Weddings are too special to leave the photography in the hands of amateurs. It is worth the extra expense for this once in a lifetime special day. Some prefer to have the posed couple, wedding party, family, and extended family pictures taken indoors where weather doesn’t matter. Others choose natural beauty as their backdrop. If you are in the latter group and are marrying in the Virginia Beach area, you could not have more variety to choose from. Just about any scene you could imagine is available in Virginia Beach for your wedding picture background.
The number one choice for outdoor wedding pictures in this area would be the beaches. Situated at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia Beach has both bay and ocean beaches such as Baylake Beach, North Virginia Beach, and Sandbridge Beach. These and others provide many locations for a wedding party to pose with the ocean, piers, or sand dunes as a backdrop. Twelve lighthouses stand along the shoes of Virginia Beach and many of these make a beautiful unique backdrop for wedding pictures. As an example, the original Cape Henry Lighthouse was built in 1792 but had to be replaced in 1881 because of cracks in the structure. In spite of this, both are still standing and awaiting the opportunity to be photographed with the happy couple.
Lynnhaven Bay and Lake Smith reservoir intersect the city, leaving miles of forested dead end roads and secluded waterfront homes. Some of these homeowners are glad to allow a couple to have their wedding pictures taken in their yard.
City parks in Virginia Beach also make a lovely place for wedding pictures. If you are not familiar with the area, ask the Chamber of Commerce or your photographer which are the most popular. If you are planning a spring wedding, consider the dazzling beauty of the flowering fruit trees at Brookdale Farm. You might even like to match your wedding colors with the blossoms! 
Those wanting to include the historicity of Virginia Beach with their wedding theme might consider places such as Lynnhaven House, built in 1725 by Francis Thelaball II. Today it looks much the same as when it was first made, and even has people posing in period costumes. On the beach, the Old Coast Guard Station, a 100 year-old building stands, also offering a unique flavor to the wedding pictures.
These are just a few of the multitude of locations perfect for capturing your wedding in the context of the city where it is held. Instead of stale, indoor pictures, why not consider incorporating the beauty in and around Virginia Beach to the record of your special day?
Fun Wedding Music Activities
Music is as much a component of a good wedding as food and drink. You can have a wedding without music, but it’s likely it will seem a little quiet and dull. So whether you have a full live band, a string quartet, a DJ spinning tunes or recorded music from a boom box, it should be included.
But music’s not just for dancing. There are a myriad of activities you can plan around the music that will add an element of fun to your wedding.
One popular idea is to play musical chairs. Sure, this is a fun kid’s game and you don’t want to insult your guests in any way, but you can have some fun with this version of musical chairs. The chairs can be just about anything, from chairs lined up from the food tables, to the floor, if you think your guests might be open to sitting on the floor (and then having to get up and down again). One fun option is to use the men as the chairs – they kneel on the floor, with one knee on the floor and the other bent. The women sit lightly on the men’s’ knees as they are playing musical chairs. When either the man or woman falls down, that couple is out, until one couple is left.
Some brides and grooms like to play musical chairs in order to give away the table centerpiece, which many guests like to take home. Instead of assigning a number and awarding the centerpiece to the person in possession of that number, you have each table play musical chairs until the person left standing is the one that gets to take home the centerpiece.
How about a rousing game of “name that tune”? This is a game that’s best for a smaller, intimate wedding where everyone knows the bride and groom well. Prior to the wedding, whoever is planning the wedding should get a list of favorite songs of both the bride and groom. Create a CD of those songs, and then create a game of “name that tune”. Guests can be divided into teams and then be played just a small snippet of each song.
After guests hear that first snippet, they can then “bid” on how quickly they can name the tune. So one group might say they can name the tune in 10 seconds, while the other group might say 5 seconds. Once one group has bowed out, the other group will then have to “name that tune”. This is a fun game that gets everyone involved and which the bride and groom are particularly delighted by.
Depending on the style of the wedding, there are many fun games you can play to get the bride and groom out on the dance floor. Now, if this is a very large and very elegant wedding, this option might not work since there is certain decorum to maintain, but for a casual, fun, family-centered wedding some of these games can be fun.
If guests want to “call out” the wedding couple onto the dance floor, they can be asked to get out on the dance floor themselves first and hula hoop or perform their own version of a break dance. Much in the way guests sometimes have to “perform” to get the couple the kiss this is another way to get the guests involved and having fun in order to create fun wedding memories for the bride and groom.
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