With its gorgeous wineries, scenic views and array of easily accessible activities, Loudoun County makes for an ideal location to celebrate not only your wedding but also your bridal shower. The events leading up to your wedding are just as pivotal as the day itself, making memories you will look back on fondly for years to come. Regardless of your style, there are lots of enjoyable activities to partake in all around the Northern Virginia wine country. Here are some of our most beloved suggestions.
BRIDAL SHOWER IDEAS IN LOUDOUN COUNTY
GET CREATIVE
Enjoy a day of arts and crafts with your bride tribe. The popular AR Workshop in The Village at Leesburg hosts bridal shower classes where you bring your own champagne and nibbles and make everything from porch signs and dinner table centerpieces to canvas bags and wall hangings. For budding painters, Jill Perla Art hosts a “Paint and Sip” experience at Loudoun County wineries, wedding venues or private homes. Working with acrylic paint and canvas, Perla customizes each party so your group can create individual, wedding-themed paintings of the dress or bridesmaid’s flowers, or join forces to create a single large group canvas for the bride and groom.
WINE BAR, DINNER & TEA
Book a table in the first-floor dining room or on the handsome front porch of West End Wine Bar & Pub, located next to the 17th fairway of Loudoun Golf & Country Club in Purcellville. West End features Chef Jeremy Thrasher who has a reputation for using superb farm-fresh ingredients to create imaginative dishes like pan-seared rockfish with jumbo lump crab salad and brown butter cauliflower. After dinner head down to the century-old building’s cozy stone, buttressed basement bar, perfect for wine and craft cocktails. While here, hand out gifts of tea to your friends—World Traveler Tea Packs, South African Rooibos Exploration Pack and the like—which you can purchase earlier in the day from Dominion Tea up the road, Loudoun’s premier exotic loose-leaf tea company.
CHOCOLATE & COCKTAIL MAKING CLASSES
Indian born celebrity Chef Santosh Tiptur’s chocolate-forward Leesburg restaurant, The Conche, is about more than fine dining. Join a master chocolatier in the restaurant’s culinary lab for an Art of Chocolate Making Class and learn how to make and shape finely-crafted, cocoa-based delicacies, chocolate statues and the like. If cocktails are more your thing, there is also an Art of Cocktail Making Class, where an in-house mixologist pours Manhattans and (literally) smoking Old Fashioneds while teaching you the secrets of stirring, shaking, mixing and muddling the perfect concoction.
WINE COUNTRY TOUR
Treat your bridal team to a tour of some of the finest wineries in Northern Virginia wine country with Cork & Keg Tours. Founder Renee Ventrice, a certified WSET2 wine educator, curates the tours herself, driving you around in a Mercedes Sprinter outfitted with two HD TVs and a wine bar. She selects which wineries and wines to order or restaurants to visit based on your personal preferences. A typical tour includes a sparkling wine toast, visits to two or three wineries and extras, such as photo slideshows and vehicle decorations.
PAMPERING IN MIDDLEBURG
Treat your tribe to a day out in Middleburg. Start with a decadent brunch full of mimosas and lobster omelet at King Street Oyster Bar, located in a former bank on Washington Street. Next, step outside and shop the chic boutiques, galleries and quirky gift stores of the historic downtown. In early afternoon, head over to the Forbes 5-Star Rated Salamander Resort & Spa for a range of body treatments and rejuvenating facials. Enjoy a post-massage tea in the resort’s lounge or enjoy a glass of wine at nearby Greenhill Winery & Vineyards. For dinner, head back to town to Red Fox Inn & Tavern, established 1728, and enjoy seared duck breast or filet mignon with herb butter and au poivre sauce.
Bridal parties provide another day to celebrate your impending marriage, while spending some intimate and much needed time with your closest friends and family. Curb your stress with a massage or glass of wine with a view, or get active with classes and tours. No matter your preferences, Loudoun County in Northern Virginia wine country has plenty of options.
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