Photo by Stephanie Warzecha, StephanieFoto
Brenna Burns Hucka ’09 and husband Brett ’09 were married in summer 2010 at the West Central Research and Outreach Center gardens. Lizza Sunde ’12 and Anthony Albright ’11, at right, will marry in Oyate in July 2013. professors, attended a festive reception two weeks prior to Jenny’s commencement; the two will celebrate their nineteenth anniversary this spring. When asked why she and her husband chose to be married at Morris, Jenny cited the affordability, convenience, and aesthetic appeal of the University. Like Sunde, she had worked alongside the team that catered her wedding reception and considered it “an added bonus that [she] knew most of the people preparing and serving the meal.” She also echoed Ellis’s sentiments regarding the beauty of the campus, noting that Oyate’s “walls of windows and gorgeous wood flooring” made the decision to hold her wedding on campus an easy one. As Ellis points out, many couples hold their wedding ceremonies in less formal spaces connected to the campus. Brenna Burns Hucka ’09 and her husband, Brett ’09, are just one such couple. The two were married in the West Central Research and Outreach Center (WCROC) Horticulture Display Gardens in the summer of 2010. For the Huckas, WCROC held a great deal of meaning. As undergraduates the two had spent summer days biking to the gardens for picnics, taking in the beauty of the plant growth and the view of the Pomme de Terre River. When it came time to choose a wedding venue, they could think of no place more fitting.
“We knew we wanted to incorporate the place that was so special and important in our lives into our wedding,” says Brenna. “Without Morris, we wouldn’t have met in the first place.” Although the couple included a number of nods to their undergraduate experience throughout the day, including a UMM Jazz Ensembles trio, Brenna notes that the biggest way in which she and Brett acknowledged their love of the University was by featuring campus landmarks in their wedding photos. She smiles, adding, “nothing will bring back fond memories of Morris more than a photo in front of the Pomme de Terre, with the wind turbine in the background and cows on the horizon.” Like other alumni couples, the Huckas chose to celebrate their love in the place where they first met. While each of these couples enjoyed its own unique event, their recollections share a familiar sentiment— “Our Morris wedding...was exactly what we wanted,” says Brenna. “It was a huge celebration of our relationship and the people and places that had been there for us all along. We were surrounded by a beautiful landscape, wonderful friends and family, and a community that we deeply cherished.”
If you would like to schedule your own Morris wedding, contact the Office of Conferences and Special Events at 320-589-6080 or ummconferencesevents@lists.umn.edu today!
Winter/Spring 2013 Profile
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