The Riedel Farm Estate is along the Mississippi river in Fridley, Minnesota and is owned and operated by the Anoka County parks system. Its only about 10 minutes from our apartment and we live in Northeast Minneapolis. We toured the venue and really loved how simple it was. And within our budget for $85 an hour. However, I think it would be so much better if they charged a flat daily rate! At this point, I feel like we are being nickel and dimed. $85 an hour has turned into over $1300 for the day. This includes the rental time (which we chose to rent for 12 hours- hopefully enough time for set up and take down), the park ranger fee, special use permit, beer & wine permit, and tent permit if we so chose to have a tent. They just keep adding things! Not to mention we had to purchase special event insurance with liquor liability. This was required if we chose to have alcohol at our wedding. Knowing D's and my family, there's no way we were having a dry wedding. They only allow beer & wine, and they make you jump through a bunch of hoops to do it. I put D in charge of the insurance, and it was easy for him to get it. $150 for the day including liquor liability. When I sent this to our venue, they said it was't worded correctly. It took us going back a few times through email, and the insurance company contacting our venue to finally appease them. It's a beautiful venue, but if I had to do it over again I might consider looking at other options.
So because we have so many people coming from out of town, we really have no idea how many will be able to make it. This is totally fine with us, we understand it's a lot to ask people to travel from Ohio to Minnesota. But considering our venue only holds 60 people inside, we have to have a plan B if more than 60 people plan to attend our wedding. Our plan was to have the reception set up on the grounds behind the venue. I have seen other people online do this and have a tented reception. I have always wanted to have a tented outdoor reception, but it's a lot of work and hassle to rent, set up and take down and not to mention it isn't cheap. I realized that we don't need a tent, as long as it doesn't rain. I am praying for beautiful weather on our wedding day!
We will have the ceremony in the lovely gazebo that is on the grounds, and the reception on the grounds outside. We will probably have the food and dessert table set up inside the venue. I hope it all comes together as lovely as it is in my head!
I hope this info is helpful for any future brides looking into the venue for your future wedding!
Here are a few pictures of the venue:
Gazebo where we will hold our ceremony
View of the grounds from the deck
View of the grounds from the gazebo
View of the back of the house
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