Pizza For Wedding Reception

My fiancé wanted to do pizza at our wedding. We are not doing pizza because that in my opinion is not wedding food. So we are going to have one of the typical wedding type of dinners. We will have a kid option (for any kids attending), we will be offering a vegetarian option (a few of our friends are vegetarians), and two different main course dinner options (guests will choose what dinner option they want when they return the invite). You can do whatever you want for food. Pizza at a wedding, in my opinion is tacky. I know you said you have 300-350 people for the reception. I would go with the least expensive dinner option.

I think pizza is hard because it’s so difficult to keep it warm in large batches. If you’re talking about a food truck that does wood fired pizzas I think that would be okay. If you’re talking about ordering pizzas from a delivery place I would look into a different option.

I like the idea of various gourmet pizzas for a cocktail hour (or a smaller casual reception). But 350 is a lot of people to feed on pizza, especially if standing in line. As the poster mentioned above, keeping it warm might be an issue.

ROFLMAO!!!

The last wedding I attended had pizza from a food truck. I was skeptical at first but it worked out very well and was quite good. It was a nice change of pace from the typical wedding food (which let’s face it, the same old chicken/steak/fish dishes are never anything to rave about) The wedding was pretty casual and smaller (under 150), so you may need more than one truck. I say go for it.

We are having gourmet pizza for our reception of about 50-60 people. My biggest concern was keeping them warm. But, found a way to make it work using pizza stands & trays with those fire things under them (I can’t think of the name of them lol). And, we have people who will be bringing out and replacing the pizzas as necessary.


It might be harder or more work to keep them warm for such a large guest list - but, If it’s really what you want - I’m sure there’s a way to make it work for you too.
It frustrates me that some people are so rude about what the bride and groom want for THEIR wedding. While, yes, pizza is not traditionally a “wedding food” - who doesn’t like pizza? My guests will be well fed & will have an open bar - I think that’s what’s important when thanking them for attending your wedding.

I agree with trying to keep it warm. My venue has a warmer in the kitchen so if yours has that then you should be fine. I don’t think it’s tacky. Most people like pizza so I think people would be happy to have it. I can’t tell you how many weddings I’ve been to that have had “wedding food” and it didn’t taste good or the food was not even thoroughly cooked. Pizza is a safe option in my opinion. We’re doing pizza for our rehearsal dinner!

In addition to the points already mentioned (especially keeping pizza for 300+ HOT and FRESH, without guests waiting a long time for food to be replenished), I'd think about how you can balance out the meal a bit with at least a salad, and also take into account things like gluten, dairy, and other food sensitivities/preferences.

Daughter's RD was in a private room at a nicer brewery restaurant chain. We had about 45 people, with a buffet of assorted deep dish pizzas, salad, pasta, and a chicken entree. It was really good, but even with that small of a group, there were times the pizza offerings ran out and it took longer than FOB and I wanted for them to be refreshed (like, several times he had to go check in with the servers and managers...). This was IN a restaurant that serves deep dish pizzas all day long, and they didn't keep up the way we expected them too. So, that's definitely something I'd talk in-depth about with whoever your pizza caterer will be -- how are they going to manage serving 300+ guests? Pizza is definitely a more casual choice for a wedding, so if I was going to do it, I'd want to do it well. I don't think pizza is necessarily "tacky," but I do think not managing the food service well is not hosting the guests very well. Good luck!

We had a dinner at 7:30 and then we also got pizza around 10:30, people really loved it! We didn’t have pizza as the meal though. I think it’s a little too casual to have it as the main course.

I don't see anything wrong with it! Though, it may be hard to keep the pizza warm. Are you looking at more of a food truck or buffet?

Like pp said I'd be weary of how it'd stay warm. But you know I think flatbreads for instance would be a great appetizer or so.

My FH and I did talk about the possibility of a pizza bar. However all of the local pizza places we talked to told us all they would only be able to do is deliver the pizzas and would not have staff there to help monitor the pizza bar. We also would've had to supply our own heating lamps and find someone to monitor when pizzas needed to be replaced. Once we looked into it, the heat lamps and the stands for the pizza, along with the pizza, would've cost us more than the dinner we officially decided on for the wedding.

My fear would be keeping it warm between delivery & eating. Feeding 300+ people will take a LONG time so unless they can provide things like heat lamps or heating pads for the food, I'd wonder how it would stay hot & edible. Also, another fear would be people who don't eat lactose or gluten if you have any of those guests?

I would cut the guest list and change the food served if it is about cost.

I just don't think pizza for that amount of people would serve well and be kept hot and fresh.

THIS IS AN AWESOME IDEA! I was planning on doing this until my mother caught wind. I think that its a good idea because there are so many options and taste.

We aren't doing pizza but I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this!!!!

My cousin did pizza. They had a wood fire pizza truck and they had people deliver boxes of pizza to the table. Each table got 5 smaller pizzas of different flavors. They did also have a salad bar and did a taco bar for cocktail hour, so they didn't serve just pizza. I can say a lot of the older crowd at my cousin's wedding wasn't crazy about pizza being the only dinner option. They kept thinking more food was coming. I was talking to people and most of the pizza was gone and I didn't like the toppings that were left when I got there, so I actually didn't eat it (I was pretty satisfied from tacos). If you go this route, I would just put something on your wedding website to set expectations (their wedding invitation said formal attire, so I think people thought it was going to be more of a formal dinner). Have salad/plenty of snacks at cocktail hour. They didn't have as many people as you are having, so that may be a factor. Good luck!

I think a pizza wedding is one of those things where it sounds like a good idea, but in practice, it's likely to go off the rails, especially if you've got over 300 guests.

You need to have a way to keep them warm--while food poisoning isn't as a major issue like other types of food, many people may find cold pizza unappetizing (I certainly do). And then there's the matter of serving. 300 guests means you'll need at about 100 extra large pizzas.

Are you going to be able to get all 100 pizzas at once? Can they deliver 100 pizzas at the same time? Or will the delivery be staggered?

How do you intend to serve them to guests? One table a time, or a free for all?

Are you going to enforce serving sizes?

What about people who are lactose intolerant, vegan, or gluten-free?

This would be a lot easier to do if you had a smaller amount of guests.

Thank you for everyone’s suggestions and opinions!! We ARE going to make pizza work. It will be a casual, fun wedding. It has been in my head since the beginning that I’d rather be able to have everyone at my wedding to help celebrate than to cut people off the list just because food is too expensive. We are getting a great deal from a local crew that seems passionate about making pizza (and chicken and salad) happen for us! Update everyone in October how it went.

View Quoted Comment Thanks for the positivity !! We are going to make it happen!! 😎😁