Caterer and increased number of guests

You should definitely tell them. 11 guests is a lot of food. They need to account for everyone in order to make the correct amount for your day. You don't want the guests to go hungry, and you don't want the caterers angry at you when they realize there are more than 85 people there!

I think you 100% have to tell them.... the worst possible scenario is running short of food as the last of the guests go through the line. If it was 1 or 2, fine but 11 is A LOT of extra people. For me, it wouldn't have mattered as my caterer actually counted the attendees so there was no benefit in not being honest upfront.

Hi Samantha! Welcome to WeddingWire! I agree with FutureMrsKC! I think that it's important to inform your caterer, as its better to have too much food, rather than not enough! Especially if you are serving things like chicken breasts or pieces of fish, it would be a shame to run out of entrees for your guests! If it were one or two guests it may have been fine to not inform them, but I think it's in your best interest to let them know about the 11 additional guests!

Yes you have to tell them. Regardless of it being a buffet. You don’t want to run out of food and 11 people is a lot of extra food. They definitely won’t be cooking that much extra.

You 100% should tell them. Even when caterers cook extra they usually only do 5% extra, which would bring you to 89 guests. If anyone takes larger portions that will get negated. If you didn’t budget for more than 85, why did you invite more than 85?

View Quoted Comment I’ve felt really guilty telling people no when they asked if they were getting an invite. Also friends that asked to bring a plus one when I didn’t anticipate that.

You have to tell your caterer. You would be in breech of contract otherwise. They could claim because you didn't tell them the number and they ran out of food that they looked bad to the guests and therefore lost business and can sue you for lost wages.

Are they in charge of bringing plates, silverware, glasses? Or the bar? You will run out of food if you don't tell them about the 11 additional people for sure.

No their not, I’m proving all that

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Well that's good. Have they mentioned if they bring extra food? I still plan on running out with that many extra guests.

100% you should tell them about the extra guests. Not only would they possibly need more food, but they might need more staff as well.

Not to mention, they might do a count night of and charge you anyways. I know our venue counted our guests.

Definitely tell them. My biggest pet peeve with buffets at weddings is running out of food. That has happened. People usually eat more and take bigger portions at buffets so if the caterer doesn't make enough food for the extra people that will be a big problem.

You have to tell them.

We had 4 people not show to our wedding and we really did not have that many leftovers from our buffet. I don't know if lots of people went back for seconds (we snuck away for sunset pics while they ate) or what, but we would have most definitely ran out of food if we had 11 more people.

Thanks everyone! I’ve updated my caterer and she said they always make extra food and not to worry if 4-5 more show as they always plan ahead, whew!

You're basically saying "how important is it for me to tell my caterer that they need to cook for an extra 11 people?" or "how important is it for me to feed the 11 extra people that I didn't budget for?"

It's important. I would tell your caterer or cut your guest list a little if you can! You should be accounting for everyone

Very important. You will run out of food. They cook enough for a guestimate that people will do seconds. You might scrape by but you never know