wedding couple poses in front of river after ceremony

Stephanie and Troy were planning their ideal Chicago Destination Wedding from the comfort of home in Washington State. They had huge goals of infusing Stephanie’s cultural traditions into their wedding day and focusing on the importance of joining their two families together. They even had hopes of incorporating family members into the vendor team! But to make those dreams come true, they really needed boots on the ground locally to be their eyes and ears, which is where BW Studio + Events came in!! And we were so thrilled to jump in.

Planning was running smoothly, but a few weeks before their wedding day, they chose to end their contract with their existing catering company and go a completely different dinner route. For anyone that has had to cancel a vendor contract knows this decision doesn’t come lightly!! Maybe the food didn’t live up to your expectations or everyone gets sick at the final tasting, but whatever the reasoning, it can put additional strain and stress on the final weeks of wedding planning.

Our team quickly helped come up with a plan and determine what additional items would be needed to make this switch a possibility!

When this happened to Stephanie and Troy, they quickly pivoted to a DIY pizza bar from a local pizza chain called Lou Malnatis. Anyone from the Chicagoland area knows this is an absolute icon! But a drop-off catering buffet did force them to source their own serving staff, pizza stands, serving ware, plates, napkins, and silverware. And it was worth it for a fun, cozy meal that entertained their guests more than anything!

Many of their guests had also traveled into town for the wedding and were surprised to see a local dish on the buffet line instead of traditional (and sometimes boring) wedding food. The couple even selected nine unique pies to make sure guests had a wide variety of options at their fingertips. It was a hit!!

Five key things to remember when you’re considering drop off catering for your wedding day buffet:

How is final payment being processed? Sometimes $1500 worth of pizza looks like credit card fraud, especially on a Saturday night in Rural Illinois. Make sure you’re ready to validate your credit card or debit card through your bank. Assigning this task to a trusted member of your family or wedding party can also be helpful so you can focus on hosting your event.
How is the food being kept hot or cold? It might make sense for food to arrive a bit earlier than everyone is ready to eat it because of the busy schedule! Make sure there’s a way to keep it warm or cold in the meantime. Check with the venue to see what’s available in the kitchen area, or coordinate a very close delivery time if possible. Some catering kitchens are bare rooms and have no meaningful facilities other than running water.
How is the food being served and eaten? Do you have enough utensils, plates, napkins, etc. for your guest list? We always recommend about 2x as many plates and napkins as you have guests. For silverware, about 1.5x is enough in case things get dropped. But plates and napkins tend to get overused, so feel free to have extra.
Does it make sense to hire servers to help set up, serve the food, and clean up? If not, your friends and family could get stuck doing this work themselves. Two to three servers can be extremely helpful in setting up the buffet line, clearing empty plates, and cleaning up the dining room and kitchen once everyone is finished. Anything is better than asking your guests to do garbage duty after dinner!
How much space do you need? For prep and for the buffet itself. Drop off catering arrives in a full batch and isn’t managed by the catering staff, so you’ll need to overestimate space.

Before and after dinner, the focus of their wedding day was solely on joining these two adorable families, and you could really feel it in the room. This change in catering service didn’t even remotely take away from the romantic air that night.

Custom elements like monogramed dinner napkins, custom wax sealed escort cards, and table number cookie jars with everyone’s favorite treats were the talk of the party! Elder + Oat even set up an extensive charcuterie display during cocktail hour and a second enormous dessert spread for after dinner.

After the Western Wedding Ceremony, Stephanie and Troy performed a traditional Khi Tes Ceremony before dinner which symbolized all of the well wishes from their family members through fabric knots guests tied on their wrists. The strings were supposed to stay on their wrists for at least THREE days to bring the most potent luck.

Stephanie’s highly talented cousins from Minnesota were able to create all of the florals from the ceremony to reception for the day, which was such a sweet personal touch and meant the world to Stephanie.

Once everyone had their share of pizza buffet, the couple even performed a highly choreographed special first dance before kicking off the open dancing. It was truly a night to remember.