Wooden Paddle Wood-Fired Catering

le definitely delivered! Their appetizer options were incredible, they had a good variety of salads to pick from, their pastas received multiple compliments from our guests, and their pizzas were the star of the show! We’ve received sooo many compliments on our food in the days after our wedding. Wooden Paddle was great to work with in the year and a half leading up to the wedding and was very responsive, especially with all of the last-minute tweaks we made in the 2-3 weeks before our event. The team on site was very professional and made sure we, as the bride and groom, were taken care of and even let us throw a pizza in the oven! Overall, everything ran pretty smoothly and only a few small hiccups occurred, which is to be expected with a 200-person wedding. A few things to just plan for and expressly communicate - dinner ran a tad over for 200 guests, so I would allow for 10-15 minutes extra in dinner service, and confirm the plan for your guests with allergies. The majority of allergies were considered (nuts, gluten, vegetarian, etc) with the exception of our one vegan guest whom we should’ve confirmed the plan for. Our small 8’ cutting cake also got served to our guests, which was not part of the plan, but that could’ve easily been a miscommunication on our end as well. Even with these small issues, overall the food was exactly what we wanted, and the service was fantastic!

, to cleanup, Wooden Paddle made our day move so seamlessly. We’re always happy to support local, and this restaurant makes us so proud to do so. Thanks for being a part of our big day!

. We had a few appetizers that went well with our cocktail hour and then for dinner had salad, pasta, and then 4 different uniquely delicious pizzas(delivered one at a time family style to tables), followed by a couple small desserts to hold people over until we got the cake as our late night snack. Everyone went home full and happy and gave rave reviews. On top of the food the chefs and servers were excellent all night. We had a few people with allergies that Wooden Paddle were very attentive towards and the site of their pizza oven outside the venue was another fun element to add to the wedding day experience! It should also be noted that our tasting day with Wooden Paddle was probably or favorite part of our wedding planning! Couldn't recommend Wooden Paddle enough!

den Paddle. We planned our wedding in about a month, so we came to Wooden Paddle asking if they had availability pretty last-minute as far as wedding planning goes, and by luck/chance they still had one pizza truck available (which is what we really wanted to serve at our wedding). We ended up doing a food tasting at their restaurant prior to selecting which pizzas we wanted to move forward with, and if I had any regret, it’s only that I didn’t have a budget large enough to cater their entire menu. 😂 Literally everything we tasted was phenomenal (apps, meats, pastas, pizzas, salads, desserts, the cocktails…..DELICIOUS). We ended up choosing the following pizzas: Margarita, Smoke + Shrooms, The Buzzkill, and Rocketman. The pizzas were a huge hit with our guests. Even my 1st generation Italian grandma was impressed with the pizzas (and bless her, but she is extremely picky comparing anything in the US to Italy, lol). We ended up selecting a drink package that had ‘signature’ cocktails included as well, and the cocktails were raved about all evening, and people are still telling me about how much they loved them. I’m not sure if this was something that was supposed to be apart of our package or not, but we had ordered a cake that wasn’t purchased through Wooden Paddle because we wanted something very specific, and they jumped in and were so kind to help slice it all to serve for our guests, which I honestly wasn’t expecting and had low key been initially dreading all night. The staff at our event were extremely kind and professional, and I felt like they made magic happen getting pizzas from where they were parked right outside our house into the tent in our backyard seamlessly. I swear, the pizzas were never empty until they saw that people were slowly lowering their consumption. They fire off the rest of whatever is left of all the pizzas at the end of the night and they box them for you, and our guests loved them—we only had one box leftover and it’s literally because someone forgot it as they were trying to gather all their kids to leave (which was a blessing for us because we didn’t get to eat much while talking to people all night, and we were so thrilled to have a pizza for ourselves once everyone left 😅). Wooden Paddle as a company was great, but I’d also like to say that if anyone has the opportunity to work with their catering manager Nicole, that she is an ABSOLUTE GEM of a human. If you are panicking trying to nail down the details of your catering, whether it’s with Wooden Paddle or another company, boy do I hope you have a Nicole in your corner. She helped us understand everything, and was super accommodating and quick to answer any questions we had. We had a slight catering issue come up about a week before the wedding was supposed to take place, and she helped resolve it quickly and super professionally. I can’t speak highly of Nicole enough. Overall, we loved our experience, and we can wait to go back for future dinners (because we truly loved the food so much).

while offering something still exciting for our more adventurous eaters. In addition, we had many guests with dietary restrictions like gluten free, vegan, vegetarian, and a variety of other assorted allergies. They handled this wide variety perfectly, from the appetizers, pizza, and drinks. Their staff was all extremely nice & personable, from the initial tasting, the planning process, and all of the staff the night of. The food and drinks were all delicious, and we had quite a few leftover pizzas at the end of the night that went home with us & our guests too.

ke our day go on flawlessly. They were perfect at handling dietary restrictions as well, we were able to offer our vegan and gluten-allergic guests multiple options that were all handled without any issue. Everyone was exceptionally kind, from the servers to the bartender to the coordinators, 10/10

y the most incredible coordinators. They were so on top of the planning as we approached the wedding and helped us keep all the details straight, make timelines, communicate with vendors, and make sure nothing important was forgotten. On the day of, they were prepared for everything, made sure the day ran smoothly, and took all of the stress away so we could just be present and enjoy the day. The catering was AMAZING - the food was incredible and all of our guests were absolutely thrilled. The charcuterie table was absolutely everything, and they even set aside a personal tray for us to make sure we got the chance to eat at cocktail hour! The pizza was truly wonderful, and they did an amazing job of coordinating personal pizzas for our guests with allergies. Our friends and family are still raving about our pizza wedding! We are so incredibly happy with our experience with Wooden Paddle, thank you so much for the most wonderful wedding!!

our guests raving about the flavors and quality. Not only were the pizzas delicious, but the service was exceptional—prompt, professional, and attentive to every detail. The staff was friendly and accommodating, and they effortlessly catered to our diverse dietary needs and preferences. With their rustic wood-fired oven and fresh, high-quality ingredients, charcuterie grazing table, and artsy drinks they brought the flavor to our special day. If you're looking to add a unique and delicious touch to your wedding, look no further than Wooden Paddle. They truly deserve every one of these five stars!

down of our reception. But most importantly, the food was INCREDIBLE. Our guests could not stop talking about how much they loved it. We wanted to do something different than typical wedding food, and they were perfect. Delicious pizza and appetizers with an elevated presentation.

) made the process simple and stress free! After going to a million weddings with the boring options of ‘meat, fish, or veggie’… we knew that was not the route we wanted to take for our own celebration. As a couple who eats pizza multiple times a week, who come from pizza loving families, we knew we had to give our guests the best wedding zas we could find… and we hit the jackpot with Wooden Paddle! The quality of pizzas, salads, pastas, and apps were aligned with the quality of their staff: outstanding! The food was fresh and hot on every table. Our guests are still raving about the wedding meal, and how often does that happen after a wedding of 220?? (Never!!) We’ve even had guests ask us for the address to Wooden Paddle so they can go there for dinner! Thank you to everyone at Wooden Paddle who made our night so memorable. We can’t wait to spend our future birthdays, anniversaries, and special events with you at the restaurant!

barely got to try anything during cocktail hour, and the Wooden Paddle team thoughtfully arranged a sampler of all the apps and charcuterie at our seats. They also did a great job of accommodating the dietary restrictions of our guests, making personal GF and vegan pies without any extra charge. The pizzas are delicious and plentiful - and after a night of drinking and dancing, what better party favor than a to-go pizza box? Great tasting experience at their restaurant in Lemont, friendly and responsive staff, awesome on-site team. Definitely exceeded our expectations.

now if we'd be able to find somewhere that had the variety, taste, and style we had in mind. We were lucky enough to stumble upon Wooden Paddle early on in our search, and it was immediately clear they offered exactly what we were looking for on paper. After we attended their tasting, we immediately cancelled all of our other scheduled catering trials, as we knew we had found the one. They delivered on the big day as well in every way we could have asked for. The service was so smooth and worked so well with our other vendors, and the food (especially the pizza!) was beyond awesome! We got so many compliments from our guests about our chosen pies. We also had many positive remarks about the absolutely beautiful charcuterie table they put together for us. Along the way, the event coordinator helped us to craft the service for the evening exactly as we needed, and everyone was beyond accommodating and helpful. This is such a cool place and again, we cannot recommend them highly enough for event catering.

ually explained to us. From the start, our Event Coordinator-Miriam, could not have been better. She answered every single question, idea and worry we had along the way. Miriam would always respond extremely fast and always made herself available. Come wedding day our experience was no different. WP came with a team that was ready to go. Our guests could not say enough good things about not only the food but the service provided by the catering staff. No one was ever left without food and the team was always making sure my husband and I were taken care of. We had quite a few guests with dietary restrictions and they handled it seamlessly. We even had a late night snack of White Castle and the team received the order from the delivery driver and quickly went into decorator mode and set out the White Castle boxes in an amazing display. PIZZA IS THE NEW CHICKEN & BEEF!! Our guests loved the pizza and the quality was not lost even when the team had to perform in the rain. We truly cannot thank the Wooden Paddle team enough, they made our wedding day a huge success!!!