18th party food for 180 people where/how do i start?

jaxxy00 · 11 November 2006 at 6:43PM

While im on here i may as well post this which has been really bothering me for so long now, its getting nearer the time though and i know it needs facing but it just seems a far too big thing. :eek:

My daughter is having her 18th birthday joint with a friend (6th Jan 06 which falls in middle, as my daughter is new year baby and other girl 14th Jan). We are sharing the costs of hall, disco etc and so far just paid deposit on hall. The hall is £150 (includes bar and staff), disco £130 (bit cheaper than usual as a dad of daughters friend). I asked the club (it has a bar etc with the function room on side) how much they would charge for food and they said £2.50 per head which i didnt think was too bad at all. Then when i realised how much it would be in total, £450 , it made me think, well surely we could get an awful lot of food for that sort of money so it would be best to do it ourselves.

I have no idea where to start, what amounts to consider, how to present it, on what erc etc. It has given me many sleepless nights and i need to start getting some advice. I havent spoken to the other girls parents yet as i want to have some ideas before doing so. So please help me!!

Some of the questions i have although im sure theres probably more:-

How do i decide on amounts of food? (i thought whatever im doing i would allow an amount per person and work on that, but then realised not everyone will like the same thing so allowances must be made for that. Is there a formula for this?)
How soon can i prepare things and what? (I can bake etc)
How close to the party starting do you take food to club?

Sorry but minds gone blank and cant think. Any advice, hints tips most welcome though. I have looked through other threads about weddings etc which has helped a little but i need to know where to start.

I spotted in Tescos the other day a party range which is all £1.50 per box which i looked and and thought maybe a good idea. I dont know if anyone else has seen them but you get for example 25 mini choc eclairs, 20 indian snacks, 50 rosti selection, 20 chicken satay sticks, and more but cant remember.

The other girls mum is a dinner lady at the school and i think my daughter said she is going to cook bits n bobs there. Also other girls nan going to do stuff. Also what do you think to having a chocolate fountain on the go and a candy floss machine? Theres going to be smaller kids so i thought this may be good for them.

Lillibet_2 · 11 November 2006 at 7:18PM

TBH £450 for 180 people & no headaches sounds like a good deal to me! I have commercially catered (my mum is a party caterer) and it will be hard for you to get any enjoyment out of the evening if you spend the preceeding week in the kitchen, and I doubt it'll come in much cheaper.

That said, what kind of food does that allow for? £2.50 per head is very very cheap so I'm guessing not much & not of any quality! If you are going to do it yourself, for that age group & assuming you can get them all cooked, I would suggest you stock up on stacks of pizzas. Serve ready cut with napkins. No plates, knives forks or any of that nonsense. Don't faff with garlic bread or salad, they'll eat it if it's there but won't miss it if it isn't. Would be cheaper still if you can prep from scratch but would be a nightmare to transport so I'd go with ready made ones, the 3 for £4 kind that Tesco do, based on half a pizza er person that would come in at £120. And I think a Chocolate fountain & candy floss machine would be fab at a 18 birthday party:T

But most of all, don't do so much that you can't enjoy yourself. Your daughter will only have one 18th:D

lynzpower · 11 November 2006 at 7:39PM

My dad also did catering too lilli :beer:

It is a lot of work and rather dispiriting to see the waste ( partic salads my dad used to do were lovely but who can be bothered balancing them when drunk?. Bearing in mind when theres booze involved, the last thing you can by mithered with is a waldorf salad or a HM coleslaw, especially for 18yo girls etc. Id just hang around the crisp bowl

Pizzas are a great idea I think, & if theres catering ovens there? Maybe some big bags of curly fries/ wedges or similar? Nachos & range of dips that should do it. Suitable for all ages & easy to cater for the vegetarians.

Dont stress yourself, at 18 yo party youll be needed to make sure people dont drink too much, not "not eat enough"

london_saver · 11 November 2006 at 8:23PM

There are plenty of things that you can do for a party:

Mini sausages
Baking - mini muffins/ brownies (you can batch bake the day before)
Quiche
chips and salsa dips
Humous and breadsticks/vegatable dips (cucumber, celery etc)
Borrow/ buy (only £15) a chocolate fountain - supply fruit and marshmellows
mini pizzas (make your own bases, size of a coaster and put tomato and cheese topping)
chicken wings are cheap to buy, mariande then the night before and mass cook them in the oven
Sausage rolls are easy to make yourself
Salads/ pasta/ potato

Ok, it will take a lot of work, but it may work out cheaper in the end. Some things you can pre-prepare like baking etc

Good luck!

CLARABEL · 11 November 2006 at 8:29PM

if you are really hell bent on doing it yourself, ask for some qutes from supermarkets to get ideas, they'll tell you what's provided for your size of party which should help with quantities.

personally, i would keep it simple. ie

a vat of chilli / curry

a vat of veg chilli / curry

loads of french sticks

a salad

this is far easier to do than a hundred different items, we did this for the joint christening of my ds and my niece and it worked a treat. see if you can borrow some catering pans from a school/church...or something!

if you want more varety look at delia online for ideas, type in party to her search

clara:D .x

bobsa1 · 11 November 2006 at 8:31PM

Hot dogs, mini burgers and pizzas, candy floss and chocolate fountain would be my advice. Hot dogs are easy to do and eat, mini burgers a bit harder but would probably go down well. you could get the pizza with a range of topings to order from asda, but contact them beforehand to let them know you are coming in and then you can get toppings of your choice. Those pizzas would probably feed 4/5 so I'd get about 30 (i think they are about £3.00 so less than £100) plus hot dogs etc. I would imagine would cost £300 all together.

I don't imagine 18year olds would appreciate all the effort you had put into a buffet so I really would keep it simple (and cheap)

piglet6 · 11 November 2006 at 10:27PM

My mum catered for the evening party at my wedding (300+ people) and as OH and I were only 23, there were an awful lot of students/young people there, so I guess it wasn't so different from your daughter's 18th. Mum took advantage of special deals at the supermarket, combined with her chest freezer - lots of pizza/quiche, plus cold meats, jacket potatoes, bread rolls and salad, sausage rolls, mini sausages, crisps, etc. Most of these were bought when on special offer, then defrosted and cooked closer to the time (mum involved various friends and their ovens to help out - don't know if that is an option for you...could aunts/cousins/friends take a couple of pizzas to cook and plate, etc?

).

Having said all this, I do rather agree with others above - at 18, probably making sure that people don't drink too much is going to be more of an issue than the food - I suspect that plenty of pizzas, sausage rolls, bhajis/samosas and crisps will more than satisfy the crowd re: food, so I wouldn't worry too much about the variety (and like others have already said - skip the salads and stick to the finger food!;)).

If you do decide to go with the "party food" options, remember that all of the leftover special packs of Christmas party foods will be reduced in the new year, which will work in your favour price-wise...so don't buy them this side of Christmas/New Year!

Whatever you decide to go with, I hope you have a great party, and your daughter has a fantastic birthday!

Piglet

jaxxy00 · 11 November 2006 at 11:53PM

Thanks very much everyone for your replies so far, made me feel a bit more like its manageable now.

Yes theres lots of people to help out with cooking etc its more a case or orgainising the timing etc. I like the idea of sticking to a select few things rather than doing the full range of everything normally at a buffet. Also although i would like to do all the fancy stuff (fancy trimmings, pinwheel sarnies, watermelon fruit bowl (see this online, looks very good)) from what you have all said i realise it wouldnt be appreciated and my efforts would be wasted.

I dont think there are cooking facilities so serving hot food wouldnt be an option. If i done the choc fountain how do you stop the cut fruit pieces going black?

I think the thing whats worrying me is about 2 year ago i went to an 18th and got food poisoning. I was quite bad and wouldnt wish it on anyone. It was helibactor (spelt something like that). Thats why im very nervous about the meat side of things etc.

I assume that the club doesnt have fridge facilities either because when we looked round he told us that we could use the cellar/chiller room for the trays of food until they were needed as it was chilled in there. He said we could lay them all out on top of the barrels that were being used.

Something else im also wonderous about is how to decorate the place. He said we are not allowed to use drawing pins to put balloons up, only to use blue tack. I just want it to be really wow!!! and im kinda so excited but at the same time nervous. Im sure it will all go fine and like ive seen on some of the wedding threads people have had little do's in a pub etc and the guests have said it was such a great time etc. I suppose it just natural to be nervous though.

Just had another thought i could take the popcorn machine and they could have popcorn!!

tanith · 12 November 2006 at 12:06AM

At a family 21st they got a local fish and chip shop to supply individual boxes of fish or chicken and chips there were also burgers and chips...... it went down very well and I understand they got a very good price... they just supplied rolls , ketchup vinegar etc and a big birthday cake.... you could ask around local chippies...:T

sal · 12 November 2006 at 12:22AM

Hi,

I wish I'd thought to post a message like this at this time last year.

My son had an 18th birthday party at a local football club. They provided the bar and disco for a fee and we opted to provide the catering.

The party was just for his mates and about 100+ turned up. It was a great night.

We totally misjudged the food.

I spent the week shopping and cooking on the day, reheating supermarket pizzas, quiches, sausage rolls etc. Then we arranged with a local indian take-away for a huge amount of pakoras, samosas, bhajis etc to give them what 'we' thought they would eat, well that's what they eat on a normal Friday night out!

We provided paper plates and serviettes.

I should have listened to my son when he kept telling me not to fuss, no-one would bother with the food anyway! He was very nearly right, the only food to dissappear was the cheapo pizzas - and I think the same lad ate the lot! Hardly anyone ate a thing, they were too busy dancing, drinking and flirting. The rest of the food had to be gathered up at the end and distributed to helpers to fill their freezers. We ate samosas for days.

One thing we did do as a surprise for him which went down very well was photos. We scoured the old albums for 'embarrasing' and endearing photographs of him throughout his life and put them together in several collages which we put up around the room. They gave everyone a good laugh especially if they could pick themselves out as well. No-one was offended.

So please don't fret about food, buy bog-standard pizzas and serviettes as was suggested earlier by another poster, stand in a corner and enjoy the night (feeling very old).

I was very proud to see him with his friends, the food suddenly seemed totally irrelevant.

sal

chardonnay_2 · 12 November 2006 at 12:36AM

i remember at my friends 18th helping to take loads of leftovers up the road. the fun stuff like choc fountain/ popcorn machine sound good. don't go overboard unless there are going to be loads of oldies expecting certain things. asda pizzas sound good

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18th party food for 180 people where/how do i start?

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