Pizza - Meal for my reception

As amazing as the pizza might be, I don't see any way of it staying it that way. I only think pizza could work if someone at the venue was constantly cooking it so it was continuously coming out freshly cooked.

Not sure how they did this, but on Pinterest I saw a "gourmet pizza wedding" served like you said, with the pizza stones & heat underneath them. Maybe call a local rentals company? They could provide heat lamps, or maybe even the pizza stones? I would hire someone to serve though and keep track of everything staying warm.

I don’t even think the hot bags will continuously keep pizzas hot all night and I doubt a sterno would actually heat up a pizza stone (plus pizza stones can get pricy so I don’t see how that would save money compared to a food truck). Unless you have a caterer doing pizzas at your venue or a food truck, you’re likely going to end up with cold pizza.

If your venue has an oven(s) I don't think it would be that difficult to keep them warm. Also, how many people are we talking here? Unless it's like 500, it can't take that long to serve everyone, so I'm not sure how the pizza would get cold assuming that you've worked out them delivering it right before service.

Does your venue have ovens that you could place them in to keep warm? My family does that when we are saving pizza for a later hour, we stick it in the oven on warm until we are ready to eat. If you have pizza stones in there, it will probably help too!

I found a warming tray on amazon also that might help? https://www.amazon.com/NutriChef-PKWTR40-Electronic-Warming-Chrome/dp/B01H7VHW96/ref=sr_1_9_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1539896989&sr=8-9-spons&keywords=warming+plate+pizza&psc=1

Have you talked with the restaurant about it? They might have some ideas on how to serve warm pizza all night!

I'm from Brooklyn so I am never mad at pizza - anytime, anywhere, ever. The thing about pizza is it has to be served hot. It just does. The best way is having a venue that makes the pizza fresh on site. When I pick up pizza, the pie can be piping hot, fresh out of the oven and by the time I drive home, which is literally 5 minutes and get it out of the car, it's already luke warm. Sure there may be way to keep it kind of warm for a while, but pizza, unlike revenge, is best served hot. Especially if it's the only food your having or at least, the star of your feast.

I'm rooting for you though...

Agree that without food truck, best situation would be venue having an oven to keep pizza hot & having someone help serve it that way or the heating lamps like they have at a pizza buffet place. Any way you could pay them a little extra and have them basically constantly delivering?

Oooh pizza that is a great Idea,!! i would contact a catering equipment company, im sure they can give you a few ideas and prices on how to keep the Pizza hot and fresh. Congrats on thinking " outside the box."

Hm not sure how to keep the pizza hot either... Have you thought about another food that is easier to keep hot with in sternos? You could do BBQ or even places like Moe's does catering platters for tacos and burritos!

If you're set on pizza the only thing I can think of would be to have them deliver it basically as soon as you're ready to serve .

1) what pizza place? We live in Nashville too and love trying all the different kinds.
2) does said place have any suggestions for you besides lending you the bags?
3) I would make sure to serve something in addition to pizza too like maybe salad 😊

View Quoted Comment To kind of piggy back off this,
have it delivered when you’re ready and instead of doing a buffet set up, can you put a couple of pies on each table? Get those wire holder things they have at pizza places and have everyone serve themselves from their seat.
Then maybe have extras in the oven to put on a buffet for when people want more?

View Quoted Comment I really like this idea. The goal was to definitely have it brought in right before dinner start. We plan on having meat, cheese, veggie nibbles during cocktail hour and have garlic knots and 3 salad options also.

I appreciate everyone input input so far and thank you for not being like some replies I have seen on here at WW.

View Quoted Comment We have a food truck were inquiring about and I have a quote for BBQ also. So it’s not all or nothing pizza.

View Quoted Comment Thank you for the link to the warm plate! I haven’t had a chance to scour Amazon just yet and that might be a great idea! I appreciate you!

I have spoken with the restaurant and they weren’t sure what others did because they don’t setup/deliver for weddings. I do have a friend that is meeting with one of the owners this week and she is going to ask for me haha!

View Quoted Comment Pizza Place 5 points pizza (we frequent the East Nash location). I really hope you get to go there if you haven’t.

They only had the bags to offer at this time but I did ask if they might know of something I could find on my own.

We we are getting their salad and garlic knots - they are amazing!

You can you can use unglazed quarry tiles as pizza stones. Just get them good and hot in an oven, or heat over sterno for a long time. Good luck keeping those pizzas hot.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/507/tiles-baking-stones

We did this for 40 guests at my daughter’s shower last Saturday. I don’t have a pic of the set up when the pizza was there, but you can see the risers on the right side of the table. This was at a restaurant so the pizzas were coming straight from the oven on metal trays. They stacked them on the risers, so each stand had 2 pizzas. In addition we had broasted chicken, pasta, and salad.

Buffet table

Pizza is great so all of those nay sayers are lame lol. Anyways I would consider maybe having the pizza ordered half cooked (i know of places that do this) and possibly paying someone to cook them in the oven at the venue and bring them out as needed. Maybe this could be a culinary student or something to save on costs a bit, and since they're already ready to go you dont need a full catering staff. They could bring them out and display them then replenish with a fresh pie as needed.

View Quoted Comment I’ve heard good things about them, but we don’t go to that side of town often so weve never tried it.
I hope it turns out how you want

Thanks all for your contributions! So I am working with a rental company inquiring about heating lamps that seem pretty nice (not convenience store looking ones) and a hot box to keep The other pizzas warm. We’re not having an overly formal wedding so I’m not stressed about the layout much. I do however want my guests to have good food. I will reach out to a catering company I found that does flatbreads and whatnot. I can keep you posted if you like