Pravda Events

Although this review is a few months past its due date, I wanted to make sure I got to it before 2012 was over! Please see the needs of my event below, and how those needs were met.
FYI: this was a corporate event for a City Tour (we did several events throughout the US over 2012). All events had the same format: 4:00 — 8:00pm with speakers/​presentations, networking, and cocktails.
VENUE for 100+ people: Check. Could have easily fit 200.
Elegant and chic FLOOR SPACE: Check. It was a NYC-​style loft with hard-​wood floors, bright white walls, and fantastic lounge furniture. (Note, furniture was selected and rented from the Venue).
Delicious FOOD: Check. The caterer we worked with (through the Venue) was patient enough to work through many revisions of the menu and delivered some fantastic canapés.
Customized COCKTAILS: Check. I had a list of cocktails I wanted served, and the caterer delivered on that too!
Top-​notch A/​V: My needs were pretty specific. Mics on my speakers, tv screens to display live feed, and ability for my video crew to record. All worked out great! Green room for my speakers was a plus, so they felt extra special having a room where they could relax and get ready before taking stage. Oh, and I love that I could display by Gobo!
Flexible, helpful, and kind STAFF: Check. I worked with Rebecca leading up to the event and at the event. She was absolutely lovely and so attentive to our needs. Roland, the AV head and photographer for the night, was very kind as well. We could have seen an improvement with the stage hand they had provided (she wasn’t very helpful or professional), but my team took over so no harm done.
Pre-​event ACCESS: Check. I picked this venue after finding it online, speaking with Rebecca, and viewing some past-​event pics and portfolio. The fact I hadn’t seen it in person prior to the event made me nervous. I was so thankful to have access early that AM so I could ensure the space was what I had envisioned, make changes if needed to, and ensure we were on schedule. (After doing a City Tour over 5 cities, I realize not everyone does this).
Areas for improvement (and certainly easy fixes for the customer planning the event):
~Parking isn’t ample, so be sure to warn your guests.
~There’s little to no signage, so bring an extra poster board /​easel to put curbside.
~Create your own music playlist, to ensure the energy is what you want it to be.
~If using their photographer, be specific with what images you want captured. (i.e, keynote speakers, swag bags, food/​cocktails, elements, etc.)
~Have some of your own people on hand! Let your own team welcome guests as they arrive (and potentially have a bouncer or someone else on the curbside to direct people upstairs).
Best wishes for a successful and fun event! With the venue space and Rebecca/​team by your side, you’re already off to a great start!

I recently attended an event at Pravda. I won’t talk much about parking because we all know it’s terrible.
If you haven’t been there before, you may be surprised by the nondescript building. You may even miss it because there’s no signage to alert you. Upon entering, you are faced with a long straight hallway that leads to an elevator or a staircase on the left that goes up approximately two flights.
At the top of the stairway on the left is a cool area that can be used for check-​in. The «check-​in» area, for lack of a better term, has beautiful monitors that can be looped to show photos. The nice thing about the event I attended was that they loaded pictures taken that night so we could see them on the way out. The rest of the hallway is flexible enough to do any number of things, depending on your needs.
The actual space of the main room is very nice. It’s basically a loft — high ceilings, glass windows, hardwood floors, etc. The hardwood floors made for an amazing dance floor.
As someone who was attending the event, not planning it, I didn’t get to see the kitchen area but saw it was on the east side of the building. Judging from the food and beverage coming out of the kitchen, I will assume it was well-​equipped.
There were two single stall bathrooms; one located on each side of the main room. That is not enough bathrooms for the amount of guests. It was frustrating to constantly see (and have to stand in) a line of 5 – 10 people deep just to use the bathroom. I heard rumors of possibly another bathroom but did not find it (I was afraid to lose my place in line).
I had a great time but parking was definitely a concern and the bathroom situation was confusing. Although I enjoyed myself, I’m not sure I would pay the amount of money some of the other reviewers are quoting to host an event there.

Amazing space, extremely helpful staff and beautiful venue!
We had an event here for 230 ppl and it was absolutely gorgeous. I highly recommend this venue for any events in the Seattle area. Easy access to parking, loft style, huge windows and a lot of space to work with. Roland, the creative director was amazing and really knew what he was doing. Our event ran flawlessly thanks to the Pravda staff… 5 stars!

Planning a wedding is stressful– sure– but I have to say that my wedding was one of the most pleasant (dare I say fun?) experiences I have ever had. Pravda is a huge reason for that.
We fell in love with the space because it’s so not cookie cutter. We were looking for something with personality– something that felt «Seattle» for our out of town guests. With a wide open floor plan, tall ceilings, giant windows along 2 walls, beautiful old, rustic floor– what you can do with the space is full of possibilities. Plus one wall of windows has western exposure so depending on your ceremony start time, you’ll have the skyline and a beautiful sunset as your backdrop.
We were assigned to Andy, one of the event coordinators who has all the creative vision, fantastic ideas and professionalism of Martha Stewart, only without the condensation and uptightness. Andy was a dream to work with. My emails never went more than 24 hours without a response and she even gave us her cell phone number if we had trouble reaching her (we didn’t.) She walked us through every step of the wedding. I admit– I was clueless. I had no idea when the best man should do his toast or what the best music to play during dinner would be. Andy helped us with all of the details– not just the ones specific to the venue. She’s extremely talented and clearly loves planning parties.
The rental fee includes tables and chairs (basic chairs– if you want the fancy ones you pay extra) plus soft seating (loungey furniture and ottomans). You also get lighting and the coordinator’s time. Compared to the other venues around Seattle I thought it was a good deal– especially because the space is so unique and we had access to a coordinator to help with all those «day off» details. That alone is worth the rental fee. Andy worked with all of the vendors to coordinate deliveries, rentals, etc. Believe me, these are not details you’ll want to deal with.
The day of the wedding, I held it together the whole day. I didn’t cry when I saw my now husband for the first time, when I put on my dress, when my mom gave me a beautiful necklace to wear. But when I walked into Pravda before the guests arrived and saw what they did to that place– how our vision for the past 9 months had come to life– I lost it. bawled my expensively placed make up right off. It was absolutely stunning. And every detail, right down to the votive candles in the window sills were right where they should have been. I honestly feel like everyone there worked harder on our wedding than they did for their own weddings.
Our guests were blown away. My family is from the east coast so they’re used to weddings that take place in banquet halls and country clubs. I loved the idea of our wedding taking place right in the heart of Capitol Hill. It’s a little rough around the outside (but if you have a good photographer– and we did thankfully– you’ll get some amazing wedding photos out it) but that just makes the inside stand out even more. Every single person commented on how beautiful the space was and how wonderful and professional the Pravda staff was.
One thing the guests absolutely loved was seeing our personal photos displayed on 8 computer monitors in the «lobby» area. There was always a crowd gathered around there watching them. There is also a wonderful freight elevator that you can set up as a lounge (as we did.) Some people use it as a second bar or photo booth. There’s tons of little nooks and crannies that you can creative special spaces in.
All of our vendors also loved working with Pravda which is hugely importantly. Several had already worked with them and the rest can’t wait to again.
One small drawback, it gets warm in there. Normally this isn’t a problem in Seattle but our wedding happened to be on the hottest day of the year (in the 90’s) and even with AC, it was still pretty toasty. They do have 2 industrial sized fans that help quite a bit though. The heat didn’t stop anyone from enjoying themselves. Just something to consider if you’re planning a wedding in the summer. Definitely get the curtains to block out a bit of the sun. That helped a lot.
I can not recommend Pravda enough. I feel lucky to have had our wedding here. It would not have been the same wonderful experience had it been anywhere else. If you’re looking for a turnkey, modern, totally unique wedding, then you should definitely consider Pravda.

Months after I wrote this review, I have received an email from Rebecca at 9:30 on a Saturday night basically disputing my Unilocal review– telling me the review is «unfortunate, especially given the fact that we had several conversations around a solution.» To be clear, the conversation we had «around a solution» is the heated argument we got in on the phone where I was told I should have confirmed the emails I sent were actually received (because my account was passed around to so many different people, apparently I should have checked that the most recent person to email me was actually still working for them).
I’ll stick to my guns that when Vanessa was working with my account Pravda was a dream come true, and once she left, it all fell apart.
The venue is gorgeous and a great space, which is why I fell in love with it to begin with. However, if I knew the headaches that would be caused by choosing this place for my wedding, I wouldn’t have gone with it.
I think the lack of professionalism continues – sending emails like this months after the fact, let alone this late on a weekend? Completely inappropriate.

Just wanted to pop in and say how thankful I am that new brides are giving their feedback about this place. My experience was SO horrible and I was surprised to see that there weren’t many 1 stars at the time I wrote this. I think it’s important to let other future brides know of our experiences so they won’t have to go through the nightmares we did. It’s such a shame because this place is so darn beautiful. Too bad the management is so crummy.

It takes a lot of nerve to put «Pravda means no bullshit» on your website — I believe I received tons of it. Every other wedding vendor I worked with made my life easier and were incredibly helpful — I absolutely cannot say the same for Pravda. I had to spend a lot of time managing Pravda and an even worse time post-​wedding trying to work with the manager to get a partial refund for services that were straight up missing on my wedding day.
As many of the other brides who have reviewed for 2010 weddings have already detailed, I worked with about six different account managers throughout the process, my files were lost no fewer than three times, and I was promised many things by many different people. Basically, go read their reviews, I dealt with the same.
On the day of the wedding I was worried about how things were going to go at the reception space, so I had a good friend go to supervise and aid the set-​up process. First off, I got the phone call in the middle of my wedding photos that Pravda told her that I didn’t order tables, yes that’s tables that people sit at for dinner, you know, the most essential thing? 45 minutes of set up time were lost over missing tables that were apparently in the freight elevator at Pravda the entire time. My friend missed my wedding ceremony because she chose to stay at Pravda to make up for lost time and finish setting up — my hero. Pravda management blamed our caterer for this one even though we were renting the tables directly from Pravda.
Both my day-​of coordinator and my friend told me that there were plenty of people working for Pravda who were just hanging out in the lobby with clipboards doing nothing. Post-​wedding, Pravda management told me «you’re not hiring us to be your wedding planners, we don’t help set up,» sorry, but maybe you should have told that to my account managers who assured me help would be provided in set up (I have it in writing).
Other fun items — our dessert table was in complete darkness — Pravda told us that they «thought it was supposed to be in another corner,» but I can provide the floor plan to prove this wrong. The tech that was supposed to be on-​site to work the lighting had gone out to dinner during the critical moments of the reception (cake cutting, first dance, etc.), so lighting and sound were a no-​show as well. Luckily we have friends who navigated the sound system and fixed that for us.
Pravda had the gall to charge $ 800 in the first place for votives. Well, when we arrived none of the tables had votives, and of the ones placed in the windows about ¹⁄₃ were burnt out before dinner and were never re-​lit.
When I wrote the manager a formal email after the wedding to detail things I felt went wrong on our wedding day, the manager’s response was to call me on the phone, insult me by calling me cheap — to quote «We’ve raised our prices significantly since you booked with us, so you got what you paid for,» put me on speaker phone with his staff, told me no bride had ever been so cruel to him before even though all I was discussing was Pravda’s performance on my wedding day. He even went as far as to say I HURT HIS FEELINGS. I kept bringing things away from personal attacks back to talking about the problems with the wedding day. So unprofessional. I kept my cool, did not raise my voice, told him I’d prefer to work things out in writing from then on. After a lot of back and forth about whether or not I’d be receiving what he kept calling a «silence settlement» we finally agreed upon a partial refund for the tech and a refund for the votives. Two months later, after many follow up emails, I received the check. Two months later, apparently the manager was sorry because he kept asking if we would meet with him, I’m sorry, but way too little too late. Brides beware.

Recently attended a corporate «wine and say cheese» holiday party at Pravda Studios. The space was really open, which lent itself to mingling and schmoozing. The make-​up and photos were fun, but I think more of a girly thing. I would go back if I was invited to another event there, but based on the other comments, would think twice before planning my own event there.

I am going to modify my review based on the owner getting in touch with me and working very hard to make our wedding work here. He was very professional and excellent to deal with and the space is just beautiful. I would recommend if you can work with the right person to use this space for everything. It is very beautiful.
Enjoy!

This place is a great venue for BIG parties! It’s a huge open space which is great if you have a lot of people. The party we attended was packed, and in any other space we would have been bumping into each other constantly and getting annoyed, but not here. However if your party was small, I think the venue would make it seem even smaller since the place is so big.
Nice décor in the hallways, beautiful wooden floors, nice couches.
There were only two bathrooms as far as I could tell, and i feel like there should have been a few more with the amount of people you can pack in there.
Parking is horrible, because it’s on Capital Hill, but other than that, it’s an idea location.

When planning events you’re sometimes left to your own devices. It can be incredibly stressful and time consuming! I checked out Pravda via Unilocal and contacted them about having a party for 250 – 300 people.
Not only were the employees here incredibly polite, they were insanely helpful! Vanessa was quick to answer calls, make suggestions, come up with ideas for the event to make it more spectacular, and best of all — she knows the event space like the back of her hand. In my experience planning events and throwing parties, the event at Pravda was the best ever. Everyone was easy to work with, it was well orchestrated and most importantly, the guests had a lovely time!

I had my wedding at Pravda in November of 2009. I won’t lie I had a few hiccups, but what event doesn’t? Over all my experience was really good.
The whole idea behind the space is that you make it what you want it to be… it’s a blank slate for you to paint your canvas on. So if you want to have a wedding that is all bundled together then this is not the space for you.
Pravda rents out the space to you… and if that’s all you rent from them then that is all you’re going get. It’s like going to Blue C Sushi each thing you pick will be added on to your tab.
I rented the whole space $$$
I rented table & chairs $
I rented 2 Rolling Bars $
I rented dividing drapes $$
I rented 300 votive candles $
I rented posh lounge seating $$
I rented an extra hour of event time $
I rented cleaning service $
After you choose your rentals they will then provide you with a written quote and a floor plan. You will have up till 30 day’s before your events date to make any changes and have full payment ready.
You should be willing to spend around $ 7k just on the space and furniture rentals.
Pravda is a blank slate but Pravda is not your coordinator so you have to do the decorating work yourself or higher someone to do it for you. If you end up renting the whole space like I did, I strongly suggest having over 150 guest or rent a lot of space filler since it is 5,000′ of walls and floor. I thought by dividing the room with curtains and adding furniture it would make up for my mere 90 guest at my wedding… not as much as I’d hoped.
I found working with Pravda’s preferred vendors saved me a lot of time and energy. I used one of there recommended catering services «Gourmondo Catering Co.» and all I had to do was pick my linen’s, glassware & flatware and show them how I wanted one table set up with my centerpiece. The food was amazing and I did not have to lift a finger on my wedding day, it was so wonderful!
The first thing you should do before renting this space is read the contract that Pravda provides … it was like 5 packets but it saved me a lot of time, money and frustration in the end. I found that there were no hidden fees if you actually read all the paperwork they give you. If you are hiring a wedding coordinator there responsibility is to read the fine print in the contract before you ever even book the space. Pravda requires each part of the event to be insured so I had my own booze then I hired a bartender from my caterer (who’s insured) since he was insured through the caterer this covered me. I never had to pay any $ 3000.00 for any insurance fee. Colleens wedding coordinator or coordinators really should have told her about this since most venues require your bartenders to be personally insured if you are bringing in your own booze and bartenders.
I really felt both Pravda and Gourmondo catering really held up there end of the deal when the wedding came together. I would have to say this was my dream wedding minus a few extra bodies to fill the room LOL.

Came here for a Christmas party so my recollections are rather clouded by alcohol. You know what? I don’t remember much of the details so it must’ve been a great party. What I do remember what that Pravda Studios was a nice open space and for our party. The space is what you want to make of it. Windows surround the space and the only thing inside are the handful of columns that keep the ceiling up. It’s pretty much a blank canvas for which to host your event. Since I was only a guest I can’t comment on the staff there. But as a place to get drunk at a private function, it’s a fun place to be.

I am giving Pravda 2 stars FOR THE SPACE ONLY. Our wedding went well, and everything was wonderful — thanks to my planner and close friends of my husband who were able to run errands and help get things together. Pravda is an absolute nightmare to work with, and I don’t recommend this venue to a bride… but to corporate party planners who have more to spend. We booked our space over a year before our wedding, and it was pleasant until, I don’t know, 72 hours before the wedding. At this point, I got a call from the event ‘coordinator’ saying that unless we paid a $ 3000 fee (keep in mind the space rental is already over 3k) we wouldn’t be able to have any alcohol whatsoever at our wedding… I thought we were covered. I bought event insurance along with the blanket policy which would include both beer/​wine & hard alcohol. I bought a permit through the state. We bought all our own booze and hired a licensed bartender to serve it. STILL NOT ENOUGH!!! I was in panic mode until I went to my cakemaker to drop off some ribbon, and he told me that what we had WAS in fact enough, and that as much as he wants to be a preferred vendor at several venues in the area, that he still avoids Pravda like the plague. So I called the state, and they told me we had what was needed and that the fee mentioned ‘seemed very high.’ Reporting back to Pravda though was the real headache. After confronting them about the fee, they offered to lower it by $ 1000, and when I said no, I wanted it eliminated, they offered to drop it again, to $ 800. I proceeded to say no no no, and eventually they agreed to take the charge away if we agreed to rent our glassware from them. I obliged as I was at the end of my rope. So tears, anxiety, and a bit of yelling saved us $ 3000 that never should have even come up.
The biggest pisser of this was that none of it was mentioned until a few days before my event. Who does that? Not to mention, the turnover here is high, and I worked with a total of 3 coordinators in the year leading up to my big day. I don’t reccommend this venue to anyone even remotely on a budget.
Last thing. I had to go pick up my $ 1000.00 deposit 6 weeks after my wedding, mind you — 1 month is what’s legally acceptable, and what Pravda promised. Many phone calls to them, threats of legal action, and pleading with them to get the deposit to me in time for Christmas (didn’t happen) did nothing. I had to call every few minutes, and practically trick their coordinator into taking my call.
Our wedding was beautiful, and the space is amazing. The unfortunate thing is, if you want to get married in a Manhattan style loft, this is your only option in Seattle, and that’s a bummer. You shouldn’t have to dodge financial bullets when you’re already paying over $ 3000.00 for the bare bones, not including the $ 1000.00 which you’ll have to fight to get back.
I’m hoping to never get married again (!) but should we decide to plan a big event in the future, I would never go back to Pravda. No bride should have to jump through any more hoops than are already a part of wedding planning.
Good luck!

Just got back from a christmas party at Pravda. I was super excited to get to see inside this place– I’ve been e-​stalking them on-​line in search of good venues and was thrilled to find that the studios are just as beautiful as the pictures online.
It’s a big open studio lined with wall to wall windows, wood floors and lots of character. Can’t beat the location either. The party was packed but not too noisy– that’s a huge plus.
The Pravda representative I spoke with was super friendly and hopefully we’ll get to work with each other soon.

It’s a huge open loft space for whatever tickles your fancy. It’s an old building with old charm. I don’t know how much it costs, so I can’t comment on the value. Parking can be problem.

Pravda. We ended up spending close to $ 2000 — two thousand — dollars MORE than what was originally proposed to us. There were a bunch of hidden charges in each and every corner. For example, the rental rate wasn’t the $ 2100 listed on their website, but $ 3000. And that included NOTHING but the room. No cleanup. No setup assistance. No tear down help. I met with three different event planners in the time between booking the space and the event — and then a fourth (who I had never even seen, but did come up to me at the end of the night to say that my GUESTS had to tear down the TABLES AND CHAIRS — Pravda would help but we would be charged $ 200) was the point of contact for the evening.
It’s a pretty place or sure, but be prepared to OPEN your wallet for it. And bring along a big jar of patience.

BOOOOOOO!!! and I NEVER give anyone a «boooooo». That’s how traumatizing it was to work with Pravda. The event went well, but by no means did they make things easy. Maybe it was the people we were working with. Pravda is a great venue but the people that were hired to work with us were HORRIBLE! Incompetent, annoying, and unhelpful. They were the epitome of passive aggressive and so frustrating to work with. I mean, they were nice and all, but all they did was stand around and watch me and my friends set everything up. ummm HELLO!!! …aren’t we PAYING you to do more than stand around? AND they kept charging us for EVERYTHING! Brides beware of all the charges and stupid staff.

Attended a wedding reception here this past weekend and it was wonderful. It’s a pretty large loft like space on the second floor of an industrial type building. I know it’s one of those spaces that it’s all what you do with it but the wedding I attended was just stunning! I would rank it five stars except they don’t have adequate air conditioning for a large number of guests. We were sweating like pigs in that joint!
P. S. They do have an elevator so if you have guests that can’t manage the stairs — it’s not a problem.

The place I work at held the 80’s themed holiday party here in Dec 2006. The space is pretty huge — comfortably held 200+ guests. Really high ceilings and white beams. You do need to bring your own everything from DJ, to furniture, to decorations, to linen, to food, to alcohol (of course). It was an intimate setting and the staff helped us out with finding outlets and providing extra power strips with extension chords. I wouldn’t mind having another party there again.