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Venue
Reviews -
Historic Sites for Wedding Ceremonies in Minnesota
The following historic Minnesota wedding reception and
ceremony sites are my favorites, and reviews for these locations are
below:

- James J.
Hill
Library
- Nicollet Island Pavilion
- Landmark
Center
- Great
Hall
- Como
Conservatory
- Black
Bear Crossings
- Minnesota Boat Club
40 Power Street, Minneapolis, MN 55401 - (612) 253.0255.

It's hard to get a sense of how unique the Nicollet Island Pavlion
is...imagine the Stone Arch Bridge off to the top right,
downtown Minneapolis off to your right (across the
Mississippi), and Saint Anthony Main off to your left. All this nature,
right in the heart of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. |

At the Nicollet Island
Pavilion
in downtown Minneapolis, wedding cermeonies are held either out on the
lawn or in this tent, with its view of the Mississippi
River.
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Daytime and night-time views of the Nicollet Island Pavilion.
Wedding ceremonies are sometimes held in this grassy field or else in
the white tent, just to the right of the building.
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Inside the 1866 Nicollet
Island Pavilion are incredibly high ceilings and
old-school brickwork. |

Another interior shot of the Nicollet
Island Pavilion, this one with different chairs, and with
white tulle and lights hung from the ceiling. |
The Nicollet
Island Pavilion is unique in that it is located right in the
middle of downtown Minneapolis, MN, yet this gorgeous wedding location
is surrounded by trees, water, and you have lots of privacy. Located on
an island right across from Saint
Anthony Main (aka Riverplace, or the Riverfront
district), you can have your wedding ceremony with a background of the
Minneapolis skyline, yet have herons flying past, as well. Wedding
ceremonies are either held on the lawn or in a tent which the Pavilion
supplies, and then the cocktail hour and reception is indoors, in the
high-ceilinged brick pavilion. There is free parking provided, which is
a huge perk downtown. Horse-drawn
carriages, Segway
tours, and walks across are the Stone
Arch Bridge and the Saint
Anthony Falls are all available to guests, or make wonderful
wedding photo opportunities. Here's a 360-degree
view of the south end of the island, just to give you an idea
of the beauty of the area.
Closest hotel: Right across the street is the romantic Nicollet Island Inn.
Great spot for a rehearsal dinner: The easiest is the Nicollet
Island Inn, which has great food and is very classy. Pracna on
Main, the oldest restaurant in Minneapolis, is about
two blocks away.
The rental fee for a wedding ceremony and reception on a summer
Saturday at the Nicollet
Island Pavilion is $2760. The capacity is 150-600 guests.
Contact Nicole Aronson at
612-253-0255.
80 4th St W, St Paul, MN 55102 - (651) 265-5447.

The
archway at the top of the steps is the entrance to the reference
section at the James J. Hill Library
in St. Paul, MN, where wedding ceremonies and receptions are held. The
entrance to the public library is further down. This building is in
the Beaux Arts style. |

Guests at the James J. Hill Library
are usually seated in rows for wedding ceremonies and then, afterward,
round
tables and a rectangular head table are set up for the wedding
reception. |

You can
see here how high the James J. Hill Library's
ceiling is. From this vantage point, the main windows are behind
you.
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The James
J. Hill Library faces Rice Park (site of the St. Paul
Winter
Carnival ice sculptures), which is lush and green in the summer. |
The
James J. Hill Library,
in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, is a breathtaking spot for
weddings. The libary has a huge hall, several stories high, with a
marble
floor - the
pictures simply can't do it justice. The James J. Hill Library
is a unique
wedding location, with hundreds of thousands of beautiful old books
serving as a backdrop. This is a reading library, not a lending
library, which means
visitors can only read their books right there in the library, not take
them home.
You can have both the wedding ceremony and the reception here
and
use
any licensed caterer you wish.
After the wedding, the main floor is set up
for the reception. The James
J. Hill Library is located on Rice
Park in downtown St. Paul, MN, within a block of the Minnesota Science
Museum, the Xcel Energy Center, the Ordway, the St. Paul Hotel, and the
Landmark Center. Take a 360-degree
virtual tour of
the library (requires newest Quicktime player).
Great site for a rehearsal dinner:
Across the street is the Saint Paul Hotel with its famous Saint Paul Grill.
Or Pazzaluna
is just one block further.
Closest
hotel: The 5-star Helmsley Saint Paul Hotel is across the
street.
The
James J. Hill Library always has ceremonies with
receptions, so they
really don't have a ceremony charge. Their fee is $3,700, which
includes
the ceremony rental fee ($300) and the reception fee of $3,400. The
site is worth every penny. Capacity: up to 175 guests. Call
651-265-5447 and talk to Beth O'Connor. Beth is
friendly and easy to work with - and she really knows the library.
75 5th St W, St Paul, MN 55102 - (651) 292-3228.
One of my favorite Minnesota wedding locations is the Landmark
Center in downdown St. Paul, located at 75 West 5th Street,
because it offers so many options. You can rent a beautiful small
courtroom for intimate weddings or the main lobby for large weddings.
The lobby can be used for receptions, as well. The
Landmark
Center is right in the center of downtown St. Paul, MN.
Across the
street is Rice Park, where ice sculptures for the St. Paul Winter
Carnival are built, and on the other three sides of the park are the
St. Paul Hotel, the James J. Hill Library, and the Ordway Center, all
of which
you can see in a 360-degree view in the winter. The
Minnesota Science Museum is about a block away and is a fun place for
guests to visit if they have downtime during the wedding weekend. The Landmark Center has
several
courtrooms in different sizes to choose from, in a variety of styles
(all are beautiful). You'll have to tour the space to see which one you
like best - it's difficult to get much of a feel for the difference
between the courtrooms just from pictures. The Landmark Center has
a
piano available for your use,
as well.
A great site for a rehearsal
dinner: Buca di Beppo
is
a fun family Italian restaurant with wonderful food and is 2 miles
away.
Closest hotel: The 5-star Helmsley Saint Paul Hotel is across the
street.
The Landmark Center
usually charges about $2,750 for the main hall
(called the Musser Cortile Atrium) or $400-$1,000 for the smaller
courtrooms. Located in downtown St. Paul, MN, across the street from
Rice
Park. Capacity: 50 to 1,000 guests. Call 651-292-3228, then press the
number 4, and you'll reach
Betsy in Events.
180 East Fifth Street, St Paul, MN 55101 - (651) 291-3579.

The
Great Hall in St. Paul, MN takes up the first four
floors of
this building. |

This
grand escalator of the Great Hall is
often used for photos. |

A wedding ceremony at the Great Hall
is usually on this big main floor, then the cocktail hour is on the
second floor. During the cocktail hour the caterers set up this first
floor for the wedding reception. |
Great
Hall in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, is
located at 180 East 5th Street. The
Great
Hall is a wonderful location for weddings and is
one of my
favorites. The name can be a bit confusing when you're looking for
information online, because many Minnesota wedding reception sites
use the term "Great Hall" to refer to one of their
rooms. The Great
Hall of St. Paul, MN, is a huge, beautiful old reception
hall, several
stories tall, with lots of marble, brass, and antique chandeliers. The
Great Hall
has an amazing escalator from the first to the second floor,
which is often used for spectacular wedding photos of the bridal party.
Great place for a rehearsal
dinner: The Great Hall
is within walking distance of Christo's,
an upscale Greek restaurant that will rent their mezzanine for a
rehearsal dinner.
Closest hotels: The 3-star Ramada City Center Hotel is about 3
blocks away, and the 5-star Helmsley Saint Paul Hotel is about 6 blocks
away.
The rental fee for this site is
about $3,000 for weddings. The Great
Hall
can accommodate several hundred guests. Call 651-291-3579 for more
information.
1225 Estabrook Drive, St Paul, MN 55103 - (651) 487-8250.

The Como
Conservatory at the Como Zoo is literally the
most popular site for small weddings in Minnesota.
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Another shot of the Como
Conservatory in Saint Paul. In winter, it's a delight to
have a wedding in such lush, green surroundings.
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In
the center of the Como Conservatory is a beautiful little atrium. While
too small for a wedding ceremony, it's great for pictures. |

The
Sunken Garden is the most popular choice of wedding ceremony locations
at the Como Conservatory in
St. Paul, MN. The bride and groom stand on the far steps, with the
guests on the left-hand aisle, so the processional and
recessional can go
down the right-hand aisle. |

This
new building just to the left of the Como Conservatory
now hosts large wedding receptions. Here's a separate article about it from my blog.
|

The
outdoor Como Japanese Garden is also available to rent for weddings
with 4-20 guests.
See
my review on the Gardens
page.
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More brides and grooms choose the Como
Conservatory
(a.k.a. the Marjorie McNally Conservatory) for their wedding ceremony
than any other wedding location in Minnesota, and it's perfect for
small weddings. The wedding guests remain standing in one aisle
(usually the left aisle), while the bride walks down the other aisle.
For evening weddings during the winter it will
be dark outside, so the candlelight option offered by the Conservatory
is definitely worth choosing: Twelve candelabras create an amazing
glow against the darkness. Winter weddings in the Sunken Garden
are wonderful because the lushness and warmth inside contrasts so
strongly with the cold of the Minnesota winter weather outside.
However, summer
weddings in the Conservatory are nice and cool.
Either
wing of the Como
Conservatory works well for a small wedding (4-50 people
or so), although most couples choose the Sunken Garden (in the left
wing). Because the
Como
Conservatory is so highly sought-after for
weddings, the time constraints are strictly enforced by the staff.
While they are very friendly, they have to make sure that events don't
go
too long. Note that if
you have your reception here (in the center conservatory), the site
does not permit alcohol. Most couples who have their wedding here hold
their reception at a
separate site or at the adjacent Como Hall. Both the Como Conservatory
and Como Hall are catered by
Lancer
Catering.
Nearest hotel: Bandana Square Best Western, about
a mile away.
The Como Conservatory
in St. Paul, Minnesota, charges a fee of about $850 for wedding
ceremonies. Capacity: 4-50 guests. Call 651-487-8250.
1360 Lexington Parkway North, St Paul, MN 55103 - (651) 488-4920.

Here's the view of the Black
Bear Crossings from the parking lot,
about 1/4 mile from the Como Zoo. Como Lake is off to the right. |

This is the view of Como Lake from Black Bear
Crossings' outdoor promenade. Most wedding ceremonies are
performed here. |

The Hamms Memorial Waterfall is behind the Black Bear Crossings. |

This is the view of Como Lake from just below the promenade of
Black
Bear Crossings. |
Black Bear Crossings at the
Como Park Pavilion in St. Paul,
Minnesota, is located at
1360
Lexington Parkway North. Black
Bear
Crossings is a reception hall in the middle
of Como Park that overlooks Como Lake.
Photographers
love Black Bear
Crossings, which is attached to the Como Park Pavilion,
because you can walk
right over to the
photogenic Como Zoo and the Como Conservatory. The photos
above show the
banquet center on the top left, with the outdoor promenade on the
right. Most
couples hold their wedding ceremonies on the promenade and then
have their reception either in the indoor reception hall or on the
promenade itself. Black
Bear Crossings is a unique wedding ceremony site in
the Twin Cities area because you have the benefits of both an outdoor
and an indoor wedding (it's outdoors, but covered). The
outdoor promenade is available from May through October. Note that if
you hold your reception on the promenade, you will need to use Black Bear Crossings'
preferred DJ service, and amplified music is not allowed after 10:00pm.
Nearest hotel: Bandana Square Best Western, about
a mile away.
The rental fee for
a wedding ceremony and reception at the Black Bear Crossings
is $1,400. Additional equipment and
set-up fees may apply. Capacity: 200 guests. Call 651-488-4920.
1 Wabasha Street South, St Paul, MN - (651) 228-1602.

The
wedding ceremonies I've performed at the Minnesota Boat
Club have
always been on the outdoor deck (left), but they can also be held on
the lawn (right). |
The interior
of the Minnesota Boat
Club has both wood and brick, and contrasts nicely to
white linens and chairs. Guests can also congregate outside on the
terrace (pictured to the far right). |
The outdoor deck on the Minnesota Boat Club is
long but not very wide, so if the wedding cermeony is held here, often
the aisle is narrow to accommodate the processional.
It's worth it, though, because the view is so amazing. |
The Minnesota
Boat Club is somewhat similar to the Nicollet
Island Pavilion,
reviewed at the top of the page, in that it's also a historic building
on an island in the Mississippi River right by downtown, but it's in
Saint Paul (not Minneapolis), and it's smaller, and in a quieter
location. The Minnesota
Boat Club is on tiny Rasperry
Island, which is right next to the large city park of Harriet
Island. Very few people know its there...you cross from
downtown Saint Paul, MN on the Wabasha
Street Bridge, then drive through Harriet Island to get to
the club. Padelford
Riverboats are about a block away and can be rented
for a unique rehearsal dinner location.
Nearest hotel: The 3-star Crowne
Plaza Riverfront is across the river, and the 4-star Saint Paul Hotel
is a half-mile away.
Nearby rehearsal
dinner location: Pazza
Luna Italian Restaurant is about a half-mile away.
The rental fee for a wedding ceremony and reception on
a summer Saturday at the Minnesota
Boat Club is $1135. Capacity is 168. Call
612-253-0255 and ask for Jenni Ellson.
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See if I'm free on your date and time!
612.986.5528
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