The average cost of a wedding venue rental in the U.S. is $12,200, according to The Knot. Throw in, bouquet-style, things like venue-mandated catering and booze, photography, and music? Holy shit! Holy matrimony costs an arm and a leg these days. (All the tougher to latch that ball 'n' chain, amiright fellas?)
But seriously: Wedding expenses are dizzying, and Eva Johnson, owner of brand-new North St. Paul chapel the Garter Toss, noticed another buzzkill lingering over the (alleged) happiest day of your life. "I love weddings, and just from going to so many any seeing all the new venues… they all look so similar—how can they all be white with black window frames?" she says with a laugh.
So a few years back she cooked up a concept, one that'd split the difference between a courthouse wedding and a full-scale bank account buster. Think Miami Vice meets townie dive bar; think MOA's dearly departed Chapel of Love, but baked into a tight-knit community rather than a mega-mall. The Garter Toss opened last month with its first wedding, a "super heartfelt" 12-person ceremony to celebrate a West Virginia couple whose drag queen pal handled officiating duties.
"My two main things: more affordable and cooler looking," Johnson says. "I'm definitely inspired by '80s Miami, like hair salons and shopping malls, with maybe a touch of Vegas and dive bar vibes."
The affordability angle means half-day weddings for $1,000 and full-day options not exceeding $3,000 (the one-hour shotgun package runs $499). The Garter Toss provides a sound system to entertain up to 100 guests, plus an in-house officiant, wacky props, tables, chairs, and the freedom of BYOB. Johnson says "99.9%" of of the decor was sourced from Facebook Marketplace, and, full disclosure, years ago I sold Johnson two throwback swivel chairs via Marketplace.
Those chairs are put to good use inside her other venture: Longtime Racket readers may remember Johnson from this story about her over-the-top Airbnb just north of Cambridge, Grandpa's Pool House. She says the leap from retro vacation rental to retro wedding chapel wasn't crazy, and that the regulatory hurdles proved much easier to clear.
"There's definitely some overlap," she says. "I host a lot of bachelorette parties at the Poolhouse, and I've hosted two micro-weddings. People ask all the time if they can get married there, but it's just not possible."
Johnson's search for a chapel location spanned the Twin Cities, but North St. Paul leaders really embraced the business, she says, making sure the Garter Toss could provide cost-saving policies like outside food/drink and free parking. The landlord is reportedly a real mensch, too, allowing Johnson to share the space with her friend Amanda Morell, who runs a secondhand bridal shop called Fashion Club.
Johnson says the blue-collar North St. Paul neighborhood is crucial to the Garter Toss formula. That first wedding party sourced dinner from nearby Village Pizza and, later, kept the festivities going down the block at Neumann's, arguably Minnesota's oldest bar. (Neumann's regulars bought rounds with great cheer, she reports.) Cake and flowers were secured from within a half-mile radius, too.
"North St. Paul can provide all of that!" Johnson says. "It's the star of the show, and a huge piece to how I can see this being successful."
Let's take a photo tour of the Garter Toss, courtesy of Johnson.
