The Linden Trio is a wonderful choice if you'd like to have beautiful live music for your wedding ceremony and cocktail hour. There's something very special about live music at a wedding, everyone loves it.

Here's a photo I took just last weekend of the Linden Trio playing in the tasting room at Veritas Vineyard after the ceremony. I invite you to visit their website where you can hear some audio clips from their repertoire, get all the details about booking with them and contact Nancy to ask about your date. Enjoy!

I realized last night that it has been 2 entire months since I did a Green Wedding post. There are quite literally dozens of articles published each month with an ever-increasing number of websites and blogs devoted to the topic. Below I've listed 10 resources I've run across over the last 8 weeks that are the best of what I've seen out there... hopefully without being too repetitive. Please do let me know if you have run across other resources (articles, sites, blogs, etc.) that you've found useful or at least interesting. Enjoy!

• Green Wedding Guide: everything you need to plan a wonderful earth-friendly wedding.
• Have a Green Wedding by Catherine Sharick from Time Magazine
• A Touch of Green by Emily Leaman (this article originally appeared in the January '08 issue of The Washingtonian)
• All Green Wedding: A wedding registry, gift registry service for the environmentally conscious
• It's Easy Being Green: It's a Nice Day for a Green Wedding from Center for American Progress
• The Wedding Planner Goes Green: from invitations to caterers, how to make your big day eco-friendly by Evangel Fung
• Tips to Make your Wedding Green from the Nature Conservancy
• Green Articles: 8 Ways to Green Your Wedding
• A Nice Day for a Green Wedding: Take steps to make your celebration eco-friendly by Erinn R. Johnson
• Eco-friendly weddings keep sprouting up by Janet Kornblum from USA Today

And, if you're planning a wedding in the Charlottesville area be sure to check out the Charlottesville Wedding Services Directory for info. on over 400 wedding-related products and services for your Central Virginia wedding planning needs!

There are dozens, no, hundreds (thousands?) of wedding blogs out there. Truthfully, there are lots that I wouldn't give a second look at and a huge number that have been abandoned... that is they are no longer being posted to but are still sitting out there in the blogosphere.

Over the past 6 months I've run across a fair number of interesting, unusual, fun and sometimes useful wedding blogs that are being kept current and today I am happy to pass these links along to you.

Hope you have fun checking these out and if you have a favorite of your own please let me know.... if I get enough suggestions I'll do another post on wedding blogs!

Here's my list (in no particular order)... enjoy!:

1. The Bride's Cafe edgy, sophisticated, romantic
2. Wedding Bee
3. Wedlok gettin' hitched in style
   
4. DC NearlyWeds
5. Off Beat Bride taffeta-free alternatives for independent brides
6. Wedding Fanatic
7. The Handcrafted Wedding the cure for the common wedding
8. Always a Bridesmaid ask us your pressing wedding questions
9. Groom Groove a blog for the groom - quick tips and information for grooms, the best man, groomsmen and wedding mcs
10. Bridal Cheek a journey toward non-traditional wedded bliss, with style
    

Erin and Robert had a truly beautiful wedding a couple of weeks ago at Veritas Vineyard (I know, I know... I've been there every weekend this month... and next weekend too!). So, rather than focusing on the venue I thought I'd highlight the wonderful photos of Jennifer Colina. When I contacted Jennifer she generously sent along these beautiful photos of the Robert & Erin's wedding and it's clear to see that she is a very talented photographer. Enjoy!

The Rosebrook Inn is a sweet little B&B near Stanardsville, VA which is about 20 miles North of Charlottesville. I've done 1 or 2 weddings a year there over the last 3 or 4 years and every year the property gets more and more beautiful with the tender loving care of Innkeepers Cory and Mike Skeens. The Inn, with 5 unique rooms around a large common area, lends itself to having the whole family stay together for the weekend to enjoy a relaxed time while offering plenty of space to have a large group of guests enjoy the big day.

This past weekend Valerie & Andy held their ceremony at the Inn's Gazebo and given the day's extremely hot temperatures chose to have their reception in the nice, cool dining hall in the B&B's basement rather than the Pavilion which would have been a much less comfortable option given the weather.

As always, Mike & Cory were present to tend to all the details necessary to make Andy & Valerie's day a great success and we made it through the ceremony under a very welcome cloud cover but escaping the thunder storm that we could hear rumbling in the distance. It was a wonderful day full of unexpected surprises ... congratulations Valerie & Andy!Check out the Rosebrook Inn's website or call Cory & Mike at 434-990-0561 or 434-985-7976 to find out more.

And, if you're planning a wedding in the Charlottesville area be sure to check out the Charlottesville Wedding Services Directory for info. on over 400 wedding-related products and services for your Central Virginia wedding planning needs!

Looking for a great DJ for your wedding? Well, let me introduce you to John Garland, one of the best! I took this photo of John last weekend in the beautiful ballroom at Veritas Vineyard where he was set up for an evening of great music and fun.

If you'd like to find out more about John's DJ services you can visit his website or give him a call at 434-293-3332.

There are many ways to go about choosing or creating your wedding vows. Some couples (not as many as you'd think) do write their own... but more often they choose to use a vow that has already been written (there are dozens!) ... perhaps with a few tweaks here and there to make it more true to themselves or they may use the "mix and match" approach of combining parts of several vows to create one that's right for them.

Today I found this wonderful article by Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway, a Wedding Officiant and Author in the New City York Area... also known as The Wedding Goddess. Her article entitled "How To Write Your Own Wedding Vows" is a guest post at wedlok.com, a Las Vegas wedding blog. Check out Rev. Laurie Sue's website too, she is a prolific writer and also has great advice on relieving the stresses around the whole wedding-planning thing! Check out her book "Wedding Goddess: A Divine Guide to Transforming Wedding Stress into Wedding Bliss".

Alison & Shane were married on Friday at Oak Ridge Estate in beautiful, green Nelson County, about 35 miles South of Charlottesville. Take a look at this post that I wrote last fall after I'd done a wedding at this beautiful location for more information about what they have to offer.

Alison & Shane had a large wedding party all of whom wore a beautiful green color that just melted in so beautifully in with the opulent green countryside and gardens of Oak Ridge Estate. The table settings were also green and white with dragon-fly napkin rings and flower seed packets as favors for their guests.

As always, Rhonda and her staff were there to handle every detail and make Alison and Shane's wedding flow smoothly! If you'd like to find out more about possibly having your wedding at the Oak Ridge Estate give her a call at 434-263-8676 or send her an e-mail at info@oakridgeestate.com

And, if you're planning a wedding in the Charlottesville area be sure to check out the Charlottesville Wedding Services Directory for info. on over 400 wedding-related products and services for your Central Virginia wedding planning needs!

I'm excited to let you know that I've just launched my newest creation, The Charlottesville Wedding Services Directory. A labor of love, it is my hope that this downloadable directory will provide brides and grooms, as well as other local wedding vendors with a great resource for their wedding planning needs. I've included everything from photographers, caterers and florists to venues, ceremony resources, musicians and horse-drawn carriages... plus everything in between and more. You can check out the Table of Contents to see a comprehensive list of what's included.

Please check it out and I'd be thrilled if you'd let me know how you like it, what you find useful and, of course, what's missing... my plan is to update it yearly so your input will be invaluable. My hope is that the reasonable price of $19.95 will make it accessible to everyone. Enjoy!

Early in May I performed a wedding for Diana & Tom, quite literally, out in the middle of a field. I wrote about it in my post called "Wedding in a Field" last month but my photos were nothing compared to Billy Hunt's beautiful work which I am happy to share with you here.






Check out Billy's website and blog and be sure to give him a call to see if he is available for your date: 434-825-7721. In addition to his wonderful wedding work I especially love his photos of children, he really captures them in such a unique and skillful way. Thanks Billy, I look forward to working with you again soon!

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of performing a wedding for Jean and Joe. With just the couple, photographer Rob Garland and myself present, Jean and Joe spoke their vows to each other in the courtyard of the Dinsmore House, a wonderful little B & B on Main Street, near the University. Jean and Joe came to Charlottesville to elope because Joe had wonderful memories of his days at the University of Virginia as both an undergrad and graduate student and wanted to share this place with his love, Jeanie. After the ceremony we all piled in my little car to scoot down the street to the Rotunda where Rob took some wonderful photos of the couple. Enjoy a small selection of Rob's beautiful photos:





If you think you might like a small weekday wedding visit my Weekday Wedding Company site. Also, please visit Rob Garland's website and blog to see lots more of his amazing work. You can also reach Rob at 434-293-3332 to see if he is available for your date.

Last weekend I had my first UVA Garden wedding of the season and it was, without a doubt, the loveliest one I've done there. Amber & Charlie were married in Garden IX which is a Garden at the far end of the West Lawn that I'd never been in before. The Altar table with tall vases containing white orchids was created by Pat's Floral Designs. The curtain of hanging shells behind the altar made a beautiful tinkling sound throughout the ceremony as Charlie and Amber exchanged their vows. To honor Amber's Filipino heritage we included 2 lovely rituals called the veil and the cord which were facilitated by an aunt and uncle who accepted the role of Sponsors for the newly married couple.

After the ceremony the couple's reception was held just next door in Garden VII... another lovely University garden I hadn't visited before. Jennifer Carroll of Jennifer Carroll Events had absolutely outdone herself for this garden wedding. The tables, flowers, menus, lanterns in the trees, orchids and candles floating in huge clear glass vases... just everything was done to perfection. Everywhere you looked the garden environment blended seamlessly into Jennifer's beautiful, artistic design... made me smile just to look at it.

Amber and Charlie had a very unique wedding cake that I wanted to share too... created by Anita Gupta of Maliha Creations... in the shape of the University of Virginia Rotunda. So, now I know for sure that there is no cake that Anita can't create... I wonder what Thomas Jefferson would say?