At the end of last month I had the privilege of performing a wedding ceremony at the highest point in the Shenandoah National Park: Hawksbill Mountain (elevation 4050 ft.).  I met the bride and groom, Tammy & Arthur, plus Arthur’s daughter and her family at mile marker 45.6, just south of Skyland Resort. We headed out for the relatively easy 1 mile hike to the top of Hawksbill Mountain and were surrounded by lush Virginia mountain beauty every step of the way. At the end of our little hike, we held Arthur & Tammy’s ceremony on a beautiful rock outcropping at the very top of the mountain with the almost 180° scenic backdrop of the Shenandoah Valley behind us and bluest sky this side of the Rockies above us.  It was a most beautiful and joyful day and I’m so happy to share these non-professional, but still lovely photos with all of you… enjoy!

Here's the wedding processional from the parking lot to the top of the mountain!

Along the way...

Almost there... this was the longest aisle I'd ever seen.

Tammy and Arthur's ceremony was so sweet and full of love... it was my honor to marry them!

A few formal (or not so formal) wedding portraits after the ceremony.

A very strict dress policy: hiking boots or sneakers only!

One last spectacular view before our descent.

A sweet little doe checks us out on the way down the trail.

Tammy & Arthur enjoyed their blackberry icecream sundae after lunch at Skyland.

What a wonderful day this was… thank you Tammy and Arthur for allowing me to be a part of your very special celebration… I wish you both a lifetime of happiness!

Guest Post #3 by Kathryn Kieffer of Festive Fare

In honor of Earth Day, April 22nd, I have assembled some eco-friendly tips for planning your wedding or event.

• Sustainable menus are really increasing in popularity and in Charlottesville there are some tremendous resources for local produce, cheese, and more.
• Place carafes of tap water on the tables as opposed to using bottled water.  It saves the waste of bottles.
• Remember when individual bottles of champagne were all the rage?  No longer, those are not earth friendly…try toasting with what you have.
• Disposables create so much waste!  Switch to china for a reusable, green alternative to disposables.
• Consider using email for invitations, save the dates, and other communication via the internet.  There are some fabulous sites that provide beautiful alternatives to paper invitations.
• Recycle!  All those beer, wine, and champagne bottles can easily be recycled.  As can much of the flowers … consider re-using them for a post wedding brunch or let your guests take the flowers home to enjoy!  Remember to leave the containers for your florist!

There are lots of great resources for planning a green event, here are some of my favorites:

Buy Fresh Buy Local Charlottesville
Eco-Chic Weddings
Blue Ridge Eco Shop
Classic Party Rentals

Festive Fare
1745 Broadway St., Charlottesville, VA
phone: 434-296-5496
e-mail: kkieffer@festivefarerentals.com
website: http://charlottesville.classicpartyrentals.com

It is my privilege to announce that…

~AND~

…invite you to join them for an evening of hors d’oeuvres, wine and, most importantly, photography.

~ DATE: One week from today, on Thursday, February 5, 2009
~ TIME: 5:30 – 9:00 PM (drop by anytime)
~ LOCATION: King Family Vineyards ~ 6550 Roseland Farm, Crozet, VA

I hope to see you there! ~ Claire

If you need more info. call Rob or Meg at: 434-293-3332 and directions to King Family Vineyards are here.  Also visit Rob Garland Photographers and Green Fig Designs. Enjoy!

We’re getting to the end of this “Best Of” series but I have a several more  fabulous posts for you over the next couple of weeks before we’re done!  Anne and Bill Holland of Holland Photo Arts sent me the most generous and spectacular array of their work from 2008 and I spent way too much time trying to figure out how to pick and choose which photos to post.  Then I thought, “Hey, this is my blog and I can post every single one of those photos if I want to,” … and I do… so I am .   So, Holland Photo Arts Best of 2008 will be presented in 3 parts and I know you’re gonna love ever single one of them as much as I do… thanks Anne and Bill!

Contact Information for Holland Photo Arts:
~ website: www.hollandphotoarts.com
~ phone: 434-295-9681
~ e-mail: info@hollandphotoarts.com
~ blog: hollandphotoarts.wordpress.com

Last week I had an e-mail from Christoph Herby, a co-owner of Happy Rickshaw (his partner is Ian Ayers). Until then I had no idea that this great service even existed in Charlottesville! Now that I’ve discovered it I’ll have to have a ride sometime.

Here’s a bit of info. on Happy Rickshaw’s wedding-related services that Christoph sent along plus some fun photos:

We offer “everything from carrying the bride and groom away from the service, to shuttling wedding guests to parking areas before and after the service, or special fun rides for kids. We’ve transported a rickshaw all the way up to Leesburg, VA (100 miles) for a wedding, but it cost extra for the transportation. As you’ll see in the photographs, we can decorate the rickshaws for special occasions.”

Doesn’t this look like fun:


If you’d like to contact Christoph and Ian at Happy Rickshaw to see how you might incorporate this fun, low-impact mode of transportation into your wedding day please visit their website for all the details and/or drop them an e-mail at info@happyrickshaw.com.

Here are a couple links to some recent press featuring Happy Rickshaw:

• Cville 9/9/08
• UVA Alumni Magazine Summer ’08

And if you’ve already had a rickshaw experience please let me know how it was… I’d love to hear from you!

This afternoon I received my monthly newsletter from the Lafayette Inn (in Stanardsville) announcing, among other things, that they’d had the designation of “Virginia Green” bestowed upon them in recognition of their commitment to becoming more environmentally friendly. Congratulations to Alan and Kaye Pyles, the Lafayette’s wonderful Innkeepers!

Naturally I had to check this out and this is what I discovered:

Apparently, the Virginia Tourism Corp, the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality and the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association have partnered to create this designation: “… Virginia Green is the statewide program that works to reduce the environmental impacts of Virginia’s tourism industry. …The program awards Virginia Green Certification to tourism-related business such as hotels, restaurants and attractions taking voluntary actions to reduce harmful impacts on the environment.” Some of the areas that are evaluated in the program are: optional linen service; recycling, eliminating or minimizing styrofoam disposables; water and energy conservation and green events. Doesn’t that sound great?!?!?

Here’s a list of the places in the Central Virginia area that I am familiar with, and have performed weddings at, that have received the Virginia Green Certification as of today:

The Dinsmore House – Charlottesville
Holladay House – Orange
Inn on Poplar Hill – Orange
The Lafayette Inn – Stanardsville
Mayhurst Inn – Orange
Montfair Farm – Albemarle County
The White Pig – Schuyler
Wintergreen Resort – Afton

For more information on the Virginia Green Certification visit the websites of the Partners:
Virginia Tourism Corporation
Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality
Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association

Congratulations to all of these fine businesses that have gone the extra mile to offer a more environmentally conscious service. I know that there are more local businesses that are working towards this designation and I look forward to writing about them in the future.

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!

For Earth Day I thought I’d celebrate by providing you with a nice list of 10 great Green Wedding resources for you to consider in planning your wedding. New sites, blogs and articles are popping up practically daily on this subject and I thought that Earth Day was a good time to share some of what I have found with my Charlottesville Weddings Blog readers.

You’ll find lots of great ideas…. large and small … to make your wedding day a little bit lighter on our beautiful planet. Enjoy! and … Happy Earth Day!

• Real Green Weddings: see what inspiring couples have done to green their big day!
• Eco Chic Weddings: beauty * body * being
• Married to Green: weekly ideas to greenify your wedding
• Green Weddings: Giant Love… Tiny Footprint
• Indie Wedding Guide: a guide to recycling, reusing & reducing for today’s weddings
• Eco-friendly Wedding Dresses (article)
• Ethical Weddings: give everyone something to celebrate
• Portovert: The Gateway to Greener Weddings
• How to Green Your Wedding (article)
• Something old, something new, something borrowed, something… green? Plan your wedding with the environment in mind (article)

Changing the Present: Changing the World, One Gift at a Time

With April being Earth Day month, I will be posting several tips throughout the month on how you can create a greener, more eco-friendly event… here’s a great one to start with:

At Changing The Present brides and grooms can create an incredible wedding registry allowing their guests to choose from over 1,000 donation gift opportunities… everything from adopting a tiger, educating a girl, providing clean water to an African community to sponsoring a chimp or clearing land mines. Just about any cause that is near and dear to your hearts can be benefited by creating your wedding registry at Changing the Present.

Give it some thought… what a wonderful way to start your new life together!

Blessings,
Claire

With Valentine’s Day coming up tomorrow I thought I’d share some great articles and resources I’ve come across on how to make more conscious choices in your giving.

This year I received my Valentine’s Day surprise a little early: On Monday an envelope arrived addressed to my husband. It said “Thank you for Adopting a Manatee”… it was a give-away and, of course, I couldn’t wait ’til Thursday to open it. Sure enough my funny and thoughtful honey had adopted a Manatee for me for Valentine’s Day. I guess he has finally figured out that I’m just not a flowers and chocolates kind of girl! If you want to know more about this wonderful Valentine’s Day option visit the Save the Manatee website. In addition to info. and a photo of my new adoptee, “Howie”, I got 2 very sweet little plush manatees to remind me of my new status as adoptive manatee mom.

So… back to the resources I have for you…

• Have a Heart: How to have a Valentine’s Day with a Conscience
• Valentine’s Day Gift Guide: giving greener love
• Have a Green Valentine’s Day
• Red is Out, Go Green this Valentine’ Day
• Love me, Love the Earth

I wish you a peaceful, loving and green day of love!