Catering head count estimation dilemma

The only way I could see you loosing money is if you are giving a minimum. Otherwise I'm co fused by his logic.

Yes, my venue (which includes catering), suggested I sign the contract guaranteeing 100 guests, even though I am inviting 150-160 and expect 120. Then I will also have lower payments along the way and I can just pay the difference when I give the final head count or after the wedding, whenever they want it.

Edit: I agreed to a min. of 100 because I absolutely know I will have 100 people.

Interesting. I started out with the number I planned to invite. But I also didn't have to have the first payment until six weeks before with 80% and the remainder when I gave final headcount.

No, I don't get that at all.

I guess if they charge you the full amount up front, you could lost money if there are any last-minute no-shows. My friend had 2 full tables of guests RSVP "yes" and then never come. Not saying that would happen to you, but the caterer is implying that you could always tack on a few extra meals if everybody does show up then pay the difference on the wedding date.

My venue always put us down for our guesttimate at 125-150 people, which is how many we are expecting/ inviting.

We can go up to 5 extra plates day of without incurring the wrath of our chef/coordinators. I can see how it could be better to underestimate instead of overestimate bc of last minute no-shows. Im going to see how our headcount looks at 2 weeks out when our final gauruntee is due and maybe slot two less, just in case. My brother had two tables worth of no shows for his wedding that he had to pay for and he was pissed.

I dunno, I guess well see.

I guaranteed the lowest number of guests for the lowest minimum. I can always give them more money later, but whatever deposit I give them in the beginning is non refundable. So I would rather keep that money in my pocket instead of there's (incase something changes)

I can see that. At our venue (in house caterer), our contract was written for 100 people. We had to meet 80% of that, whether we had 80 people or not. If we had written it for 80 people, but ended up with 100, it would have been no big deal, but since we wrote it for 100, we were tied to that 80% number, even if we ended up with 60 people. I mean, if we wrote it for 80 people, we still would have had to meet 80% of 80 people, but that's far less money. It's easier to add more people than remove them, is probably what they mean.

We had to set an estimate for the caterer and had to pay a 50% deposit on that number. We can only decrease our guest count by 10% but can go up 20%. So that is how it works out to our advantage to underestimate.