How much food?

[oblio]

Do you know a good way to figure out how much food and drink you need for a get together?

[witchypoo]

i usually just know, based on the people i tend to invite to dinner (their appetites are known to me). 

this calculator's recommendations make sense to me.

[rocketgirl]

No.  Because you never have any idea how many of the people you invited are actually coming, and how much in the way of potluck-y things they are bringing (some in my crowd never show up without food).  So I have been to actual potlucks where hardly anybody brought anything.(This is not the norm, but it happens).  And I have hosted with a fair amount of food and some alcohol and ended up with more food than could possibly be eaten and more alcohol than I started with.  (This is the norm.)  I went to a wedding once where they completely ran out of food, and that was back when people were better at RSVP than they are now.  (Seriously, some people have no idea what that means).

[oblio]

i usually just know, based on the people i tend to invite to dinner (their appetites are known to me). 

this calculator's recommendations make sense to me.

That's a handy talent!
Thanks!

No.  Because you never have any idea how many of the people you invited are actually coming, and how much in the way of potluck-y things they are bringing (some in my crowd never show up without food).  So I have been to actual potlucks where hardly anybody brought anything.(This is not the norm, but it happens).  And I have hosted with a fair amount of food and some alcohol and ended up with more food than could possibly be eaten and more alcohol than I started with.  (This is the norm.)  I went to a wedding once where they completely ran out of food, and that was back when people were better at RSVP than they are now.  (Seriously, some people have no idea what that means).

I agree. Facebook makes it especially tricky because it's by far the easiest way to do invites, but I don't think most people think it's important whether they join or not. So people will click yes and won't come or they don't click anything and do come.