Welcome to the middle of your week and another Wedding Wednesday. Even if you’re not walking down any aisles any time soon, bear in mind that all sorts of things that happen at weddings can be applied to regular life. Chief among them: Dinner. Or whatever meal is served. I think that one of the best things any wedding can be is an all-out best-ever dinner party, brunch feast, or snack bar. It’s my understanding that this view is whole-heartedly embraced by the folks at Herban Feast.

Sometimes a best-ever dinner party calls for traditional preparations of free-range chicken, grass-fed beef, or Yukon River salmon. But sometimes parties and wedding receptions call for something unique and never-before-seen.

This past summer, that was the challenge given to Herban Feast owner BJ Duft and his team. A local couple and their wedding planner, Lisa Chambers, wanted the reception food and presentation to match the level of ingenuity and rich adventure that was every last detail of their celebration (out of respect for the couple’s privacy I’m not at liberty to discuss those details but let me tell you, they were far out and it’s safe to say that everyone who was there will remember it forever). Duft’s solution: Bento boxes.

It wasn’t that the affair had an overall Japanese angle, but that the guests at this wedding were being given such an exhaustive array of experiences that even Herban Feast’s farm-to-table ethos and crab-and-sweet-potato cakes, beloved the city over, wouldn’t quite cut it.

Duft commissioned a local woodworker (the same guy who did the wine cabinets at the recently opened Fresh Bistro, the every day counterpart to Duft’s events-only catering company) to craft 12-inch round bentos to be accessorized with bites like grilled salmon with lemon thyme butter, tempura just-picked cauliflower, shiso-pecan prawns, and ramekins of lobster macaroni with cheese (the groom was apparently a mac-and-cheese guy — who isn’t?, so Duft elevated it with rich, velvety seafood).

To add a sense of formality and drama, Duft brought in extra servers so that each table would receive synchronized service. All at once, each guest was presented with this all-in-one seven course meal.

Sure beats a buffet line, no?

Duft’s woodworker buddy made about 160 of those boxes, and you can believe they’re being re-purposed. Some are used at Fresh Bistro; a selection of the restaurant’s appetizers, well on their way to being beloved the city over just like those crab cakes, are served in them.

And some are waiting back at Herban Feast headquarters for your grand event.

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Thanks to Natalie Fobes for photography from the evening, and to Lisa Chambers for insight on the event.

Planning a wedding? Visit Seattle Met Bride & Groom.

Planning to spend more time on this blog? Review our past Wedding Wednesday posts here, here, and here, wherein we discuss Get Hitched Give Hope, which happens tomorrow so buy your tickets now.