Under 2 weeks to go and found a potential problem.....

I would assume if it says up to 150 then you'll get away with 150. Don't panic!!!

Are you including any small children, who could sit on parent's laps at the table, in that number?

You can also almost guarantee a few people will drop out on the day for any number of reasons and not bother to tell you (not that there's much you can do about it either).

You will probably find that your venue is licensed for 150 people as far as fire regulations go, but will have space for more so you won't all be sitting on top of each other - but as far as exits etc go, 150 will be the allowed maximum.

You may find catering for 75 is enough because your day guests won't want to eat a huge amount given they had a meal a few hours previously, and if evening only guests are remotely sensible they'll have eaten before they leave to come to your evening reception, and there's always leftovers anyway - but I'm sure they can increase the food they prepare (at a cost) if you give them a quick ring.

What jenny said, dont panic! If it says 150, then thats fine!

Buffet wise, I'm not really sure. We massively overcatered for ours so loads went to waste - What is your buffet?

Yup... and don't forget that at least 10% will be outside smoking at any one time making it totally comfortable.

Thanks all of you for replying, thats made me feel loads better!

Our buffett is just finger food really, cold sandwich selection, cocktail sausages, chicken platter, peanuts and crisps, vegetable samosas and assorted croulines (whatever they are, hehe!)

And as for the children, there will only be about 10 "kids" so mainly adults.

I'm just worried everyone will get too hot and claustrophobic lol xx

I have filled mine to the max number..actually i have over invited with the thought that some folk won't be able to come or won't bring a guest with them.

Googling seems to imply that they are small pastry 'snacks' with either a meat or vegetarian filling - but quite what form that takes I'm not sure, because in theory a sausage roll or vol-au-vant would qualify.

I think it's just another way of fancifying a menu, like "cruites" are little sticks of vegetables that you dip in various dressings.

I wouldn't worry about the number of people but personally I think having 50% catering is a bit too low and I'd rather over cater than under cater. We were told to cater for 80% of the total guests which was a perfect amount and most of our guests were there all day. I think you would need to tell your venue of the increased numbers for Health and Safety reasons but they should be happy considering it will mean more money at the bar!

Up to 150 means that there will be roomso wouldn't worry about it, just let them know so they provide enough seating

Don't worry, we had 65 to the day and a further 30 in the evening, we only catered for 75% of the day guests in the evening (49) and there was still food left over.

The space will be fine if designed for 150 people, you will also find that some of your guests with younger children may leave early, some evening guests will arrive late and some may not even show.

For 150 guests I would say cater for 100 to be safe and should be plenty. We have 100 in total for the evening (10 of which are children) and have catered for 60 for the buffet as our buffet is only 2 hours after our sit down and I think a lot of the evenings guests would have eaten before they arrive at 7:30