Event Catering Quantity
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A common planning baseline is roughly 4-6 savory pieces per person per hour for a cocktail-style reception with no seated meal, rising to a full plated portion per person for a sit-down dinner. Adjust upward for events longer than three hours or when no other meal will be served that day.

Caterers typically plan against your confirmed RSVP count, not your invited count, since actual attendance is what determines consumption. A small buffer of 3-5% extra is common practice to cover last-minute additions, but over-ordering against your full invited list wastes food and budget.

Most catering guidance suggests counting children under about 10 as half a portion, since their consumption is meaningfully lower than an adult's. If you have a large proportion of children or known light eaters, adjust the total headcount used in the calculation rather than treating every guest identically.

Substantial pre-meal service reduces how much of the main meal guests will eat, so accounting for it can lower the required main-course quantity by roughly 10-15%. Ignoring this typically leads to significant plate waste.

A common industry buffer is 10% over the calculated quantity to cover uneven serving portions and unexpected extra guests, but going much beyond that mainly adds cost and food waste rather than useful insurance. Calculate carefully rather than compensating with a very large buffer.