The weekend was busy, but productive. Friday night, Tim and I went downtown Tacoma to the old Winthrop (Crystal Ballroom) because there were a bunch of vendors set up for a free wedding preview type of thing. I got an email about it and we attended. The caterer I am interested in is the same guy who owns that building on 46th and Pacific that we'll be renting office space from. Kind of a small world. He was coordinating the event (along with the Winthrop).
They had tables with different place settings all set up, had plants with twinkle lights (a different vendor) lining the walls, then they had a couple of stations where they put out food for sampling. They also had a photographer, a harpist, and a DJ. We talked to the DJ for quite awhile. He and his wife were great. I think that we are definitely going to use them. They are in the right price range. Tim was talking to him about how much some are charging. He said that he does it more as a hobby and he has a real job, so he can do it affordably.

Anyway, that was an interesting evening. There weren't many people at the Winthrop, so we got to speak with the caterer/landlord for quite awhile. He told us a lot about the business, the types of things they do and said that he can work within any budget. So that was good. We were talking about different venues and I mentioned that I had wanted to have the shindig at Thornewood Castle in Lakewood, but that it was a little unpractical (pricewise). It was either have it there and not serve any food, or find a more reasonable location and serve food. He was nice and offered to get us a discount on a room there for our wedding night if we wanted. He does so much business with them, he can get us a deal. We're going to try and set up a time to talk with him in the next few weeks about catering and costs. One of the interesting things we learned from him was that they can provide cleanup service for $75 to $150 depending on the venue. We were relieved about that because that was one of my main concerns.