Another Wedding Wedding Weekend

UPDATED: The wedding was indeed a wonderful affair and the ceremony in the Wren Chapel (pictured above) was beautifuly done. The Chapel is part of the Sir Christopher Wren building at William & Mary and dates from 1695, making it the oldest university building in the United States. The reception back at the Williamsburg Winery was both elegant and a great party. As is usual, the boyfriend had many clients there besides the bride.

The boyfriend is doing hairstyling for another wedding this weekend and we are currently in the Aquitaine Suite (pictured above) at Wedmore Place at the Williamsburg Winery where he is doing the bride and wedding party's hair. The wedding itself will be at the Wren Chapel at the College of William & Mary, with the reception back at the Winery this evening. We have visited Wedmore place before for another wedding a little over a year ago and it's gorgeous. The website describes the Inn as follows:
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Each room was themed in the style of a different European province, not only in the selection of colors and furnishings, but also the wall hangings and decoration. All rooms have a fireplace, individual floor designs from Spanish tiles to walnut parquet, 10’ ceilings and king size beds. The style of each room reflects not only a different geographical area but also different periods of history; from the Corinthian room inspired by the classic Greek forms of Antiquity featuring a large marble statue, Corinthian columns, large white ceramic tiling on the floor, to the rustic room recalling the Shakespearean times with a four poster bed next to the eaves in the wood paneled Cotswold room.
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I highly recommend the Inn to anyone traveling to the Williamsburg area who want an elegant experience and close proximity to the historic sites at Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown.

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The wedding and reception should be a good time and as always, the boyfriend's clients are very welcoming and accepting of us as a couple - always include us in the guest list. Its our opportunity to interact with other guests and potentially open minds to what a gay couple is really like as opposed to the stereotypes our enemies try to project of us. I continue believe that being out and genuine are the strongest weapons against bigotry.

Virginia Tourism Sagging: Meanwhile Gay Dollar Rejected

Today's Virginian Pilot carries yet another article on the sagging fortunes of Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and other southeastern Virginia tourist destinations. Throughout the severe recession only one travel market segment has held constant - indeed it has grown. As I have written before, that is the LGBT travel market. One marketing research report described the gay travel segment as follows:
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Defining the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) consumers could result in a windfall for the mainstream travel industry, which has been experiencing a period of slowed growth. This consumer research confirms that the LGBT travelers are traveling often and spending more on travel. . . . . LGBT travelers reported spending 25% more on leisure travel than heterosexual travelers. Ninety-six percent of respondents had taken at least one short leisure trip in the previous year (compared to just 56% of mainstream travelers) and 98% of respondents indicated that a destination’s gay-friendly reputation influenced their decision to visit.
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And Virginia's reaction to this reality? It remains a thoroughly anti-gay state without employment protections for LGBT employees, restrictions on employers' ability to provide domestic partner benefits to employee spouses/partners, denies same sex relations ships any legal validity. In contrast to say Key West - which is amazingly LGBT friendly - or Vancouver which is hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics that likewise embraces diversity and tolerance, Virginia has little to offer LGBT tourists when it comes to a welcoming atmosphere. In fact, tourists flying into Norfolk International Airport are greeted on one concourse by a huge display for Pat Robertson's Regent University, complete with a roughly eight foot by five foot image of Robertson himself. How many gays are going to find that welcoming? None, in my estimation. Bigotry has its price and wonderful historic sites, beautiful hotels like the one at Williamsburg Winery, and great restaurants do not out weigh a poisonous legal atmosphere. Will Virginia ever learn this simple truth? Most likely no time soon as far too much of the state's laws remain dictated by the Family Foundation and similar extreme anti-gay organizations of which the state has far too many. Here are some highlights from the Pilot article:
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Williamsburg reported selling 660,000 general-admission tickets in 2009, down from about 707,000 in the previous year. That was a smaller decline than the 9 percent drop in 2008. . . . Colonial Williamsburg cut about 300 jobs in the past year and a half and now has a staff of 2,650, spokesman Tom Shrout said.
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Colonial Williamsburg is hardly the only tourist destination that reported financial declines for 2009. Two weeks ago, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation reported that attendance fell more than 11 percent at Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center.

Valentine's Day Weekend Reflections

The boyfriend and I have had a pleasant and interesting weekend. One of his long time clients - he owns a hair salon - was married yesterday at Wedmore Place, an inn at the Williamsburg Winery, outside of Williamsburg, Virginia. The reception following the wedding at one of the reception halls at the Williamsburg Winery. Since he did the hair for the bride and members of the wedding party, we were provided a room (pictured at left) and attended the reception. While the inn is only a few years old, it is wonderfully appointed and each of the 28 rooms has a distinct decor and style based on a province or city in Europe. Ours was the Vienna room complete with Hapsburg portraits and a map of Austria-Hungry at its zenith (my father's parents came from Austria-Hungry in 1913).

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The reception hall at the Winery is styled like a German hall from two centuries ago with dark beams and wood burning fireplaces at each end of the room salvaged from a chateau. Further adding to the unusual atmosphere was the fact that the bride groom's family is Mormon. I had some trepidation as to how it all would go, but was pleasantly surprised at the warmth with which a gay couple was received by the groom's family. Hopefully we dispelled any possible stereotype images that they might have held and they certainly put a warm human face on a group not know for being gay friendly, particularly in the wake of Proposition 8. It was a wonderful evening.

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This morning we did a tour of the winery - the largest in Virginia - followed by a tasting. I highly recommend a visit to the winery for anyone visiting the greater Williamsburg area. And if you are looking for a upscale accommodations that are markedly different from the usual style and decor, check out Wedmore Place.