How do i dress the table if I'm using a Food Truck?

How many food trucks are you having? What is your venue and guest list like?

I think renting the chargers will depend on price and the number that you need. It may be cheaper to buy if your hosting a small group. Right now some chargers are on clearance at a lot of stores. I still think you can have a nice set up as far as decor. Real utensils and chargers will be nice but do you really need the chargers. You can have a nice set up with real utensils and napkins on the table and the decor too. It just depends on your vision.

I'm having less than 150 (probably 120 or so) and one food truck. The guest will have 3 hours to eat at their convenience. Thank you for the suggestions Summer987, I felt the chargers would dress up the table and use disposable plates. I could rent the plates but was worried with the food truck handling the plates as they put food on them. I haven't found cheap enough chargers compared to renting price but I'm going to keep looking. Thank you!!

I was going to have 5 different options for people and they can take away any order to their liking. I was going to have one vegetarian option and one dairy free option. My family is picky and simple, not that that is bad, just hard when I'm wanting to do something different from the 100's of weddings I've seen around this small town

I was recently at in a wedding that did food trucks. 150 people, two trucks. Two was not enough, they cut cake while people were still getting dinner. One food truck didn't even bring the actual truck, but sent catering. People were confused. They didn't want to wait in line, elderly wanted it served. Luckily they hired a few servers and friends were nice enough to help with the rest. It was overly choatic.

I don’t think one food truck for 120 people is enough. So some people are in line for an hour or so to get food. What happens for people getting more than one serving, is there enough! What about guests who can’t stand well?

I’m going to have family helping the elders but with my guest list I only have a handful of elders and even my 94year old grandma likes the idea. I also found with research that 3 hrs to serve about 150people with 5 or less options would be fine.

I'd be pretty annoyed if I had to wait 3 hours for my dinner. I know that food trucks are the current "want to be different for the sake of being different" thing, but you need enough trucks to be able to feed everyone within about half an hour.

What time is your reception starting? If at a meal time, 3 hours is way too big of a window to make people wait. Food trucks are slow. Delicious, but slow. A typical buffet style meal for that many people can get everyone through the line and at their table in 30 min or less.

Just because people can eat over 3 hours doesn’t mean they won’t all be hungry at once. I’d be super annoyed as a guest if I had to stand in line with 120 people for one food truck. That’ll be well over an hour if everyone lines up right away. If a restaurant has that kind of wait time, H and I typically leave.

Ummm if I was one of the people still waiting 2 1/2 hours in while other people had eaten and finished I would be PISSED.

You can buy chargers at the dollar tree, then spray paint them whatever color you would like. Go to Sam's club and look at clear heavy duty disposable plates and utensils. That way it will look more elegant than just paper plates. Also, check sales at Michael's or Tj maxx!

1 truck for 120 guests is not enough. I recommend using the food truck for a late night snack instead or get several trucks to properly accommodate your guests.

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I appreciate the feed and I didn't explain my plan very well as my concern was mainly for how to dress the table. I will be interviewing food truck managers and will be taking everything into consideration.

Having your guests wait 3 hours to get food is absurd. If you can't have more food trucks, you need to talk to the one you have and ensure that they are able to prep ahead of time and serve everyone within 30 minutes at the most. How would you like to be the one who didn't get to eat until long after the dancing had started (closer to when the dancing would end)?

I think chargers are overkill for a food truck menu. If you just want to fill the space between the cutlery where the plate would normally be, there are lots of ways to fold a napkin for that purpose.

napkin

You could also buy palm or bamboo plates and guests can put their food container on top of that. They are way cheaper than charger plates too. You can get 100 palm leaf plates for $30.

bamboo

palm plate

Just because you will be serving for three hours doesn't mean people will slowly mill towards the truck whenever they want dinner. People will arrive from your ceremony hungry and they will all line up for dinner right away. What you are proposing will lead to a lot of hungry, cranky guests. If you made me wait in line for more than 10 minutes for my food, I'm leaving right after I eat.

Hire 2 or 3 more trucks, have the truck you hire set up a complete buffet ahead of time or scrap this idea completely and start over.

We are doing a food truck and I think it depends on the type of truck with how quickly they can get guests served (We will be having around 100 people). Has the truck done weddings before? Is doing a menu card at the table an option so guests can be prepared for what to get when they get in line? Are they providing appetizers or just food?

Some trucks have a guest requirement (ours was a minimum 80 guests) so planning for 2 to 3 additional trucks may end up being a lot of wasted food at the end of the night.

I think chargers will look nice, and you van find great deals on Amazon for bulk amounts.

The tables will have menu options listed as well as the options listed on the way to the truck as well as outside the truck, so guests will be prepared and have time to think about their options before. The food truck said they have done this before and did meal prep before to help speed the way. Thank you for the table ideas.

Dalyn:
I know this is an old post, but what did you end up going with one or two trucks? And how did it work out?
We are thinking about the food truck… Not because we want to be “different” but because of budget reasons. Did this turn out ok for you?

I ended up only needing one truck for my 100ish guests. I feel like this went great as my guests raves about the food and I wasn’t told of any complaining. I gave them their 4 options at their seats and on the way to the truck ( giving a variety by also keeping it short to minimize the waiting line). The waiting was no more than those that wait for the food truck. The DJ called one table at a time for guests to go out. We also had music going to entertain them and a pasta bar for anyone that was vegetarian or needing a simple meal. The pasta bar was also a big hit bc they could dress their food with red or white sauce as well as choose a meat if they wanted (chicken/beef). Hope this helps .

View Quoted Comment Thank you! Dang!! Pasta bar would be perfect. Our venue is strictly preferred catering ( that’s waaay out of our budget) or open to food trucks, and the pasta bar would not fit that. We will have to do 2 trucks it sounds like, since the pasta bar was your substitute. Thank you Dalyn for getting back!
Also... how did you end up “dressing” the tables?