Blue Plate Catering + 312FILMS: Catering Across Four Chicago Weddings

Some vendors show up in our credits so often that we start to recognize their fingerprints on a wedding day before we even see the name in the Creative Team list. Blue Plate Catering is one of them. Across four Chicago weddings we’ve filmed, from a museum ballroom to a lakefront pavilion, their team has been behind the food, the timing, and the small, unglamorous logistics that let a reception run smoothly.

About Blue Plate Catering

Blue Plate was founded in 1983 by Jim Horan, who started out cooking for friends’ parties before building it into one of Chicago’s largest catering companies. The company now operates out of an 80,000-square-foot headquarters at 1362 W Fulton St in the West Loop, and in 2011 became Chicago’s first Green Restaurant Association-certified caterer. Blue Plate handles thousands of events a year and is one of the exclusive preferred caterers at the Chicago History Museum, one of the venues we’ve filmed them at directly.

On The Knot, Blue Plate holds a 4.8 out of 5 rating across 86 reviews, with two-time Best of Weddings recognition. Reviewers consistently point to the same things we notice on set: a dedicated server assigned to the couple throughout the night, and a level of coordination that keeps a reception’s timeline moving without visible friction.

The Weddings We’ve Shared

• Kimberly & Rich at the Chicago History Museum — catering by Blue Plate for a classic Chicago reception in the museum’s ballroom.
• Kristina & Lucian at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra — dinner and dancing in the Grainger Ballroom, catered by Blue Plate, capped off by a 10:15 PM fireworks display over the city.
• Mia & Stone at The Old Post Office — Blue Plate Catering behind a reception that included a live Coldplay first dance and a second line parade to the Telegram Lounge.
• Tori & Bill at Theater on the Lake — described in their own wedding film as “a top-tier dining experience by Blue Plate Catering.”

What Blue Plate Brings to a Wedding Film

Catering rarely gets filmed directly, but it shapes everything we do film: how quickly a room turns over from ceremony to cocktail hour, whether toasts get interrupted by plates clattering, whether a couple actually gets to eat. Across these four weddings, Blue Plate’s staff has kept that machinery invisible, which is exactly what you want from a caterer on camera. The dedicated-server model that shows up again and again in their reviews is something we see firsthand too: a bride and groom quietly handed a plate of appetizers in the middle of a busy reception, without ever missing a beat of the party around them.

For Couples Weighing Caterers

If you’re comparing catering quotes for a Chicago wedding, it’s worth asking directly about staffing ratios and whether a dedicated server is included, since that’s one of the details that ends up mattering most on the actual day. Costs vary widely by guest count, service style, and menu, so a personalized quote from Blue Plate will give you a far more accurate number than any general estimate.

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