Weddingbee Blog

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Mr Pretzel and I booked our rehearsal dinner catering company with only a phone call conversation and without having taste their food. It might sound crazy, but that’s how we roll. Let’s rewind a bit to early on in the planning process. Like many couples we had the “financial” discussion with our parents. Regarding the rehearsal dinner which is customarily thrown by the groom’s parents, Mr Pretzel and I offered to host this part of the wedding. Our wedding is 2,000 miles from Mr Pretzel’s parents and we felt that it would be an unnecessary hassle to ask his parents to plan this event. Plus we are having a hometown reception just a few miles from his parents’ house, and we really need their assistance in pulling that party together. So, we tossed the traditional groom’s parents-hosted rehearsal dinner aside and took on the task ourselves.

We discussed the guest list, and because our wedding is a destination wedding for a large portion of our family and friends we agreed to invite all of our out of town guests in addition to the customary rehearsal dinner guests. I’m estimating 50-70 people. *GULP* Instantly I started to think about fun, but budget-friendly ideas for a rehearsal dinner. I suggested a BBQ (pork… nom, nom, nom) or a large cookout. Mr Pretzel nixed both ideas. It became apparent that he had a vision in mind and when I asked him to share his vision he told me “Pacific Northwest food served outside on the shore of Puget Sound.” ACK! My dreams of keeping the budget reasonable melted away. All I heard is “Seafood” and “expensive beach-side venue”

Source: my mad Microsoft clip art skills

I was not sold. I had normal fears of the weather not cooperating and thought for sure that Mr Pretzel’s vision would end up costing a lost of green, but I decided to roll go with it and start my research.

I must say, I love Weddingbee. Before I became a Miss Pretzel, I followed fellow Seattle-ite Mrs Joey’s wedding. I recalled being blown away by her awesome rehearsal dinner catering company. If you’re not familiar, she found them on Craigslist, they found her an awesome house to host it at (on Lake Washington, with a pool, and its own dock!) and provided fabulous food. Mrs Joey raves about Lake Street Catering in her posts, and on the Seattle Boards. After meeting Mrs Joey for the first time I realized that she and Mr Joey’s tastes are very similar to Mr Pretzel’s and mine. On that alone, I decided to give Lynn a call and see what they could do for the Pretzels. I told Lynn “seafood”, “on the water” and “on a budget”. I also told her that we wanted it to be casual and comfortable. The last thing we wanted was a formal affair.

She suggested a New Orleans-style seafood boil and I countered with, “how about a Pacific Northwest style seafood boil?” We could use local fish, clams and crab. For location she suggested using one of the many beautiful Seattle Parks. She could even handle the park application and permit process for us. I waited in expectation of the final quote and was pleasantly surprised when it came in under budget! Woohoo!

Mr P was ecstatic to see his vision come into reality. We booked them, without tasting their food or meeting them in person and we were totally comfortable. We actually forgot that we hadn’t done a tasting until we were at Mrs Joey’s housewarming earlier this month. It was catered by Lake Street and I commented that it was the first time we had tasted their food. The food was delish!

So, what is this Seafood Boil going to look like? Check out these photos from a recent rehearsal dinner catered by Lake Street Catering. These amazing images are all courtesy of Amber French Photography.

I am hoooongry just writing this post! Next up in the Rehearsal Dinner planning: competing with other Seattle residents for the perfect park location!

Did you book any vendors blind? What results did you have?