July 11, 2026

Restaurant & Event Planning Intake Forms: What to Lock Down Before You Book

An event inquiry comes in. The client says they want a party for 150 people next month. That single sentence raises about forty questions you need answered before you can quote, plan, or commit. What kind of event? Seated dinner or cocktail reception? Indoors or outdoors? Do they have a venue or are they expecting you to find one? Is there a bar, and if so, open bar, cash bar, or BYOB? Do they need tables, chairs, linens, a stage, a dance floor, AV equipment? What is their budget? Without a structured intake, you are taking on an event without understanding its scope — and scope misunderstandings in event planning ruin budgets, timelines, and client relationships.

Event planning sits at the intersection of hospitality, logistics, food service, and project management. A restaurant or event planner who tries to capture all of this over a phone call or in a casual email chain will miss things. A restaurant and event planning intake form forces every critical detail onto paper at the start of the relationship, before deposits are collected and vendors are booked.

Event type and purpose: the scope driver

A corporate holiday party, a wedding reception, a nonprofit fundraising gala, a birthday dinner for 30 at the restaurant, and a catered graduation open house are all "events" but they share almost nothing in common operationally. The event type determines the service level, the staffing, the timeline, the equipment, and the client's expectations. Your intake form should present the major event categories and let the client select:

• Private dining / restaurant buyout — the event happens at your restaurant, in a private room or the full space. The scope is largely defined by your existing capabilities: your kitchen, your staff, your table settings. The main variables are guest count, menu selection, and bar service.
• Off-site catering only — you provide the food and possibly the service staff, but the client has their own venue. This changes everything because you need a kitchen setup (or a venue with kitchen access), transport logistics, and equipment that you might not need for in-house events.
• Full event planning — you manage the entire event from concept to cleanup, including venue selection, vendor coordination, decor, entertainment, and day-of management. This is the highest-touch service and requires the most detailed intake.
• Wedding reception — a category unto itself because of the emotional stakes, the complexity of the timeline (ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, toasts, first dance, cake cutting), and the number of vendors who all need to coordinate through you.
• Corporate event — meetings, conferences, team-building events, product launches, client appreciation dinners. Corporate clients often have specific branding requirements, AV needs, and procurement processes (purchase orders, W-9 forms, net-30 payment terms) that differ from private clients.
• Nonprofit or fundraising event — galas, auctions, donor dinners. These often involve ticketed entry, silent auction logistics, sponsor signage, and a program with speakers. Budget sensitivity is typically higher because the organization needs the event to generate revenue, not consume it.

Guest count and demographics

Guest count is the single most important number in event planning. It drives menu quantities, venue capacity, table and chair count, staffing, bar inventory, rental orders, and budget. Your intake should capture three numbers: the expected guest count, the minimum guaranteed count (for catering contracts, this is the number the client commits to paying for regardless of attendance), and the maximum capacity they want to plan for.

Demographics matter too, and your intake should ask about them without being intrusive. Will there be children, and if so, do they need a kids' menu or activities? Are there elderly guests who need accessible seating, hearing assistance, or dietary accommodations? Is the crowd predominantly standing (cocktail event) or seated (dinner)? These details affect everything from table layout to menu planning to restroom provisioning.

Venue details

If the event is at your restaurant, you already know the venue. If it is off-site, your intake form needs to capture the venue specifics that affect your ability to serve:

• Venue name and address — basic, but necessary for logistics planning. Indoor or outdoor? If outdoor, is there a rain plan or a tent?
• Kitchen access — does the venue have a commercial kitchen you can use, a warming kitchen only, or no kitchen at all? A venue with no kitchen means you are bringing warming equipment, chafing dishes, and possibly a mobile kitchen — a fundamentally different operation than cooking on-site.
• Loading and setup access — where can your vehicles park during load-in? Is there a service entrance or are you carrying everything through the front door? How far is the loading area from the kitchen or service area? These details determine how many staff you need for setup and teardown and how long those phases take.
• Venue restrictions — many venues prohibit open flames (candles, chafing dish sterno), confetti, certain types of decor, or amplified music past a certain hour. Some venues require you to use their preferred vendors for certain services. Your intake should ask the client about known venue restrictions so you do not plan something that gets vetoed on event day.
• Existing equipment — does the venue provide tables, chairs, linens, glassware, flatware, or plates? Or are you responsible for everything? The answer directly affects your rental order and your quote.

Menu and catering preferences

Food is usually the largest single line item in an event budget, and it is also the area where client expectations most often clash with operational reality. Your intake should capture:

• Service style — plated dinner, buffet, family-style, food stations, passed hors d'oeuvres, or a combination. Each style requires different staffing levels, equipment, and kitchen timing. A plated dinner for 150 needs a minimum of 10 servers. A buffet for the same count needs 4 to 6.
• Cuisine preferences and dietary requirements — what does the client want the menu to feel like? Formal or casual? Any cultural or religious requirements (halal, kosher)? How many vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, or allergy-specific meals should be planned for? Capturing this at intake prevents the last-minute "oh, we forgot to mention that 20 guests are vegetarian" call two days before the event.
• Bar service — no alcohol, beer and wine only, full open bar, limited open bar, cash bar, or BYOB. Liquor license and liability insurance requirements change depending on the setup and the venue. If you are providing alcohol service, your intake should note that you require your staff to serve (no self-service) and that your liability coverage applies.
• Cake and dessert — are you providing dessert, or is the client bringing their own (common with wedding cakes from a specialty baker)? If you are cutting and plating someone else's cake, that is a service item that should be documented.

Equipment rental and logistics

Unless the event is in your own restaurant, you are probably renting equipment. Your intake should capture what the client expects to be included in your scope versus what they are handling themselves. Common rental items: tables (round, rectangular, cocktail height), chairs (folding, chiavari, cross-back), linens (tablecloths, napkins, runners, chair covers), dinnerware, glassware, flatware, serving dishes, chafing dishes, beverage dispensers, bars, tents, lighting, staging, dance floor, AV equipment (speakers, microphones, projectors, screens), and generator power if the venue is outdoors without electrical service.

Each of these items has a cost, a delivery window, and a pickup window that needs to be coordinated. Your intake form does not need to finalize the rental order, but it should identify which categories are in play so you can build an accurate proposal.

Timeline and vendor coordination

Every event has a timeline, and the client rarely thinks about it until the day before. Your intake should capture the key time anchors: event start time, end time, when food service begins and ends, any programmed moments (speeches, toasts, first dance, entertainment, presentations), and the venue's load-in and load-out windows. From these anchors, you build the operational timeline that your staff and vendors follow.

If the client has other vendors — a DJ, a photographer, a florist, a rental company — your intake should capture their names and contact information. On event day, you will need to coordinate with all of them, and having that contact list from the start saves time during the planning phase.

Deposit, payment schedule, and liability

Event planning involves significant upfront costs — food orders, rental deposits, staffing commitments — and your intake should establish the payment structure from the beginning. Document your deposit requirement (typically 25 to 50 percent of the estimated total), when the balance is due (usually 7 to 14 days before the event), and what happens if the client cancels or reduces the guest count after the final guarantee date.

Your intake should also capture whether the client has event insurance (many venues require it) and whether your liability coverage needs to extend to cover specific risks at the venue. If you are providing alcohol service, your liquor liability policy needs to cover the event location — check this at intake, not on event day. Find more trade-specific intake forms on our home services intake forms page.