Jeannine Marie Photography
One of the Twin Cities’ newest wedding venues is hidden in Fridley’s warehouse district, but you won’t have any difficulties finding it. Just look for the two chimney stacks Northern Stacks Events is named after.
The historic venue’s official opening date of May 1 has been pushed back a couple of weeks due to the pandemic, but it still has a variety of 2020 dates available for weddings in addition to 2021 dates. In acknowledgment of everything frontline workers have done during the pandemic, the team is also giving away a free wedding package to one frontline couple; the lucky ones will be chosen May 29.
While the facility has been around since the 1920s (and earning seven awards for Excellence in Production in World War 2), its story as an event venue began when Forgotten Star Brewing opened up shop in the building in November 2019. Andy Risvold and the rest of the co-owners already knew they wanted to use part of the space for events, so they hired experienced event manager Jesse Wilken to become the owner of Northern Stack Events.
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“We kind of built it on the concept of making it a very budget-friendly, a freedom-of-choice kind of venue,” Wilken says. “We have completely open catering. We do have a bar built in with a very low minimum, but outside of that, we don’t have an exclusive or preferred vendor list. We didn’t want to make a food minimum, no vendor fees, no kickbacks.”
To make the historic space event-ready, over the past six months, Wilken enlisted Laura Potter of Love Sick Design. Surveying the 3,1000 square foot space, some decisions were easy, like keeping the exposed brick walls and the floor-to-ceiling windows.
New are the four Restoration Hardware chandeliers (the largest being 10 feet tall and 6 feet around), and strings of cafe lights and colored uplights are also now in the space. Potter warmed up the room even more by changing another wall into a 3D birch bark focal point, set with 120 flickering candles on wooden backboards. Still to come in, after a delay due to the coronavirus, are the chairs and tables (the space can hold approximately 150 people for a seated dinner) as well as a white marble-like dance floor.
Most couples who have already booked their weddings here have embraced the brewery vibe and gravitated toward fun, experiential ideas like food trucks and wood-fired pizza ovens. “A lot of people come into our venue and just want to have a real low-key, not formal type of wedding—more of just a fun party,” Wilken says. “I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of ideas.”
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Know a Frontline Worker Waiting to Be Wed?
To say thank you to frontline workers for their bravery and service during COVID-19, Northern Stacks Events and other vendors have put together a package giveaway for free venue rental, a full-day photography package from Moede Photography, a day-of coordination package from Naomi Anderson Events + Design, and first dance choreography and lesson from Duets Wedding Dance. All you have to do is submit your story (or nominate someone else’s) to events@northernstacksevents.com. One couple will be chosen May 29.
