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The rest of the photos are here:

https://www.vollink.nyc/photog/Wedding

Here are some pieces of news and quick reminders that are relevant for you.

Our wedding begins at 1:30 p.m. at The Florian Gardens in Eau Claire, WI, at 2340 Lorch Avenue on Sunday, April 30th.

The wedding will be *indoors* at the venue. Sunday’s weather is forecasted to be ghastly, so the Primrose Ballroom (inside The Florian Gardens building on the left) will be our ceremony location, instead of the Rosemary Garden.

Reception will still be in the Silverleaf Ballroom, as originally scheduled (1:45-4:30 p.m.). It is inside The Florian Gardens building on the right, across from the restrooms.

Family should try to be available for photographs between 1:45-2:15 p.m.

As previously requested in this blog, we are asking that you *do not* bring any gifts to the wedding, just your wonderful selves! There will be a basket available where you may deposit a greeting card, if you wish.

Our venue does not allow outside food to be brought to the venue. If you have food allergies or other needs that require you to bring your own food, please be discreet.

There is *no smoking allowed* on the property except in a designated area of the parking lot.

Every child in attendance has a bag of goodies to claim at the venue. Please see a greeter in the lobby to claim your family’s bag(s). NOTE: Every goodie bag contains a button, which has a sharp backing. Parents, please assist your child in unpacking their goodie bag to prevent pokes!

We look forward to seeing you all soon!

P.S. Printed programs available at the venue still list the garden as our ceremony location: that part of the program is outdated.

For those of you who are traveling to Eau Claire from a distance that means you need to take an airplane or stay overnight, here is some general information.

Getting There: The way we like to get to Eau Claire by plane is to fly into MSP (Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport) and rent a car to drive the last 90 miles east on I-94. We like to fly Sun Country into Terminal 2 and rent cars from Alamo. Your access and preferences may vary.

If you don’t wish to rent a car, you can reserve a seat on a shuttle bus that will drive you to Eau Claire from MSP and back again. However, you may have some difficulty getting around the city without a car after you arrive by shuttle. There is a city bus, but I am not sure how comprehensive its coverage of the city is. I just tried to plan a trip from the shuttle terminal to the venue on the wedding date and this is what it said: “Sorry, your search appears to be outside our current coverage area for transit.”

Eau Claire does have a regional airport into which you can fly via Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. The ground transportation available at Chippewa Valley Regional Airport is outlined here.

Accommodations: In case you want to know about accommodations and eateries in Eau Claire, here’s where we are staying and eating while we’re in town.

We are staying at The Oxbow Hotel in downtown Eau Claire. We toured a room there late last year and were charmed by the fact that every room comes equipped with its own record player. There’s a lending library of vinyl in the hotel lobby. There is free parking for hotel guests.

We also wanted to stay downtown because it’s close to the places we like to eat: The Lakely, which is inside The Oxbow, Galloway Grille, Grand Avenue Cafe, Acoustic Cafe, and Mona Lisa’s.

The closest hotel to The Florian Gardens where the wedding is taking place is Metropolis Resort. It’s literally next door and has a huge parking lot.

Our venue recommends Baymont Inn & Suites, which is a 7-to-10-minute drive away from the venue.

There are a couple dozen hotels/motels in Eau Claire, so you have options. Please let us know if you have questions about particular aspects of travel to, within, and from Eau Claire.

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

We will be mailing out wedding invitations in one week!

A few people have already made good use of this Google Form for requesting an invitation.

If you want to receive your invitation at the same time as everyone else and you have not received a Save The Date from us, please complete this Google Form by Saturday, January 21st.

Happy New Year!

For those who are on our current guest list and did not have a Save the Date hand-delivered to them, your Save the Date was postmarked today. If you have not received one by Wednesday, November 30th, then you may want to complete this Google Form to request one.

We created our guest list based on a couple main criteria: perceived desire (might this person/family be interested in attending?) and geography (is our wedding venue readily accessible to this person/family?). We really want to invite everyone who is interested in attending our wedding, even if you have to travel to get there; however, we cannot read minds. So if you want to come, please complete the form so we have your address and know that you’re interested.

Of course, we are also bound by the size of our venue. The garden where we’ll do the ceremony (if the weather is good) can accommodate up to 100 guests, but the reception ballroom holds just 60 guests and Jen’s family is enormous. We will absolutely do our best to accommodate everyone.

Thank you!

We are staying home on Thursday, eating Jen’s experimental vegetarian cooking (paired with cocktails), and indulging ourselves in that for which we are most grateful: laughing togetherness.

Our movie marathon of comedies will include some of these old favorites (but sadly not all of them because we have to work on Friday): Blazing Saddles, Groundhog Day, Idiocracy, My Cousin Vinny, Office Space, The Princess Bride, So I Married an Axe Murderer, Super Troopers, and UHF.

Hope everyone else has a Happy Thanksgiving too!