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?

A halloween party we were invited to both me and my DMum offered to make food and bring it with us(both good cooks and had put on lots of partys and helped with other peoples partys in the past)was told there's no need there will be loads of food.

There was tons of us and not a fucking sausage to eat and 2 of us were breastfeeding very young babys at the times.
She'd bought in tons and tons of booze and a few packets of sodding pork scratchings and to make things worse she sodded off out to buy more bloody alcohol half way through her own party.

I ended up buying KFC for loads of us on the way home(myself.my 4DC,my nieces and my Mum)we'd even been told not to bother eating before we got there because there would be tons of food.

@BigBumandMumTum

More information needed! What did you say/do?

My wedding had plenty of food but we completely forgot to cut up and hand out the wedding cake!! A lot of it was wasted afterwards because it was just too much cake. Such a shame!

Every family event with my inlaws!! They think one pizza will feed 4 preteen boys, that does not end well.

God yes, people who do not know the eating habits of teenage boys are generally shocked at the amount they can put away. my own DS can eat a full roast dinner on a big plate then refill his whole plate with more roast potatoes, Yorkshire’s and gravy for “seconds”. Then have a massive bowl of chocolate pudding for dessert, for example. He is 6 ft tall and you can see hjs ribs, not a pick of meat on him.

Cousins wedding do... we've got an evening only invite, drove for nearly 4 hours to get there and couldn't wait to eat as we were starving. We'd filled out a meal choice thing as they'd planned a sit down meal but apparently the plans changed and it was now a buffet. So instead of eating on the way, we'd saved ourselves for a 3 course meal but got to a mostly empty buffet table with the poor brides mum running round trying to get people who'd taken a plateful to put some back. The kids were utterly beyond it by that point and I had to go up to our room and order room service in the ridiculously expensive hotel we'd had to book as it was miles from anywhere. It was gone 10pm by this stage and when we eventually went back downstairs, lots of family had already left to make the long journey home. What a waste of a weekend that was .

I have been to a few parties where there is no food at all but most of the time people tend to say if there is no food.

I have been to one wedding where there was no evening food. All bar about 10 people were at the daytime and it was a 50 minute drive, I felt a bit of a twat that we were such mugs to be honest, drinks were £8 each also. We stayed for one drink and ordered a dominos on the way home! I was shattered, I had been put at risk with the whole of my team at work and we were in interviews all day that day so I was bloody exhausted. Wish I'd not bothered.

A wedding in rural Scotland with ONE glass of Prosecco each while we stood around for two and a half hours waiting for the photos to be done. We then discovered it was a cash only bar. We were literally having whip rounds with strangers at our table to try and scrape enough for a bottle of plonk however the evening buffet was bloody marvellous which somewhat made up for it!

Many, many training courses & work events. The usual 3/4 of a sandwich, 1 bag of crisps (if lucky) and a bowl of fruit for an 8 hour training course is not enough even if there IS ad lib hot drinks. On the other hand, I've been to events where there's loads of posh pastries & mini bacon rolls for breakfast, cake with mid morning break, food to feed the 5000 at lunch etc. I always used to go through the menu & portion sizes with a fine toothed comb at any even I was organising.

Brother's wedding in his house, evening only and a buffet, there was so much food left over that our respective freezers were packed & I wouldn't face a vol au vent for years after

Yes why don't people understand that teenage boys don't eat the same as toddlers?! There was a thread not long ago about an OP's DS who was turning 16 and having a few mates over for garden camping with a little bonfire, and the OP was ordering Dominoes pizza and wanted advice about it. There were 12 16yo boys and people hopping on to say "you'll need 4 large pizzas tops!". I'm a tiny little woman and I could eat a large dominoes to myself!

I agree with the PP who takes food everywhere, we always have crisps and pop in the car I live in fear of not being fed properly!

Yes, went to a party a few months ago, newish colleague of dh, and was told anytime after 6pm, asked if we can contribute anything and was told no, please don't. There was nothing, not even a peanut despite it mostly being families and it being a 6pm party (if it had been 2pm or 7.30pm fair enough) we were looking at each other, wondered if maybe pizza would arrive but nothing. At 8pm people started making their excuses to get kids to bed, I actually said we needed to get back to the dog! Not sure if anyone said anything. I always over cater, I've been eating food days later.

" And a few very greedy guests who had thirds, fourths...which meant we had very little left for late arrivals."

Come on, it's their own fault if they're late. Had you told the other guests not to go for more? They might have thought the food would go to waste otherwise.

Oooh yes my first "teambuilding" event at my current job. Started off with trays of lasagne and stew which we assumed would be replenished, but apparently their portion sizes had been set to tiny and when the last 15-20 of us got there there were only a few boiled potatoes and salad leaves left. The staff weren't bothered and only offered disgusting looking veggie sausages as an alternative. I tried to leave to get a sandwich but a senior manager stopped me. So for a full day of physical activities in the rain I was fueled by half a boiled potato and 2 leaves of lettuce.

I went to a wedding when I was 8 months pregnant. It was a buffet and tables went up one at a time. We were one of the last ones to go and all that we left was a few wedges and burgers (which I don't eat). I was starving! As soon as we got back to our hotel room I ate an entire tube of Pringles. It was a low point 😂

I don’t like ‘beige’ food ie fried food, sausage rolls, breadcrumbed chicken and went to a wedding with a buffet full of beige food. Champagne only for the top table, and they were all walking about with their own bottle, pay bar for everyone else.

My strangest one was being asked by a work colleague of my DH's to their house. I'd met his wife at a work do before and the exact words were "would you like to come on Sunday for a barbecue?" Then the wife said.. oh yes, do pop round for a barbecue, that would be great.

I assume from the word 'barbecue' that it would involve some sort of food, yes?

Off we trot (they happened to live 5 mins walk away), they welcomed us in, I had a glass of wine, husband a beer and we sat outside on their patio with them. We looked around surreptitiously but couldn't see an actual barbecue, but hey, it's probably in the shed.

So we sat. And we sat some more. After about an hour, they topped up the drinks and we sat again.

After about 2.5 hours, it was getting more and more awkward, and then DH said... 'anyway, we better be going'. So we stood up and said 'that was great, thanks'... and off we trotted back home...

Not a bite to eat and to this day we both agree we heard the word 'barbecue' twice but it never materialised!

One wedding where we were told to expect an epic banquet. It was a carvery with no veggie option (they knew there were vegetarians there). It was also silver service so I couldn't stock up on accompaniments. My huge feast ended up being a bread roll and a couple of tong grabs of salad followed by a tiny slice of cheesecake. There was no evening food as everyone would be so full from earlier and nowhere to eat out as the venue was at the back end of nowhere. We stayed over and the breakfast was meagre too. I guess some venues or hosts just don't realise how much people eat.

I will concede it’s not always the hosts at fault here.

In the run up to Xmas I guarantee there will be a magazine articles aplenty telling folk how to hold the perfect evening soirée with 3 bite-size canapés per person. .

I’ve also planned work events where caterers think it is normal to provide half a round of sandwiches per person, a sharing bowl of crisps and some fruit. I think they do this so that their lunch buffet appears competitively priced - even if it contravenes most people’s definition of lunch.

My other bugbear is greedy guests and I take a particularly dim view of adults who allow young children to pile their plates up, usually with food that is never eaten as the little ones inevitably lose interest. I hate to see food wasted, especially when others don’t have enough to eat.

My brother's first wedding: there were a lot of guests packed into a very small venue, and I thought I'd wait for the rush to die down before attempting the buffet. By the time I got there, all that was left was some cocktail sausages, mini tarts and crisps. We bought pizzas on the way home! They then had a much bigger, fancier, presumably well-catered wedding in the bride's home country.

A buffet at work. People had seconds before others had firsts. I was pregnant and angry at missing out.

I recall a family wedding when I was about 15. No food, and too much alcohol. Not a good combination, and the bride's mother got absolutely shit-faced.

I’ve been to a wedding where all there was in the evening was cheese and biscuits (they had a cheese cake), which did get a few grumbles. Not from me, I was pregnant at the time and ate tonnes of cheese all night!

I intentionally under catered for DS’a and dh’s joint birthday last month (20 guests, all family), did hardly any salad, only a tiny pot of coleslaw and potato salad etc, and only one type of sandwiches (gammon ham) and a single portion of a vege dish for the one vegetarian visitor. Excellent- no waste, everyone ate but no one went hungry, there was just less choice. As a culture, especially with party food offerings, there’s always far too much choice and subsequently, loads of waste.

I intentionally under catered for DS’a and dh’s joint birthday last month
Excellent- no waste, everyone ate but no one went hungry

Bet that’s not what everyone thought

No, but I have been to an over-catered party.

Many years ago, I helped a friend prep food for a party that evening. She decided to make Danish open sandwiches which are fiddly and take ages to make. We made what seemed like hundreds, set up table with sandwiches and other food and embarrassingly not a single person turned up to the party. She and her husband had a blazing row which descended into them throwing sandwiches at each other - I beat a hasty retreat.

I had a party a few years ago and certain relatives insisted on doing the catering. I kept on asking if they needed more money but they refused. I let them clearly know how many people we were expecting.

I went down early to set up and the buffet was being laid out. There was hardly any food out and I asked where the rest was. They had a few items still not set out but I was a bit shocked to see how much they'd underestimated what a typical person would eat.

I had to rush out and buy crisps, cakes, biscuits, drinks and doughnuts at the last minute so was last to arrive at my own party.