Party catering - please help

[ZanyMobster]

Hi

I have just found out that the caterer at the venue I am hosting a party will be on annual leave the weekend of my party so I either need to hire outside caterer (I imagine hugely expensive) or take my own.

I wouldn't be able to make all the food myself so possible option would be party platters from M&S, Waitrose, Morrisons or somewhere like that.

There will be 150-200 guests, I have no idea on where to start, how much I would need etc, how many sandwiches, how many snack bites and so on. Would it be better to do meats, cheeses, pate, breads, crisps and mini desserts rather than a full buffet or is that totally crap on a night of lots of alcohol etc. Need to make sure there is plenty to eat really to soak up booze. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

TIA

Just looking at Sainsbury's website and if you worked on 4 x sandwich quarters, a piece of quiche, a piece of pork pie, some cheese and a couple of mini tarts you'd easily be over £10/head.

And for many guests, that wouldn't mop up a huge amount of alcohol!

I'd try to contact another caterer and see what they advise. They also have the serving dishes, fridge space etc. to deal with such large quantities.

No way would I be trying to make sandwiches for 200 people - I can't even imagine how long that would take before you've done anything else.

I am 100% not catering for it myself, I will definitely speak to some caterers and see what they can do, supermarket platters will be the worst case scenario for sure.

If I ordered from a supermarket I can't imagine how much space that will take up to transport also. Grrrrrrr, this is such a pain.