I'm having a 40th birthday party at home, it will be in the garden (British summer permitting), I'm guessing there will be about 60-80 people, around 1/3 kids. It will start around 3pm and go on until late. I'm trying to work out how best to organise the catering, I don't want to spend the whole day running round feeding people, I want to be able to relax and enjoy the party. I'm thinking about getting caterers in to do either a BBQ or street food type van, maybe from 6-8, but we'll need to have food available outside that. I'm not sure whether to use a local caterer or just get Waitrose type catering food and leaving that out, or trying to cater myself, getting frozen party food, pizza, nibbles.
Any recommendations as to how to sort it out? I'm also trying to work out how to run the bar, we'll probably just provide wine/ beer/ soft drinks (I.e. no spirits), but I'm not sure whether to have a few buckets full of ice and leave the drinks in there, or pay a caterer/ local student to run the bar
I've never done anything like this before, any recommendations on how to make it work would be great.
Thanks