What % are you catering for in the evening?

Well i am having 75 day guests and have invited a further 130 in the evening...

We are having our sit down meal at around 4.30.....i am only catering for 100 for the evening cheese and biscuits!!

We are having 80 for the evening and our venue suggested catering for 60 for that very reason.

Our venue told us that for a typical finger buffet in the evening, they would ask us for the total number of guests and then they would cater for 70%. As it happens, we are having bacon rolls, and for that we really need to cater for 100%. I don't think that will be a problem though, because that's one for everybody, and lots of our evening guests (and some of the day guests too I'm willing to bet!) will take seconds, so it will balance out.

We catered for 75% of our evening guests and still had loads left over!! Our venue were fine about catering for less. x

We catered for 75% of our day guests at 49 - we had 65 in the day and another 30 in the evening.

There was still food left over.

We're having 80 in the day for a 3 course meal and 120 in the evening. These are the venue's minimum numbers and they've said that we have to cater for all evening guests otherwise if there's not enough food the hotel gets blamed for not providing enough. I think this is daft as when I'm a day guest at a wedding I hardly touch the evening buffet however if we end up having extra evening guests I won't be telling the hotel and will just pay the minimum numbers as there will be more than enough and I don't like the thought of waste.

We catered for 75% of the expected total evening guests. This was on the advice of the venue. As usual, there was food left over, but not as much as I've seen at other Wedding.

Some guests do stick around for the 1st dance and then leave - some can't make it, and others simply don't want to eat.

I'd suggest you discuss with catering for a smaller amount, if they are providing a buffet.

This could easily save you £300+ (depending on numbers and buffet costs per head)

this is going to be my point to the venue, the numbers we are having are their maximum numbers so they are catering for a lot anyway...the evening buffet if cut down to 75% of people would mean a saving of over £500 which is a lot when you are on a budget! from what everyone has said i can't see them saying we HAVE to cater for 100% especially as our numbers are their maximum numbers so we have no problem meeting their minimum!! we shall see what they have to say!! but fingers crossed they agree to 75%!! Thanks everyone!! x

I think 75% is definitely the norm.

We'll be catering for 75% as this is the minimum that our contract allows, and like you I'm worried that if we order any more it will just go to waste.

Next decision is what time to have the evening buffet bought out. Our breakfast will finish at 8pm when the evening guests arrive, and the bar closes at 1am, so we're thinking 10pm - does that sound too late?

Our venue says we have to cater for 100% but were having pork batches so there one for everyone and the cost is only 5.50 so not exactly breaking the bank!

A friend of ours catered for 75% and had loads left over so we catered for 70% and it was just right. We only had a little bit of food left over and everyone was happy.

Aimee x

Our venue has recommended catering for 75% as they said a lot of food would be wasted otherwise.

Ye im thinking 75% will be more than enough!! hopefully!

as for your question...I think it depends what your having and if your having any extra people...if your having a cold buffet id say a tad earlier as it can stay out longer but if its hot 10 should be fine....only problem is if you have any extras in the evening they could be very hungry by 10pm if they havn't had dinner yet x

We'd not thought about that Mrs W2B. We're having about another 30 for the evening, and not even thought about what to have for the evening food yet. Guess we need to decide on the food before setting times.

We're having a BBQ in the evening so I guess we need to cater for exact numbers. I've put "BBQ at 8pm" on my evening invites so my guests know not to have food before they come

Our venue has minimum numbers. 80 adults during the day and we have to cater for 75% of evening guests as a minimum.