This In-N-Out rig makes stops at California weddings

It’s been four years, and the guests are still talking about Otavio and Araceli’s wedding.

Not about the bride’s dress or the elaborate cha-cha they rehearsed for months. The wedding was off the hook because a surprise In-N-Out truck pulled up hours after dinner and showered the party with Double-Doubles.

“Late-night munchies is always a good call,” Otavio Martins Shih told SFGATE. “Rather than sending people away hungry and a little drunk, we thought we’d feed them in the parking lot.”

Since 1974, California’s most beloved burger chain has rented its cookout trucks to cater everything from graduation parties to bar mitzvahs. But there’s something particularly awesome about a bride and groom summoning the truck to feed their gussied-up guests burgers in cardboard boxes. And it certainly helps that famous brides, like TikTok influencer Emily Mariko and Health-Ade Kombucha co-founder Vanessa Dew, dare to down Double-Doubles in their gorgeous, very white wedding dresses.

Shih and his wife, who met while attending UC Santa Cruz, got married in an Orange County ballroom with ornate crystal chandeliers and 120 of their nearest and dearest. They served beef with madeira sauce and sprung for an open bar. But Shih and Araceli Ochoa didn’t want a typical wedding. They wanted to do something fun and memorable for their guests. That’s why they brought in the 70-foot semitrailer — and kept it a surprise.

“Essentially, we’d been to a lot of weddings and felt like we wanted people to be able to relax and stay a bit longer and have fun,” he said.

Some may have had too much fun. Around 9 p.m. — after the ceremony, dinner and dancing — the semitruck rolled in, unannounced. The lingering guests smoking in the parking lot were the first to spot the red-and-white rig.

“My wife’s cousin comes up to me wide-eyed and goes, ‘Is that real?’” Shih recalled, laughing. “He thought he was tripping. It was funny. In-N-Out is something everyone loves. For the people from out of state, it was something they always hear about and got to try it. My wife’s from the Bay Area, so for them, it was very special because they’d never seen it before.” 

The trucks are not available in the Bay Area, but you can find them in Los Angeles County, Orange County and parts of Riverside, Ventura and San Bernardino counties, according to In-N-Out’s website. In-N-Out also operates trucks in Colorado Springs and parts of Denver, the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and Las Vegas.

How it works: The massive trucks, which require 85 feet of parking space, along with 14 feet of overhead clearance and 11 feet of horizontal clearance, are fully staffed and operate 24 hours a day. The cost of a cookout is determined by the amount of food served, plus sales tax and miscellaneous charges (at minimum $2,000 plus tax). For instance, a hamburger will run you $4.80 plus tax per guest; a Double-Double, $6.90 plus tax. Twenty-ounce sodas clock in at $2.35 each, plus tax. In-N-Out also offers chips for $1.25 plus tax.

Surprisingly, fries and shakes are not offered. Last year, however, In-N-Out did introduce a new catering truck designed for kid events — and that one offers mini fries and mini burgers.

Shih and Ochoa, who now live in Downtown Los Angeles, kept it classic with Double-Doubles and sodas. They were able to feed the 100 remaining guests who lingered into the night.  

“People talk about all the things that were nice about the wedding, like how my 18-year-old brother-in-law officiated,” Shih said. “But, for most of the people, I think the star of the night was eating three Double-Doubles.”