Caite Hamilton, Author at C-VILLE Weekly

An idea we love: The downsized dance floor

After getting engaged in July, Eliza Strickland and Allen Peacock knew right away they were ready to get married—and they didn’t want to postpone plans due to COVID restrictions. So Strickland asked a close friend, Sally Branch, to help her create an intimate wedding. “We knew we wanted to keep all the traditional elements of […]

Caite Hamilton | April 12, 2021

Magazines Weddings

Bloomin’ beautiful: A new cake baker utilizes the best of what’s around

In some ways, launching a business after a global pandemic began was fortuitous for Cake Bloom’s Susan Sweeney. With couples downsizing their weddings, that meant downsizing the cake, too—just the kind of thing Sweeney specializes in. Cake Bloom, a botanical cake bakery, incorporates greenery and florals into each design. And what’s more, her cakes are […]

Caite Hamilton | April 12, 2021

Knife & Fork Magazines

You art what you eat

We’re pretty sweet on this piece by local artist Evan Mooney—and not just because it looks like candy buttons. The UVA grad says her “Hard Candy” series celebrates her steel magnolias. “They might be vibrant, polished and law abiding, but there is so much more to them,” Mooney says. “They are tough as nails, resilient, […]

Caite Hamilton | April 12, 2021

434 Magazines

Good bars: Empowering women through chocolate

Carly Romeo had always been really into chocolate, but it wasn’t until a visit to a chocolate shop with a friend that she realized her interest had grown beyond that of a casual hobbyist. “I started telling her things about chocolate origins and darkness percentages,” Romeo says, “and she called me a total nerd.” After […]

Caite Hamilton | April 12, 2021

434 Magazines

Best of the FEST: Local fashion marketing firm Spirit of 608 trains focus on tight niche

Lorraine Sanders knows FEST. She better. She came up with the acronym. As a modern marketer, acronyms are kind of Sanders’ thing. So are podcasts, social media campaigns, viral videos, email pitch templates, lookbooks, and online networking. 434 recently chatted with Sanders about her company, Spirit of 608, where she came from, and where she’s […]

Caite Hamilton | April 12, 2021

434 Magazines

Fashion statements: What can clothing teach us about how to be an ally? A lot.

There’s a direct connection to be made between the work of Playground of Empathy and its founders’ Instagram account, @cvillefashion. The organization works to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion through its interactive Walk in My Shoes experience (during which you enter a literal shoe and explore the personal belongings of someone who differs from you—in […]

Caite Hamilton | April 12, 2021

Abode Magazines

The carpet queen: An online rug shop demystifies the buying process

Tracey Love has always had an affinity for vintage rugs. But when she started collecting them to cover the wood floors in the Greenwood farmhouse she shares with her husband, Bridge Cox, and two kids—even after she’d run out of floor space—Cox suggested she take a different tack. “He said, ‘Babe, you are not allowed […]

Caite Hamilton | April 12, 2021

Abode Magazines

Coming to pass: A concert-goer’s souvenirs get a place of prominence

As any music fan knows, amassing a collection of concert tickets is almost as fun as going to the show. (If you don’t display them, were you even there?) So when Rit Venerus, a business manager for entertainers with Cal Financial Group, decided to renovate his company’s office in the spring, his wife, Barb, enlisted […]

Caite Hamilton | October 19, 2020

Living

Love in the time of corona: With their planned weddings on hold, three local couples are making lemonade from lemons

It’s to be expected that one’s wedding day will include a few stressors—the guest shuttle didn’t arrive on time, there’s a stain on the bride’s veil, the band left a crucial instrument behind. What’s less predictable: A global pandemic shuts down the wedding altogether. Here are three local couples embracing the change. May the 4th […]

Caite Hamilton | May 6, 2020

Knife & Fork Magazines

Where do we vegan? Robin Fetter is leading the charge for vegans in Charlottesville (and beyond)

Robin Fetter had considered herself a “lazy vegetarian” since the age of 13. Until, that is, a few months after her wedding in 2008, when an episode of Morgan Spurlock’s “30 Days” changed her diet (and mindset) forever. In the episode, a hunter from North Carolina was tasked with spending 30 days with a vegan […]

Caite Hamilton | April 10, 2020