Dan and I are Walker Art Center members, so we get 10% off at 2021, which is rather nice considering how expensive it is. Seeing as my parents are Top Chef fans, and how popular the show Hell’s Kitchen was all summer, we had the idea of bringing our out-of-town friends and family to 2021 for dinner on the Thursday night. The restaurant has a chic atmosphere, but the staff is really nice and friendly, and even though the menu can look scary, it’s really tasty, good food. I think that it’s a little overpriced, or rather, that we’re paying money to eat at a famous Chef’s restaurant. You go for the experience, not necessarily for the food! It’s fun to do, but I wouldn’t make it a must for all the guests coming in to Minneapolis. We did it for fun!

This was absolutely a beautiful place, so classic and elegant, and it think it was the most perfect place to dine with our guests after the ceremony! Dan and I had looked around at several places, and he was rather picky. He didn’t want the reception to be at a hotel, but at the same time we needed a place that could hold over 100 people. I think we chose the Blaisdell Manor because it feels like a very elegant house, very authentic. They were had a room the size we needed, and they had an excellent menu. The staff is amazing to work with, they took care of all the details from start to finish. We had amazing photos, and really, this was a perfect night!

Dan is originally from St-Cloud, MN, so on one of our trips north to visit his parents we also went and bought him a suit. This way, his mother and father could be there to help pick out the suit and talk with us about our wedding plans. I think they were feeling left out because my family was having a bigger role in the planning because they all live in and around the Twin Cities. I actually was really surprised but the big selection they had in the store, and the number of different suit styles there were to choose from. Dan had also never had a suit fitted for him before, and afterwards said that he could definitely feel and see the difference between a suit that is made between one he has bought off the rack. Having Dan’s father there was also really helpful, because he was able to help pick out a suit that wasn’t so flashy that Dan wouldn’t be able to wear it again. We went to the one in St-Cloud, but I was told that they had another store in Rochester, which would have been much closer, but good to know!

For Dan’s family, who were traveling down from St-Cloud, along with many of Dan’s friends from high school, we booked a section of rooms at the Radisson Plaza downtown. We chose that place because it would be fun for most people who are out of town to see the downtown area. The hotel is connected to the Minneapolis's skyway system, which I thought would also be fun to check out and walk above the city. It was really easy to book the rooms, though I did this in person rather than over the phone because I work right by it. We got a good deal, and all the rooms were booked up! People made the most of the wedding weekend and turned it into a small vacation! Everyone loved their rooms, they had great service, and parking was no problem.

Somehow I got it into my head that I wanted gelato for dessert at my wedding, thinking that it was a summer wedding, that it would be hot, and that people would want something really refreshing. I also think gelatos and sorbet is so classy and much more tasty and refreshing than just ice cream. It was hard finding a bulk supplier of gelato, so I opted for the web and found Palazzolo's at 4gelato.com. The sales person, David, was very helpful, and he let me know how much could be ordered, and the cost of shipping with ice. He also sent me their ‘menu’, which was the most delicious thing I ever read. They had hundreds of flavors to choose from, and we went with a lemon-lime sorbetto and a berry gelato, and they were delicious. You only need to order a week in advance, but we placed our order about a month in advance with the date we needed the gelato on. We also placed on of the bridesmaids in charge of how it would be served, just so that the caterers wouldn’t forget and so that they wouldn’t leave it out in the sun or anything. It cost about $150 to feed that many guests, with some leftovers.

I knew we were taking a bit of a risk having the wedding ceremony in the park, but this was what Dan and I wanted. We really like nature, and I think the park has a really great atmosphere. The background noise was children laughing, what could be better? The cost of renting the bandstand, which would have provided cover if it did rain, was $800. We needed to pay in full at the time so we needed to be sure this was where we wanted it to be. We also took the cue from a past wedding we went to and paid extra to have a sound system put in so that everyone could hear us. I had been to weddings outside and couldn’t hear the vows, and if everyone was coming to my wedding, I wanted them to hear my vow! Finally, my last suggestion is to not worry so much about flowers and decorations. The park and the bandstand is beautiful enough, and that beauty speaks for itself in a simple and elegant manner.

I had hoped that we all would have been able to get dresses from the same place, but once I went ahead and ordered a very non-conventional dress, we all knew that it would be hard to match the bridesmaids dresses. My best friend suggested Flutter, because it was right by her work and she had already been in there a few times by herself to get catalogues and an idea of what they sell. The girls chose these long beautiful and really sexy bridesmaids gown from the brand Thread. They looked just like dresses from the seventies, real low cut in the front and long. A deciding factor was that the material, light blue, was the color that we wanted for our wedding theme. From there it was easy to pick out the flower girl dresses, which they sold there. We made a second and a third appointment with fittings, and my nieces were able to pick cute dresses that weren’t expensive.

Bridal Shower: This place is great, it’s one of the many small restaurants that shows that the Twin Cities is cool and trendy. My friends and I are big fans of wine, and we always have wine at our parties. It was great at Beaujos because we were able to have a private party with a wine tasting. I liked it, because even though I was the bride I didn’t want all the attention on me. So we did presents and speeches, and then we tasted wine and ate really delicious food and enjoyed each other’s company. The place has a great atmosphere and is really classy, and is worth checking out even if you’re not a bride! Go if you love wine!

Five stars for entertainment! I couldn’t believe all that was going on in the convention center! My best friends thought it would be fun to take me there, and I went along even though at this time the reception venue and ceremony site had already been chosen, as had most of the vendors. I think we went mostly for one of my friends, who did get engaged that following Valentine’s Day. Every kind of vendor you can think of is there, including stationary and favors and lots of local businesses that I did even know existed. There were also lots of wedding planners, and lots of free samples, too! It’s not only brides-to-be that go, either, I saw lots of husbands to be! Which is good, and even though Dan didn’t go he looked through all the business cards and flyers with me afterwards. This is a great place to get ideas, but it’s also good if you know what your budget is before you go in!

I wanted something special, and I knew of this store because I had once been in the Village Shoppes and had popped in to see what dresses they had. I knew this was where I was going to buy my dress. It is about a 30 minute drive from downtown St-Paul, but really easy to get to. You need to make an appointment, which is what I found out the day I just popped in. They are very busy. I tried on several styles from various designers, and because I was comfortable getting a beautiful dress instead of just a wedding dress, they suggested the designer Nicole Miller. Her dresses fit me perfectly! So we went ahead and ordered one of her dresses, which arrived about a week later. It was great because there were no alterations needed, and it is probably the best looking dress I have ever owned. Everyone at the store made it really easy to go shopping there, the whole experience was really great.