Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

The Point Defiance Zoo is awesome but the caterer they use, Lancer Catering, is the worst! Even if its your dream wedding location, RUN from Lancer Catering. Our event went horribly and it was 100% Lancer Catering's fault. Our main contact whom we'd been planning with for months left our wedding without telling us and after he left our event fell apart. Food was taken before people were done eating. the catering staff was extremely rude to our guests, the catering staff was overheard saying inappropriate things about shutting the event down, the catering staff was seen drinking wine we provided in their back room while the event was still going on, the power to the DJ got shut off at 10pm and we paid for the space until midnight, the catering staff did nothing to help get the power back on until one of our guests offered them money, the catering staff cussed at and called security on our DJ while he was trying to get the power back on, security came storming in with a DOG, the catering staff closed the bar at 10pm and blamed it on everyone being "wasted" when it was only a handful of people that they could have cut off if they were truly behaving so badly. Since our contact who should have been handling these issues left the event, the groom spent his evening trying to handle all of these situations instead of being with me, his bride and all of his guests. Basically it seems like once you give Lancer Catering your money they stop caring. My husband and I have been trying for 3 months to rectify our issues and they are non responsive and unprofessional. We will go up to a month at a time (or more) with no response to multiple emails. We will have planned phone calls and they will not call. Their mission claims they "conduct their business with the highest level of integrity" and "strive for excellence in every area of our business" but I have yet to experience any of that from the staff on the day of the event to the management we have been dealing with since. I will definitely never use Lancer Catering or any facilities they cater again and recommend anyone reading this save themselves the disappointment and find a location that does not use Lancer Catering.

We had our wedding in the pagoda room. It was marvelous, the staff was amazing and helped set up and take down. We dealt with the same 2 ladies the whole time, so it was nice because they knew what was going on.

We loved having our wedding in the plaza at the zoo. We both worked there years ago so it meant something to us. Heidi was helpful and so was Kelsey. I did not like that we were forced to go with their choice of caterer though.

Beautiful location for a reception. We had the plaza and the South Aquarium with the small shark tank, which provided a lot of entertainment later on in the night when it got chilly outside. The peacocks also made an appearance during dinner. Biggest negative is having to wait until the zoo is closed, as we had a lot of down time between ceremony up in Seattle and the reception.