How much coffee (and tea?)?

View Quoted Comment You should contract enough for all your guests to have it. I didn’t realize you were asking though, and I geared my comment toward the OP.

You know your crowd best. If you think that a maximum of 50 guests will drink coffee, maybe contract for enough for everyone to have 2, so 100.

I think you should get tea in addition to coffee. I always have a cup of tea with dessert and sometimes later in the evening as well and I'm far from elderly (28 y/o).

I would order more than you think you need since you don't want to run out (and some guests may drink more than 1 cup). I would get 80 cups of coffee and 50 cups of tea at a minimum.

View Quoted Comment I have never attended a wedding where the hosts chose to only have 50 cups of coffee/tea for 120 guests. I would, at absolute minimum, provide for at least 1 cup per guest.

I didn't even realize "drop off" coffee/tea was an option. I can't imagine how that will work in terms of taste. We had fresh coffee brewed constantly per our caterer.

Bar is hosted per person but you dont just arbitararily cut off your list based on a presumption. If I went to a wedding and found out they only hosted the bar such only 50 people were allowed to get one drink I'd be pretty irked as well.

Honestly, coffee and tea are a nice add on but I don't think they are necessary if it's going to be a problem or the quality is going to be sub par. It'd be a whole other story if it was provided by your caterer but since it isn't you might want to pass.

View Quoted Comment

This is interesting to me. Every single caterer that we inquired through (probably 10 or so) stated that coffee/tea was an add on. It seems to be the norm around here that you figure out approximately how many coffee drinkers you'll have, and that's how much coffee they brew. I'm not kidding when I say that this was the deal with all of the caterers that we explored. Our current caterer doesn't even provide the service, and they have a really great reputation in our area. So weird how things change from area to area. I would have assumed that this should be included in either the venue or the caterer, but nope.

We're looking to go through a local small business coffee shop that does this often for weddings, so I imagine they know what they're doing. Their coffee is delicious, it's our favorite in our neighborhood. They have a slow drip system, so they'll set up right after dinner, brew, and it's ready for dessert time. Since our only option is outside of catering, I'm imagining this is a better option than a box from dunkin donuts that doesn't stay warm (which is still around the same cost of $2 per person). So it's either...slow drip coffee shop version or nothing. I wanted to keep it below $200, so it looks like we might just order coffee for 100. It includes cups, add-ins, coffee, etc. Thanks for all of your input.

Why not just rent an urn for coffee and a hot water carafe for tea so you can continue to make as consumption requires?