening reception. I have been told that they count the cups used and that you get charged per cup used!

Ceremony will be at 4pm and then we'll be having the buffet about 7/7.30ish for both them and the evening guests to have (although we could bring the time forward fr the buffet if that appears to be too late, we're only just figuring out the timings of things and I've never been to a wedding before with just a buffet so don't really know what timings are best)

yes sorry, I shouldn't have been so quick to press the send button lol! I'm a twit!

Im also getting married at 4pm, im serving a 'summer sadlad' buffet for the day guests at 5.30pm then normal buffet food at 8pm for all? maybe if budget allowed this could work for you?

im just thinking even by the time the ceremony had finished id be starving?

I'd leave kids out and just cater for 75%

x

Unfortunately the budget doesn't really stretch to feeding everyone twice which is why we having a buffet and not a sit down dinner.

Would you really be starving after the ceremony? Its only a civil ceremony so will be over by half 4 anyway........and nearly everyone I know eats dinner roughly at about 6/6.30 anyway....

Maybe I should move the time forward.....

I would think the day guest would most probably have already eaten before they have come to your wedding. They will know by the invitation that they wont be eating until the evening (you could put something like ' inviting you to the ceremony of *** and *** at 4pm, followed by an evening reception'...which might make it a bit more obvious that they wont be eating until the evening?

x

Right. let me get my head round this.

IIWY, I would cater a full buffet for the day guests and half a buffet for the evening guests.

We are getting married at 3.30pm. Having canapes as a starter in the drinks reception bit. Having a 2 course wedding breakfast for 50 guests at 5.30pm then having a buffet for 60 at 8.30pm. There are actually going to be 80 guests in total at night but there 15 of them are children so I've ordered just a buffet for 60 because my day guests won't be ravenous and we're having a sweet buffet, cupcakes and homemade traditional sponge cakes too so I think that will be plenty to go around.

How about serving your wedding cake after the buffet to add a bit more food on?

yes we werre going to do this

I am having the same dilema - we get married at 3pm and H2B really doesn't want a sit down meal so we are going for a buffet. We are not dividing up evening / day guests but know this will probably happen on its own as we marry on a Friday and so not everyone will want to take the time off.

As far as i'm aware, at our venue where we are being charged per person we have to pay for each attendee ie: 1 person = 1 person and they must be catered for as such. Does that make sense? I would check this with your venue first.

Kayl - thats a good point I hadn't thought about that. I checked our contract and it doesn't say anything about that just that we need to let them know how many we want to cater for

If you invite evening guests for 7.30pm, most won't arrive until at least 8pm and I would think that they will not be expecting the food at about 9.30pm, so won't be hungry when they arrive.

The time between the ceremony and the food seems too long as well. I would feed the day guests at 6.30pm and then just have wedding cake in the evening at about 9pm.

You need to count the day guests as whole people. They will probably have had lunch, but will be ready for a full meal later.