About this vendor
Lovely Night is a wedding catering company based out of Seattle, WA. These culinary and event specialists delight in providing high-quality food and satisfactory service. James and Gelsey Sherrill are the husband-and-wife duo who own this operation, and they dovetail expertly together in order to please clients. Offering a diverse array of delectable dishes, they can tailor their approach to suit sophisticated celebrations as easily as they can accommodate low-key, intimate affairs.
Owing to James and Gelsey’s combined expertise and passion for putting smiles on faces, they are well-placed to create pleasant dining experiences. James’ background in the culinary arts has seen him work in some high-end restaurants, including Michelin-star establishments. Stylistically, he can produce fare that is sophisticated, attention-grabbing, and wholesome. His willingness to be versatile allows him to create all manner of tantalizing dishes. Gelsey offers her inimitable hospitality know-how and skills to ensure that to-be-weds’ requirements and preferences are met in pleasing ways. Lovely Night enjoys exciting taste buds and providing seamless service for every fairytale milestone covered.
With Lovely Night, couples and guests can enjoy menus tailored to their preferences. This ensures that every wedding attended by James and Gelsey is distinctive and reflective of couples’ tastes. James is passionate about using local produce as ingredients for his fare, and he loves sourcing from the Pacific Northwest. This ensures fresh courses prepared from scratch by a talented bon vivant who relishes that chance to treat people to mouth-watering cuisine. Some of the many options available to savor include porcini mushroom puffs, baby beets, raw lacinato kale, and more. Various serving styles may be availed such as passed appetizers, buffets, seated meals, and others. Ultimately, they want to season each amazing milestone with memorable food that matches the unforgettable memories that are made throughout.
Details
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Dietary Options
- Dairy Free
- Gluten Free
- Nut Free
- Organic
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
Food & Catering
- Buffet
- Catering Clean Up
- Catering Delivery & Setup
- Chef Stations
- Family Style
- Menu Tastings
Awards and Affiliations
3-Time 'Best of Weddings'
2023.2022.2021.
Best of Weddings
The Knot independently assesses vendors for this award—it’s never self-reported. We base it on firsthand experiences from real couples and guests, and they must have a 4.5-star average across 7+ reviews in the qualifying year.
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Reviews
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5
out of 5.035 reviews
Review photos
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Outstanding Catering Experience - Highly Recommend! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Gelsey and the Lovely Night team were absolutely outstanding caterers for our 50-person wedding! From start to finish, th...
ey made the entire experience seamless and enjoyable.
Communication & Transparency: From the beginning, Gelsey and her team were incredibly communicative, responsive, and easy to work with. What really stood out was their transparency about pricing—they never tried to upsell us on anything. In fact, they actually advised us NOT to do certain services through them because we had more affordable options available. This kind of honesty is so rare with wedding vendors and made us trust them completely.
Planning & Flexibility: We had so much fun at our tasting, and they made excellent recommendations for seasonal dishes that would appeal to all our guests, including those with dietary restrictions. They were also incredibly flexible—they even added a super last-minute coffee and tea service for not much more than it would have cost us to orchestrate ourselves, which was a huge hit with our slightly more mature crowd who wanted to make it to the after party!
Day-of Service: On our wedding day, the entire staff was warm, thoughtful, and kind. We were handed champagne the second we appeared! Staff members carefully noticed when we needed little curated dishes off to the side so we could actually enjoy our amazing food despite all the guests wanting to monopolize our time. This attention to detail was incredible.
The Food: The oysters were a splurge that was COMPLETELY worth it—our guests absolutely loved them! We had three different types with all the possible accompaniments, and they were fresh and delicious—a real PNW treat. The other big hit was the cheesy mushroom puffs—at least 10 different guests specifically commented on how much they loved them!
Overall Value: The value we got for the level of service, quality of food, and overall experience was incredible. I would definitely book with Lovely Night again and recommend them to everyone I know. If you want a catering team that genuinely cares about your experience and delivers exceptional food and service, look no further!
Thank you, Gelsey and team, for making our wedding so special!
Gelsey and James and team went above and beyond, playing a huge role in making our wedding a great event. We are beyond happy with the catering! We received a lot of compliments fr...
om guests already about how great the food was- lots of people especially loved the risotto served at our wedding. One friend told us it's probably the best thing she's eaten all year.
What is equally impressive, if not more impressive, than the amazing food that Lovely Night made was all of the behind-the-scenes work they put in, ensuring that the event went smoothly. We appreciated how detail-oriented, patient, calm, and helpful Gelsey was with us throughout the wedding planning process. We feel so lucky to have been able to work with her.
The comment we got most at our wedding wasn't "congratulations" or "it's so good to see you" - it was "the food is INSANE." Which we agreed with. Because it WAS insanely good. From...
start to finish, working with Gelsey was seamless - she is knowledgeable, responsive, kind, and creative. She was able to answer all our clueless questions, create a custom drink, and customize our package to what made the most sense for our event. Gelsey and James were able to get us in for a tasting a few months before the wedding and the food was amazing - James was able to step away while working to answer some of our questions as well. On the day of the wedding, set up and take down was also seamless. As was getting rentals through their contractor. The food was beautifully plated and cooked to the perfect doneness, even though our venue did not have a full kitchen and didn't allow open flames. Overall, our experience was fantastic and we would recommend Lovely Night to any of our friends and family who asked (and even anyone who didn't ask)!
Hiring Lovely Night was the BEST decision we made for our wedding! We had plated dinner for 115 guests, passed appetizers, late night snacks, desserts, and bar services. The food a...
nd cocktails were absolutely incredible. We hired them to do set-up and take-down which made our day stress free. Our guests raved about the food, service, and bartending. Gelsey was amazing to work with- accommodating, flexible, responsive, kind, and efficient. Lovely Night absolutely made our wedding day! We could not recommend Lovely Night any more!
"Lovely Night" definitely lives up to their name, which made our daughter's wedding extra special. Thanks to Chef James, the food was mouthwatering. My communication with Gelsey l...
eading up to the event was impeccable and no details were left out; even catering to guests with severe allergies. We had showers in the morning of the event and Gelsey's calm demeanor and big smile eased my concerns. We received so many compliments on the food and service. We couldn't have been happier!
We chose Lovely Night to cater a small elopement dinner (20 people). Gelsey and James were amazing to work with. Gelsey was extremely communicative and helpful leading up to the da...
y, even chiming in with last minute needs in a text thread with our decorator. The food was heavenly, so beautiful and absolutely delicious. Gelsey even pivoted during the event once she saw that dinner was running a little late to place our dessert bar in another area, so it was more conducive to the evening. Overall, such a wonderful experience and I would absolutely work with them again. Thank you for making our evening so special!
Gelsey and James were wonderful to work with. James knows his food and was even able to answer questions about wild mushrooms used. Gelsey was very communicative and both were flex...
ible and took time to work with us to get us what we wanted. Waitstaff were friendly and pleasant as well. Would recommend!
We recently had Lovely Night cater for our wedding, and they did a phenomenal job! From the planning details to the day of service, they have gone above and beyond. If you are look...
ing for a catering service who is willing to listen and accommodate to your needs, then you should book Lovely Night!
All of our guests loved the food and the cocktails.There was a line at the bar the whole night! The staff here, especially Gelsey, are kind and attentive. They really made the whole night amazing! We really couldn't have done our wedding without Lovely Night! Highly recommend for sure!!!
We’re very happy with our choice of Lovely Night as our caterer. They did a great job handling a venue with limited on site cooking facilities (no stove, running water was on the o...
pposite side of the venue from where we had dinner - a whole city block away), and created a great meal that our guests loved. For appetizers, we did a meze platter and the pork belly bites, and those pork belly bites were a hit, they disappeared quick - PS, thank you to the caterer for saving us some while we were doing photos.
For the main course, we had chicken, asparagus and chèvre, Salish Sea paella, and beechers mac and cheese bar. If you go through lovely night, absolutely do the mac and cheese bar, the toppings were the talk of the dinner, fantastic job here.
For planning, Gelsey is incredibly great to work with! She is detail oriented, and caught several deficiencies in our plan and recommended solutions. Gelsey was incredibly responsive to every email we sent. Additionally, they did a great job supporting our baker, who was doing their first ever wedding.
I would recommend Lovely Night to any foodie who needs a caterer for their wedding - they are pricey because they serve amazing food.
If you were considering caterers for your wedding or event, I cannot not more highly recommend James and Gelsey from Lovely Night Catering. My husband and I were incredibly lucky t...
o run into James from a cooking class we took at Whisk in Bellevue, where James was the feature Chef. The experience they provided was beyond exceptional, from the food, specialty cocktails, service, tasting, and all of the accommodations they were willing to make for us! Everyone who attended the wedding said it was the best food they ever had at any wedding or event. James' food just melts in your mouth. I have to give the biggest round of applause to Gelsey...she was the "rockstar" of the night. She was there to help with every detail and every vendor. We are so blessed they helped our vision come to life. We are waiting to receive our photos, but here's a few from our original tasting and a few others from our wedding day taken by Matthew Land Studios at The Admiral's House.
We hired Lovely Night for an outdoor summer wedding in Seattle. The food itself was delicious and the service impeccable. Gelsey’s organization, communication, and flexibility made...
it possible for us to enjoy the event fully, without any worries. We so appreciated her expert guidance and recommendations throughout the process, and her ability to offer many menu options within our budget.
Best food ever! Not just the best wedding food, not just because it was served in a rustic barn without any kitchen amenities, and not just because somehow there were leftovers for...
us to eat at 2am. These two make up a dynamic duo, and the team they have assembled is just fire. From the initial tasting in their backyard, to all of the coordinating back and forth for several months, when we hired Gelsey and James, we were ecstatic about the menu and about the service they were going to provide. The week of the wedding, they were so responsive to last minute questions and phone calls, help to ease all panic over last minute details. The day of the wedding, they just ran with every glitch (heating ovens that shorted, heat, etc.) and delivered amazing service the entire evening, from setting up the tables to cleaning the dishes and packing up all the rentals. Our guests are still raving about the food, and so are we!
If I had the money, I would hire James and Gelsey to make every meal for us. When I say their food is incredible, I'm talking your favorite restaurant on steroids good. We have had...
a plethora of guests (seriously like 30) tell us that that was the best wedding food they've ever had.
But it wasn't just the food that scored them a 5 star (although, on it's own it would have). This team was PHENOMENAL! We told them along the way how much we wanted to make sure we got some of the food, so what do they do? They setup four of each appetizer on a serving dish that matched our theme perfectly and put it on the sweetheart table for us. They worked with us to ensure we could provide a fantastic guest experience while also preventing expenses from getting out of hand. They had incredible ideas on tweaking the menu to fit dietary needs. They setup and took down the linens and place settings, handled the rentals, assisted with things outside their typical job description, and even loaded our cars with leftovers, including large cases of alcohol etc.
On top of that, they were a pleasure to be around! We spent a lovely evening at their home for our tasting and enjoyed chatting with them, they were so responsive and helpful and pleasant by email, and they came down and spent hours at our venue with us, even though it is an hour from their home. We didn't want to stop talking with them; they are people we would easily be friends with.
With chef James' background, and Gelsey and her teams' efficiency and work ethic, this company is truly the only caterer I will look to for future endeavors.
Lovely Night did such an amazing job catering our wedding! We would absolutely recommend them! Gelsey was easy to communicate with and answered soooo many questions that I asked th...
roughout the wedding planning process. She helped coordinate all of our rentals, including pick up and drop off. She had lots of good recommendations and helped me think through specifics regarding our table set up and rentals. The Lovely Night team that was at our wedding did a phenomenal job. The food was delicious (we actually got to eat because Chef James brought a heaping plate of food to my husband and I as soon as we sat down). Many of our guests commented that it was the best food they'd ever had at a wedding! My favorite was the trofie pasta with mushrooms! The team seamlessly transitioned our venue from ceremony to reception, and disassembled everything at the end of the night. We were able to dance at our reception until the very end, without having to worry about cleaning up. Our wedding reception was amazing, thanks to the Lovely Night team!
Lovely Night Catering truly took our vision to life. We really wanted to have a plated dinner, specifically to represent our separate cultures and those flavors, while providing an...
awesome meal for our guests. When we approached lovely night, they helped us brainstorm versions of entrees to help create that unique experience. Gelsey made the time for several calls to discuss menu choices from ideation all the way to nailing down our drink orders, and finalizing all rentals and purchases. She was also a huge help in figuring out our budget!
James blew us away at our trial tasting, making two dishes of every entree and letting us choose the flavoring options we wanted the most. We appreciated how professional they were in setting up our menu to try and putting forward their best work to help make our menu special. On the day of the wedding, the dishes were as beautiful as they were delicious and we got a ton of compliments from our guests! We also last minute added a "tea time" to end the night and it was such an incredible way to celebrate our families and tradition. Lovely Night ordered the type of tea my family drinks and home and custom made a rose syrup to make it special. Our guests even asked for seconds on the tea at the end of the night!
If you're looking for perfection when it comes to your wedding meal and well as creativity and uniqueness, look no further. Lovely Night Catering can make those dreams come true and we're so grateful to have worked with them.
Gelsey and James are absolute rock stars and we can't recommend them enough. For our winter wedding, we wanted elegant and season appropriate vegetarian food. From the first bite o...
f food at the tasting to our wedding, Lovely Night was fantastic at providing the best experience and food. Our guests, many of whom are not vegetarian, raved about everything they brought out. If we ever have any need for catering in the future, we will be getting a hold of them again!
I would give Lovely night 1000 stars if I could!!! They catered our 10/30/21 wedding and it could not have been better. They worked hard to set up and transform the space into ever...
ything we had dreamed. They were so professional and efficient, and they went above and beyond. Our guests (and other vendors!) are still talking about the food over a week later! Multiple people said it was the best meal they have ever had. They made sure we were fed and had drinks the whole night, and checked in multiple times to make sure we were eating and having fun. They bent over backwards to find some food for a particularly picky child who didn’t want to eat what was ordered, which was not expected at all!! Cleanup was quick and easy. I can’t recommend them enough!! We are thinking about getting married again just so they can cater it!
Gelsey and Chef James are incredible! Amazing attention to detail, great staff and INCREDIBLE food. We had so many guests tell us it was the best wedding food they’d ever had, and ...
some the best food they’d ever had, period. And if you do anything, get the short rib!!! It’s life changing.
Quite honestly the most amazing culinary experience I and we ALL have every had at a wedding. Luck for us that it was at our daughter’s wedding! Virtually ever guest expressed how ...
much they enjoyed the food! Every appetizer and every part of dinner was AMAZING!!! The nectarine/prosciutto salad and short rib were my personal favorite. From start to finish they were very professional, responsive and delightful to work with. Lovely Night will be my "go to" caterer forever!
The Lovely Night team is AMAZING! They were very responsive and helpful leading up to our wedding, and they provided us with a lot of great menu ideas and other vendor suggestions....
The food and service during our small reception was truly impeccable. We loved every dish and there was never an empty glass. Would highly recommend!
Lovely Nights catered our wedding in August of 2021 and they were PHENOMENAL! We hired them to do all of the labor (set-up/clean-up, rentals) as well as food and would 10/10 recomm...
end them for anyone who is looking for a delicious meal, as well as an approachable and hard-working group.
Our wedding reception + dinner went so smoothly b/c of Gelsey, James + their team. We went with family style serving and a custom southern/soul style meal (with friend chicken, collard greens, beechers mac + cheese and a oyster bar!) Gelsey was super helpful in planning out everything we would or should need to feed our 100 guests, including managing all of our on-site rentals. I can't highlight this enough, but ALL of our guests raved about the food. I had aunties and cousins and friends say it's the most memorable/delicious wedding food they have ever had. I'm looking for another reason to need a caterer b/c of how delicious, smooth + special it was. Hire them, you won't regret it!
Gelsey, James, and the lovely night catering crew- you made my wedding. It's been over two weeks and I am still getting texts about the food and how delicious it was. The salmon......
oh my goodness.
After having to replan my entire wedding a week before the date due to fires you were so gracious when changes kept coming.. and you still created an exceptional experience for our wedding day. You went the extra mile by getting a DJ for me and helping me with setting out our own brought in appetizers. Words cannot thank you enough for everything. I would choose you 1,000 times for any event!
Lovely Night catered my wedding and it was fantastic. I got married out on our property out in Westport and they traveled there to help create such a wonderful event for us. The f...
ood was delicious we had multiple guest come up to us and compliment us on our food selection. One of our guest brought crab for guest to eat and they put it out for everyone to enjoy. They put finishing touches on our wedding cake and served it. On top of that they were very friendly and hospitable to is and our guests.
Gelsey and James of Lovely Night catered our recent mini-wedding and our guests (and us) can’t stop raving about the delicious four-course meal! They used fresh, seasonal ingredie...
nts and cooked everything to perfection! Our entire experience working with Lovely Night was positive, excellent communication, incredible flexibility (our venue changed 3 times!) and a very high attention to detail. We will definitely use Lovely Night catering for events in the future and recommend others do the same. Gelsey and James, thank you for making our day so truly lovely!
The caterer for our wedding cancelled two weeks before our wedding and we were in a pinch to find someone. Luckily, Lovely Night was available and they were able to work with us q...
uickly on a menu. We were very worried about the food since we are foodies ourselves and love to cook. We were wanting a creative, multicourse meal with wine pairings and excellent quality food. Because of the timing, we didn't have time to taste their food, we just had to commit and go for it. We are SO glad that we did. The creativity and flavors were phenomenal! I would definitely hire them again for any event and recommend to anyone looking for excellent, creative, fresh food served by good people who are willing to work with you and be flexible. I cannot thank them enough for being part of our special day.
Lovely Night and their AMAZING food and cocktails was the highlight of our wedding day! With COVID, we had to change the guest count and food multiple times. Gelsey and James were ...
always super responsive and flexible enough to come up with menus that would work for the changes. Gelsey really helped me understand and execute all of the details of an event. Our guests still cannot stop talking about all of the delicious food. We cannot wait to work with them again.
Absolutely loved working with Gelsey and this team!!!!! We were crazy enough to plan a wedding during this pandemic, but Gelsey was so gracious throughout the entire process. We ha...
d so many changes up until the day before the wedding but she was super accommodating and understanding. I had no idea what I needed for the event or where to start but she really put me at ease by answering all of my questions. Also, the food was incredible! I can hear our guests constantly saying how amazing the food was during dinner. Each dish was unique and SO delicious, I 100% recommend working with Gelsey and her husband James. Love the Lovely Night!!
James, Gelsey and their team are professionals, through and through. From our initial meeting to our wedding day, working with them was a breeze. The quality of their food, attenti...
on to detail and collected demeanor made our wedding day so special. People still tell us that is was the best food they ever had at a wedding and, I know it's biased, but I have to agree. :) Beyond professionalism and delicious food -- James and Gelsey are fun, kind and genuine. They truly wish to provide a stellar experience, whether it's for an intimate setting or a large gathering. The level of care is not something I've experienced with every vendor, and what they offer is truly something special.
My partner and I have had the pleasure of working with Lovely Night for our baby showers. Yes, we had two showers and back to back for a whirlwind weekend! Saturday we invited our ...
close friends and had more of a cocktail hour event with a massive food spread. Sunday was much more traditional with family and the most lovely brunch buffet! Both parties were absolutely amazing. The thoughtfulness with presentation for both events was out of this world! And people still talk about the FOOD a year and a half later! So of course we are calling on James and Gelsey again for our ellopment dinner! My partner's birthday is in October and we are surprising a few very close friends with a romantic dinner to celebrate our secret elopement! Even with a global pandemic and a toddler, Gelsey and James have made planning our event so seamless and fun! I can't wait!!!
Like many 2020 couples, we pivoted our wedding plans four different times before finding an option that worked with our adapted vision and our state's COVID-19 restrictions. We mad...
e the decision to scrap our big wedding in favor of an intimate backyard plated dinner for 17 folks, which ended up being the perfect decision in large part thanks to the quality of our experience with Lovely Night!
From my first inquiry (less than month before the event!) to the night of the event, the team at Lovely Night was just the best to work with. Gelsey was incredibly kind, prompt, and clearly on top of it. She quickly grasped my vision for the evening, made helpful suggestions for the menu and rentals, and oversaw that everything went perfectly. Safety and COVID precautions are important to us, and we felt so cared for by the Lovely Night team (masks, food preparation and server safety, everything felt totally up to protocol and appropriate).
We enjoyed a delicious Northwest inspired three course plated dinner (my husband and I couldn't decide between all three of the incredible main entree options, so we tried all of them!), and felt like we were dining at a farm-to-table restaurant. The chanterelle mushroom puffs were the crowd hit of the night, but everything was wonderful. We appreciated the attention to detail and that Lovely Night tries to work with local vendors as much as possible--it felt sustainable and fresh, which is important to us and made our foodie hearts happy. Our guests loved it and are still raving to us about how fun and special it felt to enjoy this time together. We were able to capture the intimacy and magic we were hoping for with our little backyard dinner reception, and I'm so grateful to the Lovely Night team for helping to make it happen!
The professionals at Lovely Night were great to communicate with, they responded to our requests quickly and took the time to make sure that our menu was exactly what we wanted. Yo...
u can tell when a business goes the extra mile in customer service, and this is one of them! I would strongly encourage anyone who is looking for a caterer to use Lovely Night.
This was the best wedding food we’ve ever had! Gelsey and James were great to work with. We consider ourselves foodies, and Lovely Night is definitely the catering for foodies. Giv...
en our guest count we decided that a buffet was the best option and we were initially skeptical that we’d find a catering company able to make buffet food up to our standards. But wow, they certainly did! Early on we mentioned that we wanted to highlight fall flavors given the timing of our wedding. They were full of great ideas on ways to incorporate fall foods like squash. We are also very into cocktails and they were great at designing our bar menu with 3 signature cocktails and a signature mocktail. Our guests were very impressed and many came back for second helpings. Communication was very clear and easy throughout the year even though we were planning from out-of-state. Gelsey and James kindly coordinated a tasting for us during a quick planning trip to Seattle and accommodated our short time window, making things very convenient for us. We highly recommend Lovely Night!
James and Gelsey (and the whole team the night of) were an absolute joy to work with for our May 2019 wedding. They killed it! Throughout the entire night, guests were telling my h...
usband and I that it was the best food at a wedding they'd ever had. High praise!
I'm a wedding coordinator, which means I've eaten a LOT of bad wedding food. How refreshing then to work with Lovely Night. Not only was their food the best I've ever had a wedding...
, but the team was super professional and on it before, during, and after the wedding. I highly recommend Lovely Night and hope to work with them again soon.
The food was amazing! We had passed appetizers and chose a family style meal for our guests. We also had some family members with dietary restrictions and they were very accommodat...
ing. We got lots of complements on the food from our guests.
Contact
Seattle, WA
Lovely Night