Politics & Government

Minnesota Government Shutdown Nearly Ruins Wedding for Local Lovebirds

Now that Fort Snelling is closed, Rachel Gonzales and Adam Hanneman of Savage work with Hanneman's Richfield aunt to find new venue just two weeks before the event.

The flowers were carefully selected. Reverend and organist booked. The dress freshly pressed and ready for pick-up. Photographer scheduled. Oh, and of course, the perfect ceremony site was successfully booked a year in advance.

Yep. Rachel Gonzales and her fiancé Adam Hanneman of Savage thought they had all the pieces of a dream wedding in place.

Well, that was until Gonzales heard workers at Fort Snelling, the place in which this perfect wedding was to take place, had received lay-off notices as the result of an impending government shutdown.

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"My heart just sank," she said. "I just said to myself, 'No. No. Send it back.'"

That's right. With just a few weeks until her July 16, 2011 wedding, which she has been planning for well over a year, Gonzales found out that she would have to find another place to get married.

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"The Atlas Grill, [the reception site], said we could get married in the restaurant lobby," she said flatly. "But with a Chipotle and escalators in the background, that is not very romantic or special."

Richfield resident Donna Abramson, Hanneman's godmother and aunt, said now that the they have been scrambling to find a new place for the ceremony.

"I am very close with my sisters children, so I soon as I heard about [Adam and Rachel's] problem I jumped on the phone and started making calls," she said. "[My family's] church was not available so I called my daughter-in-law, she called their church—Bloomington Covenant—and we got the ball rolling."

"Rachel, just like so many girls had the dream of walking down an isle," Abramson added. "Having the wedding [in the reception venue's lobby] was not really the 'dream' she had."

However, the wedding had been planned around having it at Fort Snelling.

"I have no idea what [Bloomington Covenant] looks like inside, what the facility offers, anything ... I'm glad I saved money on the dress now that I have to book two ceremony sites."

With a deposit already down at Fort Snelling, Gonzales and Hanneman would have to shell out more money to hold the new church.

Gonzales said Fort Snelling told her that it would refund the money, however it wouldn't be released until after the shutdown was over. But with the summer wedding season in full swing, finding another ceremony site isn't so easy.

"We're taking a look [at the Bloomington church Thursday], but we still don't know if we can afford it," she said. "I'm still looking at other sites, too. Most are too expensive, others are booked, and others yet will only hold services for members of the church."

Although Gonzales said she believes Fort Snelling has done everything that it can given the circumstances, she and Hanneman are still frustrated.

"When you’ve planned your wedding for this long and something like this happens and [these legislators] decide that their opinions are more important, it's not the most validating feeling," she said. "It's the most depressing thing to be denied your wedding."

"It’s just something we’ve been working so hard for and we’ve been really looking forward to it and now it's all falling apart," she added. "How do you call 150 people and tell them that things are different, that plans have changed? What's the right way to handle this?"

Gonzales said she and Hanneman have already made the decision to move on and not hold out much hope for Fort Snelling reopening in time of the wedding.

"If Fort Snelling becomes available before [we find a new site], then great, otherwise we don't have time to waste at this point," she said. "Thank God we went and got our marriage license before all this happened."

Once the new location is secured, the couple will call relatives with the new details. Patch tried to reach multiple people at the State regarding Fort Snelling, however no calls were returned before the publication of this article.

Gonzales ended with a laugh and said, "We joke now that if they’re still shutdown on the 16th then we’ll just get married on the Capitol steps!"


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