So You Want to Cater Your Own Party...

Want to save some money and cater your own buffet meal or kiddush? Let’s talk about how much plastic ware you need to buy.

A kiddush is fairly simple – decide on how many you are preparing for and times that number by three. Three plates, three cups, three forks per person is the standard. Fortunately (or not) people don’t use nearly as many napkins as other items, so I find that one per person is sufficient. Use 6″ or 7″ plates (or a combination of both sizes). If you use a larger size, you are encouraging people to fill up their plate, but then much of it might go to waste. Also, if you’ll be having hot foods or very saucy foods, use plastic instead of paper. Leave the paper plates for the dry, light foods, like cake & cookies.

Now let’s discuss a buffet meal.

If you are having a pre-plated first course (before the guests go up to the buffet), please read my other post regarding plastic ware for parties. There is a whole section on what is needed at a pre-set table.

For the buffet portion of the meal, you will need to follow the 3x per person rule. Have 9″ or 10″ plates stacked up at one end of the buffet to encourage the guests to line up in an orderly fashion to fill their plates. Have a basket of extra forks and knives on the buffet table near the plates, since someone always needs an extra. Alternately, you can not set place settings at the sitting tables and simply have all the plastic ware and cutlery at the buffet table. A great way to set out the cutlery is to wrap a fork and a knife in the napkin and tie it with a ribbon so people can hold it easily while balancing their plate of food. Put the wrapped cutlery bundles in baskets near the plates at the beginning of the buffet.

Cups should still be on the sitting tables in stacks in the middle if you wish or at a drink table.

Tip: If you wish to save on plates, you can place the dinner plate at the place setting, either underneath the pre-plated first course, or by itself (if there is no first course). This will signal the guests that they need to go to their seat first and bring their dinner plate with them to the buffet table. People tend to re-use their dinner plate when it is set up this way, so you will use less plates, but still be sure to have extras available.