Weddingbee Blog

When Mr Pretzel and I started to talk about getting married we didn’t spend more than a minute talking about where the ceremony location would be.

Mr P: You want Fr Jim to marry us?

Miss P: Of course.

Mr P: OK, Saint B’s it is.

You see we are registered at two different Catholic parishes located a mere 5 miles apart. We split our time at both Churches, but we are more involved at the Church I am registered at. The choice didn’t even warrant a full conversation—easy-checkitoffthelist-done.

We did, however, spend more time talking about the type of reception venue that we wanted. Both of us had attended our fair share of wedding receptions in banquet halls and country clubs. We agreed that neither of these fit “us”. The words that we used to describe the type of location we wanted were urban, loft, brick, airy, open, modern. In early summer I did some web research to get an idea what was out there and how much it might cost.

The criteria I was working with:

• Seattle or North Seattle (I excluded the East Side, or anything South of Downtown)
• 150+ people
• Open Catering preferred (we had found a catering company we wanted to work with already)
• Loft-like
• Not a hotel/country club/banquet hall

Working with those limited criteria I found two contenders. Pravda Studios in Capital Hill and The Loft by Russell Dean Catering in Bothell. Since we weren’t engaged yet I created a file with all the info and tucked it away. Here is how these two venues stacked up.

The Loft by Russell dean Lowell

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The Loft is actually the loft of an old barn. It has high arching ceilings with a plethora of wood. Even though it didn’t fit our urban feel I kept coming back to it because of the beauty of the wood and the high ceilings. The pluses and minuses:

+ Located just minutes from our ceremony location

+ Reasonable price

+ BEE-u-tiful!

- Located in the ‘burbs not the city

- Despite its name—it isn’t an urban loft—it’s a barn

- Restrictive policies that may make decorating or having a band or photo booth problematic

- Not open catering—although Russell dean Lowell is a wonderful caterer.

Pravda Studios

Operating as a natural light photography studio, Pravda also rents the space out for weddings and special events. It is in Seattle’s Capital Hill neighborhood and oozes urban chic. The space is HUGE, full of windows/natural light and is a virtual blank slate.

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How did Pravda fair on the pluses and minuses?

+ Large

+ It’s an urban loft!

+ The windows and light *swoon*

+ In the city

+ Open catering (our favorite catering company is a preferred vendor)

- Parking in Cap Hill is a nightmare but Pravda has it’s own parking lot

- $$$$ at the top end of what we thought we would be willing to pay for a venue rental

Hummm… what could the Pretzel do with this space? I took a peek at what other brides had done in the space, and promptly fell off my chair.

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*SWOON* Mr P and I were in love with the sleek modern styling. Our minds were spinning with the possibilities. Secretly we were pretty certain that we had found our venue. But we were a long ways from setting a date (we weren’t yet engaged) and knew that nothing was set in stone yet. We also hadn’t seen the space in person, we both felt funny about going to see a place before we were officially engaged. This was in June. Would we change our minds before our engagement in September?

What type of venue did you fall for early in your wedding planning? Was it the same type of venue that you ultimately chose?