New Year’s Eve Wedding at The Depot in Minneapolis
Photo: Lavender Laine
As a luxury wedding DJ in Minneapolis, I can say without hesitation that Thomas & Alissa’s New Year’s Eve wedding is one of my favorites of all time. They rang in the New Year the best way possible — by getting married!
Their wedding took place on December 31, 2024, in The Grand Hall at The Depot in Minneapolis. A stunning 4,648-square-foot event space with 33-foot ceilings. Original Tennessee marble floors and gold-leaf-plated woodwork. It’s one of the most architecturally striking venues in the Twin Cities, and it was the second consecutive year we closed out New Year’s Eve there.
As a luxury wedding DJ in Minneapolis, this was one of those rare weddings where a couple wanted nearly everything we offer, and trusted us to bring the full vision to life. Ceremony production, cocktail hour entertainment, a full lighting package, and a New Year’s Eve countdown that turned into one of the best dance parties of my career — this one had it all.
Luxury Wedding DJ in Minneapolis: Ceremony in the Winter Garden
Photo: H.Pavlova.Wed by Julia Danilyuk
The ceremony took place in the Winter Garden, a beautiful space adjacent to the Grand Hall, with stone walls and a white drape backdrop framed by flower totems. We set an elegant tone with a curated playlist of piano and violin instrumentals, then used white LED uplighting to accent the room’s natural architecture without overwhelming it. Simple, romantic, and exactly what the space called for.
Cocktail Hour: Social Photo Booth & a Greenery Wall
Photo: DJ MN Events Social Photo Booth
Once Depot staff flipped the Winter Garden for cocktail hour, guests were greeted with our Social Photo Booth! A fully interactive experience that goes far beyond a traditional photo booth. Guests could capture still photos, boomerangs, and short videos. They could apply glam filters, and send their favorites instantly via text, email, or AirDrop. We paired the booth with our Modern Greenery Backdrop, an 8-by-8-foot artificial grass wall that’s become one of our most popular add-ons for its clean, elevated look.
A Taste of Luxury: A Grand Hall Transformation
Photo: H.Pavlova.Wed by Julia Danilyuk
Inside the Grand Hall, we brought one of the biggest lighting productions we’ve ever built for a wedding. The kind of setup that would feel at home on a nightclub or EDM festival stage. Uplighting wrapped around the room, and six moving-head fixtures threw gobo patterns across the ceiling, creating a starry effect above the entire reception. We also customized the DJ booth itself with a 60″ TV screen, displaying rotating photos and custom monograms of Thomas & Alissa throughout the night. Turning the booth into another piece of the room’s design, not just equipment tucked in the corner.
When Thomas walked in and saw it for the first time, he stopped in his tracks. Completely star-struck. He had no idea what was coming, and the reaction said everything.
The Grand Entrance
Photo: H.Pavlova.Wed by Julia Danilyuk
The grand entrance was electric. We hyped the room to its feet, and guests welcomed Thomas & Alissa in with napkins spinning overhead. The kind of moment that sets the tone for an entire reception before the first song even finishes.
Dinner, Speeches, and Dessert
After an outstanding meal from The Depot’s catering team, it was time for speeches and dessert. A natural pause in the night before the energy climbed back up for the dances.
First Dance: Cold Sparkler Fountains
Photo: H.Pavlova.Wed by Julia Danilyuk
Fitting for a New Year’s Eve wedding, Thomas & Alissa’s first dance featured four cold sparkler fountains, adding a genuinely magical visual to an already emotional moment. Behind them, a custom slideshow played on-screen featuring photos and videos of the couple together. It was set to the music, giving guests a front-row seat to their story as they danced. Parent dances followed, and then it was time for the party to begin!
The Dance Party
Photo: H.Pavlova.Wed by Julia Danilyuk
This was, without exaggeration, one of the best dance parties of my career. Guests of every age; friends, parents, even younger cousins, stayed on the floor all night. Singing along to the biggest iconic hits and wedding classics with their hands in the air.
Photo: H.Pavlova.Wed by Julia Danilyuk
The custom screen behind the DJ booth played official music videos synced to each song, and for remixes or tracks without a video available, we filled the screen with the couple’s monogram and photos instead — so there was never a dead moment on-screen, just another layer of energy for the room to feed off.
The Bride Spins
Photo: H.Pavlova.Wed by Julia Danilyuk
Partway through the night, Alissa hopped behind the DJ booth to guest-DJ. Her bridesmaids crowded the booth and family and friends went crazy! It’s one of those unscripted moments that ends up being everyone’s favorite part of the night. It’s exactly the kind of thing that happens when a couple feels completely at home with their DJ.
Blasting off with CO2!
Photo: H.Pavlova.Wed by Julia Danilyuk
Later in the night, Thomas & Alissa blasted the crowd with our CO2 cannons. A moment the venue had initially pushed back on, until we worked it out together. When it finally happened, it was one of the biggest showstopper moments of the entire wedding, and the photos capture exactly why.
Ringing in the New Year
Photo: H.Pavlova.Wed by Julia Danilyuk
When the clock struck midnight, we led the room through the countdown together. At the stroke of twelve, sparklers launched, the room sang Auld Lang Syne, and the dance party kept going for another full hour into the new year.
We had a blast. Personally, I think New Year’s Eve weddings are incredibly underrated. They’ve consistently been some of the most fun nights of my entire career. Highly recommend. I also highly recommend having your wedding at The Depot in Minneapolis. Seriously, it’s the perfect venue.
In Their Words
“We had the absolute pleasure of having Mike Nelson as our DJ for our New Year’s Eve wedding, and we couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out. Mike brought an amazing energy to our wedding, entertaining every guest — from our adult friends to our parents’ friends and even our younger cousins. He kept the dance floor packed all night, and the vibes were incredible.”
— Alissa G. in Minneapolis
A Luxury Wedding DJ Minneapolis Couples Will Never Forget
As a luxury wedding DJ in Minneapolis, nights like Thomas & Alissa’s are exactly why I love this job. Thomas & Alissa wanted their wedding to feel iconic, and every piece of the night — the lighting, the Social Photo Booth, the custom video screen, the sparkler fountains, the CO2, the midnight countdown — came together to make it exactly that. Photography for the day was captured by the incredibly talented Julia Danilyuk of H. Pavlova Wed, whose eye for detail brought this whole night to life in photos.
If you’re planning a Minneapolis-area wedding and want a night your guests will still be talking about years from now, we’d love to talk. [Reach out here to check our availability for your date.]
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Meet “DJ” Mike Nelson
Mike Nelson is the owner and founder of DJ MN Events in Minneapolis. His career started right out of high school in 2005, working weekend gigs for a local DJ company. Over the next decade, he built a name in nightclubs across Fargo, St. Cloud, and Minneapolis — opening for acts like Three 6 Mafia and Machine Gun Kelly, DJing for Red Bull, and spending years as a Celebrity Guest DJ aboard Royal Caribbean. He’s since performed for Nike during Super Bowl LII and brands like Target, all while keeping weddings a constant focus every summer. Today, Mike brings that same nightclub-level production to weddings across Minnesota, backed by 8 WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards since 2017. [Learn more about Mike and DJ MN Events →]
