Quickest serving time for food vans/ hog/ paella?

I doubt you'll find any food van that would have a prayer of feeding everyone at the same time or within a reasonable time. Lets say you are having 120 people and they have two servers in the van. It takes about a minute to serve someone - then you're looking at about an hour from the first to the last being served. The first will have finished before the stragglers have even been served. But then I've seen this happen with sit down meals too! Although not taking an hour to be fair.

You could look to see about having two vans - that would reduce it to half an hour, and could offer a choice.

One of the other Hitchers who used the same venue as me had barbecue/hog roast served at tables on big platters as if it was a formal meal. A caterer will be able to advise you here but we had a caterer rather than a van as such who set up market stalls, offered two choices in the daytime and although we had arranged to keep everything going for two hours for the hot savouries most poeple had gone up much more quickly than that. Consider a buffet with hot choices: the caterer can keep topping up and you will have most people in the same place at the same time. An experienced caterer will have more than one buffet table on the go so you won't be waiting behind 120 other people!

If you don't want the 'traditonal sit down three course affair' I suggest you look at event caterers rather than wedding ones: they are more used to the free flow arrangement you want and will; be able to make suggestions which will help with your decision making/budgeting.

Whereabouts are you Melliemoo? I do realise that I sound like a PR man but the caterer we found (by accident) was brilliant, ticked all our boxes for flexibility/festival theme while offering the 'all in' service of a caterer, was really good value and they were a throughly nice bunch to have around on the day. Our wedding was 120 people just like yours and they did us a fantastic deal, plus they halped with table changeovers, cake and sweetie bar set up, clearing up: all the things a burger van won't do.

I've been looking at Adam Bradley Momb, we're actually getting married right by Stratford on Avon! I like the idea of joints served to the tables. That could offer the perfect compromise as we could put on loads of salads and cold dishes along the tables.

A hog roast may be your best bet for feeding everyone at the same time. We are having one for 80 people and it will be semi formal in that everyone will go and get their food from one area but sit down at proper tables etc. We are having a table plan just to stop it from being a free for all and will use the best mans speech as a way to bring everyone to the tables before saying help yourself to hog roast. The hog roast is our main meal as having afternoon tea after ceremony before early evening guests arrive and everyone eats together. Hopefully it will work!

Stratford is only a little over an hour for them. And they are used to cooking in the open! Serendipity!

We are having Paella for ours buffet style so other then each table going up it's pretty much at the same time, our caterer did offer serving platters of paella on the table for extra. We have 2 paellas and a non paella option, roast pepper salad (we will provide a green salad) and tapas during drinks for £17 per head.

It's worth hunting around for Paella caterers, we found if it was a proper paella caterer then the quotes were a lot cheaper then caterers who said they could provide.

The paella is cooked onsite arriving 3 hours before and then it's just the serving up time - it's also quite filling and a bit different to a hog roast.

Pammy two vans is a great idea, and still cheaper than a caterer! Maybe fish and chips and pizza could work and give people a bit of choice as well as cut down on the wait time.

Future mrs p i have actually just been googling companies who do hog roast but they serve the joints to the table. I think this could actually be the perfect solution for us. My OH really really wants a hog roast. part of me is loathe though as I am actually a vegetarian lol.

MomB I have just sent an email to Adam asking for some information. it looks like they can do the joints I was talking about above. Thank you for the suggestion. i’ve just had a nosey at your wedding blog by the way and it looks like it was an absolutely wonderful day! Congratulations

Scottish Sarah I like the idea of the separate Paella dishes on the tables. it is less formal than a 3 course sit down, but still keeps everyone at the tables and eating at relatively the same time, plus they’re interacting by sharing the platters. Thank you for the tip on actually paella companies rather than caterers, I did see the same advice given for wood fire pizza companies too.

Lol your very understanding if you have a hog roast! I eat fish but not meat and we are not having any meat at all at the wedding - only fish and vegetarian things mainly because I am a massive foody and want to be able to eat everything at our wedding, we also have quite a few vegetarian friends and previously at majority of other weddings the vegetarian option has been an afterthought and I didn't want this at ours

I love that Sarah, such a good idea. unfortunately my oh and most of our families are big carnivores so don't think I'll get my way on that one. Whatever we do though I want something really yummy for me and the other veggies, not decided what yet though!