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A camera descending a banquet table from glasses and flowers to the cutlery laid on the cloth

Planning reference

Catering planning, worked out

Four calculators and nine guides for planning an event: how much food to order, how many staff to book, what the drinks come to, and what it all costs per guest.

Open a calculator Read the guides

What it is

Rules of thumb, written down

The numbers a caterer starts from before adjusting for the menu, the venue and the crowd. Each one states the assumption behind it.

Calculators

Type in your event. The numbers update as you go, and every calculator shows the assumptions behind them.

CalculatorFood quantity calculatorEstimate total food quantities from guest count, service style and event length.
CalculatorStaffing calculatorEstimate servers, bartenders and kitchen staff, and the hours to budget for.
CalculatorDrinks calculatorEstimate drinks, bottles, ice and glassware for the length of your event.
CalculatorCost per head calculatorWork out the cost per guest from food, labour, rentals and overhead, and see the margin.
A camera rising through a catering kitchen from plated canapes to a rack of clean glassware

Quantities

How much actually goes out

Portions per head, canapes per hour, how the numbers move with a long drinks reception or a seated dinner.

Staffing

And how many hands it takes

Servers per guest by service style, kitchen cover, and the hours that get billed either side of the event.

Guides

The decisions behind the numbers, written for whoever is organising the event.

GuideService styles comparedBuffet, plated, family style, stations and passed canapes, and what each one does to your staffing, your timing and your food quantities.
GuidePortion planningThe per-guest figures caterers work from, what changes them, and where they go wrong.
GuideStaffing an eventHow many servers, bartenders and kitchen staff an event needs, and the hours nobody counts.
GuideDrinks planningQuantities for bar and table service, glassware, ice, and the non-alcoholic side that always runs short.
GuideCatering contract checklistThe clauses that decide who pays when something changes, and the ones most often left out.
GuidePlanning timelineA working backwards schedule, from booking to the last van leaving.
GuideRentals and equipmentWhat gets rented for an off-site event, in the order people forget it.
GuideDietary requirements and allergensCollecting requirements, planning for them, and the difference between a preference and a medical risk.
GuideSpace and seatingHow much room a guest actually needs, and how to lay out a room that flows.
A camera descending a drinks station from tiered empty glasses to one filled glass on the cloth

Drinks

Bottles, ice and glassware

What a bar gets through per guest per hour, and how much of it you have to buy rather than hire.

Open the drinks calculator

Cost

What it comes to per head

Food, staff, hire and drinks added up, so a quote can be checked against something.

Open the cost calculator

How to use this

Every figure on this site is an estimating rule of thumb: the kind of number a caterer starts from before adjusting for the menu, the venue and the crowd. They are useful for a first order, a budget or a sanity check on a quote. They are not guarantees.

The calculators run in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere, nothing is stored, and there is no sign-up.