DIY evening buffet. How much per head?

jojitsui

As we are getting married abroad we have decided to have a big party when we come back. We have found the venue that will let us do our own catering (very important as we are not getting into any debt for the wedding) but I am unsure on how much I should expect to spent per head to do a decent buffet?

We don't want anything fancy but we do want a nice spread?

any ideas tips would be great thanks

MrsDrink

I'm doing my own buffet for our wedding reception. I'm hoping to get this all for around £2.50 a head from Tescos (*edit* for just the food - see discussions below. I have copied these from another buffet thread.)

These are my plans:

Silver (tin foil) Platters to serve.
White plastic plates.
Burgundy Napkins.
Plastic wine glasses
Plastic tumblers
Plastic pint glasses.
Plastic forks

Ham & Tomato Sandwiches
Turkey & Salad Sandwiches
Tuna mayo & cucumber sandwiches
Cheese & Pickle sandwiches
coleslaw
potato salad
pasta salad
couscous salad
pork pie
party sausage rolls
vegetable spring rolls
cocktail sausages
chicken nuggets
quiche
mini scotcheggs
bowls of Salad
Beer
Cider
White Wine
Red Wine
Rose Wine
Coke
Lemonade
Orange & mango squash
Blackcurrent& apple squash
Newyork Cheesecake (our wedding cake)

Might not be the most exciting but it'll be good enough

(Oh and there won't be any crisps as MrD has a kinda 'phobia' thing around them)


I'm making enough so each person can have:

1/4 of each 4 sandwiches (triangles lol)
4 heaped tablespoons (50g) of the four relishes/salads (coleslaw, potato salad, pasta salad, couscous salad)
400g quiche, 250g of porkpie, 5 sausage rolls, 2 vegetable spring rolls, 3 cocktail sausages, 2 mini savoury eggs
Handful of salad.
Plus 5cm square of cheesecake (my wedding cake)
I have tried to imagine all this piled up on a normal sized paper plate and I think it'd be ample. (and should be enough for seconds).

My shopping list is: 3x 800g medium waburton sliced white bread, 3 x 800g medium waburton sliced wholemeal bread (I personally can't stand manky sliced bread so I want my guests to have relative good quality bread). Based on each 800g bread having approximately 20 slices this would make 120 slices of bread, ie 60 full sandwiches. 800g ham, 15 tomatoes, (Each full sandwich would have 1 tomato, and 50g of ham) 3 lettuces 800g Turkey (Each full sandwich would have a couple of lettuce leaves and 50g of turkey), 2 cucumbers, 800g Tuna, 750ml Mayo (Each full sandwich would have 1/8th of a cucumber, 50g of tuna and upto 50ml of mayo), 1200g cheese, 620g pickle, (Each full sandwich would have 80g of cheese and a spoonful of pickle - up to 40g worth). 3000g coleslaw, 3000g potato salad, 3000g pasta salad, 3000g couscous salad, 2200g of pork pie, 300 party sausage rolls, 144 vegetable spring rolls, 200 cocktail sausages, 3200g of quiche, 120 mini savoury (scotcheggs), Salad bits. Plus 16 New York Cheesecake.

Lordhightiggythe3rd

will be subscribing to this thread as we plan to do our own to and just trying to figure out quantities so thanks op was thinking of starting a thread along these lines

Giggle

I was told by a friend once that its 1 loaf of bread to every 10 people so that's what i do not so if 100 people coming i do 10 loaves of bread

yimmie

I think mine works out at £5pp (aprox 50-60people day), I'm not having sandwiches as my mum says they're too time consuming, I wanted to go for a slightly posher than normal buffet, but inkeeping with some classics like sausage rolls... my list of food's below too hope this helps.
I haven't included any puddings but they would be Chocolate Brownies,Eton Mess and sparkling jelly.

1. Bruschetta with tomato and basil
2. Prawn crackers with mango chutney dip
3. Samosas
4. Onion bhajis
5. Haloumi and pineapple skewers
6. Mini pizzas
7. Cheese board (grapes, celery, etc)
8. Crackers
9. French bread
10. Rolls
11. Pasta x2
12. Cold meats
13. Pate
14.Sausage rolls
15. Scotch eggs
16. Pork pies
17. Cornish pasties
18. Quiche
19. Crisps (parsnip crisps, sensations, kettle chips)
20. Olives
21. Celery, cucumber, pepper + humous
22. Coleslaw /potato salad
23. Salad
24. Chicken wings
25. Mini avocado tarts
26. Red onion / chutney tarts (like pampered chef)
27. Tea
28. Coffee
29. Sugar
30. Cream
31. Milk
32. After dinner mints

shellsuit

MrsDrink wrote: »

I'm doing my own buffet for our wedding reception. I'm hoping to get this all for around £2.50 a head from Tescos.
These are my plans:

Silver (tin foil) Platters to serve.
White plastic plates.
Burgundy Napkins.
Plastic wine glasses
Plastic tumblers
Plastic pint glasses.
Plastic forks

Ham & Tomato Sandwiches
Turkey & Salad Sandwiches
Tuna mayo & cucumber sandwiches
Cheese & Pickle sandwiches
coleslaw
potato salad
pasta salad
couscous salad
pork pie
party sausage rolls
vegetable spring rolls
cocktail sausages
chicken nuggets
quiche
mini scotcheggs
bowls of Salad
Beer
Cider
White Wine
Red Wine
Rose Wine
Coke
Lemonade
Orange & mango squash
Blackcurrent& apple squash
Newyork Cheesecake

Might not be the most exciting but it'll be good enough

(Oh and there won't be any crisps as MrD has a kinda 'phobia' thing around them)


I'm making enough so each person can have:

1/4 of each 4 sandwiches (triangles lol)
4 heaped tablespoons (50g) of the four relishes/salads (coleslaw, potato salad, pasta salad, couscous salad)
400g quiche, 250g of porkpie, 5 sausage rolls, 2 vegetable spring rolls, 3 cocktail sausages, 2 mini savoury eggs
Handful of salad.
Plus 5cm square of cheesecake (my wedding cake)
I have tried to imagine all this piled up on a normal sized paper plate and I think it'd be ample. (and should be enough for seconds).

My shopping list is: 3x 800g medium waburton sliced white bread, 3 x 800g medium waburton sliced wholemeal bread (I personally can't stand manky sliced bread so I want my guests to have relative good quality bread). Based on each 800g bread having approximately 20 slices this would make 120 slices of bread, ie 60 full sandwiches. 800g ham, 15 tomatoes, (Each full sandwich would have 1 tomato, and 50g of ham) 3 lettuces 800g Turkey (Each full sandwich would have a couple of lettuce leaves and 50g of turkey), 2 cucumbers, 800g Tuna, 750ml Mayo (Each full sandwich would have 1/8th of a cucumber, 50g of tuna and upto 50ml of mayo), 1200g cheese, 620g pickle, (Each full sandwich would have 80g of cheese and a spoonful of pickle - up to 40g worth). 3000g coleslaw, 3000g potato salad, 3000g pasta salad, 3000g couscous salad, 2200g of pork pie, 300 party sausage rolls, 144 vegetable spring rolls, 200 cocktail sausages, 3200g of quiche, 120 mini savoury (scotcheggs), Salad bits. Plus 16 New York Cheesecake.

Almost 1lb of quiche per person and over half a pound of pork pie? :eek: Do they all like their grub? lol

Did you make a mistake with the 5cm square of cheesecake though as that is tiny.

I'm sure Warby's bread doesn't have 20 slices though, maybe 16 if you're lucky as don't forget the crusts don't count.

MrsDrink

shellsuit wrote: »

Almost 1lb of quiche per person and over half a pound of pork pie? :eek: Do they all like their grub? lol

Did you make a mistake with the 5cm square of cheesecake though as that is tiny.

I'm sure Warby's bread doesn't have 20 slices though, maybe 16 if you're lucky as don't forget the crusts don't count.

Thanks for looking over this. I can't stand quiche or pork pie so I only went on 1/8 quiche each, and 1/8 of a pork pie. Not overly worried about whether I run out of bread - can nip down the spar and get another one.

No mistake with the cheesecake - that's our wedding cake.

Mayflower10cat

They both sound like lovely spreads!

Very glad to see a lack of rice salad on both - so very easy to get into trouble with rice. Having had food poisoning from reheated rice on holiday one year, and then reading in our parish mag how the Vicar's retirement outdoor buffet was spoiled by lots of the guests being very ill after eating... you guessed it!

Just a little presentation tip; add small amount of garnish materials into the budget, nothing too exotic, but it really 'lifts' the look of the whole thing. e.g; some prettily sliced lemons if you have smoked salmon nibbles, lots of sprigs of parsley to adorn meaty things, sprigs of mint/sprays of redcurrants/borage flowers for puddings (ask around, any keen gardener you know may well have herbs/fruits for free) and for the cheese board, see if you can find decorative leaves to cover the platter with (vine leaves if you know anyone with a grapevine or decorative vine in the garden.) Also, if you chuck some glittery streamers over the table it adds to the party feel!

Hop you both have a lovely day!

bella1010

We are also doing the food our selves.
But i have refused to make sanwiches, so i have ordered the platters from sainsburys. 220 for £89.00.

Your menu's look great, i have pinched a few ideas:D

jojitsui

Thanks everone.
There are some really good ideas.
I am going to keep an eye out in work as we have some amazing buffets that are quite cheap.
When I get ideas I'll post )

Idiophreak

MrsDrink wrote: »

I'm doing my own buffet for our wedding reception. I'm hoping to get this all for around £2.50 a head from Tescos.
These are my plans:

Silver (tin foil) Platters to serve.
White plastic plates.
Burgundy Napkins.
Plastic wine glasses
Plastic tumblers
Plastic pint glasses.
Plastic forks

Ham & Tomato Sandwiches
Turkey & Salad Sandwiches
Tuna mayo & cucumber sandwiches
Cheese & Pickle sandwiches
coleslaw
potato salad
pasta salad
couscous salad
pork pie
party sausage rolls
vegetable spring rolls
cocktail sausages
chicken nuggets
quiche
mini scotcheggs
bowls of Salad
Beer
Cider
White Wine
Red Wine
Rose Wine
Coke
Lemonade
Orange & mango squash
Blackcurrent& apple squash
Newyork Cheesecake

I have a little concern about this...£2.50 just doesn't seem enough to me...I follow your maths..and it seems to make sense, but I can't shake this nagging feeling that in order to get down to £2.50pp, you're going to need very small quantities of very low quality food...Without being rude, I get the feeling I'd be leaving hungry - and the food is one of the few things I actually remember about the weddings I've been to...

(admittedly, I'm a strapping lad with a larger than average appetite ).