By Hannah Price · November 5, 2026
For a dinner buffet, plan on about one pound of food per adult guest across all dishes, with roughly six ounces of protein. Lunch runs a little lighter.
Passed appetizers depend on timing. Before a full dinner, four to six pieces per guest is plenty. If appetizers are the meal, plan on twelve to fifteen.
Guest lists shrink. Most events see five to ten percent of confirmed guests not attend, so we plan to the confirmed count rather than the invited count.
Tell us about the crowd. A college reunion eats differently from a board meeting, and that context matters more than any formula.
