Ceremony sites, more wedding musings and ideas

Today we went around to a few garden/parks to scope out potential ceremony sites.

We looked at:

1. Centennial Lakes Ampitheater in Edina
    PROS:

• Cheap --only $250 rental fee
• Covered -- instant rain back up
• Close to reception venue (less than 5 minutes away)

     CONS:

• Surrounded buy lots of buildings
• Not that great of view from ampitheater --rest of park is much more scenic

2. Lyndale Park in S. Minneapolis

   PROS:

• 3 sites to choose from
• all 3 of which were BEAUTIFUL!
• Still close to reception venue

    CONS:

• a little confusing getting around the lake, could be really confusing for out of town guests
• have to pay for parking

3. Norenberg Gardens in Orono

   PROS:

• Beautiful gazebo site and many other sites overlooking the lake
• still fairly cheap for rental fee-- $600 for a saturday
• Free Parking
• This is the first site I picked out while starting the wedding planning

    CONS:

• Quite far from our reception site--approx 20-25 minutes
• Can be a bit confusing as you're dealing with lake roads

4. Millenium Gardens in Plymouth

    PROS:

• Very pretty setting -water, marshes, pergolas...
• Cheaper than Norenberg and Lyndale
• Moderately easy to find
• Building adjacent to get ready in

    CONS:

• About same distance as Norenberg from hotel
• Felt kind of small --just plopped in

Branden's ranking

 Tie: Lyndale and Norenberg

3rd Millenium

4th Centennial Lakes

My ranking:

1st Norenberg

2nd Lyndale

3rd Centennial Lakes

4th Millenium

I sent an email to both Minneapolis Parks and Three Rivers Park District regarding availability for Lyndale Park and Norenberg Gardens for our date and potential times. This is so exciting!!!  I ultimately could see getting married at any of these location. Hopefully one is open for our date!

Also today, I was perusing the knot's boards and saw an awesome suggestion for the champagne toast -- adding wild hibiscus flowers (packed in a sugar syrup) to the bottoms of the champagne flutes. It infuses the champagne with a floral sweetness and hint of rhubarb and looks pretty too! Because the flowers are red, it'll match my colors too! Its about $35.00 for a jar of 50 so it's not that expensive either. 

I'm definitely at the stage that I'm just ready to get things booked and moving along. It seems like there's going to be a lot to do and I'm sick of putting it on hold. Hopefully this job interview next friday goes well and I can get back on financial track.