second guessing ceremony/reception same place

linds&coop

Anybody know of a wonderful contemporary church near Maplewood/white bear lake.  FI and I don't belong anywhere yet, and would like to.  We thought it would give us more time to decide on a church if we did the ceremony and reception at our hall.  The price cannot be beat.  They will not charge us anything extra to have the ceremony there, and we have someone we know that would marry us.Buuuut, we just attended a very nice wedding last weekend in a church with a wonderful pastor.  We both loved it.  It was pretty, very well lit, funny, hearfelt and comtemporary.  All things we were afraid of not getting if we "settled" too fast on a church.I'm afraid of the transition from ceremony to reception, as we only have one room we can rent, also, it's on the lower level, no windows.  =(I know this will all be different opinions, but if you know of a wonderful church, let me know....maybe we can check it out.Also, we'd like to keep our church budget low, if possible.  (*The main reason we were going to do ceremony/reception in the same place.)We are looking for Lutheran, or maybe a non denominational.  TIA

beka0404

I don't live in that area, so I don't know of any churches off-hand (besides St. Andrew's in Mahtomedi), but if you're ELCA Lutheran, have you used the congregation finder?[url]http://www.elca.org/ELCA/Search/Find-a-Congregation.aspx[/url]They list 11 churches within 5 miles of WBL.Good luck!

hkiesling

FI and love our church. It's not exactly in your area, but it is fairly close. It's on Johnson Parkway, which is just a few intersections from White Bear and a bit closer to 94. The pastor is middle aged and was only recently called to service. His sermons are very practical and fresh, as he hasn't been giving the same lecture for 50 years over and over. It's Missouri Synod Lutheran and called Our Saviours Lutheran Church. There's some pictures in my bio and a link to the website. A few of the main selling points for me were: Wednesday night services. Its just much more convenient for our schedules. Community Outreach: every year they host a large block party, school supply drive, packing meals for homeless, blind outreach, and more. You can be involved as much or as little as you want. Welcoming: The congregation is very warm and inviting. If you'd like any more info, you can email me at hkiesling at yahoo.com

map792

I can't recommend a church unless you want catholic however I can recommend a reception site.  Maplewood Community Center.  They are amazing and pricing is pretty good to.  The room is 850 and of course they have 3 different exclusive cateres to choose from.  Very Very nice place and super nice banquet coordinator! Good Luck

ssmith1119

Eagle Brook in White Bear. They have 3 campuses but the White Bear Campus is where they have the weddings. I love the church (I go to the Lino Lakes campus) but have never been to the White Bear Campus. Definately work checking out!

Muffers

White Bear Lake has a Unitarian Church that's contemporary and quite pretty- www.whitebearunitarian.org/html/church_in_the_woods.htmlgood luck!

biobenita

I've been going to St. Michael's Lutheran (Missouri Synod) in Bloomington for about 10 years and love it!  My husband and I got married there this summer and had the reception there also which saved us quite a bit of money - and we had the reception in a nice, fairly big, airy, light room (not your stereotypical "church basement" reception!)There are so many things I like about St. Michael's - if you'd like to hear more feel free to e-mail (biobenita at hotmail)  I know it's not really close to where you asked about, but for part of the 10 years I've been going there I drove up from Rochester every Sunday to go to church there - so if you find the right church distance can be "negotiable"!