Marie and Elizabeth's wedding day brought me back to a familiar venue: the Old Administration Building at Green Lakes State Park. Although it wasn't my first wedding here, there was one unique twist compared to my previous weddings here. Read on for details, photos and the couple's 5-star review!
The "unique" twist is that Marie and Elizabeth had their ceremony right down by the lakeshore. (My previous couples at Green Lakes got married up on top of the hill, around the other side of the building.) After the ceremony, everyone headed back to the Old Administration Building for the reception.
The lake provides an awesome backdrop for a wedding ceremony (and the photos) but there is one caveat to consider: the park remains open to the general public. Although the park does allow ceremony seating along the lakeshore, it's literally right on the park's most-popular walking trail, so you have to leave ample room for the general public to pass through.
And don't be surprised if some of those folks stop and watch for anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. After all, it's not everyday that you go to a lake for leaf-peeping or swimming and stumble across a wedding! (I'm only putting that out there because I know some couples might get kick out of that, while others might not be into it.)
Marie and Elizabeth's Key Song Choices
Ceremony
- Processional: Beatles / All You Need is Love
- Grand Entrance: Etta James / At Last
- Recessional: Stevie Wonder / Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Reception
- Wedding party intros: Pink / Get the Party Started
- Newlyweds' intros: Bonnie Raitt / Something to Talk About
- First Dance: Eric Clapton / Wonderful Tonight
- Elizabeth & Her Mother's Dance: Beatles / Blackbird
- Marie & Her Father's Dance: Rascal Flatts / My Wish
- Cake Cutting: Dixie Cups / Chapel of Love
- Last Dance of the Night: Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes / (I've Had) The Time of My Life
One other caveat I should mention about the Old Administration Building is that the park requires receptions to end by sunset... so if you found this post because you're considering the OAB for your own wedding, you'll want to look up the local sunset time for your desired wedding date, and plan the rest of your wedding day timeline backwards from there.
For this September 9 wedding, the reception had to be over by 7:30, so Marie and Elizabeth planned their ceremony for 2pm. Considering about 30 minutes for the ceremony, followed by cocktail hour and about an hour for dinner, we had about 2½ hours left at the end for open dancing. Usually anywhere from 2-3 hours is ample for open dance floor time, so this worked out really well.
Green Lakes Wedding DJ Photo Highlights
Click on any photo for a larger version.
After the wedding, I was thrilled to see Marie's 5-star review on WeddingWire:
Peter was very responsive gave us great ideas on how to set up. His online services were easy to use.
WeddingWire Review
Thanks again to Marie and Elizabeth for choosing me as your wedding DJ! I'm so glad you had a great time and I really enjoyed being there as well!
