Wedding Cakes & Food Forum

FOOD TRUCK CATERER

Ok so I've heard food trucks are a less expensive alternative to actual caterers, and I mean, come on, they're adorable! I'm totally down for it! But I guess I was wondering from those who have done this before, how exactly does it work?? Like does it actually work out well? Do people end up waiting too long for their food? Does it look tacky? Do you still buy plates and whatnot? Any advice on this whole idea would be wonderful! Thank you! 

Re: FOOD TRUCK CATERER

  • How the food works, you will need to check with the truck and try to find one that has done wedding before. I know when I go to them I have to wait sometimes 10-20 minutes for my food after ordering it. If I were a guest & had to go order my food & the stand around waiting for it, I would not be happy. One bride on the board once was getting a food truck who specialized in pizza's (they were having a backyard reception & the food worked great with their plans). The truck was going to have several different kinds of pizza ready to go & out on a table set up in a nice display where people could help themselves & the truck would just keep baking pizza's & keep the table full. It sounded lovely. They also had already planned for a tent area in front of the truck in case of rain. Unfortunately you do have to plan for how will guests get their food from the truck if the weather is unfavorable. Also you have to figure out, will the truck company be able to do apps & dinner & dessert or will you need to make other arrangments for that based on what you see wanting for your menu.
  • jacques27jacques27 member
    First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited January 2015
    I frequent the food trucks around here quite a lot in the summer and when I have gotten there during lunch rush I routinely have to wait at least 15-20 minutes (which is why I always try to get there early) and I've seen them at events where the wait gets to be even longer.  I think there are certain situations where it would work (assuming you want the traditional food truck order at the window experience vs. a buffet that just happens to be put together by a food truck, which most food trucks that cater also offer for larger groups).

    *casual setting
    *smaller group of 50-125 max unless you're having more than one truck and I probably would try to keep it under 100 max per truck honestly
    *loose format without a timeline (i.e. nothing where you have to have dinner wrapped up by X o'clock for the first dance/cake cutting/whatever event)

    Keep in mind that people will have to wait in line (likely longer than they would for a traditional buffet) and won't get to eat together all at the same time most likely unless that particular truck has some genius gameplan to avoid it or serves food that isn't cooked to order.  You'll be eating out of to-go containers/cardboard/plastic baskets and dealing with potentially messier foods than standard catered fare.

    I certainly wouldn't feel it's tacky, depending on how it's done.  I love food trucks.  But honestly, unless the wedding conditions were just right, I feel like food trucks are more suited to things like engagement parties, rehearsal dinners (if you're having a larger rehearsal dinner inviting out of town guests, too), cocktail hour, or late night snacks.
  • I've personally only encountered it as the late night snack.

    This really depends on what kind of wedding you're having.  I'd feel odd heading out of a formal 7:00 p.m. wedding at a cathedral in my cocktail dress and sitting at a picnic bench with a bunch of food trucks and plastic plates.  I'd eat an appetizer and leave to go to a sit down dinner elsewhere.

    Now, casual afternoon wedding at a park...I could be down.  Love the local taco truck!  Just make sure you have seating for everyone and a back up plan if it's outside--those kind of basics.

    Personally, I'd prefer a more expected scenario--if it's mealtime, a sit down meal with real utensils and plates--and food trucks late in the night when you're wanting to grab a snack or soak up the booze.
  • If you have a medium-large guest list, I don't see this being a great solution because of the wait. Also, is everyone mobile enough to do this?

    A good compromise might be doing a food truck for dessert. Some friends of ours had a frozen yogurt/sorbet truck do their dessert instead of cake. It was pretty fun, bit they also had a wedding on the smaller side so the lines weren't terrible.
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  • I've personally only encountered it as the late night snack.

    This really depends on what kind of wedding you're having.  I'd feel odd heading out of a formal 7:00 p.m. wedding at a cathedral in my cocktail dress and sitting at a picnic bench with a bunch of food trucks and plastic plates.  I'd eat an appetizer and leave to go to a sit down dinner elsewhere.

    Now, casual afternoon wedding at a park...I could be down.  Love the local taco truck!  Just make sure you have seating for everyone and a back up plan if it's outside--those kind of basics.

    Personally, I'd prefer a more expected scenario--if it's mealtime, a sit down meal with real utensils and plates--and food trucks late in the night when you're wanting to grab a snack or soak up the booze.
    it would be outside, more relaxed and a smaller group. and a local taco truck was exactly what we were thinking! 
  • Some trucks specialize in catering and events. So as for what you would need to provide kind of depends on the truck.

    Really, just talk to the trucks to see if they've done an event of this scale. They should be able to tell you if they can handle it. I've had a few friends do taco trucks for events (not weddings though) and here are some tips: have multiple offerings that are cooked on various stations: this limits wait times since you're not all waiting for tacos from one station. You'll still have to provide seating (duh) and perhaps some sides or condiments, (but talk to the truck!). Ask about pricing for set up and tear down (some of them dispose of their own tRash, some just take the cart and leave you with the mess).

    If you get a truck that's done large events before then they should be well-versed in how to handle lines. But I've usually seen that the bar area is a bit away from the food. This naturally causes people to break up so there's less of a rush on the food from the get go.
  • kat1114kat1114 member
    First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited January 2015
    We had a gourmet hot dog food truck for our wedding dinner, and it was a huge hit! We had tons of compliments about how great the food was and how nice it was not to have boring wedding food.

    I think we had the perfect sized crowd for the logistics (about 75). If we had more guests, I may have thought about doing 2 trucks.

    Anyways, it is going to be specific to the truck about how they serve everything. We added passed apps, which were available as soon as people arrived. Guests could also begin ordering dinner when they arrived, and service ran for about 2.5 hours. I think the  number of guests combined with the "order as you please" style helped because the line never got too long.

    We didn't buy plates, but you certainly could. We just used the truck's standard paper baskets.

    I will say that depending on what you choose, it's not necessarily as cheap as you think. I think our per person came out to about $20.

    I would also say don't go with a food truck just for the novelty- choose one because you really love their food! The truck we chose was because when we started dating, we used to eat there every Saturday morning at the farmer's market, so it kind of had a special meaning for us. The owners are also super sweet. And of course, their food is amazing!

    ETA: I would agree with PP who mentioned your guests would probably be more receptive to the food truck thing if you had a more casual wedding. We had our ceremony at a garden, and then had and outdoor reception at a B&B. I think if we had tried to have the standard ballroom reception, it would have been weird having a food truck serve dinner.
  • @kat1114 awesome tips, thank you so much! that was the advice i was looking for! 
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