Notes on Gale Mansion for wedding ceremonies

I love performing wedding ceremonies at the Gale Mansion, (full review of the mansion, plus other mansion wedding sites in MN), which is right across the street from the park in front of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Their address is 2115 Stevens Avenue South.

Anyway, I was meeting with a couple this week who are getting married at the Gale Mansion and they posed some questions that I had never been asked before:

• Does anyone ever get married in the park across the street, then have the reception at the Gale Mansion?

  • The name of the park is Washburn Fair Oaks Park, and while it is beautiful, the lawn that the Gale Mansion has is so perfect for outdoor weddings in Minneapolis that I’ve only heard of couples using the mansion’s lawn for weddings. It’s perfect because it’s got such a nice porch landing, and a beautiful wrought-iron gate around the lawn, with a gate opening that’s perfect for the Processional. The whole arrangement works really well, and then when the Bride and Groom exit, they can head towards the south entrance and set up for a Recieving Line, either in front of the west entrance to the mansion, or right inside.

  • Do people usually have inside or outside weddings at the Gale Mansion in Minneapolis?

    • I’ve found it to be about half and half. Either choice works really well (much like the St Paul College Club in St Paul), and if you have it outside, you have a perfect rain location

  • If we can’t have the rehearsal at the Gale Mansion, can we hold it elsewhere?

    • This is actually a pretty common question. Yes, you can have the rehearsal at your home, or your parent’s home, or the ballroom of a hotel, or anywhere else. It actually works pretty well, as the main points we’re working on is what the cues are, the order of the elements, and where people are standing in relation to each other. Rehearsals tend to work best if they are two nights before the wedding (although the night before the wedding works pretty well, too…although it can be a lot of stimulus the night before your big day). You can, of course, have the rehearsal the same day as the wedding, but most couples find that this arrangement is packing a whole lot into one day.

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