Vendor Spotlight - Millenium Gardens/ Plymouth Creek Center

Millenium Gardens located at Plymouth Creek Center in Plymouth is one of the most gorgeous venues for an outdoor garden ceremony. It has such beautiful flowers surrounding the stone stage nestled under a wooden pergola. It has stone walkways, a waterfall, and a unique fountain. The garden is as spacious as it is beautiful so a large wedding ceremony would be no problem here!

In addition to a fantastic garden space, they also have a ballroom that is perfect for a reception. The Plymouth Creek ballroom has a capacity of 350 guests and has a stage, dance floor, 60 inch round tables and a windowed backdrop for the head table.



If the weather was not cooperating on the day of your wedding, the ceremony could be moved inside to the ballroom. However, you must have rented both the Millenium Garden and the Plymouth Creek Center ballroom in order to use the ballroom as a back up space. In addition, you will need to have a wedding planner reconfigure the room due to inclement weather because the PCC staff will not reset the room.

Plymouth Creek Center does have exclusive catering agreements with a few local caterers, and all chair rentals will have to go through PCC. However, you can rent your linens from any number of rental companies to make this space your own. It really is a fantastic room!


The stage and dance floor are large enough to accommodate a large band or a DJ. They also have audio-visual equipment and a screen available for rental if you would like to do a slide show. The bars are generally set outside the ballroom in the foyer and it is the perfect place to have a cocktail hour before dinner.

I really love this venue and would love to do another wedding here! It is also a Best Pick 2011 from The Knot!For more information on the Millenium Garden and the Plymouth Creek Center please contact them at: plymouthcreek@plymouthmn.gov or call them at (763)509-5280.

Happy Planning!


PHOTO CREDITS: PLYMOUTH CREEK CENTER, WONDERFUL DAY WEDDINGS

Heritage Weddings

I really love that America is a nation of immigrants and that there are so many different groups of people that all live and work together in this great country. This brings me to the subject of heritage weddings! I think they are fabulous because you can honor your culture and family and still do it American wedding style!

My heritage is Ukrainian, Norwegian, Irish and German. I'm quite the mix but I decided that if I were to do a heritage wedding, I would honor the Ukrainian side.

This inspired me to put together a Russian heritage inspiration board that honors the Russian heritage with rich colors of gold and red! Russian vodka would definitely be at all the tables for toasting and a golden wedding gown would be perfect! You could give out little Matryoshka (nesting) dolls as favors to all of your guests and fill some of them with sweets!

Of course, getting married in an Orthodox Russian church or Synagogue would be ideal. Russians love to eat so serving classic dishes such as Pelmeni, Borsht and Blintzes would make for heavenly cuisine!

I also love that you could do fun little details by creating a Russian style building for a wedding cake. I would send out invitations that resemble the East and have rich red flowers with an ornately decorated table linens at the reception. The bold colors and Rococo style would perfectly depict Russian heritage. It would also be a great idea to have Russian folk dancers perform at your reception and then invite guests to learn some of the steps!

Whatever your heritage is, I'm sure that you can find wonderful details to incorporate into your wedding. If your future spouse is of a different ethnicity, it would be great to do a fusion wedding where you bring elements from both of your heritages and mix them together for a totally unique wedding. Asian decor with Italian food, Mexican flair paired with Irish bagpipers...the possibilities are endless.

Another heritage wedding that I just had to create an inspiration board for is the Mexican wedding! The lovely vibrant colors, beautiful lace gowns, fantastic food and wonderful hospitality made this inspiration board so much fun!

Personally, I think it would be fun to have white table linens with ponchos used as table runners. Strings of lights, colorful flowers and yummy Mexican cookies and appetizers would create a very "Fiesta" atmosphere. Don't forget to have Mariachis playing your favorite music or maybe have Flamenco dancers perform! You could have a signature Margarita drink and serve Carona for the Hermanos.

I encourage every bride that is having trouble coming up with an event design to look inward. Perhaps you have a very interesting ethnicity and sharing some of the "old country" traditions with your guests and future family would be a wonderful way to start your new lives together!


PHOTO CREDITS: RUSSIAN BOARD - RUSSIA2YOU.COM, KNOTFORLIFE.COM, SQUIDOO.COM,BARYNYA.COM, BRIDALWAVE.COM,PEGEEN.COM, RUSSIANSTANDARD.COM, FLIKR.COM, NYMAG.COM, BBC.CO.UK

MEXICAN BOARD - BIGSUR.BLOGSPOT.COM, MYOWNLABELS.COM, CRAFTSDIRECT.COM, FIVETATLIBSYN.COM,BEYONDWONDERFUL.COM,

Mums the Flower!

Autumn weddings are blessed with natural beauty from the changing leaves, rich colors and bevy of vegetables that can be used as decor. When fall hits we see Mums everywhere and I think it should be the same for an autumn wedding.


Mums are a very hardy flower, they come in an array of different colors and they tend to be very inexpensive during this time of year. I think it would be wise to use them as the primary flower for your wedding and allocate the saved money to different aspect of the wedding, such as a live band or passed hors d'oeuvres.

There are so many varieties of Mums to choose from and they are available at your local Farmer's Market or flower super center. I love spider Mums with their long, skinny petals because I think they give off a contemporary edge. Placed alongside traditional Mums you can make a lovely bouquet.

Of course, Mums come in burgundy, red, gold, orange, chartreuse, yellow, white, purple and pink. I think for maximum impact it is best to group them all together in a solid block of color. The bridal bouquet could be entirely white, or have a few pops of color. You could mix Mums with other fall flowers such as hydrangea, roses, sedum, wheat, or sunflowers.

If you are looking to have high impact flowers but the budget doesn't allow for a lot of money to be spent in this area then I would suggest adding other flowers only to the bridal bouquet and groom's boutonniere and sticking with just Mums for the wedding party.Let's not forget that you can get Mums in Terra-Cotta pots for $10 or less and use them as decor throughout the wedding ceremony! They could be positioned at every third row of chairs and up on the altar.

Finally, potted Mums or bouquets of mums in beautiful vases would make stunning centerpieces. If you wanted to have a bit more "pop" at your guest tables, I would group three colored vases together with matching Mums in each vase. A tall red vase with red Mums, a medium gold vase with gold Mums and and small orange vase with orange Mums would be divine! Hollowing out pumpkins and gourdes and placing Mums inside is another great idea for a beautiful and inexpensive centerpiece.

Whatever your choices for your fall wedding, I hope that you consider this great flower so you can stretch your budget. With the extra money, serve a signature Pumpkin spice cocktail or cranberry martini and let your guests enjoy a fantastic evening surrounded by beautiful ambiance and great food!

PHOTO CREDITS: WEDDING BEE, FLIKR, CELEBRATIONS.COM, WEDDINGBYCOLOR.COM, CARDSTORE.COM, ETSY.COM,THEKNOT.COM