How to throw a party for 130 people

[Quorafun]

I need the wisdom of mums net. I think I've gotten myself in a situation where I am out of my depth. How do I cater for this many people? I can't just ask a restaurant to provide food, without then getting myself and my party dress ruined serving it up onto the buffet table. I've googled, but it all talks about corporate events with costs of 10K. I naively thought I could do the food in 1500.
Does anyone have any advice or recommendations? Googling just gives fancy websites, and I would rather have good food over a fancy website.

Take a look at Poptop (https://www.poptop.uk.com/search/?category=buffetcatering&page=1) - they link you with local catering companies which might not have the internet presence for a standard Google search to bring them up.

Have you booked a venue already? If not there will be plenty that cater to this many guests and you won’t need to serve it all yourself. I’m not sure where abouts you are located but where I am this sort of thing would range from £8-£12pp so within your budget.

If you’ve booked a venue that doesn’t offer this can you change the venue? If not are you wanting to provide hot or cold food?

My best advice is to get people to serve food and drinks. Average out 10-20 people per staff member. I went a garden party recently that had about 40 guests with 2 people serving canapés and drinks and it was perfect. They were barmaids from a local pub and they were brilliant.

Plenty of local places will cater this sort of thing if you Google. Say what sort of food you want eg finger food canapés or something more substantial.

You need to make contact with a catering college.

Lots of the students will have side hustles catering for private events - and they’re obviously much cheaper than getting a restaurant to do it. They’ll do whatever you engage them for - setting up the venue, cooking, serving, waiting, and clearing up afterwards.

(A billion years ago trainee restaurateurs of my acquaintance did this. It was hard work but they earned a lot and gained masses of useful experience.)

What about hiring in some catering trucks?

I think £1500 is probably only really going to pay for catering, as someone to serve the food will probably add at least £50 per server for the evening.

Caterers will deliver the food but not necessarily put it on a table for you, but I can't see how putting out a few trays of food is going to ruin you and a party dress. We put the buffets out at work for training courses without getting stressed or covered in food.

You might get food trucks or a hog roast for that budget, so worth asking, although it depends on when your event is as to availability, if you want a Saturday night in the next few months, they're likely booked up with weddings or festivals.

Is there no-one helping you with this? What sort of event is it?