Evening Buffet

[LittleBlonde27]

We're having rolls and sausage/bacon/potato scone for our evening buffet.

Our venue has stated that we must cater for 100% of the guests.

In my opinion, and personal experience, the evening buffet/rolls are never finished and I really grudge having lots of waste.

The few people I know who are already married have said they catered for 70-80% and there was still a lot of waste.

My question is... Would it be sneaky of me to say I'm having 90 evening guests and cater for 90 when really there are approx 110 attending? I don't imagine the venue would know and it would save the waste (and some money!)

Our wedding venue has actually told us to not cater for everyone for the evening as day guests probably won't be very hungry as they'll have just had a 3 course meal.

I went to a wedding once where about 80% of the evening buffet was wasted!

But yeah in answer to your question...I would probably do the same, just tell a little fib about numbers.

maybe think of the vegetarian options too

Perhaps you could get a large doggie bag for the un eaten.

@TisConfusion Exactly! I've never been to a wedding where all the food has been eaten. Don't like being dishonest but don't like waste even more.

@purpleleotard Potato scones are veggie but we don't have any vegetarian guests anyway.

@purpleleotard Doggie bag makes sense but don't fancy 20/30+ reheated rolls and sausage the next day. Especially not at £4.20 per roll.

I've been to a coup,e of weddings where they had bacon /sausage muffins, they weren't very nice! My DD is having a local baker deliver hot pasty, peas and red cabbage. Mmmmm!

One of the gripes on the weddings thread is that food runs out at buffet because people do exactly this

How many evening guests do you have in relation to day guests? In my experience this makes the biggest impact on what percentage is eaten. The more evening only guests, the more that is eaten. Also consider what time your meal is being served and how substantial and varied it is.

I have worked in weddings for years and filled rolls are one of the most common choices for the evening so I’ve seen dozens of them placed out and cleared.

Also, does your venue offer 1 or 2 rolls pp, and are there any side like chips?

Our venue told us to cater for 80%

purpleleotard the hotel are highly unlikely to allow OP to take home buffet food. There is a time limit to how long it is allowed to be out for.

It's a difficult one as the last buffet I went to ran out within 20 minutes. The venue was meant to cater for the number of attendees ( and were paid he the number of attendees) but the amount of food was lacking. I think they assumed the 80% but everyone turned up and everyone ate. I am sure I could hear some workers furiously buttering bread and adding fillings to sandwich's behind the doors.

regards the removal of un eaten food:
I had a hotel reception where numbers didn't meet expectations and there was a lot of food left over.
The hotel was happy for it to be taken away as we had paid for it. It belonged to us, not the hotel.
Yes I too have been at a party where there was Nothing left for those who didn't push to the front.

Thanks for all the replies.
Like I said, in my experience there has always been lots leftover.
We are having a small number of evening guests; 75 day/30 to 40 night.
The meal will be served at 5pm and will be 4 courses, with the buffet being served at around 9:30pm.
With regards to the rolls not being nice, I've not tasted them but the food in general at the venue is very high standard and we are unable to bring outside catering in regardless.

I would say you could get away with 90 if 75 guests had a four course meal 2 hours prior. You do have to be a bit careful with rolls though, as you can’t take a smaller portion like with a traditional buffet, and lots of people will want 2. Does the hotel cater for 1 or 2, I would ask them.

The only thing is your hotel might count guests in and charge you after, but the type of venue that does this is quite rare.

Regardless, you may have no shows for the evening, and some day guests may leave early (this is surprisingly common!) so the reduced numbers would be closer to reality.

If it's just for catering purposes then probably OK, but make sure the venue does know the actual number of people present for insurance / fire regs purposes.
Unless of course they know they usually under cater per person? Have you been to another function at the venue?

Personally, I think if it's one roll each it's harder to get away with undercatering than it is a buffet.

It's less substantial than a buffet - a lot of venues offer bacon/sausage baps at the end of the night in addition to a buffet. If that's the only food that's on offer, I reckon most people will go for it, and those that aren't fussed, will take theirs anyway to give to a hungry partner/spouse.

If this happens, or some people take two, you could end up with a fair proportion of guests not fed.

I would take 2

Our venue have said cater for 75% in the evening. Not everyone wants to eat after their massive wedding breakfast