Food and drink for event- help!

[NameChangeSorryNotSorry]

Sorry if this is obvious to some but we haven’t really hosted big events before. We are planning our sons christening and are doing a reception in a village hall. We need to provide all food and drink and aren’t sure of how much.

There will be 45 adults and 10 kids. We are planning on some sandwich platters from Costco, some crisps, salads, pork pies, coleslaw etc. any ideas to add to this welcome! Can’t do hot food but maybe cold pizza?

Main thing is drinks. Our families are big drinkers and we don’t know how much to provide. Reception will be 1-4pm. We were thinking of bottles of beer and Prosecco for after the ceremony and then for after…? More of the same? Wine? Gin in a tin or gin and mixers for people to make their own? We won’t have a bar as such so it would be help yourself.

How much of each thing?? Aaah I hate organising things.

Bump- please help!

Are people going to be driving? That will affect how much some drink. I'd stick to wine, beer and soft drinks. If you start providing spirits it gets much more expensive as you'll need mixers too and with people helping themselves they could disappear quickly.

Food - maybe get something like a ham or cooked salmon as a centrepiece and bread rolls or baguettes sliced up. Have things like pasta salad to help soak up the alcohol. What about dessert? If you'll be having a christening cake you can serve pieces of that.

Break it down by what you'd want on a plate.

55 people total.

Sandwich platters are the little quarter sandwiches so 4 per person
Pork pie each if they're the small ones
Coleslaw/potato salad/pasta salad

And so on that will give you an idea of quantity. I always take a box of ziplock sandwich bags when I'm hosting a buffet so that if there are leftovers I can bag them up and send them home with interested people.

Other things I'd add:

• big bowls of a simple salad
• scotch eggs
• some kind of pickle - beetroot, pickled onion (or go full on retro and do a hedgehog of pickled onion and cheese on sticks and cheese and pineapple on sticks)
• big platters of berries and melon slices

Desserts:

• trifle, jelly, gateaux, pavlova

Don’t overdo the salad as people often leave it. Two big bowls would probably be fine. I agree to add things like pasta salad and bread. Carbs are a buffet’s friend! So I would also add potato salad.

It doesn’t sound like you are trying to do anything overly original with the food (I don’t mean that rudely I just mean you aren’t asking for duck and watermelon skewers) So to keep it a traditional buffet I would say everyone loves a cocktail sausage and scotch/party eggs. Samosas and bhajis are good too.

Are there vegetarians attending? If so make sure you put on generous amounts of veggie food as the meat eaters will eat it too.

Make one thing the main event (e.g sandwiches) so people know to stack up on them and everything else are generous accessories. Then you can work out most adults will eat 2 normal sandwiches plus extras (or equiv of 4 quarter sandwiches).

Drinks wise stay away from spirits, they just encourage bad behaviour. Fizz, beer and wine is fine. Have soft drinks that adults will like too as there will be people driving.

Quiche, vol au vents etc think 70's ... buffets are meant to be retro! To show some offering to healthy food do crudités and dips, plus cherry tomatoes, don't overdo it though, people actually want sausage rolls (I'd get the frozen ones and cook, also they do cheese and onion ones)

For drink, are they driving, also it's afternoon! Personally id do tea and coffee, juice , fizzy drinks then just a toast of sparking wine of some description. Unless you are going to offer a wide range of alcohol I wouldn't start

Thanks so much all.

so we are thinking beer, fizz and pimms as drinks and then a buffet including some of your good ideas!

For 45 adults would 4 crates of beer and 10 bottle of fizz sound about right?

That's lots of booze!

I think it’s wrong not to have wine OP

How much beer is in a crate?

Divide the guest list into beer drinkers and wine drinkers - they're family and friends you should have a good enough idea. 3 or 4 beers (3x 500ml, or 4x 330ml) per beer drinker, 1 bottle per 3 wine drinkers. Only buy stuff you're prepared to drink yourself if it's undrunk (sale or return is false economy). Round up to the nearest case. That should have enough contingency once drivers are taken into account.

Don't underestimate the soft drinks/water if it's a hot day.

Catering... remember any special diets for allergies and intolerances. Get people to confirm and special requirements when they reply to the invite.

When we had my sons christening, we didn't provide alcohol. Didn't even think of it to be fair as the church and hall was in a little village so everyone would be driving. Just provided tea, coffee and soft drink. All other christenings haven't provided alcohol either apart from the ones in a pub

Consider whether you will be able to seat everyone. If not stick to finger food or possibly fork food. It is impossible to hold a knife and fork and plate standing up.
I was at a work event last week that was catered with Costco platters. They do platters of filled wraps and little rolls as well as sandwiches and those were first to go. I'd probably add some mini chicken skewers (just marinate chicken in what every you fancy- tandoori, honey and mustard, lemon, garlic and herbs etc, bake then thread on cocktail sticks.) Some sticky cocktail sausages, a platter of crudités, a couple of quiches or puff pastry tarts, homemade cheese straws.
For pudding I'd keep it really simple strawberries and cream and christening cake.

If your family are big drinkers, I don’t think 1 bottle between three would be enough. That’s one large glass over 3-4 hrs.

I’d skip the fizz (people tend to drink it in addition to wine). Only buy drinks that are supposed to be chilled if you have the facilities- nothing worse than warm white wine. Do you drink wine and beer? If so I’d over cater and it won’t matter if you can keep the rest. I would cater for a glass of wine an hour and a pint of beer an hour if you say they are big drinkers.

Don’t buy food that requires cutlery. Nobody is going to get ill from not having a side salad for one meal. Buy a raw crudités platter instead. Make sure you have condiments - you can’t eat a pork pie without mustard!! It’s only a few hours, don’t go overboard, sandwiches are fine unless you have any guests allergic to gluten.

Contrary to others, I'd do fizz over wine as I know most guests would prefer it (including me!).

Beer or fizz and soft drinks/juice is perfect IMO.

Coleslaw is a bit messy for buffets and might go off quickly if it's a hot day. I'd probably skip it and do something else as a side like a big plate of crudités and hummus.

If they are big drinkers then that's nowhere near enough alcohol. You will need more beer, wine and fizz.

I would alway overdo the booze and buy it from somewhere like Majestic which will take back unopened drinks.

Personally, I would keep it simple i.e. one glass of fizz on arrival, then wine only. Plus plenty of soft drinks.

For food, definitely include some fresh baguettes and cold meats. Much nicer than cold pizza. Costco do a great potato salad too.

I don’t know anyone who prefers fizz over wine!! Unless it’s chilled champagne, but even then most people only have a couple of glasses then move onto wine.

Oh, interesting!

My friend circle and family would always prioritise the fizz at events.

Yes, definitely has to be chilled and, to be fair, as its at 1pm I kind of presumed most would be limiting themselves to 1 or 2 glasses.

I would suggest the biggest issue will be fridge space to keep everything chilled - particularly meat, and cold drinks.
Will some family members lay out the buffet for you after the christening or will it all be arranged and left out before the ceremony? If so, make sure it’s in a shaded area of the room.

I'd find it really strange to go to a christening with alcohol being served, it's not something I've ever experienced and it wouldn't have occurred to me to have anything other than soft drinks and tea/coffee. But I guess as someone else said if you know the guests tastes you can kind of mentally divide into groups and work out what you need. Same for food - split into general, veggie, allergies etc and plan based on some sort of average.

I would budget for half a bottle of Prosecco and 4 beers per adult, minus any drivers/non drinkers.

So let’s say that’s a third of your guests. That’s still 30 people. So at least 15 bottles of Prosecco and 120 beers. But I’d get 20 bottles of fizz.

3 or 4 beers (3x 500ml, or 4x 330ml) per beer drinker, 1 bottle per 3 wine drinkers.

4 beers for one beer drinker
1 glass for a wine drinker

Why the difference?

Because of the laydees! Only women drink cheap sweet fizz, and after a glass they start to have ideas above their station!!

Will you have a cooler for drinks/will you have chilled everything before bringing in the car? I wouldn’t expect people to consume much alcohol at a mid-day function that only lasts 3 hours.

If it’s stand-up eating, make sure everything is bite-sized or easy to pick up and eat.