Help needed February 2011

• Invitation ideas needed for a vineyard wedding
• Has anyone been to a wedding at Pierre Biane Winery, Ontario, California?
• Bobbi is searching for a Sonoma winery to have her wedding and reception with 50 guests or less, and is looking for an intimate spot with great grounds and views.
• Has anyone had a wedding at West Park Winery in the Hudson Valley? 
• Anyone want to get married at the Wente Vineyard (Livermore, California) this year on Sunday, July 3, 2011?
• Wine themed centerpiece ideas?

Grape.com's Top Wineries for a Wedding

Grape.com says that "wineries can be one of the most beautiful, romantic places to have a wedding"  and have published their top 10 wineries in the United States for hosting a wedding. It includes wineries in California, Washington, Michigan, New York, Maryland and Virginia.

Winery Wedding Guide

Winery weddings – unique, romantic, unforgettable – are hot, with more and more brides-to-be dreaming of lush vineyards and picturesque wineries as the perfect setting for a perfect day. All winery wedding venues, however, are not created equal.  Some offer complete soup-to-nuts packages, others provide nothing more than the setting. Either way, Winery Wedding Guide, www.WineryWeddingGuide.com, suggests a list of questions to insure there are no surprises.  Among those the Guide suggests:

•   Does the fee differ according to the day of the week?
•   What does your basic fee include?
•   May all areas of the property be used for photography?
•   How many hours may we have use of the venue? 
•   Do you offer a contingency plan for outdoor venues if the weather doesn’t cooperate?
•   What kind of restroom facilities are provided?
•   Where  will the parking be, will it be sufficient and convenient?

Another important questions is which winery, where? Winery Wedding Guide answers that questions by providing  one-stop shopping for the perfect winery wedding venue. Organized by state and region, the Guide is a definitive listing of those wineries among the nation’s some 6,000 that are available for winery-wedding celebrations. The listing is able to be all-inclusive because no winery pays to be listed. To date, winery wedding venues in 22 states are listed.

Wine and Weddings - Hauser Estate Winery Bridal Faire

The Hauser Estate Winery of Biglerville, Pennsylvania, are holding a Bridal Faire in their tasting room on Sunday, February 27, 2011. It's your chance to meet caterers, bakers, florists, and other wedding vendors in a spectacular venue.

Fall at the Tasting Room! - by Hauser Estate Winery

Designing a theme for your wedding

Style Me Pretty recently reported on a stunning design theme based on black and white, and a butterfly motif. The butterfly turns up everywhere, as mobiles above the tables, on a wall as a substitute guest book, and in floral displays. The black and white theme is used throughout; the bridal gown was white with black accessories, the cake white with black accents, the place settings white china with black glasses and napkins. Even the invitations were black with white lettering. Other motifs used to a lesser extent included trees and deer.

For a wine themed wedding, one could take a similar approach, perhaps using vine leaves or bunches of grapes as motifs.

"Trash the Dress" at a winery!

Sometimes trends pass me by as I work away at my studio in rural Nova Scotia making wedding favors. One such trend is Trash the Dress.

According to Wikipedia, Trash the Dress may have its roots in the 1998 film Sunset Beach, in which a bride runs into the ocean wearing her gown, but the style of wedding photography, which contrasts elegant clothing with a less than elegant environment, was started in 2001 by John Michael Cooper.  Trash the dress photography is often done as an additional shoot after the wedding, and may be a symbolic statement that the wedding and all that is associated with it is over.

Ben Pancoast, a Michigan photographer, did a trash the dress photo session at the Round Barn Winery last fall. Ben says there is no need to trash the dress, and quite often the dress is fine, the idea of the session is often simply to take pictures you didn't have time for on the wedding day. Ben has done several other trash the dress sessions. Check them out!

 

On the other hand, Reese went all the way and had a fine time trashing her dress.

The photographer of Reese’s trash the dress session was Meghan Aileen from Franklin, Tennessee. Meghan  travels for wedding shoots and this one was at Joseph Filippi Winery & Vineyards in California. She too has done other trash the dress shoots.

Mix & Mingle Bridal Event at Thomas Fogarty Winery

Thomas Fogarty Winery are hosting a Mix & Mingle Bridal Event on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at 1pm. This is an opportunity to meet their preferred vendors and sample their wines. Admission is free for couples who have already booked their wedding, but all others are welcome for just $5.

Thomas Fogarty are celebrating their thirtieth year of operation in the Santa Cruz Mountains, between San Francisco and the Silicon Valley.

Win the 2011 wedding of your dreams

Chateau St. Jean wine estate could be the backdrop for your own unforgettable day in California's Sonoma Valley. Enter their Sonoma dream wedding competition for a chance to win the 2011 wedding of your dreams, which includes an elegant garden ceremony, an outdoor catered reception, airfare to San Francisco, five nights of luxury accommodations and a Bella Pictures premium photography package. All you have to do is submit a photo and tell them why it would be your "Dream Wedding" to be married at Chateau St. Jean Winery, but hurry, entries must be received by March 1, 2011. Entries must be creative, original, and relevant to the Chateau St. Jean brand.

Good luck.

Five questions about vineyard weddings

Annette Hoegner answers five questions about vineyard weddings on Get Married TV.

1. Why have a vineyard wedding?
2. How does a vineyard wedding add a modern twist to the ceremony?
3. How can the bride make a grand entrance at a vineyard wedding?
4. How does the vineyard wedding compare to the destination wedding?
5. What do I need to consider when planning a vineyard wedding?