Paul and Mike’s Renaissance Festival Wedding Adventure:

Renaissance Festival Wedding Penny Photographics

A Renaissance Festival Wedding with so much love and one of the most unique hand-fasting ceremonies we have ever seen!

Paul and Mike’s Renaissance Festival wedding took place on the grounds of the Minneapolis Renaissance Fest. It had rained all morning and though it created some muddy spots, they were prepared! We even made a fashion show out of their blue booties! The waves of emotion that started during their first look kept crashing through the ceremony, they were so powerful. Paul and Mike had made it!

During the ceremony itself, they decided to have to take the hand-fasting ritual to another level of meaningfulness, and this is what Mike shared about the importance of their hand-fasting:

“Paul & I chose to do a hand fasting ceremony for a few different reasons. Paul’s really into traditions, and we both were interested in doing some sort of ritual that was non-religious, but still very symbolic, impactful, and meaningful. For us the symbolism behind the hand fasting was “the joining of 2 lives, 2 worlds, 2 families, 2 people, and merging to become 1.” Paul had met members of my family before, and I had met a handful of his family members prior to [the] wedding day. But, our families hadn’t met each other until our wedding day, and so we wanted to get them both involved in the ceremony to join them together. Paul’s grandma had the rope stitched together using fabric from loved ones that have passed away. I unfortunately didn’t have any fabric from loved ones of mine that had passed away, so it was more about the symbolism for me. For Paul it was also about having those loved ones be present and part of the ceremony, too.”

After the ceremony, it was time for a feast! The seating arrangement was set around the great hall and their Renaissance theme was so refreshingly different! The couple entertained their close friends and loved ones with a lovely cocktail hour that included signature drinks, a caricature artist, and desserts from Nothing Bundt Cake.

Paul and Mike did their wedding their way and we couldn’t have been bigger fans of how it turned out!

Renaissance Festival Wedding Penny Photographics Hand Fasting

Minneapolis Renaissance Fest – Another Awesome Alternative Wedding Venue

For those that have never been, the Renaissance Fest is a wonderful venue idea – there is so much color and life! If you are looking for a change from the norm for your venue, look no further than the Minneapolis Renaissance Fest.

From their site – “Weddings are held mid-May through early October when the Renaissance Festival is closed, allowing you the luxury of an intimate celebration on our beautiful grounds. You may choose to have your ceremony at any of our 12 outdoor stages and your wedding reception may be held in Bad Manor, an indoor banquet hall which seats up to 150 people.”

Paul and Mike had this to say about their venue:

“Our event ended up being absolutely perfect. Our onsite coordinator (Emily) was very pleasant and helpful. If she didn’t know an answer she jotted it down and was sure to get us one. The whole staff was also eager to help in any way they could to make sure our wedding was a success.”

Emily was a great coordinator and if you are wavering on the idea of having a coordinator, read this!

Renaissance Festival Wedding Penny Photographics

WE ASKED MIKE TO RECALL THE BEGINNING OF THEIR LOVE STORY:

“So Paul & I met in December 2011. We were both working for Whole Foods Market. He had just moved up from Florida and started at the Lake Calhoun store, and literally a week before he started had just transferred out of the store to open up a new Whole Foods in Minnetonka. He would have been my boss had I not left the store! That would not have worked haha. So I popped into the Calhoun store a few times & noticed him, but hadn’t interacted with him at all. We also were both on the dating website OkCupid at the time, and had checked each other out on there, so we knew who each other were. I was the one who struck up the nerve to introduce myself. After talking for a few weeks, we met up for coffee. He thought it was “innocent” and was oblivious to my asking him on a first date. Needless to say, we had a couple more dates after that before I had him wrapped around my finger…or something like that.”

WHEN WE ASKED HOW THE PROPOSAL WENT DOWN:

“We were actually at Chris & Kedrin’s when Paul proposed to me! Chris & Kedrin were both in on it; Paul had been planning it for over 6 months. We were playing Cards Against Humanity and it was my turn to draw the black card which read “Will You_________?”, and Paul unbeknownst to me played the white card “Marry Me” in the mix of cards. He had specially ordered the cards to be made just to propose to me! I read the cards and I was a little oblivious at first that he was proposing to me! There’s actually a hilarious video of our proposal on Paul’s Facebook!”

We had the pleasure of capturing Kedrin and Chris’s wedding as well!

HIS FAVORITE MEMORY, YOU ASK:

“Favorite memory from our day: Apart from the clear winner, getting married , our favorite memory is walking down the aisle & seeing all of the friends & loved ones that gathered to support us. I mean we’ve always known each of those people loved/supported us, but it really hit us at that moment. It was such an amazing feeling to realize that we had/have a wonderful support network of people that care about us!”