When: 6 pm, Friday October 17th, 2025
Where: Como Conservatory, Sunken Garden (ceremony) and Ordway Gardens (reception) – more information on the venue
- 6 pm – 6:30 pm: Welcome reception (drinks and appetizers) in the Ordway Gardens room
- 6:45 pm: Ceremony begins in Sunken Garden (we anticipate the ceremony being about 20 minutes, followed by pictures)
- 7:30 pm: Dinner (salad, entree, cake) in the Ordway Gardens room
- 12 am: Last call
Consider the schedule above as our best guess – things have already shifted slightly from when we printed the invitations. We invite you to join us at or after 6 pm in the Ordway Gardens room for a “cocktail half-hour” – grab a drink and some appetizers as you get settled. Around 6:30 pm we’ll begin moving to the Sunken Garden for the ceremony. Both locations are within the McNeely Conservatory building, along with the Palm Dome which you will use to enter and exit the building.
The non-denominational ceremony will begin around 6:45 pm officiated by Pastor Joanna Mitchell. While the Sunken Garden is indoors under a glass dome, and the ceremony will be after sundown, it may be warmer or more humid than you’re expecting in mid-October. Please note that you will be standing during the ceremony (we will have chairs for our parents) but we plan to keep it brief. We encourage you to wear “cocktail” attire – feel free to google it, because we had to – but it may be worth considering a layer you can add/remove depending on the temperature.
Following the ceremony and pictures, we’ll return to the Ordway Gardens room. We won’t have the menu finalized until early September (we’ll reach out to get your preferences), but we’re expecting to serve a salad course, entree, and of course, cake. Additionally, we will provide an open bar with a selection of beer, wine, and non-alcohol beverages, including a mocktail option (Mixed drinks will be available for purchase).
We encourage you to get to know each other during the reception, and while we’ll have some background music courtesy of DJ Spotify, we don’t plan on a dance floor, speeches, or any “events” to interrupt the evening – the vibe we’re going for is “dinner party mingle” and less like a traditional wedding.
The Sunken Garden and Ordway Gardens have limited capacity, and in order to maximize the attendance of those closest to us, we respectfully ask that no children or those not named on the invitation, attend.
Please honor our request for no material gifts. We appreciate the thought, but we don’t need any more stuff, and we’d rather you make a monetary donation to a non-profit than give anything to us.
For more in-depth details, check out the other pages, especially the FAQ, and reach out if you have a question that we haven’t covered here.