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So, you are planning your corporate company's annual picnic or end-of-year celebration. Or, you're planning your own wedding reception. Whatever the event the first priority you should have is setting a budget. This will determine how you go about contacting your local catering companies.
Caterers usually charge per person attending your event. Keep in mind that even if people don't show, you will still pay for them depending on how many attendees you tell the caterer will be coming. Therefore it is imperative to have a good estimation of how many people you think will show up to the event. I know this isn't always easy so you will need to do your research well.
If this event is for your company, usually you will be provided with a budget upfront. So at least you don't have to determine what that budget will be, which is one of the more difficult tasks. However, you do need to decide how to spend those dollars wisely and work within a budget. Not always an easy task. A quick way to find out how many people will be attending your picnic or party is to send out an email early on just to get an idea of who will be coming. Then, get past records of how many attended this event in the past. That is usually a good indicator of how many will RSVP.
If this is the first event of its kind so you don't have any past history to go on, then you will need to do some research on the internet. There are Catering Budget Calculators online that are very useful. One idea for a corporate picnic is to charge a small arrival fee of maybe $5 or $10 to attend and let the employees know they will get their money back when they arrive. For those that end up not being able to make it let them know that the money will go to charity or to door prizes. Chances are you will end up with a pretty accurate head count for your caterer using this method.
If it is a wedding reception you are planning usually you can expect that approximately 75% of your guests will show up. This seems to be the standard rule-of-thumb industry-wide. Just know that out-of-state guests are more likely to be the people that may be unable to attend due to costs of traveling and this will help you with your guest count even more.
So, just remember this: be conservative when giving your estimate to your caterer. You can always add more guests later on but you cannot always subtract. In the end, have fun with the planning.
If you are looking for a caterer in the greater Raleigh, North Carolina area KSI Catering is rumored to be one of the best. In fact, they have built their Raleigh catering business on word of mouth alone and that's says a lot to their success!