Renting Dishes

sarahufl

For those of you who had to rent your own dishes (venue did not provide), can you let me know if this seems reasonable?

We currently have 162 positive replies. We need to follow up with the remaining outstanding people. We are serving a buffet dinner, open bar with bottled beer, wine by the glass, and 1 signature cocktail. FWIW, at least 10 of the 162 positive replies are not of legal drinking age.

I was planning to order the following items:

175 place settings (plate, silverware, water glass)
520 bar glasses - how should we split wine vs. cocktail?
100 coffee cups

Does this seem ok to y'all?!

Maggie0829

I am not sure when it comes to these types of things but are you having a caterer doing the buffet?  If so, you could ask them what they would recommend.

And you should have some beer glasses because not everyone likes to drink beer from the bottle.

southernbelle0915

If you're having a buffet, I think you need more than 175 place settings. Most people are used to getting a clean plate each time they go up to a buffet (some will only go once, but some will make multiple trips). And when the workers clear stuff, they'll take whatever silverware is on the plate - meaning you'll need extra. 

The glass situation totally depends on your crowd. Heavy drinkers vs. light drinkers? Hard alcohol vs. wine/beer? Talk to your caterer about both of these things and ask for a recommendation. 

Also, what are you doing about water glasses? 

ETA: I would err on the side of too many than too few. Nothing worse than someone dropping a fork on the ground and the staff saying "welp, sorry about that. we don't have any extras.. here's a napkin to wipe it off."

mysticl

I would have at least one coffee cup for everyone.  

ElcaB

I would definitely add some place settings to accommodate for more RSVPs as well as second helpings. 

As far as splitting the glasses go, does the venue have a bar with a sink for the bartender to wash glasses? Also, I think it's kind of a know-your-crowd thing. If you have lots of wine drinkers, lean that way. If it's pretty split, go half and half. 

The coffee cups seem reasonable to me. 

lyndausvi

We rented all of our plates and such.  We had a plated dinner, so it's a little different.

We ordered the following for 145 people.

160 dinner plates

160 salad plates

160 bread and butter plates

160 dessert/cake plates

160 6 inch plates for cocktail hour 

160 dinner forks

160 dinner knives

320 salad/dessert forks

160 teaspoons

160 butter knives

300  15.5 oz glass -  

400  10.5 oz goblet -

80 martini glasses

160 coffee mugs

With a buffet I would have at least 40% more dinner plates than the number of guests for people getting seconds.   Maybe even more, but I would ask your caterer for their opinion.  

Plates/glasses break or sometimes come chipped.  It's better to have a few extra just in case.

jules3964

mysticl said:

I would have at least one coffee cup for everyone.  

FWIW, our caterer is recommending enough coffee cups for half our guest list. I guess it depends on whether you have lots of coffee drinkers, but I think 100 is plenty. Personally I've never had any coffee at a wedding, whether it was available or not, and I'm a daily coffee drinker.

ETA -- also, are you considering dessert plates?

sarahufl

jules3964 said:

mysticl said:

I would have at least one coffee cup for everyone.  

FWIW, our caterer is recommending enough coffee cups for half our guest list. I guess it depends on whether you have lots of coffee drinkers, but I think 100 is plenty. Personally I've never had any coffee at a wedding, whether it was available or not, and I'm a daily coffee drinker.

ETA -- also, are you considering dessert plates?

The dish rental place also quoted coffee cups for half the guests as well. I drink coffee a lot.

I think we may do plastic plates for desserts? Or is that trashy?

jules3964

sarahufl said:

jules3964 said:

mysticl said:

I would have at least one coffee cup for everyone.  

FWIW, our caterer is recommending enough coffee cups for half our guest list. I guess it depends on whether you have lots of coffee drinkers, but I think 100 is plenty. Personally I've never had any coffee at a wedding, whether it was available or not, and I'm a daily coffee drinker.

ETA -- also, are you considering dessert plates?

The dish rental place also quoted coffee cups for half the guests as well. I drink coffee a lot.

I think we may do plastic plates for desserts? Or is that trashy?

I think plastic plates (or nice paper plates) for dessert sounds perfectly fine. Would you still have real forks, or plastic forks as well?

sarahufl

jules3964 said:

sarahufl said:

jules3964 said:

mysticl said:

I would have at least one coffee cup for everyone.  

FWIW, our caterer is recommending enough coffee cups for half our guest list. I guess it depends on whether you have lots of coffee drinkers, but I think 100 is plenty. Personally I've never had any coffee at a wedding, whether it was available or not, and I'm a daily coffee drinker.

ETA -- also, are you considering dessert plates?

The dish rental place also quoted coffee cups for half the guests as well. I drink coffee a lot.

I think we may do plastic plates for desserts? Or is that trashy?

I think plastic plates (or nice paper plates) for dessert sounds perfectly fine. Would you still have real forks, or plastic forks as well?

We are doing cookies and small cupcakes, so they don't really require silverware.