Does this sound like an okay party spread?

[bdaypartyfood]

Currently planning a surprise 30th birthday for my partner and catering it ourselves. It’s a family party so a mix of ages and some children there! Probably about 60-70 people coming.

I’ve never really done a buffet before but my current plan is this:

Ham sandwiches (1x platter)
Cheese sandwiches (1x platter)
Egg mayo sandwiches (1/2 platter)
Tuna sandwiches (1/2 platter)

Cherry Tomatoes (500g bag)
Celery
Carrots (1kg bag cut into sticks)
Cucumber (2 whole cucumbers)
Pepper (1 pack of 3 peppers)
All served with various dips

Mini sausage rolls (50)
Cocktail sausages (50)
Vegetable spring rolls (24)
quorn cocktail sausages (1 pack, only one vegetarian that I know of!)

Cheese & onion crisps
Sweet chilli crisps
Salted crisps
Tortilla chips
Onion ring crisps
(All one big share bag per flavour)

Chicken bites (72 pack)
Cheese pizza (x2)

Breadsticks (2 packs)
Coleslaw (1 pack)

Strawberries (2 packs)
Grapes (2 packs)
Watermelon (1)

Fairy cakes (24)
Mini flapjack (20)
Mini brownies (20)
Mini rolls (20)

Also doing some gluten free sandwiches and some gluten free cakes (only one person is wheat intolerant not coeliac so no cross contamination concerns)

Obviously a proper birthday cake as well!

Does this sound like a good spread of food? Too much or not enough?

Trying to stick to a budget where possible as the room hire was expensive!

Thanks in advance for advice!

A maximum of £200 for 70 people?
That isn’t including drinks is it?!!

With the exception of the chicken skewers, not at any party I’ve ever been to.

The party starts at 7pm so not exactly over dinner time (people can eat before they come)

Precisely over dinner time for most adults

This is a great idea

@Greenandyellowday yes as I wrote that I thought about the double -dippers. Good job I never get asked to any social do's !

OP I don't think a lot of people here are thinking about a proper working class beige buffet! It would be tight, but I think it's doable.

I personally wouldn't bother with sandwiches which go dry quickly, and fruit which is expensive and likely to get left. I'd also avoid anything that needs cutlery.

Saying snacks provided may help to manage expectations!

Had a quick look on Tesco:

Cheese and tomato pizza 300g (99p each) x25 £24.75
Garlic bread (35p each) x10 £3.50
50 frozen mini sausage rolls (£1.75 each) x3 £5.25
25 frozen cheese and onion rolls (£1.75 each) x3 £5.25
56 frozen cocktail sausages (£3.65 each) x3 £10.95
72 frozen chicken nuggets (£3.65 each) x2 £7.30
12 veggie spring rolls (£1.75 each) x3 £5.25
Cheese and pineapple sticks- 700g cheddar (£4.75) tinned pineapple chunks (£1.15 x2) cocktail sticks (99p) £8.05
Cucumber (£1.15) x4 £4.60
300g cherry tomatoes (£1) x5 £5
1kg carrots (69p) x2 £1.1.38
Breadsticks (49p) x5 £2.45
Various dips (2 for £2.20) x10 £11
Various flavour sharing bag crisps/snacks (£1-£1.50) x10 £15

Total on savoury: £109.72

12 iced fairy cakes (£1.99) x6 £23.88
20 brownies (£3) x 4 £12
Harribo share box (24 mini bags) £5
Party rings (£1.25) x3 £3.75

Total on sweets/deserts: £44.63

TOTAL: £154.35

So still have £45 for anything specific your family like, to increase quantities or get slightly better quality on some bits :)

I think you need to at least triple your menu. Especially for a party as people graze

Surely close family know your situation and all suggesting they bring…. Big salads? A dessert? Snacks?

The party starts at 7pm so not exactly over dinner time (people can eat before they come) so it doesn’t need to be a full on wedding breakfast menu.

When do you think a usual dinner time is for adults? They’ll absolutely expect feeding at a party that starts at 7pm.

Good idea to say drinks and party food. 7pm is exactly the time people expect a substantial meal doesn’t have to be fancy but lasagne, curry, mini oizzas etc would be at the basic end of that.

i still don’t think you have enough cocktail sausages😊. In my family five youngsters could eat 50 themselves, that leaves very few for a lot of guests

Yes I’m worried about the booze, it could be room hire in a pub though maybe , that lets them bring their own food.

op, are they also providing plates, napkins, cutlery?

I think I did once in 1987

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/groceries/occasions-by-sainsburys/party-food/c:1046177?tag=Occasions%3AM052%3APartyfood&aka=1

This is the Sainsbury's platter delivery, for those posters who suggested it. It's expensive.

@bdaypartyfood

Think that you should ask for help from family members.

Has anyone got a knife? I need to cut my olive in to four for me, hubby and the kids. Mum do you want a bit of olive too? Oi, AUNTY BRENDA, CAN YOU CUT YOUR OLIVE IN HALF SO MUM CAN HAVE A BIT???

She’ll give you a slither of strawberry and half a grape in return.

Or me.

OP's is more typical in my circle...just obviously more of it with those numbers.

Room hire allows guests to buy their drinks.

And guests at a house party are supposed to bring their alcohol, not expect the host to spend hundreds of pounds.

Hi OP! 👋 Your buffet sounds great and your revised quantities spot on. Good on you for asking for advice with something new to you.

My one piece of advice: start the prep really early, sandwiches take ages. Even just plating up takes a while. Have it all ready clingfilmed before the party, not just open when people arrive, or the early birds will eat the best things. Then when you and some helpers lift the lids it’s go time!

If I were you, I would delegate the chip fetching. You’re going to forget, or run out of time and have loads of other jobs to do. Give it to a person who likes to help out and ask them to do it on their way to the party so you don’t have to dash out and back. What if there’s a big queue and you miss half the party?!

You may not have realised before posting that many people come on here just to have a whinge, ignore them, take what serves you.

HAVE A LOVELY PARTY

Great idea for your DP I’m sure he’ll love whatever you do. Quantities aside, have you got anyone to help, mum, MIL or friends ?

The issue is your are going to kill yourself doing all this….having so much variation is also tricky as you will over extend your self trying to do so many things all at once.

Would you be able to take some slow cookers / air fryers and use them at the venue ? You’d need to borrow a few but IF SO - if it were me I would do

1. A kids food table, with prepped boxes for each of them, that way you can add what you want to the quantity you want ( I would ask their parents for idea of what and the amounts ) if all under 10s you should get away with that. Easy done and easy to prep / keep cool. Then have some treats like mini cakes for them once the savoury is all eaten. Even better if you can get someone to do this for you, e.g. sandwich each, sausage roll, crisps, banana, box of raisins, cheese portion like baby bel.

• Adults - I would dispense with all the sandwiches and pizza faff, I would pre-cook a chilli con carne, according to chat GPT this would be 9 kg of beef mince for 60 adults. Aldi’s own chilli recipe uses 500g mince, one tin of tomatoes and one tin of kidney beans for 4 people, so scale up for the numbers. A veggie version as well if needed.

I wouldn’t bother with rice, ( more faff but would bulk it out) I would do just baguettes sliced up, or the small oven bake rolls you get in a bag from Aldi plus loads of tortilla chips and some soured cream on the side some grated cheese if you think it’s what needed.

then dessert wise, if you want to I would just do loaf cakes, sliced up, so large Madeira or chocolate loaf cakes sliced on a tray.

The left over 45 quid can go toward the gas bill after the oven has been on solidly for 8 hours after cooking 25 pizzas, 10 garlic breads, 150 sausage rolls, 75 cheese and onion rolls, 168 sausages, 144 nuggets and 36 veggie rolls.

Fuck me, that is so much work. She’s got to cook all that if she buys it frozen. It will take ages! Then she’ll have to cart 25 pizzas and the rest of it to the venue.

Honestly at this stage I’d go for the tenner a head.

Not much for vegans, otherwise a good selection but maybe not enough sandwiches

I would scrap doing food at that budget and just provide nibbles.

Then people can eat before they arrive!

I just don’t think it’s doable or practical.

OP sorry you are feeling dejected by the comments, if I was planning this with a £200 budget I think I would scrap the buffet idea and just do snacks

• crisps
• pretzels
• popcorn
• dips
• cheese and crackers
• cheese twists
• sausage rolls
• sweets
• cakes
• biscuits (party rings etc)
• crudités and Hummus

I did got to a 40th recently where there was just a sweet table which worked really well

Me too
and make very clear on invite that party nibbles

£200 for 70 people? I spent that on 6 people a fortnight ago

I actually might be tempted to do savoury nibbles (crisps, cheese on a cocktail stick- a few different types, pretzels, mini poppadoms, prawn crackers) and lots of tubs of sweet mini bites.

I went to a wedding once which was ace. Not sit down. They obviously spent most of the money on drrrrrŕink. They had a buffet table with a couple of joints (chicken, ham, beef), some whole cheeses, pickles and some French sticks. Maybe a couple of big quiches. And it was bloody brilliant. Everyone loved it. No messing about. It was northern though. Maybe the fridge section of Asda is more appealing to some people but it sounds like a massive ball ache to me.