Wedding Day Podcast

What Features Actually Matter Most in a Wedding Getting-Ready Suite? | WDP Ep 75

• Iron Diamond | Sonja Babich

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0:00 | 25:02

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🎧 Listen to learn:

  • What features actually matter most in a wedding getting-ready suite
  • Why flexible ceremony layouts are becoming more popular with couples
  • How to create an outdoor wedding experience that still works beautifully in the rain
  • What details make guests feel comfortable and cared for during a wedding
  • Why intimate weddings continue to resonate with modern couples
  • What couples should prioritize when touring wedding venues

On this episode of Wedding Day Podcast, Sonja Babich and Washington Wedding Day Publisher Alexis Sanabria sit down with Jeff and Patti Falconer, the husband-and-wife team behind Parties on the Terrace, an award-winning Washington wedding venue known for its intimate celebrations and romantic garden atmosphere. Inspired by the Amalfi Coast and built with hospitality at its core, the venue has become a favorite for couples looking to create personalized, guest-focused wedding experiences in the Pacific Northwest.

Jeff and Patti share the story behind transforming their five-acre property from a luxury car storage business into one of Washington’s most beloved intimate wedding venues. From navigating permitting challenges and launching during COVID to thoughtfully designing flexible ceremony spaces and guest experiences, the couple offers an honest behind-the-scenes look at building a wedding venue from the ground up.

The conversation also explores what modern couples are prioritizing when searching for a wedding venue, how intimate weddings can still feel luxurious and why intentional details—from getting-ready suites to rainy-day backup plans—can completely shape the wedding experience.

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Produced by Dan Riggs Films & Summit Hill Studios summithillstudios.com
and Iron Diamond Media irondiamondmedia.com

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to Wedding Day Podcast with your host, Sonia Babbage, CEO of Iron Diamond Media, a leading wedding resource featuring seven localized wedding brands across the country. Hi everybody, Sonia here with Wedding Day Podcast. We are at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Seattle. My co-host today is Alexis. Hi everybody. Yay. We are sitting here with one of our great friends and members of the year for Washington Wedding Day, Jeff and Patty with Parties on the Terrace. And you're all gonna fall in love with them, and we're so excited for you all to meet them. So hi guys! Thanks for coming today. We're so excited to chat with you guys. It was one of my top ones. I'm like, we have to have him on the podcast. That was nice. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

You've been after us for a couple years. Since you started.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. I'm glad it all worked out. But I think the whole audience and everybody just needs to hear the story how parties on the terrace started. So I'm gonna pass the torch. How did you guys decide let's let's have a wedding venue?

SPEAKER_00

Well, we purchased the property in 2015, and it's a five-acre parcel, and it came with a 3,000 square foot of building. I had no idea what we would be doing with the building, but I knew that I wanted to have a lush garden with flowers that I could cut and have flowers in my house throughout the year. And uh it was different than that. Yes, we we still have a cutting garden, but um Jeff had some other ideas of what we could do with our our outbuilding.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, we first started. Um I'd worked in high line automobiles, and so that building afforded the opportunity to build a storage facility. So we actually stored high-performance cars in that. So we remodeled it within the first six, eight months of moving in, and then we filled it slowly over probably three or four months. We had no to 15 cars, so we ran a car storage business. Okay, and then we got this idea we wanted to start remodeling our backyard for us.

SPEAKER_00

I wanted to start the garden.

SPEAKER_04

She wanted to start the garden.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And so it was a fun experience because people that had cars, they could come get the car, they had a code, they could come park in our driveway, go drive around the countryside, come back, park the car, ride, park it for them, and off they went. And so one day, this this guy came with his wife, and she's like, Oh, you guys are doing something in your backyard. We're like, Yeah. So we showed her what we were doing, and she said, I should have my 50th here. You guys should have weddings here. And we're like, What?

unknown

Huh?

SPEAKER_04

And so that night over a glass of wine, we're walking around the yard. We're like, What's the wedding industry look like? Yeah, and here we are.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, we kind of just changed it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you're like, get your cars out of my house.

SPEAKER_04

We did. We started remodeling, doing all the stuff, and then I had I told them you have this is the last day, and I introduced them to another car storage facility where they all moved to.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so he's a very good guess, of course.

SPEAKER_04

The chandeliers went up, and here we are.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, it was really fun because we we were new to the wedding industry, didn't know much about it, and we also knew that you know we were in a residential space. So at first I thought we just needed to get a business license and then some people were like, Oh, so how's the permitting coming along? Like, the permitting? What do you mean? What do we need to do? So we learned a lot about county permitting, the whole process, the application process, the plans that need to be done, how we purchased the place and some of the things the renovations were done without approval, county approval. So we needed to kind of back it up and make sure that everything that was on the property was legal. So that started with you know, this vision of oh, we're so excited to get into the wedding industry, and we had to take all these steps back to say, okay, wait a minute, what does this really mean for us? So there were late nights, there were tears, there were you know frustrating moments, but we we still knew what we wanted to do. And so we we did get the right things in place. It took several years to finally get there.

SPEAKER_04

It was a journey for sure.

SPEAKER_00

It was a journey, and then COVID hit. So we were so excited to open, then COVID hit.

SPEAKER_04

The C word. Yeah, the C word.

SPEAKER_02

We knew the C word.

SPEAKER_04

Our first guest wedding, um, she signed up in January of 19. And there was a lot to still do. She's walking around in rubber boots in the mud. Right.

SPEAKER_03

She's like, Yeah, yeah, I'll do it.

SPEAKER_04

I'm like great. When are you gonna when do you want your wedding? And she's like, May.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Of 2018?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. And so we finished it. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that must have been it probably put a little like it did. Fire. Fire. Yeah. Like, let's get it done.

SPEAKER_02

You had no choice. Yeah, which I mean at that point you really did have to like, okay, we gotta finish it.

SPEAKER_00

But it was so exciting though, because we just couldn't wait to have a group of people on our property. Yeah. And to see how they wanted to decorate it. Because you know, we wanted to create a space that is a blank canvas but also has a lot to it already that you don't have to do a lot to it if you don't want to.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And so it was really fun to look at okay, what kind of shades of green can we add? And let's make sure that it's there's no like one color that pops because we don't know the color palette of our couples. So we went with more neutrals and ivories and whites and you know, hydrangeas and that kind of thing. And and we knew that we had a couple that was coming, and we were just so uh delighted to finally share our space with somebody because we had been drawing out. You should see we have these big pads of paper and these like drawings of these terraces, and yeah, we should talk about our terraces.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and then tell us about parties on the terrace. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

So we have four terraces plus the grand lawn, and they're all named after the reason we named them parties on the terraces. I proposed in Italy. So everywhere on the Alphi Coast was terraces.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

So we were sitting up one night figuring out names, so we came up with Parties on the Terrace, and then we named each of our terraces after the hotels that we visited.

SPEAKER_00

I had to magical contest.

SPEAKER_04

If you're ever interested to know about the hotels, look up our terraces, and then you can go to their websites and look them up.

SPEAKER_00

Amalfi Coast, it was lovely. Yeah, yeah. Started in Ravello and worked our way over to Captori.

SPEAKER_04

Portofino.

SPEAKER_00

Well, well, the whole thing started. He proposed in Ravello Yes, proposed and revello. Yeah, and so and so, but yeah, that's what we have is a book full of these like drawings of terraces, and it's page after page, and you know, we'd sit on the terraces with our lawn chair and our cup of coffee and sit down. We're like, needs to be bigger, and yeah, we need this over here.

SPEAKER_04

Called the landscape for up, hey Ryan. Uh the terrace isn't big enough. What are you talking about? Like, it's not big enough. You need to make it bigger.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. And we came back and made it bigger.

SPEAKER_00

So but it was really fun because we were kind of would walk the property and think about well, what would we want if it were our special day? Yeah. And I was like, oh yeah, we need to have a place for the couples to get ready. And um, so the the shed that we bought, we uh was no longer gonna have the riding lawnmower in it. Okay, fully like finished with trim even around the windows, and we don't have trim around our windows in our house. Like we were building this place that was even nicer than our like living space. Um, but it was so fun to decorate it and to meet with an interior designer and get some ideas and some through those magazines, and like I just I love to daydream about it and to try to envision the day and well one thing Patty did when the shed was the shed was for put up, but it wasn't finished inside.

SPEAKER_04

So she had a wedding day, no, she had a makeup artist and hair day. Yeah, she invited these people out, these women out, and they all sat and had champagne. And she asked them questions. How would if this was your space, how do you want to set up?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, good job. I love that.

SPEAKER_04

So she's back out of it. Oh my gosh, you did exactly what you said.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, we did, I mean, we're new to the wedding industry. So, you know, we yes, we had toured some places after we knew that we were gonna go down this path, and so we would go to venues and look at what they had and kind of pick out the things that we really liked, and like, okay, we do something like that at our place. But for that, for that space, yeah, we didn't know. And so, you know, we had two different makeup artists come and and hair stylists, and they they said lots of natural light, yeah, and uh make it climate controlled, yeah, because you don't know about the weather, and if it's super hot, you don't want to melt. You need to have a place for the mom to sit, and lots of mirrors, and charges, yeah, and charges. Lots of outlets, yeah. Lots of outlets, Bluetooth speaker to make sure that's oh yeah, that you can jam it. Cubbies, uh a fridge to make sure that you can stop it with water, and prosecco. And prosecco.

SPEAKER_04

That happens occasionally.

SPEAKER_00

But the interesting thing was to have a lower chair for hair and then higher ones for makeup. And I would have never thought that.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

And so we did that. It was so fun to pick out what's that one chair gonna look like. So I have a really pretty pink chair, and then I have these gray stools that are all velvety, and yeah, so that was really fun. But you're right, yeah, it was fun to bring them back out. Yep. And they're like, wow, including the interior designers who we had um that with to pick out like the mirrors and all those special touches, and they were just brought to tears. And then I we were like in puddles because we were just I was not there. I was not there. It was a girl sick, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But I was like, thank you, you know, for inspiring us for this. Do you guys still walk around and see like, oh, we still need we still want to change this or I want to make this better, or do you guys are you in a place now where you're like this is it?

SPEAKER_04

No, we divide and conquer. So I'm the I I tell people I'm the maintenance guy. We got the yard, and I'm always changing or modifying or fixing something. It's nonstop. It's a big, it's not a huge yard, but it's big.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04

And there's always something happening. Um, you know, we have this four-foot on our website, you'll see that big chandelier that hangs from the tree. And uh, yeah, oh, you've been there. Yeah. And uh that was a that that just was something that because of the theme of the chandeliers, yeah. We were like, something in the woods would be kind of fun.

SPEAKER_02

And it is.

SPEAKER_04

So yeah, we found that. I found that first. That's great! And I sent her a picture of it. I sent her a picture of it. I'm like, oh my gosh, look at this thing. This is perfect. Because you couldn't find a chandelier that big. Yeah. And then I saw the based on the price, and I'm like, there's no way we're paying that much money to hanging out in the woods. Yeah. It's like a year went by, and she texts me a picture of the thing. She's like, check this chandelier out. And I'm going, that's the same chandelier.

SPEAKER_02

You go, I've got a first. It's just a big one.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, this time she goes, no, she goes, it's 400 bucks. I go buy it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And then I spent 30 hours rewiring it, yeah, trying to do all the stuff and putting it up. And but it's it's kind of I put it on a winch so you can raise it up and down, you can decorate it and stuff. So it's kind of like our signature.

SPEAKER_02

It's such a great like focal point.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so you did wedding in May of 2019, yeah, right? And then you took a break because of the C word. Yeah, yeah. And then we pull back 2021, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and you know, the the thing that was great was when we were home during that phase, the during the C phase, um, we could really get to like be in the property though. Because we could watch like where the sun really moved, where where were the shade areas, where were the sun areas, what and it just again, I was the dreamy when, and I'm like, okay, let's add a fountain over here. And this is nice in shade, so let's get um yeah, let's get some more ferns and that kind of thing, and hostas and um, but yeah, I think what was great was because of the pent-up demand, yeah, then we had all these couples ready, right? Because they and people hadn't seen our place in 2019 and they were gonna have 2020 weddings. And so we already had a nice set of business, and then when they couldn't have it, then some people postponed either tw you know 2022, some people waited, yeah, um, and others did do that, but we're like, oh wow, this is amazing.

SPEAKER_04

Well, it was funny to see they all showed up, and they're like, Oh, we're married already.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

So they were just going through the motions, they were the fastest ceremonies I've ever seen. It was like five minutes was long.

SPEAKER_01

I love you, I love you for all you.

SPEAKER_04

And then they're like, pop, and then they were then they just start the party.

SPEAKER_00

Party, yeah. Party Semitarians. Yeah, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, a lot were married.

SPEAKER_00

A lot of them were, and many of them were pregnant. So they babies. That's yep.

SPEAKER_03

That's true.

SPEAKER_01

That's funny.

SPEAKER_00

But you know, but it was it is kind of fun though when we think about it of there that is kind of a trend. Um, it didn't just happen during that time period, but there are people that have already started their families and they already have um a child or they're on their way, and you know, we stay in touch with a lot of our couples, and it's fun to watch them on like Instagram and like having their first day of school and their kids, and you know, and just like reaching out happy anniversary and and like career changes, or they move places, and and that's one of the perks is is that relationship that we get to build with our couples because we're one of the first things that you know couples will will search for after they get engaged is like where are we gonna get married? Yeah, and so we have most of our inquiries are coming from couples themselves, yeah, and that's what's really exciting is is to be a part of that journey with them to help them build their dream team for the day. And um and it takes a team.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, let's pull back the banana a little bit more about the venue now. Okay, so how many people can you accommodate?

SPEAKER_04

80 to 100, 80, 80 to 100s. Have triple.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you're known for your more intimate weddings.

SPEAKER_04

We have been known for that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you are known for that. I look at him, I kind of pause just because there have been, you know, some folks that wanted to do like 120, 125, and you know, you get to meet these the folks, and you're like, you know what? We have enough chairs and everything, but uh, because really the venue does shine when you have like that. That sweet spot's like 75 because you you really get to feel the space, you can take advantage of those nooks that we have throughout the property, have that private moment, take a breath if you need to. It's not overcrowded, but it also doesn't feel too vacuous to the space, yeah. And we also have like sheer curtains on the inside that we can close to kind of make it feel a little bit more intimate as well, if it depending upon how they want to lay things out.

SPEAKER_04

Um and also the certain areas with 75 to 80 people, yeah, you can get married in really different areas of the venue. We do not have like a designated ceremony spot.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_04

We never put one up, so it it affords everyone's imagination to figure out what they really want. And it's cool.

SPEAKER_01

It's so rare, it's just so rare, you guys, because a lot of people want the well-oiled machine. Yeah, this is where you get married, and this is where the cocktail is, and this is where the reception. But it's getting better with a little bit of a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02

I was gonna say, I don't know if that's what people want or if that's just sort of like the industry standard, and so it's what people are used to more because I think a lot of times people walk into a space and they want to be like, what if I wanted to do this? And then people are like, No, we don't do that.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, but that conversation happens, yeah. I mean, definitely does, but there are times they're like, Well, can you tell me how people set it up? So they'll ask, and then then they come up with their own unique ideas, which is really fun to watch how they decorate it because there's times I'll be doing something and I'll walk around the corner and like, oh, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's what I always felt too when I ran the club. I'm like, oh I was a little worried about this color combination. This turned out good, it makes sense.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it was so it's fun to that I think is my favorite part is to see it when it's all decorated right after anything happens.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. But it is interesting because we while we want to show the flexibility, we also don't want to overwhelm the couples.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And a lot of times there's there's like one person of the couple that's like totally in it, you know, and the other one's like really overwhelmed and you just can't really be bothered by the details. And so we kind of walk around. So what we do is we actually have a sheet that we give our couples and we have QR codes that are for each of the the um terraces, and then we show how people have here's some options so you know you could because if you just verbalize it, it's hard for people to picture it. Everyone is visual, I feel like a good picture helps everybody. Yes. So as we go along, they scan and and then they can see, then they just can scroll through, and you know, and it's on their phone, and they get to take that with them too, and they can continue to kind of think about what they want. But it's fun to show what has been done and then share some like things that happened because they set it up this way, it afforded them to do like there was a gentleman who fabulous, uh Trevor Owens. He ended up um standing on one of the big boulders we have, and he was playing his violin. Yeah, and it was like, oh, I love that. So I share that with couples, and then it kind of sparks more ideas for them of like, oh, we could have a violinist. Oh, what should we do during cocktail hour? You know, just kind of like gets snowballing, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Oh gosh, I'm so excited for them. I don't want to talk about it right now, but I think there's somebody getting married, and I think your venue is gonna be like perfectly on point with some upcoming trends. That makes me excited for you. So yeah, I swift. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Your flowers and maybe engagements too could happen at parties on the terrace. I'm just putting that out there because of a yeah, you could very true.

SPEAKER_02

It's that vibe from her engagement photos, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Like that's you guys. So I'm just painting the picture for our viewers like, you know, and who knows when this will be published, but it could be after the fact, but hopefully before.

SPEAKER_00

But yes, engagements could happen, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

Um we had an anniversary, yeah, they came out and they set up a table in the middle of the Grand Lawn, and of course they just emailed you and said, Can we do this?

SPEAKER_01

And you of course said yes. Yes, of course, because that's what you guys did. It was really fun.

SPEAKER_04

They just sat out there and okay.

SPEAKER_01

We need to talk about like the details because like we did a style shoot, and I heard that Patty would literally walk around and start plucking leaves from trees if it didn't look good or off the ground.

SPEAKER_00

Well, here's the thing the photo shoot is meant to portray a certain time of the year. Yes. Yet oftentimes it doesn't coincide with that season that it is photographed. Okay. So it was like the last day of October or very end of October. Leaves have already started to change. We have maple trees, and so we have a lot of leaves that fall. There was a windstorm the weekend prior to the photo shoots.

SPEAKER_01

And it rained.

SPEAKER_00

And it rained the whole time during this year.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

The whole time. The whole time.

SPEAKER_00

The whole time. Yeah. But we had leaves that were changing, like in our laurels, you know, there's some that are turning brown and like turned the wrong way, or there was a leaf on the ground. So like, you know, I would see where the what the angle was, and like, hold on, and I'd run over, and he would like pluck the the dirty one, not dirty, but the dead ones. Yeah, yeah, that'll love the spaby. Details. Yeah, details matter. And and then I did see that in one of the pictures there was a leaf on the ground. That was brown. It was this maple leaf. I'm like, I didn't miss one. That shot. I think I was like around the corner.

SPEAKER_04

You left it on purpose to see if you know this.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and I remember when Laura saw me, she's like, Well, there's one photo, but I found immediately. I'm like, dang it! I didn't know you were gonna use that picture. But that shoe was so beautiful. So yeah. Yeah, that team was was wonderful. We also loved doing the shoot with the um the cakes. Oh, the different cakes. Yes, that was a fun day. Yeah, that was really really cool. I can't remember. Did it rain that day too? It rained in the beginning of the day, then the sun came out.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we are in Seattle.

SPEAKER_04

We luck out though. We have lucked out. We've only had like three weddings that it rained.

SPEAKER_01

Really?

SPEAKER_04

Only three. Only three. Then it rained.

SPEAKER_00

That means they're gonna be loaded.

SPEAKER_04

It definitely rained.

SPEAKER_00

But you know what the nice thing about our venue is that we have the banketto, we have that indoor space. Yeah. So, you know, we were able to pivot pretty quickly. Um, the one that was on your birthday, we were able to pivot to be able to use our covered patio for a portion of it, and then have the front space. I mentioned those sheer curtains. We had that front area as like their welcome area. Yeah, and then we set up the covered patio for the ceremony, and then we just leveraged our white hydrangeas as their backdrop. Yeah. And they were the most beautiful photos, also because it brought out all the green and the lush from from the rain. And so people still felt like they were outside. Yeah, because they were you know, it was the covered area, and then we were able to kind of hide because we have accordion doors that open up to our covered patio, and then you get this the the vista of. The Grand Lawn, and we were able to put like white um little dividers up so that we had the inside all set for the reception, but people couldn't see it. And then we revealed it. So, yes, it does rain in Seattle to probably get that request.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. It happens everywhere. Yeah, oh, it does. Everybody has a plan B and C and D. Yeah. Hopefully, that was alpha glory.

SPEAKER_00

But you don't need a tent, you know, so you don't have to worry about the renting of that and what's high holding.

SPEAKER_04

But one of my favorite that it didn't rain on, and they stood out there with umbrellas. Yeah. And just got married and everyone stood out in the rain. I was like, this was really, really cool.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And that the bride and groom, I don't know if they had umbrellas. I can't remember if they did. I think they just were standing up there.

SPEAKER_01

It was really and everybody leaves on a rainy day because there's nothing else to do. Yeah. Seriously. Yeah. I love rainy weddings because you don't have to go to a bonfire. There's no other party that you need to get to. Like, might as well have fun at this wedding, right?

SPEAKER_04

Our fires are always lit. They're dead.

SPEAKER_00

You have two of them. Oh, do you? Okay, good. So into the fire. I'm into the chandelier. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

No, get us into that chandelier. If I tell, so last question, um, why your venue stands alone. I already have an answer, but like your venue stands apart from other venues, and again, it's very intimate venue. What would you tell them why they should get married at parties on the terrace?

SPEAKER_00

Because of the care and the thought and the love that goes into the property and um back here.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I mean it's our home. It's special, and we treat the couples and their guests and their loved ones like family. And, you know, we are very visible on the day of, we make sure things run very smoothly. And, you know, we've got to the point where you kind of anticipate what's gonna happen next. Like if you see somebody with their drink and there's like nowhere to put the drink and they sit down, it's like let's bring over the table. You know, it's like, oh, thank you. You know, there's there's just the details that we have learned over the five years of of hosting weddings that we know what we would like and what makes it things feel special. That we that's possible.

SPEAKER_04

I think that's the number one thing is when we get married here.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

You know, yeah. Our inspiration was Italy. So will we get married here? And if we can say yes, then I think we're doing a good job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Oh, I could just talk to her ever. That's what Dan's like, we gotta go, we gotta go. Well, thank you guys for being on that podcast and just being cheerleaders and friends and all the things. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you for having us.

SPEAKER_01

All right, we'll see you next time on Wayne Podcast. See ya bye.