Hors devours

It's actually hors d'oeuvre (Thank you Webster's dictionary). When planning, I usually estimate for each guest to have at least one of every appetizer. Also, if you are having fruits and vegetables, people will probably take more than one.

Some of the weddings I've been to lately had tables of fruit, vegetables, chips, dip, and shrimp for their apps. That tends to cost less than hot, served apps. Maybe you could do a mixture of both?

Your caterer shoudl be able to recommend how many appetizers for your number of guests. If you have a budget you want to stick with, tell your caterer and they should be able to come up with a plan that sticks to budget, but also feeds all your guests. I think I heard somewhere that you need 3-4 "bites" per person.

I have to be honest, I clicked on this thread because I'm laughing out loud at "hors devours". I thought it'd be about someone who devours all the hors d'oeuvres.

Your caterer or venue should be able to tell you how many you'll need. Our venue charged us per guest, not per number of hors d'oeuvres, and we paid around $5 per guest, for 110 guests.

I really can't see apps for 120 coming in at less than $600. If you're planning on 4 pieces per person, you'd need fairly cheap stuff. This may be regional though. But in our area, we had to go with platters to keep our apps budget reasonable.

Yeah these little things (nicer ones) cost a lot. Usually $3-$4 a piece for a one bite item. Depending on how long your cocktail is, it's usually 3-4 pieces per person for 1 hour. So I would plan for 3-4 choices and 120 of each item if that is your guest count.

So save, as some mentioned already, platters are cheaper and guests can help themselves.

Are you planning to have apps in addition to a full meal? Most caterers will price per person. But standing around for an hour mingling and drinking cocktails, assume 4-5 per person. If this is in place of dinner, 12-15 per person.

Hors d'oeuvres (hot or cold) will cost you more than basic fruits/veggies/cheese....or even a "ham" or meat station. That's because hors d'oeuvres are very labor intensive and finicky. They're delicious but what if you added some other basics instead of only passed hors d'oeuvres. May save the budget!

I second the platters suggestion. We had a cheese tray, a veggies and dip tray and a fruit tray, and also served spring rolls and Swedish meatballs. It definitely saved us money to have over half of the hors d'oeuvres as platters.

For an hour cocktail hour, you need at least 6 pieces pp. If it's dinner time, as in....they got dressed at 3:30/4:00, drove, sat through the ceremony and are now famished, 9 pcs. Add a station like cheese or bruscetta, or dips and dippers and you're good to go. Avoid shrimp if you're on a budget, and definitely don't put out chafers or platters of anything but the most cost effective selections. A giant table of shrimp is an invitation to bankruptcy.

This is the favorite part of the evening for many people. I'd actually cut down on the 'dinner' to have more hors d'oeuvres.

Haha I always have to spell check or google the spelling. I agree that your caterer should be able to provide you with an estimate of the amount needed.

For our 100 guests including guests, we have ordered 30 dozen at $26/dozen.