Guide to crockery hire quantities for seated dinners, buffets and drinks service, plus advice on style, breakage allowance and dirty returns.
Guide to crockery hire quantities for seated dinners, buffets and drinks service, plus advice on style, breakage allowance and dirty returns.
Getting crockery quantities wrong causes problems on the day. Too few pieces slow service and force your team to wait for cleared plates. Too many pieces add cost with no benefit. This guide covers quantities per guest, buffers for breakages, style choices and how Expo Hire handles returns.
A standard three-course seated dinner needs one starter plate, one main dinner plate and one dessert bowl or dessert plate per guest. Add one side plate per guest if you are serving bread rolls, petits fours or side items at the table. If your menu includes soup, add one soup bowl per guest.
Your team can work with one plate per course when staff clear tables between courses. If you serve an extra course that needs a fresh plate, add another plate per guest for that course.
Buffet service uses more crockery than seated dining. Guests often take a fresh plate when they go back for a second helping, so order one dinner plate per guest, plus 20 to 30% extra. For 100 guests, that means 120 to 130 dinner plates.
Add one dessert bowl or dessert plate per guest if you are running a dessert station. Side plates help with bread rolls, cake or small items served away from the main buffet.
Order one cup and saucer per guest if the venue has no washing area and everyone may take tea or coffee at the same time. If your venue has a kitchen and staff can turn cups round during service, one set for every two guests often covers the job.
For post-dinner drinks, you can choose cappuccino cups for milk-based coffee, espresso cups for short coffee service and matching espresso saucers to complete the setting.
Add 5 to 10% to your order to cover breakages. Plates and bowls crack when they are dropped during setup, service or pack-down. Spare pieces stop a small accident turning into a service problem.
Expo Hire includes a Minor Damage Waiver with each hire order. The waiver covers minor chips and small breakages that happen during normal use. It does not cover deliberate damage or large losses caused by poor handling.
Our 10-inch classic white dinner plates suit weddings, corporate dinners and formal catering where you want the food to stand out. White crockery works with any linen colour and keeps the table setting clean in photos.
If you want stronger contrast on the table, our graphite coupe range gives you a darker base for pale food and white linen. The range includes:
For a canape reception, allow 2 to 3 small plates per guest across 90 minutes if your catering team is circulating food.
You can mix white and graphite within the same service if you keep the look consistent across each course. Many caterers use white for starters and graphite for the main course. Keep cups and saucers in one colour across the whole table so the setting looks planned rather than pieced together.
Expo Hire supplies commercial catering china for events. The range covers white dinner plates, side plates, bowls, soup bowls, cups, saucers and graphite coupe pieces for a darker table setting. If you need fine bone china, decorative rims or patterned plates, you will need a specialist supplier.
We deliver crockery in plastic crates, with plates stacked in dividers and bowls packed for transport. Count the pieces when they arrive and flag any issue before service starts. After the event, load all crockery back into the same crates.
You do not need to wash anything before collection. Expo Hire runs a Send It Back Dirty service, so we collect the used crockery and wash it at the depot. If you need rapid turnaround during a long event, you can hire a commercial glass washer to clean plates and cups between courses.
Most clients book crockery with cutlery, glassware and table linen in the same order. That gives you one delivery, one collection and one invoice. We deliver across England and Wales.
Browse the full range at crockery, cutlery and glassware hire. If you want help with quantities, contact Expo Hire with your guest numbers, menu and event date and we will price the right mix of items.
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