Post # 1
Member
295 posts
Helper bee
I need to give our caterer our final head count, and am struggling on how to count the kids. Officially, they are all under the age where our caterer counts them at all—but there are 17 kids ages two to six who eat some amount of “real food,” so I don’t think I can just ignore them completely in the numbers.
If you had young children, did you include them at all in your head count? Did they eat enough for it to matter? Most of our food is relatively kid-friendly, so I mostly just want to be sure we don’t undercount by too much and then run out.
Thanks!
EDIT: Augh, this should go in Food…
Post # 3
Member
1927 posts
Buzzing bee
Are you having a buffet or a plated meal?
Post # 5
Member
229 posts
Helper bee
We had a plated dinner so the headcount to the caterer included # of adult meals, # of kids meals. The kids had a different meal than the 3 being served to the adults…you should check with your caterer on that…it’s pretty standard to offer kids meals (and they are also less expensive than the adult meals). If it’s buffet, they should still have a buffet price for the # of kids….at least ours did.
Post # 6
Member
295 posts
Helper bee
Thanks—our caterer does offer kid prices and meals for kids ages 6-12; our problem is that the kids are almost all younger than that. (I think we’ll be fine on food choices, though, since most are already pretty kid-friendly—fruit salad, pizza, cupcakes, etc.) Just not sure if I should leave kids off the count altogether or count them as half-kids, etc. If it were just a handful of kids I wouldn’t worry about it, but we’ll have 17 kids of eating age (but below kid meal age) with 110 adults, so they’re a sizable bunch.
Post # 7
Member
423 posts
Helper bee
Honestly, I’d count them as .5 each. I often do holiday meals for my FI’s (very fertile) family, and I’ve learned that a crowd of small children can pack it in! Plus, what I serve at holidays is not nearly as kid-friendly as it sounds like your meal will be, and they still have caught me short a few times because I haven’t counted the pre-school crowd!
That’s my opinion, for what it’s worth.
Post # 8
Member
1927 posts
Buzzing bee
I agree to just count them at .5 each. Maybe 1/3 of a person each if they are really young.
Post # 9
Member
6571 posts
Bee Keeper
i would just tell your caterer how many kids under that age are going to be there and get their advice. we only had one 4 year old and we got her a kids meal.
Post # 10
Member
113 posts
Blushing bee
Im really lucky when I mentionned to the venue’s coordinator, because I am only having 3 children under the age of 7 they are free.
Post # 11
Member
4485 posts
Honey bee
Ask the parents what they normally eat and go from there. Do NOT serve children fancy food just because it is a wedding, as most people do with adults. Children are counted the same way that adults are: as individuals with their own seats. However, the caterer should have appropriate children’s menus.
Post # 12
Member
295 posts
Helper bee
Thanks; I think we’ll count the little ones as half-children and hope that works out! In this case, we don’t need to change the menu since it’s already kid-friendly; we also don’t have formal seating so it’s not an issue on that front. Technically, the little guys are all free with our caterer too (they only count kids over six), but I’m just worried that that may mean they won’t be making too much extra food, and I’ve seen some of these kids polish off a huge plate when it’s something they like…really just a food quantity concern!