Michelle and Anders: 3 Hundred People, 2 Artistic Venues, 1 Romantic Story

 The Glö-Couple:

Michelle, a teacher + Anders, a pastor

Celebration Date & Location:

September, 2011
The Southern Theater, Reception-Gallery 13
Minneapolis, MN USA

Tell us how you got engaged:
On the evening of Friday, April 1st (yes April fool’s day) Anders told me, Michelle, he was going out with the guys for a drink (I was fooled!). I was at home with their roommate and friend, Jill. Around 9:30pm, just as Jill and I were making plans for our weekend night, my phone rang. Anders asked me to meet him at a favorite local spot of ours–a lake in a regional park near our house. My initial reaction is “No! It’s dark and cold.” Then I realized what was happening.

Jill and I got really nervous and excited and then I got in the car to leave. When I arrive at the lake it is dark, but then I saw Anders with a lantern and he led us down a path to the lake-shore. We came to a canoe with more lanterns attached to the ends of the canoe. We got in and Anders paddled us across the lake. Anders recapped some of the wonderful memories we have had together and then we came into view of a huge circle of hundreds of tea-lights. There was also music playing that was coming from the beach. We pulled the canoe ashore and get out to find a picnic that had been prepared with several of my favorite things: Spanish wine, sushi, ice cream and a bouquet of lilies. After we ate, Anders played on the guitar and sang a song he had written for this very moment. The end of the song said, “Marry me.” Then he got down on his knee, and opened the box of the ring that my grandmother wore for 57 years. I said yes and we eventually went home to celebrate with friends.

 

What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:
The intention behind our planning is to have a beautiful celebration while using our resources wisely. We specifically went looking for venues whose mission we wanted to support, which ended up being a unique old theater and an art gallery that focuses on local and regional art. Our goal is to have a celebration that truly represents who we are and what we care about. For example, we love living in and being part of city life so all of our events will be taking place in Minneapolis. We also strongly value our friends and family so we have found creative ways to get a very large number of people involved in our wedding day.

Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:
Even though we are having our ceremony in a theater, we will still have a pastor facilitate the ceremony. We want to share our belief that spirituality can happen in many places. Additionally, we decided to have a very large wedding party (10 guys and 12 girls). We decided that we didn’t want to feel like we had to cut people out so we included all of our close friends and rather than have them line up in the traditional fashion, we will have each of them doing something during the ceremony. And lastly, we are very excited about the ice cream cake we will have in place of a wedding cake. It’s something we both love so this was an easy selection.

What was the inspiration for you Glövite and Glösite design? (If you uploaded your own design – how did you make it?)
We wanted something artistic, refreshing and that represented us. We both grew up in Minneapolis and love the urban setting. When Michelle couldn’t find the perfect background, she picked up a pencil and paper and started sketching what she was looking for. We both realized that having an original drawing would be really neat so it stuck!

I had looked through dozens of images on the internet of sketches of cities and particularly Minneapolis. I finally found one that showed the specific landmarks with the perspectives I wanted to capture. I used that for my inspiration for my drawing while giving it my own twist. We knew it had to be somewhat simple because we wanted to add a background for some color.

Now show us your Glövite and Glösite!

Glösite set to:

Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?
I would suggest to other couples: discuss your vision of your wedding and what is important to you before you start looking at options. When you start looking stick to your instinct about whether something feels like a good fit. When it comes to the big things (i.e. venues), it is worth the time and effort to find something that really represents you. Don’t just pick something that’s easy. One thing that has really helped us to stay organized is using electronic invites. We can update guests and they can contact us very easily.

What’s the biggest “say what?”  moment or funny story that’s happened since you started planning?

A funny moment we have had together so far was with a good friend during our “Pre-wedding preparation.” This friend of ours that offered to facilitate our sessions is a retired professor in his seventies and we know him through Anders’ graduate school work. On this particular occasion we had already had a few really wonderful conversations about how we viewed our upcoming wedding and life together. On this day, however, a certain conversation struck an emotional chord with me. On any other day this wouldn’t have been a big deal, just a simple discussion and we would have moved on. However, it was that time-of-the-month and though I wasn’t actually that upset about anything, I couldn’t stop crying! I didn’t want our friend to feel too uncomfortable so I eventually felt the need to explain that I was fine–I just had PMS. After what felt like an embarrassingly long amount of time (but in reality was just a few minutes), we moved on and had a normal conversation for the remaining time. Anders and I laugh about this situation now! If its something you are open to, I definitely recommend some sort of pre-wedding conversation that can be facilitated by someone you trust…just don’t forget the tissues!