Ever been to an under catered party?

[Crunchymum]

Just back home from a party with a generous doggy bag and I remarked how I'd never been to an under catered party as the host was divvying up the leftovers. Cue lots of stories of horrifically under catered parties and weddings?

Other than a few occasions where I've known there won't be food, I've never experienced it? I've never had to share a burger at a BBQ or nip out for a super market sandwich at a wedding.

Is it really that common? What's the worst under catered event you've been to?

And the chips would be about £5 for a a named brand.

Family wedding. They had a 'proper' wedding in every other way, tons of people, church ceremony, table seating as if it was a sit down meal..the 'meal' was a few bits of chicken and lots of chips. It was awful and smacked of the bride and groom wanting lots of people there for the presents but not wanting to pay to cater for them.

I found food in USA expensive last,year but it may have been the dollar exchange plus a popular tourist location

My son's christening!! I am very much a feeder and an over-caterer, but people were just so hungry that day  It was a very local church, plus an informal invite back to the very nearby house, for a drink, a sandwich and a bit of cake. My mum made the sandwiches, and that might have been the problem - her sandwiches are really delicious. I made some pretty great sausage rolls and some rather attractive cupcakes, plus there was the huge christening cake. NOT A CRUMB LEFT. This all took place in the middle of an urban area full of lovely cafes etc, so it's not like our friends were trapped in the middle of nowhere, and they mostly lived so nearby they had come on foot. Still, it was a roaring success 

Sometimes it's not so much the case that an event or party is undercatered for, it's more to do with people seeing a large buffet spread and then being greedy and taking too much, without thinking about how many people may be behind them in the queue.

I've often seen the first 10 or so people at a buffet for 50 take massive amounts of food, leaving only about half of the food to be shared between the remaining 40 people! I really don't understand how people can be so selfish and greedy.

I do some work for my hobby which involves a long day, standing in whatever conditions the weather throws at you, and dealing with people who can be very confrontational. You don't get paid, but the expectation is a nice lunch put on for you. One club uses the services of the local woman's association, and we always roll our eyes when we see them setting up. The jealously guard every morsel, one slice of meat, one potato, one small piece of pumpkin, one spoon of peas, and two slices of carrot. If you dare ask for anything extra you get snapped at, and you can't substitute anything. No seconds at all. What makes it worse, is that at the end of the meal they start divvying up the leftovers and sharing them amongst themselves and pile big plates of food in the car. The club is finding it difficult to get volunteers. It's crazy, because there is a lady that does a lot of catering for the clubs, is only about $5 more per person and lays on so much food that she actually tells people to bring a container, and the food is absolutely amazing. Those clubs never have a problem getting volunteers.

@MissConductUS
It's an oaty biscuit topped with chocolate, doesn't sound great but we can only ever have one pack in the house

Yes a wedding.200 guests and a buffet..there was nothing left for at least the last ten people
So embarrassing

But if you've paid say £30 a head for a buffet for 200 people, doesn't the hotel have a duty to make sure there's enough food for everyone? Surely they should have replenishing dishes back in the kitchen to cope with just the eventuality of 10 people walking up to an empty buffet?

Or am I just naive

I think having servers for buffets is the answer if people are so grabby

@HobNobcentral - I think that this is a case where the use of the American use of the terms has diverged. To a Yank, a hobnob would be a cookie. A biscuit here is a single portion of an unsweetened flat bread, usually served with butter.

Interestingly, the biggest cookie maker in the US is Nabisco (famous for the Oreo chocolate sandwich cookie), which is a shortened version of their original name, the National Biscuit Company.

The hobnobs look tasty. I wish I could get them here.

The hobnobs look tasty. I wish I could get them here

You can [grin} www.amazon.com/Mcvities-Hob-Nobs-300-G/dp/B000VJD5LQ?tag=mumsnetforum-21

You can even get multi-packs of the chocolate version: www.amazon.com/McVities-Milk-Chocolate-Nobs-10-5-Ounce/dp/B004DC9BBU?tag=mumsnetforum-21

One club uses the services of the local woman's association, and we always roll our eyes when we see them setting up

I guess it depends on the womens' association. A friend got the W.I. HQ catering team to do her daughter's wedding and some were horrified when they heard - I think they were expecting dripping sandwiches and pease pudding or something

I've literally never seen a buffet like it, not even at good hotels, and shortage of food most certainly wasn't an issue

SIL's first wedding! They couldn't afford to put anything other than an evening reception buffet so we all got to the reception venue to find like a 4 hour wait with nothing happening other than the bar being open. It was a hotel but they wouldn't let you order food to eat in the reception room. DH and I saw the bride and groom tucking in Gregg's sausage rolls (I kid you not) so promptly left with the kids to eat at a restaurant over the road. Very odd.

But if you've paid say £30 a head for a buffet for 200 people, doesn't the hotel have a duty to make sure there's enough food for everyone?

No they don't. They have to provide what was ordered and paid for. It is not their fault there are some greedy people attending with no thought for others when they pile their plates high and eat more than their fair share.

I think my takeaway from this thread is 1) have servers for a buffet, 2) make sure I know exactly what the caterers allow per head (such as X sandwiches, sausage roll, etc), 3) don't allow myself to be persuaded to cater for any less than the full number of expected guests and 4) plenty of veggie options.

Having worked as an events manager I can tell you:

Couples really begrudge paying for an evening buffet and will try (in vain) to drive down the cost. A £20 buffet, once the caterer has taken off the vat, paid staff and overheads and made a profit leaves £4.17 to spend on food. Part of the issue is that they look at it as £20 worth of food like you would cook and serve at home, but neglect to factor in the time spent doing so, the cost of equipment, rates, property, electric, water etc. The food bill for any wedding is usually the biggest part, but it’s also the part that people remember the most. You batter a caterer down on price too far and they’re going to be scrimping on what’s provided, or the number of staff to serve it.

The other side is where they deliberately under order because websites like hitched tell them to only order for 75% of guests. I had one bride who had 60 guests for a wedding breakfast and only wanted to order a buffet for the additional 40 for the evening. She was adamant, that was all she would pay for and despite going through this a million times, she ran out of food on the night. Problem is, as a venue you can’t explain to guests that it’s not your fault, it’s that of their host. Nor can you say ‘no Auntie Lilian don’t touch that sausage roll you’ve eaten already!’

The final part, is that alcohol makes you eat! It doesn’t matter if you’ve eaten already, give it two hours between the wedding breakfast and the buffet and suddenly you really fancy that chicken skewer or bowl of crisps.

Friend always under caters.

She lives on her own and is stick thin (think she has an eating disorder)
Invited to dinner you are lucky to get 1/2 a sandwich.

When dp (5ft 11 and 17stone) asked if there was anymore. (Everyone was making agreeing noises about getting more) Her reply was along the lines of looking shocked as we had already had a whole round of bread each with filling.

Lovely lady but would starve to death on her rations

Invited by a friend to a get together at someones house, about 16 people - adults and their kids. She informed us when the buffet supper was laid out in the dining room, and that she had done a couple of pizzas for the kids. By the time we had all gone through to the dining room, the kids had eaten about 80% of the "buffet". Turns out that two Iceland medium pizzas will not feed 8 hungry teenagers, so they had helped themselves to the other 6 plates of chicken, sausage rolls etc. and filled their plates - not greedily, just a normal plateful. I think the kids thought that as the amount of food on the table was so small, that the dining room buffet was just for them, and that the adults buffet would be served later on.
How she thought that 6 (normal dinner sized plates) of food would feed 16 people, most of whom were adult sized was beyond me. Annoyingly we were told not to have tea beforehand, as she was going to lay on a spread! Even her own kids were embarrassed when they realised that she had massively under catered. And I couldn't even leave as they lived out in a village and I got a lift with a friend, who wasn't so keen to leave early but who get stuck into the wine instead, of which there was plenty as everyone had brought a bottle. No consolation to me though - I don't drink!

Just to add, we did get our pre-booked taxi back, much later on - my friend didn't drink and drive!

Yes I agree, alcohol definitely makes you hungry plus boredom of waiting around I should think