Nestled in the Fox River Valley just west of Chicago, St. Charles is the perfect location for your dream wedding. Wooden Paddle is its ideal complement with its unsurpassed on-site wood-fired pizza and top-tier wedding catering service.
The City of Saint Charles was dubbed “The Pride of the Fox” because of its friendly community, scenic beauty, and breath-taking architecture. Wooden Paddle’s stellar service and savory cuisine will blend seamlessly, adding its variation of fun and sophistication to your nuptial celebration.
Like this calendar showing a Saturday reserved for a wedding, weekends book up fast! Schedule your Wooden Paddle wedding as soon as possible.
At Wooden Paddle, we approach every wedding reception as a once-in-a-lifetime, one-of-a-kind event. We don’t do “cookie cutter.” Call us at (630) 326-8150 or fill out the contact form to tell us your wedding day wants and needs, and we’ll do everything we can to deliver!
What Is a Caterer Responsible For?
We know how much goes into planning a wedding, and you have enough to worry about without stressing over catering details, too.
When you hire Wooden Paddle as your St. Charles caterer, feel free to unburden that responsibility onto us. Choose your menu, reserve your date, and provide us with the details like location and headcount. We’ll take it from there!
Communication with the Venue Facility
We have an established relationship with numerous reception venues throughout the Chicagoland area. Therefore, we’ll already know what to expect and are aware of their insurance and licensing requirements. Whether or not we’re familiar with the venue, communication is the key.
We’ll reach out to the venue’s event coordinator to get the pertinent details we need to understand ahead of time. We’ll even schedule an on-site visit to tour the site’s facilities, leaving no surprises when we show up on your big day.
Staff Scheduling
We’ll ensure your event is fully staffed with a team of on-site chefs and bartenders, included in the reception package prices. The number of servers you will need will vary based on your chosen serving style and your guest list’s size, so your quote will include a separate charge for serving staff.
Event Set-Up and Clean-Up
Wooden Paddle’s friendly and hard-working crew will arrive early in the day to set up our mobile kitchen and wood-fire oven. We’ll ensure everything is prepared to serve you and your guests following your ceremony. We collect a 10% set-up fee, which covers:
- Travel up to 15 miles from Lemont, with additional distance incurring an extra fee of $1.50 per mile
- The set-up of our custom pizza oven, and all of the locally-sourced ash firewood needed to fuel it
- Our on-site kitchen set-up and breakdown
- All serving ware
- Disposable tableware (china, silverware, and linens are available to rent for an additional cost)
- Liability insurance
- Clean up and trash disposal
Cooking and Serving Your Meal
Wooden Paddle chefs will prepare everything you choose for your reception day dinner on-site and seconds before it is served to your guests. We use only the freshest and highest quality ingredients, so get ready for the best pizza you’ve ever tasted!
And unlike catering services where the culinary process is hidden away in an offsite kitchen, Wooden Paddle’s pizza prep is part of the experience. You and your guests can interact with our chefs and ogle as they toss and stretch the pizza dough, add toppings, and fast-fire the pies to perfection.
Our wait staff will then deliver food to your guests using the service manner you choose — buffet-style, cocktail-style from the trays of roving servers, or as a sit-down family-style meal.
A Catering Service Responsive to Your Needs
Wooden Paddle will coordinate and communicate with you during every step of the planning process. If your plans change during the weeks or months leading up to your wedding, let us know, and we’ll make the adjustments, including:
- A new wedding date — Popular dates like spring and summer weekends sometimes book over a year in advance. Let us know as soon as you choose a new date so we can get it on the calendar!
- Change of venue — Wooden Paddle has catered at dozens of venues throughout the Chicago area. Even if we aren’t yet on your new venue’s preferred vendor list, there’s a good chance we’ll still be able to work with them.
- Guestlist alterations — If your headcount grows or shrinks after signing our contract, simply supply us with the new number. We’ll modify your menu accordingly, and we can even bring a second oven if we need to (we have three!).
- Menu changes — You’ve already planned your menu only to discover one of your nieces is vegan. No problem! We’ll swap out one of your selections with a vegan pizza instead. We also offer vegetarian and gluten-free choices. None of your guests will leave your wedding hungry!
Choose Wooden Paddle to Cater Your St. Charles Wedding
Leaving the catering details to us. From your initial consultation with our event coordinator until the final dessert plate is whisked away — you’ll be glad you settled on Wooden Paddle as your St. Charles wedding catering service!
Not convinced our food tastes as good as we say it is? We’ll prove it to you! Schedule a free tasting for two at our Lemont location and sample anything on our menu. Wooden Paddle is located only 30 minutes southeast of St. Charles.
Call us at (630) 326-8150 or complete the contact form, and we’ll get back to you right away!