Posts Tagged ‘raleigh wedding venues’
Downtown Raleigh Wedding Venues
Weddings in the heart of the city are popular these days, and one good reason is that with the downtown revival, restorations and growth, everything is close by or within easy walking. Restaurants, parks, museums, churches and late night bars are plentiful for the weekend entertainment.
Tie the knot at All Saints Chapel before moving on to a fabulous downtown reception. This is a beautiful, nondenominational chapel for the modern bride who wants to walk down the aisle.
The venue choices range from grand hotels like the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel, and the Marriott Raleigh City Center, that offer a choice of luxurious banquet spaces along with the convenience of room accommodations with special rates for all wedding guests. It’s so nice for both the host and the guests to have their “room away from home” central to the weekend events.
Unique event spaces have opened in downtown that appeal to the bride who is looking for lots of personal choices to display distinct style. Cobblestone Hall, stands out in historic Moore Square at City Market. The all-red brick building has 20-foot high ceilings and an Old World look. Another new favorite is The Stockroom, an urban venue with big city “loft” flair situated on the second floor at 230 Fayetteville Street.
Although the name implies the past, sophisticated or avant-garde might well describe the grand three-story lobby and curved staircase, soaring granite columns, cathedral ceiling and glass walled entrance of The North Carolina Museum of History. Views encompass the State Capitol and other downtown landmarks. The Museum of History should also go on your recommended lists of activities for guests no matter which downtown venue you choose.
Elegance abounds in downtown Raleigh with the distinguished sister clubs, Cardinal Club and Capital City Club, each designated as “downtown’s best views to say I do”. Our newest “old” club is the just opened Grand Ballroom on 16 Martin Street, a 1930’s historic men’s club newly refurbished and ready for wedding affairs on the penthouse floor.
Caffe Luna creates great Italian wedding menus and offers top-notch service in their three art-filled private event rooms as well as specializing in off-site catering.
These many beautiful event choices above, paired with the excitement of the downtown capital city gives any couple the chance to enjoy their own unique day.
Top photo by Neil Boyd Photography; Other two by Brian Mullins Photography
NC Museum of History Bridal Expo
More than 30 vendors, including ballroom dancing professionals and hair and makeup stylists, will be on hand to help plan your perfect wedding. Tickets are $5 each and will be available at the door. For more information, please call Cheri Williams, special events coordinator, at 919-807-7875.
The NC Museum of History is one of the Triangle Area’s most modern unique wedding venues. One of the larger event spaces in Raleigh, it can comfortably seat 200 or host 500 for a standing reception. The space offers flexibility with various looks that can be created, and brides can choose their own caterer to bring into the space. The museum is situated in the center of Downtown Raleigh, near various hotels, restaurants and bars.
5 East Edenton Street, Raleigh
SB&G Launches Sortable Venue Guide on Website
Always trying to improve our offerings for our brides, SB&G has just launched a digital version of this chart on our website, which is sortable by category. Even better, once you sort to your preferences (say: Durham area, over 200 seated, outside catering allowed, and has outdoor space), you can click directly on the websites of the venues that match your desires!
Brides will still be able to browse through all of the SB&G venues as well, but hopefully, this option will allow for even simpler and more effective planning!
Valentine’s Day Feature: Rose Hill Romance
Today we are happy to feature a beautiful love story and wedding that took place last year at one of the most romantic wedding venues in North Carolina – Rose Hill Plantation. Angie Wright of Chic Details planned this beautiful wedding to the tee, with a whole team of SB&G pros! Read the full story of Catie and Josh, and see fabulous detail photos HERE!
photo by nancy thomas photography
Girls Night Out Bridal Bash at Sparians
Maria Scheel Invitations & More created glitzy custom invitations that were sent to the bride and her guests. The English Garden Florist created wall mod-chic wall decor and bowling ball topiaries. Sparians served signature pink cocktails, and heavy hors d’oeuvres, and Gigi’s Cupcakes provided cupcakes that looked like actual bowling balls! Island Sound enhanced the ambiance with special lighting, and entertained the group of gals with 60′s mod live music. We also played old episodes of “Laverne & Shirley” on the Sparians’ TV screens to add to the theme!
F8 Photo Studios photographed the event, which was featured in SB&G 2012 on pages 70-71. Their sister video company, F8 in Motion, filmed the special occasion, and we’re happy to share that video with you here. Enjoy!
Lauren and Zach Heath were married on October 29, 2011. Congrats!
Real Raleigh Wedding at the Cardinal Club- Rachel & Jon
On December 24th, 2010, Jon’s parents had invited Rachel’s family over for Christmas Eve mass and dinner. After the families’ gift exchange, Jon stood up and said that he wanted to continue a tradition that began with his grandparents, who always gave each grandchild a Christmas tree ornament. Jon presented an ornament and personalized poem to each of his siblings, his parents, and Rachel’s parents. Finally he read his poem for Rachel, which touched on all of the special moments in their relationship. The ornament he then gave her had an image of Rhett Butler on his knees proposing to Scarlett O’Hara, as a tribute to Rachel’s favorite movie, Gone with the Wind. He dropped to one knee and proposed, and once Rachel could get through the shock and tears to say “Yes,” a CD began playing of all of their favorite love songs, and the families popped champagne to celebrate.
Rachel & Jon began planning their wedding for August 6, 2011. They chose Sacred Heart Cathedral in Raleigh for their ceremony, as it is a beautiful catholic church right near Rachel’s law school. They easily selected the Cardinal Club for the reception because of its fabulous view of downtown Raleigh, and its proximity to the Cathedral. Second Empire was an easy choice for their rehearsal dinner because of its beautiful southern, historic ambiance, wonderful food and downtown setting. She thought it was so beautiful that she even had bridal portraits taken there! Rachel felt that all of these venues fit into her “Southern, elegant, traditional Downtown Raleigh” wedding theme. Rachel noted, “I LOVED all of the pictures and features of southern wedding styles in Southern Bride & Groom. It was exactly what I wanted and was looking for.”
Jon and Rachel are both from large families and this was a huge part of their wedding. Jon’s cousins made the centerpieces for the reception, and Jon’s father’s cousin is a Catholic Priest who performed the marriage ceremony. Their photographer was a childhood friend of Jon’s. Another special touch and surprise for Rachel: the bride’s father sang the song “I loved her first” while the band played and during Rachel and Jon’s first dance. There was not a dry eye in the room.
Jon and Rachel currently live in Raleigh, NC. Jon is a Regional Supervisor and Director of HR for Daly Seven, Inc. (a hotel management and development company that is owned and operated by he and his family). Rachel is a law student as Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law, Campbell University.
Wedding Location: Sacred Heart Cathedral Minister: Father Timothy Daly (cousin of groom’s father)
Reception Location: Cardinal Club
Rehearsal Dinner & Bridal Portraits: Second Empire Restaurant and Tavern
Bridal Gown & Bridesmaid Dresses: Pricilla of Boston
Bridal Jewelry: Bailey’s Fine Jewelry
Photographer: Jen Yuson of Jen Yuson Photography
Florist: Dogwood Floral Designs
Cake: Sweet Memories Bakery
Ceremony Musicians: Cindy Fitzgerald
Reception Music: The Coconut Groove Band
Wedding Favors: Koozies “To have and to hold and to keep your drink cold”
Groomsmen Gifts: Embroidered Golf Shoe Bag
Bride’s Hair: Brittany Hall of High Point (friend)
Transportation: Olde South Trolley
The Girls Will Play ~ Boudoir Sessions in Style!
Two amazing vendors are partnering to bring a fun and sexy concept together for brides-to-be (and perhaps their bridesmaid entourage as well!).
On January 21st, the Preston Woodall House is hosting a day of boudoir session photo shoots by Vintage Vixens. Stacy Borelli owns Swank Photo Studio, one of the area”s top photographers, and Vintage Vixens is her boudoir photography company.
The Preston Woodall House, located in Benson just about 20 minutes from Downtown Raleigh, will offer a comfortable and elegant setting for these shoots. The special rate for this event is $399, and this includes the photo session, hair and makeup styling, and wine & cheese.
For an extra $25, make a night of it – sleep over at the Preston Woodall House while enjoying chick flicks and a morning breakfast with your girlfriends. Perhaps this could even be your bachelorette party! Come out of the session with a gorgeous Valentine”s or Wedding Day gift for your beau.
Purchase the gift before Christmas and receive a complimentary 2 photo folio. Call Vintage Vixens for more info – 919-602-1050.
SB&G is pleased to announce that Vintage Vixens is giving away one session to SB&G! We are making a FaceBook contest out of it. “Like” us on Facebook and post a wedding planning question on our wall to be entered into the contest. We will announce the winner January 1st. To be considered for SB&G”s other monthly giveaways such as fine dining, hotel stays and even beach weekend getaways, register for our Giveaways!
Protected: Highgrove Holiday Open House
Highgrove Open House for Brides
Open House at Highgrove on Laurel Lake
1613 South Main Street, Fuquay Varina
November 5th, from 10am-1pm
This Saturday, visit Highgrove”s stunning estate and ballroom. The venue will be “staged” as a wedding day. Signature drinks and light affair will be served – open to brides and their families who are looking for an area wedding and reception venue. For more information, visit www.highgrove-nc.com.
Below are some photographs of Highgrove and its new ballroom. It also happens to be a sneak peek of a wedding feature that will appear in SB&G 2012, which will be released in late December!
Photos by Brian Mullins Photography.
SB&G Sneak Peek- Extra Magazine Features
In addition to the photoshoots that SB&G puts together for our magazine each year to inspire your planning of some of the integral ingredients to every wedding – fashion, florals, cakes, and invitations – we also bring our readers a couple of surprise shoots each year to explore the fun that can be had with the extra events surrounding a wedding. These events range from engagement parties to bridal showers, bachelor/bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinners, family brunch for family guests, post-wedding parties, and the list goes on. These extra wedding events can be as simple, to as extravagant as you”d like, and can have their own themes, destinations,and most importantly,memories made!
I don”t want to ruin what our feature shoots are for 2012, but I will give a little slideshow teaser of the two we did. One was with the fabulous F8 Photo & Video Team at Sparians and was a real party for a real bride. The other was with the talented Scott Faber Photography at the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club, and let”s just say drew a “royal” inspiration. On both shoots SB&G enlisted the help of amazing wedding professionals but I will leave the rest of the kudos to the article. My photos of course reveal nothing compared to what the photographers captured or what the teams created, but they should be enough to show how much fun the SB&G gets to have at these shoots!
For ideas on ways to enhance your wedding events, ask your wedding planner! Take a look at the SB&G Website for a full resource directory of everything you need to know from A to Z when planning your NC wedding!