Number of People

• The biggest factor when deciding how much food and drink to have at your wedding party is how many people you have invited. When you send out wedding invitations, always send the menu with the invitation so guests can choose their entrees. Make it clear to all invitees that you need the menus back soon. After you receive your RSVPs and all of the menus back from your invitees, determine how many people are attending and buy the appropriate amount of food and drink.
  
  

Time of Day

• The time of day you hold your wedding party also determines how much food and drink you buy as well as what type of food and drink. Mid-afternoon wedding parties or morning wedding parties may not include full meals, but offer light refreshments instead. However, both food options offer benefits and downsides when determining the amount of refreshments you need. A complete meal means you simply order one meal per attendee. Serving hors d'oeuvres and other light food refreshments means you must estimate an adequate amount of food to cover each guest. Typically, when calculating the amount of hors d'oeuvres to serve, figure out how many types you want served and order or make enough to cover three hors d'oeuvres of each type per person. If you serve one type at a party of 30 guests, you would need 90 hors d'oeuvres.
  
  

Back Up Food

• Whether you serve a full meal or light refreshments, you must factor in backup food for last-minute guests or surprise attendees. Always order a few additional plates of food and extra hors d'oeuvres when you plan a party. Elegant snacks also make an ideal backup in case something happens to your full meals. Serving hors d'oeuvres before your full meal ensures that your guests do not go hungry should something happen. Even something as simple as a candy bar or salad bar gives you a bit of breathing room and room for incident. Calculate the amount of backup food in the same manner as you would hors d'oeuvres. For example, if you do a salad bar, order enough salad, toppings and dressing for two servings of salad per person. With a candy bar, order enough candy to fill an 8 oz. container per person.
  
  

Drinks

• Regardless of what type of wedding party you have, you must provide an adequate amount of beverages. Whether you decide on alcoholic beverages, non-alcoholic beverages or both, the amount of drinks you need for your wedding party depends not only on the number of guests but the size of your drinking glasses and size of the beverage bottles. A rule of thumb for drinks such as beer, juice and soda is to provide guests with a drinking glass no larger than 12 ounces. This gives the guests a decent amount of drink while keeping down waste. Wine is typically served in 6 oz. glasses. When serving sodas and spirits, average about four drinks per person. Look at the serving size on soda, alcohol and wine bottles. Calculate how many bottles of each you need by how many people plan on attending your party. Always buy over the estimated amount so beverage shortage is not a problem.