For those having evening guests and evening food...

Buffet phobias - brilliant ? I hadn't considered people wouldn't turn up if they have rsvp'd yes - how rude!

Our venue recommend serving up enough buffet food for 80% of your guests, that way none will go to waste. So thats what we're going to do I think, (and we are also having a candy buffet for those who wan to nibble!)

I'd check with your venue if they have any rules to do with this, as ours says we have to provide enough food for 100% of the evening guests (even though I doubt we'll need all of it!!!), so it's best to check ?

If I was you I probably wouldn't cater for the extra evening guests (17, have I read that right?). We have 60 during the day but could potentially have the same again in the evening so will probably cater for about 90 I think.

We were at a wedding last month, OH's sister and we had the wedding breakfast at 3.30/4, I didn't even eat all of it but when it came to the buffet we still only managed one plate between us and we don't turn down free food

I provided evening food for 50% of our day guests and 80% of our evening guests only. A few day guests left before the buffet because they had a long-ish drive home and 30% of our evening guests didn't turn up but we had about 15-20% of the food left over. Also, my family can eat, so we did pretty well re: left overs - we actually snuck our left overs back to the bridal suite and we had it for lunch back at home the next day.

We're catering for 100% in the evening, much to OH's annoyance, but as someone who likes her food and having a family who likes their food lol, my biggest fear would be not having enough food as this happened to my auntie and if my family can moan about something they will! We're having rolls and chips though so if I don't see how you can only provide say 50/100 rolls...what if everyone DID want one...you never know?

Anyway, if your venue allows (some don't), then because you've not got many extra evening guests and day guests are already catered for you could probably get away without or only catering for a proportion of your guests, esp as buffet food, probably stretch further!

We're catering for 70% of our total guests with a sweet table aswell. My theory is that older guests will head home before the buffet & some people will gorge on sweeties!!

our venue states this as well but i think im going to knock a few off the final number that i give them. After all who is going to count? and besides i cant bear to see food wasted

Smazzysmoo I would do the same as older bride and knock off a few numbers, that to me might sound like they are trying to get more money from you...but then I am highly suspicious and hate being ripped off lol. Also in the case of Missylou with rolls then it's different. I'm going to ask my venue, I have a feeling they may have said right at the beginning to cater for about 75% so I'll see. I just don't want it to all be gone before some have had a chance to eat and I also don't want loads going to waste hmm!

Has anyone else's venue said they can only keep their food out for a certain length of time? Mine have said 2 hours maximum for healthy and safety reasons! I can see why you wouldn't want certain foods out for long but I'm not sure when to put the food out - too early and people might get the munchies later on after a few drinks, too late and the evening guests might start to wonder if I'm providing any food ? our evening is from 7:30-midnight so I was going to have the buffet 8:30-10:30, does that sound about right?? We would have finished our wedding breakfast at about 5:30.

I tink we were ripped off with this as we were told we had to cater for 100% and this was after we had given our approximate numbers. O now, if we don't have the right amount of guests we will be over paying. I intend to invite a few extra if we can!

We are catering for 75%, our wedding breakfast is fish and chips and thats not till 5pm so when the eve buffett comes out around 8,30 i dont think the 120 day guests will want too much, we have a further 60 coming in the evening but i have not had one RSVP returned, i over invited by 10 to the eve so if they all turn up great if they dont we will have loads of food to get rid of, its a chance you take when inconsiderate guests dont realise the importance of knowing if they are coming or not x

We are having to cater for no fewer than 85% of all guests who will be there in evening (including day guests) ?