Don't get me wrong

I loved our photographer, but my favorite shots will always be the ones taken by family.

Favor

When we started the planning process many ideas were tossed around. Vintage salt & pepper shakers, bonsais, saltwater taffy, macaroons. All were scrutinized and left to fall by the wayside (or in the shakers' instance, the back of my mom's closet). Eventually just the sound of the word "favor" made me collapse in a sugary mental meltdown ("Sweetie, will you do me a quick favor?" Ahhhhhhhh! 'Sleep deprived bride goes to prison for shanking unsuspecting fiance...').

Then one day I ordered some goodies from Whimsy & Spice and fell madly in love with their homemade marshmallows. Soft, fragrant, heavenly. It was fate.

And so the story ends. We ordered a box of rose flavored marshmallows. Bows were tied around them with nimble fingers (*ahem*). Custom labels slapped on the front. A few may or may not have been secretly devoured in the meantime. And voila!

Would any of our guests have noticed if we didn't even have favors? Eh. Probably not.

Did Nick and I think they were cool-as-hell? Totally. And that's all that matters.


Disclaimer: No fiances were shanked in the making of these favors. And yes, the word "favor" still does make my eye twitch.

peonies in a dish

I'm so incorporating this into our centerpieces with my collection of thrifted milk glass bowls. 4 days!

Image from here

Thank-You's

If the thought of doing another DIY after the garlands didn't make me want to cry, I would so whip up a batch of these amazing thank-you's by Jeffery Rudell to send to our guests. Maybe after the wedding I'll be feeling a bit more crafty?

via StumbleUpon

Our playlist is coming along... ?

No, we aren't Twilight fans. Obviously. But Nick is a huge Iron and Wine buff.

Though, I do struggle with the reoccurring urge to sabotage his playlist with nostalgic David Sedaris skits. How great would that be? Sneak one in when he's not looking. All of our friends and family gathered around meticulously decorated tables, enjoying tidbits of yummies on our wedding day, just to encounter Sedaris explaining the Dutch relevance of 6 to 8 black men on Christmas Eve over the sound system at our reception venue. Yes.

I could. It would be 1 part a**hole, 2 parts awesome.

Speaking of Cupcakes

Saint Cupcake here in Portland is now shipping yummy cupcake kits nationwide. You pick the flavors, frosting, and sprinkles, then days later you get a delicious box of caloric goodness delivered to your doorstep. I'm salivating just looking at that cup-o-frosting.


found via makool

wedding map

In our attempts to keep our wedding as eco-friendly as possible, we decided to forgo the usual direction cards in our invitations and make a wedding website instead. When I was hunting around online for the best way to give our guests sensible directions to our ceremony and reception, I came across wedding mapper.

It's free, includes user friendly "directions to" and "directions from" functions (similar to Google maps), has symbols to show ceremony, hotels, airports, etc. on the map- and even allows you to add photos for each location (again, very reminiscent of Google). Once I put ours together I added a link to the map in our wedding website, and voila!I don't claim to be the most computer savvy person around, but our map turned out pretty freakin' cool if I might say so myself.

(I believe some of the fancier wedding websites include mapping functions, but since ours was free and simple, this worked well for us.)

I've never been too keen on guest books

There's something about the idea of standing in line to try and write something clever and heartfelt in a boring ledger that makes me cringe, but when I saw this sweet little book that Emilia Jane of Auburn & Ivory made for her fiance, I knew I had to have one.Doilies left over from the Garland Party + Polaroids + a little creativity = best guest book ever.

Napkin Giveaway (and no eyeballing my obese cat)

Melissa just reminded me that I completely forgot to share pictures of the napkins my grandma generously sewed for our wedding. Ta-da!

Now that the pictures are out in the open, I have a little confession to make. You see, being the wonderfully sweet lady my grandma is, after receiving yards of fabric in the mail, she did some equations with the measurements and decided to surprise me with double the number of napkins I originally requested. How did I get so lucky?

While a greedy part of me wants to keep every last piece of delicious fabric, I know what needs to be done. Being the eco-conscious, practical young woman that I am, I decided the best thing to do is host a little napkin giveaway to thank my readers. So, if any of these vibrant pink patterns catch your eye, please leave a comment letting me know which one is your favorite by midnight on Wednesday, March 11th, and I will randomly pick 2 winners to receive a set of 6 napkins of their choice. (Use them as hankies, bandannas... napkins, I don't care- just please appreciate my granny's hard work while you do so.)

I hope you all know how grateful I am to receive your comments and words of encouragement on my upcoming wedding- and this is just a small token of my appreciation!


:?: Note: The obese cat in the 1st photo is not part of the giveaway. I know, I know, I'm such a tease. Don't worry, you're not missing much.

:!: Also, a super-duper thanks to East Side for validating my cool-blogness by recently adding me to her blog roll. I know this might sound creepy (OK, whatever, I'm creepy), but when I squealed in excitement after discovering this the other day, Nick gave me perplexed look like he didn't know if he should give me a congratulatory hug or shove some wine and a sleeping pill down my throat- but I didn't care. Fiances don't need to understand how cool East Side is. They just need to know that when it comes to groom style, what she says goes. Thank you.

Tina Givens

Ever since I got the materials for our napkins, I've been obsessed with the fun prints of Tina Givens Fabric. I see a few throw pillows in my near future (that is, when I recover from the garlands).

Images from Fabric Shoppe on Etsy.

Garland Party cont.

I think I drank more mimosas than anyone else and still complained the most (my fingers feel like they're falling off. I can't do this anymore. I'm dyyyyyyying!)

Nonetheless, after 5 and a half hours of non-stop garland making, the four of us completed six very lovely, very long (45'), doily garlands. My friends might look like they're smiling in that last photo, but rest assured, I'm positive they were envisioning wrapping those garlands around my neck and strangling me with them.

Say hello to my first and last DIY wedding project. I'm crafted out for the next year- at least.

Sarah,

Because of you I'm begging my mom to plant Sweet Peas in her garden.
Images from Saipua, of course

Garland Party

+

+

= Garland making party.

A note to my Portland friends:
"When: Sunday, March 1st @ 1pm
Where: My apartment
Why: To help make garlands for my upcoming wedding!
Basically the deal is, you come over and provide free labor, and in return I stuff you full of yummy cocktails and mediocre snacks. Boys are welcome too (as long as they aren't above attaching doilies to string and talking about Nathan Fillion's hot buns).

You know you want to..."

My apartment is cramped and my obese cats love to eat paper, but I'm definitely up for the challenge (after a few cocktails that is). Don't worry, if anyone loses any digits I will be sure to take plenty of photographic evidence for your viewing pleasure.

Images from here and here

low-key hair

This is definitely the look for me. A low, side-swept ponytail with just a touch of wave. Perfect for the beach, right?

So easy I might even be able to pull it off by myself.


Images from Project Wedding.

French Macaroons

In the latest issue of Martha there's a spread on the loveliest Parisian Macaroons. I read it and got to thinking, what's the point of having wedding favors if they're not something unique? If we're going to invest money in something as frivolous as favors, shouldn't they be something our guests can really savor?I saw these delicate little cookies and instantly pictured them packaged in kraft boxes with ribbon for our wedding. I know they can get pretty spendy to buy pre-made, but luckily Martha shares a detailed recipe with her readers.

Here's the plan: make a batch of raspberry macaroons. See how they turn out. DIY favors?

Image from here

DIY?

The new year has brought to light my unhealthy distaste for absinthe and a yearning for superior sewing abilities.
I'm purchasing the fabrics. I got a new sewing machine for Christmas. But, do I have the cojones to make my own napkins for the wedding?

Check back in a week.

If there are no updates it means I'm missing a few digits and the sewing did not go as planned.

swatches from here and here

DIY Treats

After an exchange of emails regarding wedding favors, Anne from The City Sage has me feeling a bit more creative than usual. I recently saw an article on NPR's Kitchen Window by one of my favorite contributors Nicole Spiridakis called 'Holiday Gifts Good Enough To Eat' and instantly thought "DIY wedding favors". In the article she includes recipes for some yummy treats such as preserved lemons, mouth watering truffles, and my favorite, a savory lemon-rosemary sea salt. She suggests these be used as budget friendly Christmas gifts, but I can easily see any of them packaged up and presented to guests as unique and tasty favors as well. But alas, I am not nearly crafty enough and my kitchen is much too tiny to pull off tasks like these. That doesn't mean I can't drool!

If any of you other brides-to-be decide to give it a try, please do share pictures!

Photos from NPR


P.S. to Anne- A 30's inspired sheath gown paired with a Twigs & Honey bolero and followed with a funky lace mini-dress for dancing. Don't worry, there will be more details to come! ;)

Killer Shrimp

Every once in a while the fiance and I try to put the hectic wedding planning behind us and enjoy a relaxing afternoon to ourselves. This Sunday that is exactly what we did.

Inspired by my love for Kitchen Window on NPR (and setting aside my lack of cooking abilities), I pulled out a recipe I found online for a version of 'Killer Shrimp' and had a go at it. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of sampling this dish, Killer Shrimp is a restaurant in Marina Del Rey, CA that gets its name from the main dish on their menu- their Killer Shrimp. I first discovered Killer Shrimp on one of my trips to Marina Del Rey to visit my uncle back when I was in high school. He took me to sample this spicy seafood dish and I have been craving it ever since. Being that I live nowhere near a reasonable driving distance from this amazing restaurant (and am horribly jealous of anybody that is) I figured the next best thing would be to attempt a passable version of it in the confines of my own small apartment. So I cracked open bottle of wine, armed myself with the best organic ingredients I could find, then got to work.

After sifting through the reader comments for this dish on allrecipes I decided to stray from the original recipe a bit. These are the ingredients I ended up using:
-2 quarts organic chicken broth
-1/2 a 6oz. can of organic tomato paste
-1 8oz. bottle of clam juice
-1/2 cup of butter (instead of a whole cup)
- 2 tabelspoons rosemary
-5 cloves minced garlic
-1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
-1 teaspoon celery seed
-1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
-1 heaping tabelspoon red pepper flakes (to add some extra spiceness)
-1 cup organic white wine
-1 and a half pounds of local caught shrimp (de-veined with tails and shells intact)
-1 loaf of fresh baked french bread (to use for dipping)

First I did some research via The Food Network to find out what type of white wine would be best. Their rules are: don't use something you wouldn't normally drink, dry wine works best for seafood, and "what grows together goes together". Since I decided to use local shrimp I figured it was best to use the local Cooper Hill Organic Pinot Gris as well.

Of course I also had to get some of their Organic Pinot Noir to enjoy during the lengthy three hour cooking process.

To start I mixed all the ingredients together in a pan (minus the wine and shrimp) and let it simmer for an hour:

After the hour was up, I added the white wine and let it simmer for another two hours:

After another two hours I added the shrimp:

I let the shrimp cook for about 3-4 minutes (just long enough to turn pink), then once they were finished I served it up in two large bowls and we both sat down to enjoy!

It turned out very spicy, aromatic, and delicious- also very simple to make. It was pure torture to have to wait a whole three hours to devour it while smelling the broth simmer! Was it as good as the Killer Shrimp I remember from years ago? Well... no, but until they open a restaurant here in Portland I think this substitute will do just fine!

DIY Peonies

I believe that I am destined to have peonies at my wedding. It started back when I purchased a bottle of Stella In Two Peony Parfum and fell deeply in love with their rich, tangy scent. Then, one lazy Saturday afternoon as I casually flipped through a local bridal magazine, I stopped dead on a page featuring an Oregon bride wearing the perfect lace mini-dress and proudly clutching a lush bouquet of large, delicate, pink peonies. I have since tracked that dress down, purchasing it for my own wedding (the infamous second dress), and fantasized about those magnificent flowers non-stop.

Shortly after that I ordered a package from Springcart, and when the box arrived I was ecstatic to find a small cellophane bag containing three peony postcards in chocolate brown envelopes tucked inside.

Finally, my mom called me one evening after bringing home a backseat full of peony bulbs from a local gardening store. She told me that upon taking them into the house my father saw the pictures on the bags and smiled, telling her how much he loved peonies because his grandmother used to grow them in her yard when he was a child. They are fragrant, hypnotic, and they make my dad smile? Anything that makes dad happy makes me happy! (with the exception of taxidermy)

At that point there was no turning back.

As I started my hunt for the perfect peonies I knew I wanted to make DIY bouquets. My mom can garden like nobody's business and with her help I would be in safe hands.

Generally peonies bloom from Spring to early Summer (approx. end of April to mid-June), and by having a May 30th wedding I knew we would be right near the end of mid-season (which happens to be when my favorite peony species are in bloom!). We were lucky enough to discover a local nursery on the outskirts of Salem, OR called Adelman Peony Gardens. A couple months ago my mom and I kidnapped Nick and went over to the gardens to check out the flowers and get some more info. to prepare us for the following Spring. Here are some pictures Nick took of our top choices:
Mrs. FDR

Mister Ed- they bloom with both white and pink flowers on the same plant

Monsieur Jules Elie

While at the gardens my mom purchased a few live plants that we hope to have in bloom for our reception next year (we are planning to bring in tons of live plants from her garden for green-decor). After speaking with Mrs. Adelman who was harvesting flowers in the garden, we learned some valuable peony advice:

1. Peony buds can be kept in the fridge sans water for weeks (though you want to keep them away from fresh fruit because it emits ethylene gasses that speed up the maturity of the flowers).

2. You cut them when they are tight buds, then when you want them to open you can place them in warm water to speed the process. If that doesn't work, Martha Stewart has some great peony advice here (if you fast forward, the peony tutorial starts in the fifth section about 25 minutes into the episode).

3. At the Adelman Peony Gardens cut peonies cost about $2 a bud. At around $24 a dozen, DIY peonies fit almost any budget!

4. Leave at least three leaves on the stem of the peony to keep it thriving. Make sure you do cut off the leaves that will be submerged in water as they will rot in the vase if you don't.

Thanks to the Adelman Peony Gardens for the wonderful tips!

Also, If your wedding doesn't fall between the months of April and June and you love the look of peonies, you can always substitute for the gorgeous Ranunculus. They can be just as lush as peony blossoms and come in an array of vibrant colors:These are some purple fringed ranunculus that can be found at Saipua (and while you're there, check out their yummy soaps!).

For our centerpieces we purchased various vintage crystal vases and will be filling them with peonies and greenery from my mom's garden. I will be sure to update with pictures when we get some!

I also recommend this video from The Knot On Demand (scroll down to 'How To: Make a Bouquet' to watch a tutorial on how to make a simple yet elegant peony bridal bouquet).

Gardens that sell cut peonies:
Adelman Peony Gardens in OR
Bridgewater Gardens in MI
The Peony Garden in IA
Swenson Gardens in MN
BB Peony Gardens in ME
Third Branch, LLC in VT
Omena Cut Flowers in MI
Halcyon Hill in NY

If you have any more tips on using peonies in bouquets or know of more cut peony suppliers please feel free to share!