To not do food for party

[ttctimeforme]

If you went to an party in the evening at a venue, around 7:30pm onwards.. would you expect food to be provided?

Don't do nuts. Someone may have allergy.

Op, you are over thinking this. Buy silver trays and cling film. Make 2-3 loaves of sandwiches and slice them and put them back in the bags. Refrigerate. On Your way to the venue call into Morrison/Asda/Tesco and buy

6 various quiches
5 x 8 readymade sausage rolls
6 x 6 mini pork pies
4x packet mini scotch eggs
4 different blocks of cheese
Mixed crackers
Block of butter
Jar of Chutney
Grapes/ fruit to dress it up
Tons of crisps
Donuts/cakes/party rings

Then just set it up when you get there to decorate the venue ( remembering the foil trays, sarnies, cheese Knife etc) .

Other wise go onto Facebook to find a caterer. Join local " For sale TOWN NAME " pages and ask for recommendations.

I wouldn’t serve just sweet things. If you don’t want to spend too much, French bread, butter, cheese, pickle, a few dips and carrot sticks etc. would IMO be far preferable. And a corny thing that’s still always very popular anyway, is sausages on sticks - just cook some and cut into thirds. With ketchup and mustard on the side.

The Morrisons stuff looks perfect but their website is just not working. Every time I click select store it just gets stuck on the loading page 😩

Think you’ve got yourself a solution if you can rope someone else in to help you?

Hope you all have a great party!

@ttctimeforme buy some big bags of crisps/snacks. Decent into bowls. Cheese twists, breadsticks and mini crackers too. Add a good selection of dips. Hopefully people will have the sense to serve themselves some of the dip onto their individual plates rather than double-dipping! 15-20 baguettes, and some butter. A plate of cheeses and a plate of charcuterie, grapes. Liver pâté, mushroom pâté, fish pâté/mousse. Maybe smoked salmon. Olives, cornichons, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices. A salad. A bowl of fruit. Soft drinks and water. Disposable plates and cups. Job done. Cake and other sweets as a bonus.

You can’t not have food when people will be drinking.

And for the record it's expected that the minimum for a buffet per person is 8 items. So 4 sandwich triangles, a slice of quiche, mini sausages, pork pie and crisps. Obviously some petite eat more and some eat less, but this is the formula we use. Working class tend to eat much more, the posher the do, the less seems to be eaten in my experience.

Also chutney, plus possibly things like mini sausage rolls, pork pies, quiches. Remember one or two vegetarian options!

Actually thinking about it, we were invited to a party a bit like this last year. We were invited for 7.30pm on a Friday evening to a cricket clubhouse.
It was a mad dash for us to get home from work, sort dc with food (McDonald's), get changed & get back into town to the venue

We didn't have a chance to eat & it didn't say anywhere on the invitation that it was drinks only.

There was a welcome drink when we arrived & this was topped up once if I remember correctly. After that it was a paying bar.

I kept waiting for SOME sort of food to appear...nothing....we were foraging for crisps / nuts at the bar & they had nothing either.

At around 9.30pm a birthday cake appeared & it was sliced up but I can't bear to eat sweet stuff on an empty stomach as it makes me feel ill. It also meant that I barely drank as was v conscious of empty stomach = getting drunk & headache. There were lots of people who went for it & were pretty legless by 11pm

We left earlier than usual for us & went to find a takeaway away. It was a milestone birthday & we'd spent a far whack on a very nice present + a taxi in & out etc

I was v v surprised by the hosts choices & it's not a party I particularly enjoyed as by that time on a Friday night I was tired & hungry.

I take it it's a surprise party for your partner? Could you get close friends or family to sort out a dish each, or could you organise the food platters to be delivered to someone close so they can bring them. I'd happily do either for a close friend.

My husband organised a surprise party for me and arranged for lots of people to cook chilli in slow cookers and transport it. Crazy, but it was actually really nice!

Or could you arrange for an order of fish and chips to be delivered? Or a takeaway? Obviously depending on budget!

Other easy things are massive cheese wheel and biscuits, loads of places do canapes and party platters to order. Costco do some fabulous stuff if you have or know anyone with a card.

I used a local tea room who made up a selection of food and nibbles for us. And they delivered it all.

I cover the South West of England and South Wales and am currently available to do a buffet on Saturday!

I would not expect it. People tend to say though if no food or food so you know what to do.

@MarshaMelrose so do the sandwiches, cheese board etc come on trays do you recall please? Or would I need to get some trays for them.

Can't see salad on mine which is a shame but the cheeseboards, grazing boxes etc look good

Such a shame there are no caterers cos they could work with the venue and set it all up. In saying that those grading boards from Morrisons look amazeballs!

is there no local restaurant you could switch the party to?

Get a catering truck that does fish and chips or pizza.

@LostCountAnotherName no restaurants with function rooms and I don't really want a sit down meal as for that many people it's quite difficult to actually speak to everyone

I'm thinking Morrisons or pizza

I think the person who's birthday it is would prefer pizza but I'm still not 100% sold on the idea although it would definitely be the easiest option

Try a local bakery for savoury platters.

Yes.

Yes, even for drinks at mine I buy a ridiculous amount of nibbles nuts/crips/chocolates..

a delivery will be absolutely fine, be it a supermarket or pizza shop especially once folk have had a few drinks 😂. IMO I would prefer that sort of thing to fancy pants catered food (I’m sure the sushi would be lovely, but I will have 2 sausage rolls and mini pie please) x

Sandwiches came on trays, cut into triangles.

If you go to the salad bar, they might make you them up. We had a bowl of pasta salad, bowl of feta salad, etc.

I just bought the cheese, chopped it and stuck it on a baking tray covered with silver foil. With some crackers, grapes, pineapple chunks next to it. But if they do prepared boards even better.

Order takeaway pizzas on the night, job done!

Yes, of course

I went to a wedding 20 years ago with a morning ceremony and an evening do that started at 7.30. Family only lunch in between. Everyone expected food. There was no food put on, or available to order. At 9pm everyone left en masse for the nearest chippy.

You guests will be p'ssed, p'ssed of and absent by 9pm if you don't feed them. And not sweet stuff. They're not 4.

Dunno, I had my 30th in a club that we hired out and no one expected food as it was basically a club night