How many hours of catering servers are really needed?

That does indeed sound a little long. Are they intending to stay to help distribute the cake? Even that would be excessive IMO. I'm fairly certain mine will be leaving once dinner is over and the tables have been cleared.

Our venue was a hotel, so employees were there from the cleaning of the ballrooms/rooms, before the set-up, until the end of take-down and cleaning. I'm guessing 12 hours.

I doubt that's just for serving the food. They're probably including set up and tear down in the time. Plus if there are hors d'ouvres beforehand, and/or dessert service with coffee/tea etc.

Mine are from 1p to set up until 11pm to clean up with all catering and serving inbetween. 6-8 servers for 80 people.

My contract is for 8 hours.

I'd be less concerned about the time and more concerned you only have 3 servers for 160 guests... that line is gonna move SLOW

Mine is for 10 hours (starting 3.5 hours before cocktail hour and 2 hours after event ends). At first I questioned it but when you think about all the setup and tear down, it makes sense.

That isn't close to being enough servers or enough time.

Do they need to set up? Put on tablecloths? Set tables?

Set up should be a minimum of two hours. Serving, depending on what you're doing, (assuming no cocktail hour), bussing tables, clean up and serving cake; another 5ish hours. Dedicated clean up? Another at LEAST one hour.

That seems like a small amount of time to me. They need to set up and SERVE apps, then dinner, then cut cake and pass it, then clean up.

That seems short TBH. The catering company I work for shows up 2 hours prior to the start of the event and stay 1 hour after the even ends. That time includes set-up, cocktail hour and dinner service, and then clean up afterward.

My servers are there the whole day. They also set up and break down, they're not exclusively for food.

ETA specifics -- the "whole day" is 8 hours (including 2 ahead of the event and 1 after).

Every caterer I've spoken with automatically quoted 6 servers for our 150 person buffet event

Three servers is not enough for 160 people in my opinion. Where I work a wedding of that size will have about 10 servers, two bartenders and one bar-server. We go in two hours before the event and it takes about a hour or so to flip the room for the next wedding. So, I end up working about nine hours for each event.

I work in the catering business. First off, if you are having a buffet type reception they are enough. If you are having a seated meal then they are understaffed. The hours are normal if there is set up, clean up and break down as well as cake serving included. It is typically a 6-8 hour job for that many guests.

I'm sorry, three people are not enough to clean up after 160 guests unless everything is disposable.

3 sounds like the number of bartenders you'd need , for 160 guests. Our venue supplied 1 per 50 guests, so we got 4 included for 225. We added 2 more, plus had wine service.

As someone who works as a cater waiter, you need to keep in mind that servers do a lot more than serving food... They clear dirty dishes and glasses, they wrap food, they keep your wedding from looking like a mess hall, they clean bathrooms, they make sure your guests get where they need to go. They set up, clean up any messes (like a broken glass on a dance floor because with alcohol and fun, it's bound to happen at least once), they also break down the room so you can have your day and not be sweeping the floor in a dress that cost you money.

Also as a comparison, my hall has one server per 20 people, one attendant in the male and female bathrooms, one bartender per 50 people, a dedicated bridal attendant for the bride and groom, a serving captain to watch the room and assist the servers keep the tables clean, and a maitre'd who manages them all. We are all there 2-3 hours prior to the cocktail hour to set up, have roughly 5 minutes to grab something to eat, then we're there until the last guest leaves and we stack chairs, change table linens, and in general clear out the room. Our day can be roughly 10 hours from beginning to end.