New Ask the Experts Category
The Yacht Club at Marina Shores is starting a new category for our blog where you can ask our panelists of experts for feedback on your special event. Please feel free to email us or get in touch with us on facebook or twitter to get your question answered by one of our experts!
Read the latest questions below that our experts have answered and make sure you bookmark us for future answers.
Vow Launch Party
The Yacht Club at Marina Shores is so excited to be chosen as the host of the 2012 Vow Bride Magazine Launch Party inside our Shoreline Room. The “Portals of Love” themed event celebrates the Spring/Summer 2012 magazine issue and welcomes the top wedding professionals in Hampton Roads.
Stay tuned for photos of this industry event.
What exactly is this idea of a groom’s cake?
If you’ve attended a wedding recently where there was not one but two cakes, you may have enjoyed what appears to be a charming tradition: the groom’s cake. The fact is, the grooms cake isn’t new at all. With origins dating back to the 17th century, the grooms cake is a very old tradition now making a comeback.
The history of the grooms cake is as varied as it’s flavors and shapes. Some sources say it originally was a rich dark fruitcake without icing; some say it was iced to match the bride’s cake which was iced with spun sugar. Still others take the lore a step further and say the grooms cake was placed on the top of the brides cake, then placed in a tin and drenched in brandy to preserve it for the couple’s first anniversary.
In recent years, the grooms cake has enjoyed renewed popularity in the South. Legend has it that if the single female guests take a slice of the grooms cake and place it beneath their pillow at bedtime, they will dream of their future husband.
Today, remnants of these various traditions remain or have evolved into other wedding customs. For instance, the couple now reserves the top layer of the wedding cake for their first anniversary. Although the Southern grooms cake was a dark fruit cake, it now comes in any flavor, shape or color. Many are designed to reflect the groom’s hobbies or interests. These can be original and engaging–perhaps resembling a pair of the groom’s favorite cowboy boots, antique car, or traditional cakes that sport hunting scenes or his favorite hole on the golf course.
Some couples prefer to have the grooms cake at the rehearsal dinner, a fitting time since the groom’s family hosts this occasion. Whatever time or theme you choose for the grooms cake it is a charming tradition that adds a distinctive, personal touch to your wedding festivities while honoring the man you just married.
This “Ask The Experts” was answered by Incredible Edibles Desserts.
Weekday Wedding?
Unlike most venues in the area who promote seasonal pricing, The Yacht Club at Marina Shores offers “day of the week” pricing. This gives you the opportunity to get a great discount on Monday thru Friday events as well as a discounted Sunday event, every week of the year! Sunday thru Friday weddings and events are definitely gaining more popularity as a way to stretch the budget.
With our 5 hour, all-inclusive wedding packages, professional and trustworthy vendors, and three beautiful waterfront rooms with covered decks, The Yacht Club at Marina Shores is surely the best kept secret in town! Not to mention less stressful for planning. Be sure to reserve your date before the secret gets out! 757-496-7006.
How Long?
One question that we frequently get from brides is: “how long will the posed pictures after the ceremony take?”. The answer: “that depends”. At Hampton Roads Photography we usually go through a progression of groupings beginning with the bride and groom and the officiant, then the parents, immediate families and extended families. After that, the wedding party is brought in, followed by photos of the bride and groom together and separately.
How can you speed this process up? If there is time we will do photos of the bride and bridesmaids and the groom and groomsmen before the ceremony. Also, parents and other family members can be brought in for photos ahead of time. You will need everyone ready in plenty of time before the ceremony is planned to start. You don’t want to be in a photo session when the guests are arriving. You may also consider having all the photos done before the ceremony. We can even arrange a special private time for the bride and groom to come together for a brief romantic interlude.
After the ceremony, things that slow the process down are missing people (make sure everyone that is to be in the photos knows to hang around), and too many family and friends taking turns greeting the bride and groom or taking their own photos. We don’t object to these photos being taken, just understand they can disrupt the sessions and you may have groupings with everyone looking at a different camera.
One other thing to remember, the more time you give us for these photos, the more time we have to create unique and exciting images. While it is natural to want to get right to the party, there won’t be another opportunity to get these photos. Every time someone tells us they will get a certain photo at the reception, it never seems to happen.
-by Carl Anderson of Hampton Roads Photography
