Wedding Recption Menu and ( how much to order?)?

Question

I'm planning my own wedding and I've contacted a wedding catering company. They gave me the menu listed below. I don't know how much to order. We're planning on about 170 people....but I don't know how much to order or how many items. Any advice is greatly appreciated.


H’orderves Selection
$1.95 each choice per person

Cocktail Meatballs
Little Smokies
Loaded Potatoes Skins
Chicken Salad Pasty Cups
Mixed Finger Sandwiches
Rosemary Sausage Balls
Sausage Pinwheels (favorite)
Deli Ham & Baby Spinach Pinwheels
Phyllo Crab Cake Cups
Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts
Crunchy BBQ Chicken Bits
Green Bean Bundles
Friend Shoestring Carrots
Stuffed Mushrooms
Mini Cheese Balls with Cracker Assortment
Dressed Up Eggs
Warm Spinach Dip with Chips
Warm Rotel Dip with Chips
Fresh Fruit Display with Dip
Chocolate Dipped Strawberries (in season)
Garden Veggie & Cheese Cube Display with Ranch Dip & Cracker Assortment
Potato Salad
Pasta Salad
Seven Layer Salad

Soups
Tomato Basil
Loaded Potato

Entrée Selection
Add an additional $2.00 per person for each choice

Seasoned Baked Chicken Strips
Fried Chicken Strips with 2 sauces
Boiled Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce
Spiral Cut Ham on Yeast Rolls
Carved Turkey and Dressing
Sliced Pork Loin

Dessert Selection
Add an additional $1.00 per person for each choice

Apple Dumplings
Homestyle Banana Pudding
Homemade Breads (pumpkin, spice, lemon poppy seed, & banana nut) can put loaves on guest tables instead of food table
Cookie Assortment choices:
chocolate oatmeal, chocolate chip, white
chocolate/macadamia nut, oatmeal, sugar ,
old fashion teacakes
Tarts (apple, cherry, or chocolate)
Cakes (variety non-decorated)
Trifels (chocolate, or fresh seasonal fruits)

Beverage Selection
Add an $1.00 per person for 2 (two) choices. Add $0.50 for each additional choice.

Ice Tea (sweet) unsweet on request
Lemonade (pink or original)
Raspberry Tea
Water (tap)
Coffee
Punch (slushy) add $0.50 per person

Answer 1

First, figure out approximately how many people will be at your wedding. Then, you should go in for a tasting with your fiance. See what both of you really like, and choose those items. The catering company should be able to give you an approximate figure for what your food items will cost per person and total with tax and gratituty included. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

The catering people should be helping you with this. But the easiest way to get started is ask them if they can accommodate 3 entree selections, or if 2 is the limit. With many hotels, it's 2, but catering people might go up to 3. Then pick your choices. This will help with the appetizers, because if chicken is one of your entrees, you'd want something different for appetizers.



If you're having wedding cake, you might want to forget about the dessert. None of those choices really hits me, and it won't be missed that much if you have a full meal including soup.



On the appetizers, that's where you'd work with the catering folks. I've done smaller group catering and 3-4 pieces per person usually works well. If they charge by # of choices, you'd want at least 3. But when you're doing the math on all this, remember that by the time you have to give your final meal count, the number will probably be smaller.

Answer 3

Hi and congratulations!



What you need to do is to cut down the items to you and your fiance's favorites. Obviously, you don't order everything on here.



Then, once you have it broken down to a more manageable menu (i.e., say you decide on the Spiral Cut Ham and the Turkey for the entree items - 2 entree items), then you sit down with the catering company and give them your decision. Then, you will need to find out from them when they need your final numbers (once your RSVP's come back). This is normally only about 1-2 weeks prior to your wedding.



If this is a catering company, THEY know how much food to order for the number of guests you have attending.



Hope this helps!

Answer 4

if you are selecting hor d' oeuvre's you should figure about 5 to 8 pieces per person. since they have the veggies in this section, you should choose at least two items to be vegatable. the green bean bundles and the stuffed mushrooms are nice choices.



from the entree section, your most elegant choice is the shrimp. next i would choose the pork tenderloin. stay away from the turkey and dressing unless it is a holiday wedding. the chicken strips are pretty ordinary fare for a wedding. you might do better to choose more from the hor d'oeuvre section and just go with the shimp for the entree. if you do that, then choose 9 or 10 from the hor d'oeuvre list.



if you decide on the pork tenderloin entree, then go with the apple dumplings for dessert. they go very well together. of course you can never go wrong with a cookie assortment.



for your drinks, i would choose the rasperry iced tea and ask them freeze live raspberries and a small mint leaf into the ice cubes. this is really really pretty to look at and tastes great. ask for real lemon slices in the lemonade. also, ask for small bottled water, not tap. they should be willing to do this for you. when you negotiate with catering companies, you need to always ask for a little special treatment. after all, they are making plenty of money on your order. if you go for the punch ask for fresh fruit floating in it. for instance, if it is a pineapple punch, ask them to put in fresh pineapple. i have been running my own business for years and i know from personal experience that when you want a customer to give you business, you willing to agree to a few extra touches if they ask you for it.



so, you can say, "does that punch come with fresh fruit in it?" and they will probably say "well, we can put that in if you wish."

Answer 5

Well, what i would personally do is narrow down the menu to like 2 different options for each course. In your wedding invitations, give people the choice and figure out how many guests theyre bringing. Then you will know what each person wants, and how much to order. If you give them like 30 options for each course, then it's just going to be extremely confsing for you and the guests.

Answer 6

You menu seems to be good, i can suggest you this party services,

specially made in us style, food and drinks, chocolates with different syles..

can try these..

http://www.usapartyservices.com/recipe/FoodRecipe.aspx