Wedding Reception Forum

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nsho4nsho4 member
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edited July 2015 in Wedding Reception Forum

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  • How is food service actually being done?  Do your guests have to line up outside the food trucks, have their food handed to them out the windows, and then carry their food to their tables?  If so, I would try to arrange for the food truck people or someone else to do table service so no one has to line up while dressed up.  Also, it will take a long time for everyone to get served if they have to stand in one long line.


  • jacques27jacques27 member
    First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited June 2015
    nsho4 said:
    How much time do you all think I should plan for people to eat dinner from 2 food trucks plus appetizers on a separate table? Approximately 200 people. The food trucks assure us they have each successfully done over 150 guests per dinner and it worked out well, so I could ask them for advice on timing, but thought some of you might have experience on what was too short, too long, just right.

    We are thinking..
    6:30pm guests arrive, bar open, apps out

    6:30-7:30pm or 8pm food trucks served

    7:30 or 8pm ceremony on stage (the venue has an elevated area where the band will be playing, we would like to be married in front of the band as we both love live music and don't want a processional; we will have some tall bar tables and many regular tables with chairs and want guests to have drinks and/or food, if still eating, while watching)


    7:45 or 8:15pm cocktails, music

    11pm last call

    11:15 or 11:30pm everyone out

    Does that seem reasonable? I've been to so many weddings, but never pay attention to the timeline! I'm usually outside on the patio most of the night ;) We have shuttles coming every 30 minutes to bring guests to and from the hotel/reception site.

    Thank you!

    1.  You are going to have a chair and place available for every body in attendance right?  So 200 guests = 200 spots.  People need a place to set up as home base and put their stuff down and sit as needed.

    2.  So, is what you're suggesting is the food trucks are only available for an hour - maybe an hour and a half?  I can't possibly see that working unless the food trucks aren't cooking the food to order and are making everything ahead of time and just serving it at the reception.  A lot of food trucks circulate around the city where I work.  There's a couple of parks where each usually has three or four trucks parked.  When I go, early even before the major crowds, I routinely have to wait about 10 minutes if I'm one of the first in line and have waited up to 25 minutes if there are even as few as four or five people ahead of me in line - and those are with crowds of maybe 75-100 divided between four trucks during peak times.

    Personally, I would revise your schedule and not disrupt the food service with the ceremony and have the ceremony first or cocktail hour with the apps, ceremony, then the main food and have the trucks serving for at least two hours minimum (but again that is largely dependent on the type of food served and how it will be served - and if it's two different kinds of food, what if people want to sample the food from both?).
  • I have been to two graduation parties this summer that have had food trucks.  The trucks were there for about 2.5 hours, and they constantly ha a pretty long line during the entire duration. . . and these are grad parties where guests come and go the whole time.

    I can't imagine the 2 food trucks being able to accommodate 200 guests in an hour or an hour and a half.  Like you said, I'd check with them on what they recommend to serve 200 guests.

    "Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends time and space."


  • nsho4nsho4 member
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    edited July 2015
  • lyndausvilyndausvi mod
    First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited July 2015
    First you need to ask the food trucks how many people they can serve per hour.   Until you know that the rest of the timeline is in a holding pattern.    

    We can sit here all day figuring out a timeline,  but that doesn't mean the food trucks are able to work in your timeframe.


    ETA - DH is a chef.  HE tells the couple how long it will take to do food service (not the start time, just how long it takes to serve the food), then they figure out the timeline from there.  Not the other way around.






    What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests.  Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated. 
  • I like your idea of moving the ceremony to before dinner. I get why you would want it after dinner, but food trucks mean it's going to take a lot longer for people to get their food and eat than it would for the typical buffet or plated meal, so your ceremony ends up getting pushed to the end of the night, and some guests would have left or would be waiting to leave.

    I agree that you need to talk to the food trucks about how many people they can serve per hour and go from there. I honestly don't think two trucks are going to be able to serve 200 people in a reasonable time. But either way, if you do the ceremony and then serve food, you don't have everyone rushing to stand in line and eat.
  • nsho4nsho4 member
    First Comment First Anniversary
    edited July 2015
  • lyndausvi said:
    First you need to ask the food trucks how many people they can serve per hour.   Until you know that the rest of the timeline is in a holding pattern.    


    This.


    nsho4 said:
    Good point and a very reasonable place to start. Not sure why I didn't think to ask them how long it will take. They just said they've hosted weddings before alone and with another truck, so assured me it was reasonable. I believe they pre-make and prep ahead of time for many items.

    Thanks for your advice!
    Of course they do, but that is not going to alleviate the lines. . . they can only cook and then serve a limited amount of orders at a time in their trucks.

    Again, when I attended these grad parties that had food trucks, the trucks were there for 3-4 hours, and they had steady lines of 10-15 people that entire time.  And that was with the hosts having a bunch of other food out, buffet style, as well.

    "Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends time and space."


  • I'd make sure you had other food available.  If i saw a line of 50+ people and no other food, I'd leave.  I can't see how one food truck for 200 people is going to move fast enough to not make people annoyed.
  • I get that you love live music, but do you really want the band in the back of all your ceremony photos? If you do, that's fine. Also will you & groom be ditching out to change real quick before the cermony? If not, I would be concerned about eating before the cermony because I would be afraid of spilling any food on my dress before the ceremony & that in all the ceremony photos.

    Like other people pointed out talk to the food trucks on how they will handle serving the food. Will they cook to order? I personally wouldn't recommend that because anytime I've gone to to a food truck and ordered food I'm waiting 10-15 minutes for my food. Can you imagine having all those guests in line to order their food & then wait 10-15 minutes to get their food. Half of the guests would miss everything. Which then in turn could throw off when you do your ceremony & dancing.

  • Only 2 food trucks for 200 people? Nope, I'm not waiting in that line. 
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  • nsho4nsho4 member
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    edited July 2015
  • nsho4nsho4 member
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    edited July 2015
  • jacques27jacques27 member
    First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited July 2015
    nsho4 said:
    Thanks for the input!

    We will have separate appetizers set up for self-serve, and the trucks say they have done that many people before individually. The venue has said they've had food trucks cater before and it worked well, too. We thought we were safe with two :( Shoot. We'll definitely need to go visit the trucks and ask how they plan to accommodate the large number. Maybe they do significantly more prep work than usual or have a much more limited menu, or both?

    Aren't most buffet's super long lines anyway? I seem to always get my food when half of it is gone, usually part of the main course like no chicken left or something, and the first tables have already cleaned up and are being moved away. Maybe I just go to poorly-planned weddings, lol




    In my experience?  No.  Not that long.  And someone who planned well shouldn't run out of food halfway through.  Catering staff usually bring out new pans of things as they get low and competent catering staff always plan for a percentage over the headcount.

    Where a food truck and a buffet part ways is that a buffet has all the food already prepared and available on the table.  Lines should move relatively quickly (especially ones where the buffet tables are set up so the lines can go on either side of the table).  I've never spent more than 10-15 minutes in a buffet line at a wedding (and it may have even been less than that and just felt longer).

    A food truck, one that is providing the cook to order food truck experience and isn't just acting like a regular old caterer providing pans of precooked food, generally can only handle a single file line and because things are cooked to order (or at least assembled to order) it can take much longer.  I ate at the food trucks in my city today.  I got lucky and maybe had a two minute wait between ordering and getting my food today (there wasn't anyone in line ahead of me - I had a pulled pork arepa).  I went to the food truck next to it to order a strawberry shake and it took five minutes to get the shake and people who were getting actual food were waiting upwards of 10 minutes.  My friend went to the third truck parked there, had no one in line ahead of her, and it took 10-12 minutes to get her food (carnitas tacos).  She was still waiting even after I hit up two food trucks and the park was virtually empty when we went with minimal lines.

    So you're asking people to potentially go in three different lines depending on what they want (apps at the table, food truck #1 and food truck #2).  It could work really well depending on what the food is and how much last minute cooking/assembling is involved, but food trucks are generally going to take much longer than a buffet, especially with that size of a crowd.
  • There are pizza food trucks that have no wait time because they are constantly cooking pizzas.  You can look into that.
    image
  • nsho4 said:

    Thanks for the input!

    We will have separate appetizers set up for self-serve, and the trucks say they have done that many people before individually. The venue has said they've had food trucks cater before and it worked well, too. We thought we were safe with two :( Shoot. We'll definitely need to go visit the trucks and ask how they plan to accommodate the large number. Maybe they do significantly more prep work than usual or have a much more limited menu, or both?

    Aren't most buffet's super long lines anyway? I seem to always get my food when half of it is gone, usually part of the main course like no chicken left or something, and the first tables have already cleaned up and are being moved away. Maybe I just go to poorly-planned weddings, lol




    We just had a food truck for our reception. We fed about 65-70 people, and the truck arrived an hour early for setup and served for two hours, and it was plenty of time for people to make it through, eat, mingle, and get seconds (or thirds). I think a lot of this depends on what you're serving out of it though-we had pulled pork, brisket, pulled chicken and veggie burgers with sides, so I'm sure most of the work was done ahead of time, and guests really didn't need to wait long.
  • Why are you deleting all your posts?

    "Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends time and space."


  • I came for a good DD and got nothing special. :( How weird to delete the posts.


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