Wedding Guests and Reception Food

90 guest are invited to the wedding. How many out of the 90 guest will be there and how much food should be served?

Answer by Diane:

People do love to attend weddings, so you can expect about an 80%-85% acceptance rate.

You'll have to wait until you receive all of your acceptance notices from your guests before you can let your caterer know the final number.

This is important to give to your caterer so that he/she will know how much food to prepare for your wedding.

As for how much food to serve to your guests, that is going to depend on when your wedding reception will be.

If your wedding is going to be in the morning, then you'll be serving a light brunch for your guests.

The same might go for lunch, however, if you are planning to serve dinner to your guests, you should serve a larger, more extensive meal for your guests.

Believe me, both you and your guests are going to be hungry so you have to have more substantial choices to serve.

Some examples would be to start with an assortment of buns and rolls, soup, salad, then a pasta dish (these are filling and not as expensive).

Then go on to the meats and vegetables such as roast beef, chicken, ham, turkey, cabbage rolls, etc. and vegetables such as mixed, beans, carrots, broccoli, squash, etc.

If you have it in your budget you could add seafood such as shrimp, lobster, crab, fish and higher end cuts of meat such as prime rib or steak.

It's good to put foods on the menu that you know you and your guests will enjoy, so if your family ethnic background is asian, of course, add some asian cuisine in there!

If you know that there are some of your guests that are vegetarian or vegan, it's nice to make sure that there is enough available for them to eat as well. That's just being a good host and hostess!

Of course, with an evening or dinner wedding reception, your listing of drinks must also be larger and usually complemented with a full bar along with bottles of wine and toasting champagne.

Hope that helps you out,

Diane