The Thai Pad: Destination Wedding: Hennepin County

Bali. Italy. Jamaica. The Bahamas. Mexico.

These are places you may think of when you hear destination wedding.

I bet Hennepin County in Minnesota is not on your shortlist of destination wedding locales.

For us, it was.

If you have been keeping up with our latest blogs you already know that we adventured back to the states to get vaccinated.

We also got married.

Amidst the chaos of searching for flights and packing Genie proposed. It was about 2 am and we had been attempting to contact my mom to inform her that we were planning to come home. She went digging for something on her side of the bed and returned to me, weirdly sitting on our yoga mat as I tend to do. She aptly began with, "So...I'm awkward..."

Guys.

I seriously love this woman.

She handed me a homemade hankie wrapped box and told me to open it. Of course, that's when my computer started making noise that my mom was calling me back...great timing. I ignored it (sorry mom) and proceeded to open the box. Inside was, you guessed it, a ring. Tears immediately began, hence the need for the hankie.

Of course, I said yes.

We were going home to get vaccinated and get married.

Prior to this we hadn't talked a whole lot about weddings. We both agreed that we wanted it to be a small affair and that we wanted pie at the reception.

I'll admit, my mind started racing with how I could plan a small, backyard, BBQ wedding in under a month. Stage manager mode had kicked in.

Reality then set in...this would need to be quick and simple. The best option was a courthouse wedding.

I learned that the 5 metro countries in Minnesota are the only counties that still do courthouse weddings. After several unanswered phone calls, Judge Sullivan's assistant, Logan, answered and we had our judge and court date...I mean wedding date.

Due to Covid restrictions still in place, we could only bring our two witnesses with us. We had a hard decision to make. We couldn't bring both sets of parents. Instead we opted to ask relatives who literally live 5 blocks away from the courthouse. Cue Genie's aunt Jan and uncle Jon.

Side bar: they also happen to be the in-laws of my high school marching band instructor...I think it's funny that I'm now related, via marriage, to Mr. Krueger.

Friday, June 18, 2021

Our day began early, we made a pit stop by Genie's paternal grandparents. It was a lovely visit, full of great questions about our time abroad.

Around noon, we headed to Jan and Jon's for a brief rest and to change into our wedding garb.

We knew this was not going to be a wedding gown affair, which I was slightly disappointed with but understood that it would be impossible to do. I am that girl who dreamed about wearing a fancy, white dress on her wedding day. I have been promised a reception in the future when I will be able to wear one.

Our ceremony was to take place at 4:30 and Logan had instructed us to get there a half hour early to go though security. Once finished we asked one of the guards where Judge Sullivan's chambers were and he had no clue, we were the first people besides staff he'd seen in the building. Helpful.

We headed towards the elevator and luckily there was signage. Logan happened to be waiting outside the elevator, baffled that we were there already. "We always tell people to arrive 30 mins early so they won't be late, most people still are." Well if you have ever met Genie or myself you know that we are chronically early arrivers. Anxiety yo.

Now I have never been in a courtroom before but it was nothing like what you see on TV. There were no windows, no large oak tables, and NO Mariska Hargitay.

We had a bit of time to kill before Judge Sullivan would be finished with her working day so we used the opportunity to take some photos.

The best way to describe Judge Sullivan is the official version of Maya Rudolph. She was lovely. At one point she told us that we were both beautiful and was confused as to why we opted for a courthouse ceremony instead of getting all gussied up. Cue to us explaining where we lived and Genie showing off the adorable photos of her 4 year-old students.

After some court interruptions, we finally began the ceremony around 4:45.

It was short, to the point, and not smultzy. I cried when it got to my "I do." Genie kept all of her glorious snarky comments to herself...she wasn't sure how the Judge would feel about the sass. If I could rewind, I would have encouraged her to insert her comments.

We were now married and I'll admit I had the biggest, dopiest smile on my face.

Our dinner reservations were still an hour out so we headed over to Loring Park to take some photos.

To the brave squirrel who fought his dog injuries for 3 months. RIP <3

Jan, her iphone, and Genie's editing delivered.

Shout out to Jon who followed around carrying our bags.

Our dinner was at Lucrat and it was fantastic. Jan had requested their nicest table and it definitely was. We could see the park and watch the open kitchen. Gordon Ramsey would have applauded the teamwork.

We received a champagne toast courtesy of the restaurant.