Plastic vs paper plates for a 100-guest party

A hundred guests is the size where plate choice stops being taste and becomes a line on the order sheet — and where most people buy wrong, counting guests once and plates one and a half times.

Two sizes settle the order. A dinner plate is usually 9 inches across, 10.25 on a larger setting; a dessert plate is 6 to 7 inches. Paper is sold by ply — 2-ply for a light course, 3-ply for a loaded one. Plastic is sold by the case, and the gauge of the pressing is what you pay for.

What a hundred guests actually gets through

On a served dinner it is one dinner plate per guest, plus one dessert plate each only when there is a dessert course.

On a buffet, guests eat and then queue again. That second trip is the number most orders miss: plan 1.5 plates per head, which is 150 plates for a hundred guests. A cocktail-hour room is lighter, 70 to 80 small plates, because most people never take food twice.

Then add the spare margin — the same 10 to 15 percent rule we use for cutlery: the plate that cracks under a hot stew, the one binned with the bones, the one a guest drops. Fifteen percent on a hundred is 115.

• Served dinner, 100 guests: 115 dinner plates of 9 inch, plus 100 dessert plates of 7 inch if there is a dessert course.
• Buffet, 100 guests: 150 dinner plates, plus 100 small plates if dessert sits on its own table.
• Cocktail hour, 100 guests: 70 to 80 small plates, and no dessert plate at all.

Rigidity is the whole argument

The test takes ten seconds, and you can run it in the shop. Load one plate with the heaviest thing on your menu, hold it at the rim with one hand and walk a few steps. If the rim gives and the middle dips, that plate will fail in a room of a hundred — the pressing is too thin for the load.

Paper flexes more at the same weight; that is what a fibre pressing does. Two things push back. Ply count: a 3-ply plate in 9 inch holds a main and two sides far better than 2-ply at the same diameter. Area: a 10.25 inch plate spreads the same load further again. On a self-service line, rigidity is worth paying for.

Plastic sits flatter under load and does not soften when the food is hot and wet. What it costs you comes after the meal: a rigid plate keeps its shape in the bag and will not compact the way paper does.

The working rule: guests standing up or balancing a plate on a lap get rigid plastic or 3-ply paper. Guests seated with cutlery on a cloth are fine with 3-ply, and that is the lighter carton to carry in.

Weight and bin space

Per hundred pieces a paper case is lighter than a plastic one, which matters when a hundred guests is several cartons carried up a service staircase. On the buffet, keep two shorter stacks rather than one tall one — the same count is less likely to end up dropped.

Cost per setting

Cost per setting is case price divided by the plates each guest uses, and plates per guest moves the total far more than the gap between the materials. A rigid 9 inch plate for the main and a cheap 7 inch for dessert beats one mid-grade plate sent through the line twice. Live prices and pack sizes sit on the Amazon listings.

The rest of the setting

Plates are one line of five. Cutlery comes first, because it arrives in fixed boxes: every box is 150 pieces — 50 forks, 50 knives and 50 spoons, one colour to a box. The same 15 percent margin over a hundred guests lands you on 115 sets, which fits in one box with room to spare. JSQBSECL 150 piece disposable cutlery set is the parent listing, so the colour run sits behind it; the light blue 150 piece cutlery box and the brown 150 piece cutlery box are two of the colours.

Tablecloths come 14 to a pack, which is sized for exactly this room: a hundred guests at eight per table is 13 tables. On 8 foot folding tables that is 13 cloths of 54 by 108 inches; on 60 inch rounds it is 13 cloths of 84 inch. Either way one pack covers the floorplan with a spare. A 54 inch by 200 foot cover roll cuts about 24 cloths of 54 by 108 inches, so one roll backstops the room twice over.

What to put on the order

• 115 dinner plates of 9 inch, rigid if guests are standing, 3-ply if they are seated.
• 100 dessert plates of 7 inch, only if a dessert course is served.
• 1 cutlery box of 150 pieces: 50 forks, 50 knives, 50 spoons.
• 13 table coverings, which is one 14 pack.
• 1 cover roll of 54 inch by 200 feet as backup.

The short version

Servings per head, not guests per head: 1 on a served dinner, 1.5 on a buffet, then 15 percent on top. Buy the most rigid plate your guests will hold in one hand, and let the dessert plate be the cheap one.