Help needed! - April 2010

• How far acceptable between church and reception site? - is a 50 minute drive too much?
• Having our wedding at a winery but need ideas for an enchanted forest/garden theme.
• Any recommendations for a vineyard/winery wedding venue in Northern California?
• Photographing a candlelit wedding - anyone done a shoot  at Viansa Winery in Sonoma?
• Why do people need to have a theme for their wedding?
• I want a vineyard wedding, but which ones are good and not to pricey?
  

The value of wine?

And much as Wine has play'd the Infidel,
And robb'd me of my Robe of Honor - well,
I often wonder what the Vintners buy
One half so precious as the stuff they sell.

Edward Fitzgerald's translation of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

A dark and romantic vegan wine country wedding

Do you ever get the feeling that there is too much of a standard recipe for weddings? And that deviation from the norm will not go down well?

When Alyssa & Brian got married, their wedding day had quite a different look. The bride wore a black dress and tattoos. The wedding party dressed in black and grey. Yet they still created an event that was very much a wedding rather than a halloween party. The catering included a vegan Mexican buffet and vegan cupcakes.

The wedding took place at Alexander Valley Hall, set among the vineyards of Alexander Valley, in northeastern Sonoma County, just north of San Francisco.

You can see pictures and read more about this gothy winery wedding, quite appropriately, at The Offbeat Bride.

Deer Ridge Vineyard wedding video

Last summer, Charlotte & Tyler were married at Deer Ridge Vineyard in Livermore, California. Here is a video presented by Axiom Videography, a beautiful record of the wedding day.