Our Latest Press Release: Ice Cream Wednesdays!

Mike Wieber, owner of the Bayfront Marin House bed and breakfast, shares his love of homemade ice cream with his guests during the summer.

• St. Augustine, FL (PRWEB) July 10, 2012

     Summers in St. Augustine are a little bit cooler, thanks to this beautiful bed and breakfast on the water.


      Mike Wieber, owner of the Bayfront Marin House, pulls out his ice cream maker and his creativity every week in July, August, and September. On Wednesday nights, he shares his latest frosty creation with his guests.


     "Ice cream is a great equalizer," says Wieber. "Everybody likes ice cream, and it tastes even better in the summer."


      Guests are treated to concoctions like Girl Scout Shout Out (a chocolate ice cream base with marshmallow, caramel, and chunks of Samoa cookies); You're a Peach Fruit Cobbler (peach ice cream with a swirl of caramel and sweet pie crust pieces); Spunky Monkey (a banana ice cream with Oreo sandwich cookies); and Cinnamon Toast Crunch (a cinnamon cake batter base with pieces of homemade snickerdoodles).


     "I don't have a plan for what I'm making throughout the summer," says Wieber. "I usually get inspired on Monday or Tuesday--either I have a craving for a particular flavor, or I see great looking produce at the market. Then I start thinking--what could I add to that to make a fantastic ice cream?"


      Last summer's staff favorite was Chocolate Cheesecake Crunch (a chocolate cheesecake base with Oreo sandwich cookies), closely followed by Gimme Some More S'mores (a chocolate ice cream with chocolate covered graham crackers and a marshmallow swirl). Wieber says he wasn't surprised by the choices: "As a bed and breakfast owner, I know that chocolate is a surefire hit--and chocolate mixed with cheesecake is even better!"

Recipe:

Marin House Chocolate Cheesecake Crunch Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 package softened cream cheese (8 ounces)

1 c. granulated sugar

1 c.  half and half

1 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 c. heavy cream

12 chocolate sandwich cookies, crumbled into bite-sized pieces

Put cream cheese, sugar, and half and half in a blender. Mix at medium speed, until smooth. This takes about one minute. Add the cocoa and blend until mixture has a uniform color. Add the half and half and vanilla. Mix. Slowly add the cream, continuing to mix on low speed. This takes about 30 seconds.

Transfer mixture to ice cream maker and follow manufacturer’s instructions.

When the mixture is frozen, remove ice cream from maker and place in storage container. Add crumbled chocolate sandwich cookies to taste and fold in.

 Serve immediately. Makes approximately 1 quart.

Happy Fourth (On the Fifth)

It was a beautiful night last night for fireworks (and for a wedding, which we happened to have).

You can see the fireworks from our front lawn (and from the front porches, of course). It's a perfect place to enjoy the holiday!!

And that's exactly where our bride and groom sat after their ceremony was over: right on the front lawn, in front of the display.

We said they'd see fireworks!!

This is Not Your Mother's Wedding: Seven Non-Traditional Wedding Trends in 2012

 Half the year is over, folks...so what have we seen so far in weddings? Here is my take on trends at the Bayfront Marin House...published last week.

The owner of the Bayfront Marin House, a romantic waterfront bed and breakfast in St. Augustine, FL, shares recent wedding trends.

A non-traditional wedding dress can make you shine, according to wedding planners at the Bayfront Marin House, a bed and breakfast in St. Augustine, FL.

St. Augustine, FL (PRWEB) June 27, 2012

Sandy Wieber, owner of the Bayfront Marin House bed and breakfast inn in St. Augustine, has helped almost 100 brides walk down the aisle since she and her husband bought their inn in 2010.


“Each wedding is unique,” says Wieber. “The ceremony reflects the personality of the couple getting married, as do the decorations, cake, and all the other little details that make an event special.”


But that uniqueness can cause anxiety. Wieber says that brides often have an idea for their special day, and once they share it, they ask her: “Do you think that will be okay?” For those brides, she has a clear message: trust yourself.


“Your wedding, like your marriage, has to feel right to you,” she says. “If you want to do something—no matter how untraditional—I tell our brides to go for it. We’ll help to make it work, but if you think it might make your mother-in-law raise an eyebrow, we suggest you gently tell her that it’s a special element that will make your day more personal for you. And then enjoy your choice!”


Wieber has noted some general trends for weddings in the first half of 2012, many that buck convention. Here are seven she loves:


1. Formal weddings in informal places. What if a bride wants a wedding on the beach, but she's fallen in love with a full, sequined, traditional wedding dress? That’s perfectly acceptable, says Wieber, as long as she doesn’t mind a little sand on her train. If a bride wants a dressed-up ceremony in a dressed-down setting, she should go for it. But she shouldn't be upset if guests don’t share the bride's vision, and they show up in flowered shirts and flip-flops. "The bride will just look that much more special," says Wieber.


2. Feathers. Whether it’s a feather-adorned hairpiece, a clip on the mother-of-the –bride’s dress, or peacock feathers decorating the corsages and chairs, feathers and birds will show the couple's guests that they're "on the wings of love". Literally.


3. Wedding dresses of every color. Sometimes white doesn’t fit the mood a bride is going for. Brides should look and feel special for their big day, and if that means wearing red, then they should wear red, says Wieber. The bride can coordinate the groom’s tie or vest, or use a lapel flower that matches the color of the dress.


4. Elbow bouquets. A bride’s bouquet dictates the mood of the wedding. The wedding coordinators at the Bayfront Marin House see beautiful bouquets in all varieties, but lately they’ve seen brides opting for a dramatic long-stemmed bouquet, tucked into the corner of their arm. Calla lilies work well for this, as do snapdragons, gladiolas, and orchids.


5. Etsy weddings. It may be the lure of Pinterest, but Wieber has seen a lot of handmade items in the last six months. A bride doesn't have to be Martha Stewart to pull this off. She can make paper flowers to tuck in her bouquet, or make a simple favor for the tables. She can decorate a basket for the gift cards, or—if she's really crafty—sculpt her own cake topper. (Wieber’s inn recently hosted a wedding that had a cake topped with two ceramic, winged pigs. Yes, the bride had said she'd get married "when pigs fly"!)


6. Puppy love. More and more couples want "man's best friend" to be their best man. Upscale lodgings, including the Bayfront Marin House, have answered this trend with rooms that are pet friendly, and that appeals to brides and grooms who want a fairy “tail” wedding. Some advice from Wieber: If a couple wants to include a pet in their ceremony, they should make sure their venue allows them, and line up someone else to watch them. Otherwise, they could end up chasing their puppy instead of saying their vows!


7. Facebook receptions. To save money, ceremonies have shrunk—the most popular wedding package at this Saint Augustine inn is "Just the Two of Us", an intimate ceremony for two. In those cases, Wieber posts photos on social media sites as soon as possible. That lets the couple share their special day with friends and family in (almost) real time, and it serves as an electronic guest book for faraway guests. "We've helped couples Skype their ceremony, too," says Wieber. "But it needs to be tested five minutes before the event to make sure that everything is working. We don't want a bride to be more worried about the network connection than the personal connection that she's making that day!"




More Information about the Bayfront Marin House
The Bayfront Marin House in Saint Augustine, Florida is a 15-room, luxury bed and breakfast inn. Located on the Matanzas Bay, the bed and breakfast offers stunning views of the water, along with a hot southern breakfast each morning, daily happy hours, delicious desserts, and the highest levels of personalized customer service. The lodging has recently been awarded TripAdvisor's Certificate of Excellence for 2012.