How to Keep Food Warm During Reception

Store them overnight and heat them up? That is a disaster waiting to happen. Food poisoning among them, which you will be liable for and is why many venues require licensed vendors only. Not to mention they will be unappetizing reheated and no venue will let you store them in their fridge overnight. People will get sick and it will not be a good thing for you when they do.


Where are you located that restaurants do not deliver on Sunday? DoorDash, Ubereats, EzCater (which is designed to cater large meals for corporate customers) all offer catering services on a Sunday’s and they work with the same restaurants that couples use for drop off catering. That’s not counting the ones that provide their own delivery drivers.
At the reception, the food is kept in chafing dishes with a Sterno flame underneath. The foil pans sit inside the chafing dishes. The health department regulations are followed to a T for how long they can be left out. This is the same method that restaurants and caterers use for buffet tables. If you can’t get someone via DoorDash or EzCater and the other restaurants are unwilling to work with you, revisit your plans to something they will work with or go with an inexpensive caterer on Thumbtack.com.

View Quoted Comment Thanks we are located in SC. We have looked on EZcater as well as spoken to several restaurants and they just don't deliver on Sundays or cater on Sundays. There are actually a good many restaurants around us that are even closed on Sundays. The venue we have does not require licensed vendors and the venue told us that lots of people actually just bring their own appetizers and such for guest or have a food truck. That may be another avenue for us to look at. Maybe just going to Costco and getting a few trays catered or looking into a food truck. Personally I feel like a food truck would look somewhat tacky but I've also never ate from a food truck as there really aren't many around us. I also really like the idea of the food displayed in the reception area. Thanks for the advice.

The geographical area makes sense of having limitations. I’m shocked that the venue doesn’t seem to care about health and safety laws. That is your biggest issue with bring your own food and most people have not self catered for a large group so they don’t understand the safety concerns involved.


Unpopular opinion but food trucks take forever to serve because they are only designed to serve 1-2 people at a time. When you go to a local fair or festival, some of those trucks have been in business for decades but they have not mastered the logistics of serving a large crowd all at one time. That is why a major complaint is that food truck catering has some people done eating before others are even served and there is no way around that.
Since Costco is an option, go the day before and order full size pizzas from the food court. They are cheap and filling and you have someone pick them on Sunday hot and fresh. You can buy bulk salad, dressings and sodas while you are there. Not sure if their bakery sells garlic bread for a side. That is a polarizing choice because it is not “glamorous” but it’s better than nothing and we’ve never seen a Costco pizza that anyone left untouched.