Well what a wonderful and busy past week it has been! As soon as we announced our top three finalists for our Best of 2011 contests, our blog suddenly became THE place to comment. Hundreds upon hundreds of votes later and we’re thrilled to announce our winners:

Congratulations Jaimie and Christopher!

We would be remiss if we didn’t thank all of the amazing couples  (and wedding photographers!) that took the time to participate- sharing both their stories and photos with us. We are lucky to have you as a part of our Historic Mankin Mansion family!

See You Soon,
Paula & Martin Ramirez

Paula and Martin Ramirez are the proprietors of Historic Mankin Mansion, a wedding resort and bed and breakfast just minutes from Downtown Richmond. They enjoy new restaurant finds, Virginia wines and discovering fun events and activities throughout the area for their guests.

Photo credit: Nancy Topham

Well, it’s about that time.. we’ve just been amazed at all of the wonderful brides who have come back to share their Big Day with us with The Best of 2011 Wedding series. Our sincerest thanks to our brides, the photographers and those who have supported them with all of their lovely thoughts and comments.

It was a close race, but we did narrow the contest down to three weddings, who received the most blog and Facebook comments. Congrats to the following brides:

Jaimie and Christopher

Erica and Mark

Megan and Brandon

Now it’s time to find our winner! Once again, we’ll be counting blog comments  and Facebook posts. There are TWO ways to get votes:

1. Comment on THIS blog post and tell us who should be declared the winner.
2. Encourage your fans to become fans of our Facebook Page. This is for new fans only- have them “like” us over at www.facebook.com/mankinmansion and to count, they’ll need to post on our Facebook wall and let us know!

The contest ends on Sunday February 26 at 11:59am, and then we’ll be back early next week with our winner, who will receive a complimentary stay at the Mansion as well as a gift certificate to one of Martin and Paula’s favorite restaurants.

Good luck to our brides!

See You Soon,
Paula & Martin Ramirez

Paula and Martin Ramirez are the proprietors of Historic Mankin Mansion, a wedding resort and bed and breakfast just minutes from Downtown Richmond. They enjoy new restaurant finds, Virginia wines and discovering fun events and activities throughout the area for their guests.

With our Best of 2011 series coming to an end, we’re just thrilled to have a moment to share the wonderful news- one of our wonderful weddings from this past year was featured just recently in Style Me Pretty!
You may remember Megan and Brandon’s feature just a few weeks ago. If not- we bet this gorgeous tablescape will jog your memory.

We had a blast revisiting Megan and Brandon’s wedding, so imagine how excited we were when their lovely wedding photographer Marta Locklear shared the good news with us:

Click HERE to read more about Megan and Brandon’s wedding as well as Marta’s take on this memorable day. Special thanks to Megan and Brandon for selecting the Mansion for their Big Day, as well as to Marta Locklear for the amazing images!

See You Soon,
Paula & Martin Ramirez

Paula and Martin Ramirez are the proprietors of Historic Mankin Mansion, a wedding resort and bed and breakfast just minutes from Downtown Richmond. They enjoy new restaurant finds, Virginia wines and discovering fun events and activities throughout the area for their guests.

Today, we’re back with our Best of 2011 series, where we get to revisit some of our favorite weddings from last season. Today, we’re thrilled to share this lovely submission courtesy of James Linkowitz Photography. We just loved revisiting Dan and Ellen’s Big Day!

Now remember-this year’s blog series is going to be a bit different as each wedding will be featured on the Historic Mankin Mansion Blog and the top three posts with the most blog and Facebook comments will be selected as finalists.  Each wedding will receive one more feature and the one with the most Facebook and blog comments by the deadline will be the winner!  This year, we’re taking it up a notch as we will be hosting a contest along with it for a complimentary overnight room stay at the Mansion, as well as a gift certificate to one of Paula and Martin’s favorite restaurants in town.

So do you just adore Dan and Ellen’s wedding and want their wedding to win? Simply comment on this blog post and let us know why you love this wedding so much. If you’d like to score an extra point for the couple if you visit our Facebook page and comment under the Facebook post in which we share this fabulous feature.

Thanks again to James Linkowitz Photography sharing this lovely Historic Mankin Mansion Wedding Day with us!

See You Soon,
Paula & Martin Ramirez

Paula and Martin Ramirez are the proprietors of Historic Mankin Mansion, a wedding resort and bed and breakfast just minutes from Downtown Richmond. They enjoy new restaurant finds, Virginia wines and discovering fun events and activities throughout the area for their guests.

We consider ourselves the lucky ones to be able to say that we’re in the business of love. So its with that, that we here at Historic Mankin Mansion wish you the happiest of Valentine’s Days!

See You Soon,
Paula & Martin Ramirez

Paula and Martin Ramirez are the proprietors of Historic Mankin Mansion, a wedding resort and bed and breakfast just minutes from Downtown Richmond. They enjoy new restaurant finds, Virginia wines and discovering fun events and activities throughout the area for their guests.

Today, we’re back with our Best of 2011 series, where we get to revisit some of our favorite weddings from last season. The lovely wedding of Fatima and Lawrence was shot by Marta Locklear Photography and featured last Fall on The Bride’s Cafe.

Now remember-this year’s blog series is going to be a bit different as each wedding will be featured on the Historic Mankin Mansion Blog and the top three posts with the most blog and Facebook comments will be selected as finalists.  Each wedding will receive one more feature and the one with the most Facebook and blog comments by the deadline will be the winner!  This year, we’re taking it up a notch as we will be hosting a contest along with it for a complimentary overnight room stay at the Mansion, as well as a gift certificate to one of Paula and Martin’s favorite restaurants in town.

So do you just adore Fatima and Lawrence’s wedding and want theirs to win? Simply comment on this blog post and let us know why you love this wedding so much. If you’d like to score an extra point for the couple, visit our Facebook page and comment under the Facebook post in which we share this fabulous feature.

Thanks for stopping by today!

See You Soon,
Paula & Martin Ramirez

Paula and Martin Ramirez are the proprietors of Historic Mankin Mansion, a wedding resort and bed and breakfast just minutes from Downtown Richmond. They enjoy new restaurant finds, Virginia wines and discovering fun events and activities throughout the area for their guests.

Today, we’re back with our Best of 2011 series, where we get to revisit some of our favorite weddings from last season. Today, we’re thrilled to share the wedding of Keisha and Brady! Keisha and Brady’s spring wedding was just full of lovely, personalized details, captured here by Seth Roberts Photography!

If ever there was a perfect day…April 30, 2011 was it!  The weather was beautiful, the grounds at Mankin Mansion were stunning, we were surrounded by our closest family and friends, and as we stood there before each other life just felt so good!  From the vows that we wrote to each other, to the travel theme of our reception, to our unique menu, and diverse music.  The fact that it was all so personal to us is what made April 30, 2011 so very special.  If we could do it all over again, we wouldn’t change a thing!  Our photographers, Seth and Emily Roberts, took amazing photos.  Our caterer, White House Catering, served a delicious menu.  And Martin, Paula, Meghan, Mary Catherine, and the rest of the Mankin crew were awesome in every respect, at every step along the way, from planning to perfect finish!  We truly had a picture perfect wedding!

Now remember-this year’s blog series is going to be a bit different as each wedding will be featured on the Historic Mankin Mansion Blog and the top three posts with the most blog and Facebook comments will be selected as finalists.  Each wedding will receive one more feature and the one with the most Facebook and blog comments by the deadline will be the winner!  This year, we’re taking it up a notch as we will be hosting a contest along with it for a complimentary overnight room stay at the Mansion, as well as a gift certificate to one of Paula and Martin’s favorite restaurants in town.

So do you just adore Keisha and Brady’s wedding and want them to win? Simply comment on this blog post and let us know why you love this wedding so much. If you’d like to score an extra point for the couple, visit our Facebook page and comment under the Facebook post in which we share this fabulous feature.

Thanks Keisha and Brady for revisiting your Historic Mankin Mansion Wedding Day with us!

See You Soon,
Paula & Martin Ramirez

Paula and Martin Ramirez are the proprietors of Historic Mankin Mansion, a wedding resort and bed and breakfast just minutes from Downtown Richmond. They enjoy new restaurant finds, Virginia wines and discovering fun events and activities throughout the area for their guests.

Today, we’re back with our Best of 2011 series, where we get to revisit some of our favorite weddings from last season. Today, we’re thrilled to share the wedding of Ann-Marie and Adrian!

As Ann-Marie told us-

Where do we begin? We can start by saying ‘thank you” from the bottom of our hearts for everything you did to make our wedding day absolutely the best day of our lives. The memories will last a lifetime and trying to describe how we feel just doesn’t seem like enough. This was our first and only venue we visited and we fell deeply in love with it. We came back to tour again just to be sure we did not have tunnel vision. We wanted to share several of the comments from our friends and family to help us describe our wedding experience:

“most beautiful wedding ever, first class, a fairytale, just amazing, truly awesome, perfect, beautiful, classy, elegant, exquisite, so very special, the food was delicious, the property just pulled it all in, breathtaking, very romantic, we are still talking about your wedding, our rooms took us back to a simpler time, and one for Martin, he’s trying to kill us (we danced all night)”

It was the perfect wedding weekend thanks to all the hard work of Mary-Catherine, Whitney, Mona, Michael, Paula and Martin. From start to finish of our wedding day was just amazing. I am honored to say, “I’m a Historic Mankin Bride!”

Now remember-this year’s blog series is going to be a bit different as each wedding will be featured on the Historic Mankin Mansion Blog and the top three posts with the most blog and Facebook comments will be selected as finalists.  Each wedding will receive one more feature and the one with the most Facebook and blog comments by the deadline will be the winner!  This year, we’re taking it up a notch as we will be hosting a contest along with it for a complimentary overnight room stay at the Mansion, as well as a gift certificate to one of Paula and Martin’s favorite restaurants in town.

So do you just adore Ann-Marie and Adrian’s wedding and want them to win? Simply comment on this blog post and let us know why you love this wedding so much. If you’d like to score an extra point for the couple, visit our Facebook page and comment under the Facebook post in which we share this fabulous feature.

Thanks Anne-Marie and Adrian for revisiting your Historic Mankin Mansion Wedding Day with us!

See You Soon,
Paula & Martin Ramirez

Paula and Martin Ramirez are the proprietors of Historic Mankin Mansion, a wedding resort and bed and breakfast just minutes from Downtown Richmond. They enjoy new restaurant finds, Virginia wines and discovering fun events and activities throughout the area for their guests.

Today, we’re back with our Best of 2011 series, where we get to revisit some of our favorite weddings from last season. Today, we’re thrilled to share this lovely submission courtesy of KC Johnson Photography! We just loved revisiting Natalie and Tom’s Big Day!

Now remember-this year’s blog series is going to be a bit different as each wedding will be featured on the Historic Mankin Mansion Blog and the top three posts with the most blog and Facebook comments will be selected as finalists.  Each wedding will receive one more feature and the one with the most Facebook and blog comments by the deadline will be the winner!  This year, we’re taking it up a notch as we will be hosting a contest along with it for a complimentary overnight room stay at the Mansion, as well as a gift certificate to one of Paula and Martin’s favorite restaurants in town.

So do you just adore Natalie and Tom’s wedding and want their wedding to win? Simply comment on this blog post and let us know why you love this wedding so much. If you’d like to score an extra point for the couple if you visit our Facebook page and comment under the Facebook post in which we share this fabulous feature.

Thanks again to KC Johnson Photography for sharing this lovely Historic Mankin Mansion Wedding Day with us!

See You Soon,
Paula & Martin Ramirez

Paula and Martin Ramirez are the proprietors of Historic Mankin Mansion, a wedding resort and bed and breakfast just minutes from Downtown Richmond. They enjoy new restaurant finds, Virginia wines and discovering fun events and activities throughout the area for their guests.

Today, we’re back with our Best of 2011 series, where we get to revisit some of our favorite weddings from last season. Today, we’re thrilled to share this lovely submission courtesy of PW Photography! We just loved revisiting Virginia and Mike’s Big Day!

Now remember-this year’s blog series is going to be a bit different as each wedding will be featured on the Historic Mankin Mansion Blog and the top three posts with the most blog and Facebook comments will be selected as finalists.  Each wedding will receive one more feature and the one with the most Facebook and blog comments by the deadline will be the winner!  This year, we’re taking it up a notch as we will be hosting a contest along with it for a complimentary overnight room stay at the Mansion, as well as a gift certificate to one of Paula and Martin’s favorite restaurants in town.

So do you just adore Virginia and Mike’s wedding and want their wedding to win? Simply comment on this blog post and let us know why you love this wedding so much. If you’d like to score an extra point for the couple if you visit our Facebook page and comment under the Facebook post in which we share this fabulous feature.

Thanks to Pete and Liliana Wright of PW Photography for sharing this lovely Historic Mankin Mansion Wedding Day with us!

See You Soon,
Paula & Martin Ramirez

Paula and Martin Ramirez are the proprietors of Historic Mankin Mansion, a wedding resort and bed and breakfast just minutes from Downtown Richmond. They enjoy new restaurant finds, Virginia wines and discovering fun events and activities throughout the area for their guests.