How much food per person at a wedding?

For a 3-course sit-down meal, budget about 600g per guest across all courses. Buffets need around 500g per person. For a canapé reception, allow 4-6 pieces per person before a meal, or 10-14 pieces per person for a 3-hour standalone reception. Afternoon tea needs roughly 400g per person including sandwiches, scones, and cakes.

How many waiting staff do I need?

For a sit-down meal, one server per 20 guests is typical. For buffet service, one per 30 guests. For canapé service, one per 25 guests. Add extra staff for bar service, cloakroom, and clearing. Most caterers include staff in their per-head price.

What percentage of guests will be vegetarian or vegan?

In the UK, roughly 10-15% of wedding guests are vegetarian and 3-5% vegan, but this varies hugely by guest demographic. Always ask on your RSVP cards. Over-estimate slightly — meat-eaters often choose the vegetarian option if it looks good.

How many extra table settings should I have?

Budget for 5% spare settings to cover breakages, last-minute guests, and errors. For 100 guests, that means 105 of everything. Most hire companies charge a small amount extra for spares.

Wedding Catering Calculator

Calculate per-head catering quantities, staff, and table settings for your wedding.

Number of Guests

Total adult guests being catered for (exclude under-3s if not eating).

Meal StylePlated, buffet, canapés/bowl food, or afternoon tea — sets the per-head food weight and staff ratio.

Number of Courses

Courses in a plated meal (e.g. 3 = starter, main, dessert). Only affects the food weight for the 3-course style.

Vegetarian %

Share of guests wanting a vegetarian main — UK weddings average roughly 10-15%.

Vegan %

Share of guests wanting a vegan main — typically 3-5%. Capped so veg + vegan never exceeds 100%.

How We Calculate This

This calculator estimates catering quantities based on guest count, meal style, and courses.

Per-guest food weights

3-course sit-down: 600g per guest (complete across all 3 courses)
Buffet: 500g per guest
Canapés & bowl food: 350g per guest, plus a total canapé piece count (4-6 before a meal, 10-14 for a standalone reception)
Afternoon tea: 400g per guest

The 600g figure is the complete weight for a 3-course meal, so the course count only re-scales the food weight for the 3-Course Sit-Down style — buffet, canapés, and afternoon tea use their flat per-head weight regardless of the courses you enter. Buffet and afternoon tea weights already include every element on offer.

Serving batches

“Serving batches per course” is a logistics figure, not a menu-variety count: it is how many trays (each holding the listed number of portions) the kitchen needs to plate one course, i.e. guests ÷ portions per tray. It is not the number of different dishes on the menu. For canapés it is the single combined number of batches across the whole reception.

Staff ratios are based on service style (about 1 server per 20 guests for plated, 1 per 30 for buffet, 1 per 25 for canapés or afternoon tea). Table settings include a 5% spare allowance. The vegetarian and vegan shares are capped so the meat-eater remainder can never go negative.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Last updated: March 2026

All calculations are estimates. Adjust quantities based on your guests and event type.