Buffet costs help pls

What time is the christening? I think you need cater for all your guests, surely only catering for half of them will leave a lot of hungry people? The evening buffet at our wedding (bacon & sausage sandwiches, plus lots of other typical buffet stuff) cost about £5 per head IIRC, and we thought that was really good value for what we got. Just cold sandwiches etc may well be less.

Are you getting caterers to do it or diy from M&S / Waitrose or similar?

I don't think people will expect alcohol although maybe a glass of champagne/wine to wet the baby's head? I think - although I'm by no means certain - that if you're providing the alcohol for free i.e. guests don't have to pay for it then you don't need a license or anything, you only need one if you're going to be selling the alcohol.

I thought there was a general rule of thumb to make sure you don't over cater that you cater for half of the amount of people you have........

The service is 1pm.

Thanks for the help with the booze info.

We catered for 75 at our wedding as we were advised to cater for about 75% and had invited 90 people but only about 60/70 turned up anyway. It cost us £7 a head I think but that included hot food as well. When we got engaged we just ordered the sandwiches and cakes from sainsburys' deli section and it didn't cost us more than about £3/£4 per head including cakes etc

K

Because I want food that is simple to make and can be done in bulk - to save cost and cut doen on how much i need to 'make' I have the following in mind:

Cocktail sausages (plain, sticky BBQ, sweet chilli)

Pasta salad

Cous Cous Salad

French Bread

Bread Rolls

Cheese board

Cold meat platter

Pickled onions

gherkins

Piccallil

Pate

??Rice salad

Potato salad (thinking of using new whole new potatoes as these will fill people up more)

Coleslaw

Crisps

Is this enough choice

and anybody know how much this would cost?

TIA

For 100 ppl, I would cater for 75/80 depending on RSVPs - if they all come your figures would be right

I'd be aiming for £5-£7 per head, excluding alcohol. If providing wine, I'd be looking at 1/2 bottle per person as some people I would assume to be driving.

How much of a meal do you think people will expect? If you don't want to serve alcohol why not do it as "afternoon tea" and have lovely cakes with maybe some bread, pate and cheese? It will be a lot less hassle and much cheaper, especially if you bake a few batches of the same cakes, like brownies, muffins etc.