With only five weeks to prepare for my daughter's wedding I found this hidden gem of a venue through Seattle Parks and Recreation Department. Both my daughter and son-in-law, as well as my husband, were in the military, so the newly-renovated Magnuson Park Officers Club was more meaningful than most venues might be. Magnuson Park was turned over to the City of Seattle by the U.S. government; the entire site was formerly the Sand Point Naval Air Station. The wedding venue was the former Sand Point Naval Air Station Officers Club, in the building next to the plane hangar. We had the ceremony and the reception in the same space, which comes with 8 six foot round tables, at least 3 eight foot rectangular tables, 80 chairs, a complete kitchen including a fridge, freezer, food warmer, ice maker, sinks, dishwasher and pantry. We worked with our caterer to do the clean-up afterward, and the person representing the venue was present throughout our rental time and helped to facilitate some of the cleanup afterward. Beforehand I needed to secure a banquet permit (about $10) so our caterer could serve drinks, and an event insurance policy (about $100) and provide proof to Chelsea Johnson, the venue representative. The space consisted of a large room (beautiful wood floors) with a rolling coat rack, a smaller space (linoleum floor with large military aviation star) with a built-in bar and an upholstered banquette on one side-that space was connected to the pantry and the kitchen. Large bathrooms were located off the hall that entered into the large room. We arrived a couple of hours before the ceremony and set up the chairs to form an aisle between, set up the DJ table, and set up the round tables and pushed those to either side for the ceremony. After the ceremony the DJ asked guests to get a drink in the room with the bar, while family and friends re-positioned the chairs and tables for the reception. The caterers positioned the food in the bar/banquette room.
