"Semi-Elegant'' Backyard Garden party....HELP ME!!!!!!!!!! This is a Catering Question?

Question

I am throwing a backyard evening garden party for my parent's 25th Anniversary. We are trying to figure out the most cost efficient and delicious way to feed and provide drink to approximately 35 people and 5 children.

1. How much Hamburgers/Hotdogs/Sausages/Peppers/Stea... should we buy?

2. How many trays of prepared food should i buy from the gourmet caterer to compliment the BBQ food?

3. How many appetizers and how many different kinds of appetizers?

4. How much drink? (Non Alcoholic and Alcoholic)

5. How much money should i budget for all this?

The last thing i wanna do is leave anyone hungry/thirsty and looking for food....

And if i decide to prepare a few full trays of food myself...how much food does a full tray hold?

Answer 1

I just got done planning my hubbie's 40th birthday party for about 50 people.  I came up with a similar casual menu of burgers and dogs with salad, chips, drinks and sides.  Cost came to around $5 per person (food will be bought at Costco and drinks are of the soda variety).  I'm not sure if I'm going to add appetizers yet but have priced them at around $1-2 per person.  Alcohol, I'm planning to just get a few cases of beer and bottles of wine.  Not sure how much your crowd is going to drink, the cost per person will probably run a few dollars per person.   In total plan to spend at least $9 per person if you want to add in alcohol and appetizers to the meal line-up.  If you buy catering trays they should be able to give you a cost per person estimate.

Prepping your own trays, depends on how big the trays are.  It's hard to say how much food it will hold, also depends on the type of food.  Some items like taquitos can be stacked, other types of food can't be stacked.

Answer 2

Go to homecooking.about.com or allrecipes.com for ideas on feeding a crowd.

Answer 3

If you have one each per person of the hotdogs & hamburgers, etc.  that will be enough, because not everybody will want one of each meat.  

You'll need about 1 cup per person of each side dish, so at 4 cups to a pint you'll need about 10 pints, or 5 quarts, of potato salad, cole slaw, baked beans and macaroni & cheese.  

3 beers per adult should be enough with three cans of soda each as well.