Preparing a buffet for my sons christening

[beckymcfc]

Afternoon all

I've arranged my sons Christening for August and am trying to weigh up whether to hire out the local village hall or whether to have the 'reception' at a pub. I've been quoted £7.50 per head at a really nice pub who will do a cold buffet of sandwiches, salad, sausage rolls, chicken drum sticks etc. To hire out the village hall the cost is £75 and that includes them manning the bar for 3 hours, so my guests can buy their own drinks.

If I were to do the buffet myself, how much of everything would I need to buy for say 50 people? We would want Sandwiches, fillings, salad, sausage rolls, indian bites etc.

It would obviously be easier to have it at the pub where they wil do everything but for 50 people it works out at £375, which is more than i wanted to spend really and the pub is a 15 minute drive away, whereas the village hall is within walking distance of the church and I could possibly invite more people, however there will be a lot of work in preparing the catering.

I look forward to hearing your views.
Many thanks

If anyone could provide me with a shopping list of sorts that would be great so i can price everything up. E.g ? loaves of bead ...

Thanks

How much do you want to spend? How much help will you have on the day? What time is the ceremony?

Do you have a Costco nearby? They do fantastic platters of sandwiches & wraps, meats & cheese platters, chicken & ribs, Indian and Chinese nibbles AND really nice cakes (Huge chocolate ones, large apple pies and mini variety cream cakes, and fabulous Danishes -12 for £3!) I even bought a cupcake stand and iced cupcakes there.

I had a simular number of guests, 60ish and had a great buffet with lots of variety for £200. I pre-ordered most of it and they make up fresh on the day. They have guides with how many each item should cater for.

It all came ready to serve, so it was just a case of putting all out, then black bags at the end.

I had loads of compliments, asking who catered!

It probably would have cost me that much to buy it at supermarket prices, plus the hassle of preparing and storing it all.

I don't imagine it would be that expensive to do yourself. Cakes can be made (if you want them) before, frozen & defrosted. Same for sausage rolls, a couple of quiches etc. You can bulk everything out with packets of crisps, celery/cucumber/carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes. A couple of big bowls of pasta salad with tuna/pesto can be made the day before and chilled.

If you don't want to fiddle around making sandwiches how about talking to a local butcher and getting a deal on slices of ham (especially if you also order chipolatas (sp?) for sausages on sticks), bulk buy some cheese and a few baguettes and let people DIY at the table. IIRC one baguette does just over twenty slices of the type you get in bread baskets on a table, about 2cm thick. For sausages on sticks you could do a honey-mustard glaze by just mixing the two together and dipping the sausages in it when cooked.

Village halls usually have some kind of oven facility so you can even heat up the sausage rolls etc. on the day, or just cook them the day before and bring along.

Thanks for the above, I will check out where my local costco is, i've never heard of it.

The ceremony starts at 3.30pm so we have all morning to prep and the day before. I will have quite a bit of help from both sets of parents, it's just keeping everything chilled.

I would ring around some posher venues as well, some of them are not very much for a room with a bar and a buffett and the food is good.

I really resent paying for canapes they buy in frozen and then re heat for the event.

We got quoted £15 a head for a savory and sweet tea after dhs uncles funeral at the belfry, then we found out he stole off the family and cancelled the wake!

It's better ime to have a few really nice options than loads of food thats a bit cheap. You could do a sausage roll/chicken drumstick type of buffet at home so cheaply, everyone theres for the baby anyway.

Costco are great. I always use them for parties, etc.

You can get platters, dips, nibbles, cakes and all sorts. I always buy a one or two ready poached whole sides of salmon for about £10 each which you can just put on a big platter with a bit of salad round and it looks so impressive!

becky, would second costco. You have to pay membership - £30 a year - BUT it is well worth it especially if you are catering for a function like this. As Andie said, the cakes are fab and your puddings would be sorted. I love making puddings but for large numbers, couldn't make them for the price they do (something like £7.99 - £9.99 and serve 12 - 16 portions). Also things like plates, serving platters and plastic cutlery are good quality. IF you do find there's one nearby, worth asking around your friends to find out if anyone is a member to see if they will take you for a recce before you join.

Sainsburys do platters of sandwiches and other food to order for collection.
Worth checking out the prices.
You could do a bit of both then... Sandwiches do take the most time to make.

Lots of good ideas here, I can recommend just putting out meat and letting people help themselves, saves loads time making up sandwiches, and I arrange the meat nicely on plates going round in circles and serve sliced baguettes and wraps beside it. (and butter obviously!)

Asda do fairly big packs meat from their deli.