Planning food and drink for a self-catering weekend with friends

[Citygirlrurallife]

Trying to get myself organised for a 3 night weekend away with friends, there will be 20 people, most staying all 3 nights, a few just staying 2. Would love some thoughts.

self catering we’ll order a curry on the Friday night and we have a chef doing a sit down dinner Saturday night. We might do pub lunch on the Sunday.

need to do a food and drinks order for the rest. I was thinking we get in some frozen pastries, lots of bread and eggs and bacon to cover the 3 breakfasts (should I also get in yoghurt? Anything else). Then I think I need to actually plan the Saturday lunch and whatever the other lighter meal will be on Sunday, and snacks available (fruit, crisps, nuts I reckon should do it?) and things like tea and coffee and milk etc

the booze order though I really need help with. We’re in the middle of nowhere so I want to make sure we have enough. Group all in their 40’s and can party when they want to, no teetotallers. I want to make sure we have a range on offer (as well as AF options) so wine, beer, gin and tonic, whisky for nightcaps - how would you work out the amount to order?! The idea is nobody should have to bring any with them so I need to do the full order.

thoughts ?!

I was going to say everybody bring what they might drink! Are you hosting this get together? Are you paying for everything? Do they all drink the same thing or are you expected to provide everything from wine to beer to spirits and mixers?
When nine of us went away for a birthday gathering we shared costs. So people picked a meal to cater (I did the first night so brought stuff to make lasagna and salad), two did a joint second dinner, the rest divided up the remaining meals (it was three nights and only dinner the first night and breakfast the last day, so eight meals in total). The last person not responsible for a meal brought snacky bits like crisps, cheese, crackers etc. Then for drinks we brought what we would drink plus a bottle. We all drink wine so that’s what we brought.

We’re hosting and organising. Friends have contributed financially (though we’re paying the bulk of the costs), it’s part of our gift to them to just turn up

Everyone drinks wine and beer and gin and DH is partial to whisky so I don’t think I need to start getting in other spirits and mixers too

Though just discovered there’s a tesco extra up the road so not too much of an emergency if we need to top up!

This is kind of my specialist subject. My list would be:

Breakfasts: bread, butter, bacon, eggs, ketchup, brown sauce, bagels, hash browns. I wouldn’t bother with yogurt or anything like that, you want it nice but not complicated.

Light lunch/Sunday evening - do the pub lunch on Sunday so people won’t actually want a lot to eat Sunday night and get a varied and large amount of; meats, cheeses, crackers, bread, chutney, pate type stuff for a buffet lunch Saturday and picky tea Sunday.

Snacks: crisps and the like. Wouldn’t bother with fruit. Bits of the buffet can also bulk up snacks if needed.

Booze volumes I allow one and a third bottles of wine per person per night. But the ‘third’ is usually fizz, because my friends all tend to like a couple of glasses of fizz to kick off, then move onto to something else. In winter I go 50% red, 50% white, in summer it’s a third white/rose/red. Gin, whisky and mixers on top of that of course. However, if you are able to stock up midway I would probably stick to a bottle pppn.

(I know that is a LOT of booze and yes, I usually do have plenty leftover but I hate to run out. And as I say, if you are able to restock then that takes away a lot of the running out anxiety).

Thanks! How much gin and tonic would you usually do for 20? We’re all G&T drinkers!

I would definitely do a lot of fruit but I can’t do without it so would probably bring some. At least some lemons for the gin, and a few punnets of strawberries at this time of year

Have you asked all these people their preferences? Any dietary requirements or allergies? Will they likely to be insisting on healthy food/five a day or will they be in a 'I'm on holiday so gin and crisps is a meal' mindset?

What will happen with any leftovers? If you/they will be happy to take away any spare drinks, mixers, bags of crisps etc, I'd not worry too much about over ordering, unless you're on a tight budget, which it doesn't sound like you are, as then you won't run out and nothing will be wasted. But then again, the emergency Saturday night/Sunday morning Tesco top up sounds like a good contingency plan.

On the amount of gin, it depends if you'll also be drinking wine and beer. If I was going on this sort of weekend, I'd quite easily start with a beer with lunch, wine and beer in the afternoon, perhaps a G&T in the early evening, wine or beer with dinner and perhaps a G&T afterwards, so it might not be that much gin, but then again, a couple of large measures three nights running could well be the best part of a bottle. I drink lager, fizz and G&Ts, white or rose wine on occasion/if there's nothing else available. Never red, so bear this in mind when buying wine, even if people happily drink a mix of beer/wine/spirits, they generally have a strong preference for red or white wine.

Don't forget ice. Will there be a freezer? If so, I'd get a couple bags of ice unless you can take a lot of ice cube trays and start making ice at the beginning of day 1.

Avoid point re freezer - I'll check with Airbnb hosts about that!

I know them all very well and have asked anyway about preferences. Everyone is pretty easy, there’s one who drinks one glass of wine and that’s it, everyone else will be enjoying being away from kids, they’re all (probably a bit stereotypes) into craft beer, decent gin, like their wine (not expensive but not cheap plonk either)

maybe I’ll just preemptively expect a Tesco run to top up….

GOOD point not avoid point!

We did something similar for a big birthday a few years ago, except we also had kids.

We found that people were still determined to contribute to food and drinks so it was useful to direct them rather than have random items or too much of one thing. So maybe you could ask each couple to bring a gin/beers/wines with a story or something? We also got everyone to bring something for a picky meal on the first night as everyone arrived at slightly different times.