treasure

Upon moving in to this house, I have unpacked many treasures I had squirreled away in storage awaiting the day I'd have more space or more time to enjoy them. Those days have come!

One exciting box I recently unpacked contained all the antique plates I received from my bridal shower. Wasn't that a cute gift idea?: all the guests were asked to bring an antique plate they thought I would like; combined together, I now have a large, eclectic collection!

I enjoyed unpacking each plate and remembering who gave it. Some people had put their name tags from the shower on their plate so I would know who it was from. As I was going through the box, I saw one plate I didn't remember (it has been 3 years!) and then I saw the name tag:

Thanks Briana, I love you and I love your plate. You always had great taste. I miss you and cherish your gift and memory every day.

Lopez Island

Last month, following advice from Adam's sister, we went to Lopez Island for one night to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary. It was a wonderful overnight trip not far from home. Lopez is one of the San Juan Islands and can be accessed by ferry from Anacortes, Wa.

(We ate french fries on the ferry!)

The day before we went, we made a reservation with Lopez Farm Cottages. It turned out perfectly - we got a tiny, one room house with a hot tub outside.

Here is the inside:

I was a little bummed to miss the annual Seattle Cheese Festival, but we serendipitously arrived on Lopez Island for their first ever Lopez Lamb and Wool Festival - even better than cheese!

We saw fleeces and wool for sale, spinning wheels,

weaving looms,

dye demonstrations,

a butchering and lamb roasting demo,

and baby lambs to hold in the parking lot.

We walked a block to eat at Vita's Wildly Delicious deli.

I liked their idea or serving homemade mac and cheese cut like pieces of cake...I thought it was carrot cake at first.

I also loved their patio with creative seating arrangements like this antique ironing board for a table:

After our wildly delicious food we were still hungry...so we ate lamb and Lopez Island beef burgers at the "Pharmacy." Lucky we were at the pharmacy because we also ordered a cookie dough shake and then needed lactaid:

After eating ourselves silly, we checked ourselves in at the Lopez Farm Cottages and didn't see anyone on the grounds the entire time (only about 20 hours).

It was a lovely and relaxing rainy weekend together - a wonderful 2nd Anniverary :)

pregnant side-shot and breakfast in the jacuzzi!

Then we packed up and ate sandwiches on the ferry ride home:

first anniversary!

It was our first wedding anniversary this weekend!
May 8th.....

We went to Portland to celebrate.
But it was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DAY in Seattle since March

...So we stopped to get a hotdog on our way out of town :)

We stayed in downtown Portland at The Governor hotel. It was very nice, and we loved it.
Here is the view from our room

We worked out a deal to get breakfast from the restaurant on the main floor of the hotel, Jake's Grill, included. It looked something like this:

Luckily, Portland was having the same gorgeous weather:

We walked to the Saturday Market, which was very fun

Then we got ready to leave for a session at the Portland Temple to commemorate our marriage last year

and stopped on the way at Blue Moon photography store in the St. Johns neighborhood.

It's a famous non-digital photo store and we met Zeb Andrews, a photographer Adam adores.
Here is us on the St. Johns bridge

Here is me doin' a jig on the St. Johns bridge

and here is us at the Portland Temple

On our last day, we walked around taking photos with Adam's vintage Seagull camera from China

of things like this

Happy Anniversary!

this day last year....

Lately, I've been saying to myself, "This time last year..."
It's been fun to think of all the crazy things we were doing last year to get ready for our marriage and our new life together.
For example:
Last Saturday (one year ago) I woke up early to buy cheese (Morbier and goat brie, the stinkiest things you can think of flying with in an airplane) at the University Farmer's Market to bring to California for our wedding; we packed our bags and realized Adam's wedding suit didn't fit him anymore; frantically ran errands; bought 5 different neckties so we could look at them on the plane; and ended by partying for our last time as single kids with THE FAINT. hahahaha, what a funny day!

But, today, May 5th is even better.
On this day last year...we were in California getting ready for our wedding, and I went to the temple for the first time.
It's been fun and rewarding to think back on that day and all the preparation, thought, searching, and help from others that went into my decision.
Thanks for the support, everyone :)

6 months!

November 8th, 2009 is our 6 month anniversary!
Adam and I were married May 8th, 2009 in the Newport Beach, California Temple.

What a great day :)

Once Wed

Hello!
Here is another website that has posted Rachel Thurston's photos of our wedding!

The site is called Once Wed and they have a section called Real Weddings.

It's fun to see what other people planned for their weddings. So many different ideas, they are all great.

It's funny that it's not until after we got married that I realized there were this many different wedding websites!

Bridal Shower

Well, some friends in my home area planned a wonderful bridal shower for me on March 28th. I know that was a while ago, but I wanted to share some of the photos since it was so nice and they planned some great surprises.

They wanted to plan all the food and gifts to celebrate what they loved about me. It was great! At first I was hesitant to even have a bridal shower, but...I'm glad I got to have one :)

It was really fun to see what they remembered and loved about me and to feel so supported and loved by all the women in my life.

So...

First, they invited all the women in my life
Then, they decorated the house with bark and lichens and moss. (I guess everyone knows I love "woodland")
Then, they made delicious food like mushroom tarts and french madeleines! (I used to love french things and was the french club president in high school!)
Then, they served everything on pretty antique plates with family heirloom silverware and linen napkins. (I love antique items, especially ones from your own family heritage)
Then, they got me the best group gift: a huge Excalibur dehydrator! (Adam and I have already been busy making yogurt, dehydrating mushrooms, herbs, strawberries and more!)
Then, they planned another surprise group gift: they told each lady to bring an antique plate so I could start my own mismatched collection of antique plates from the women I love!

It was so fun to see each plate and hear the story of how they picked it out. "I call this one 'The Three Sisters' and thought of you, Briana, and Candice." "This one has a barn and donkey and I thought of the farm you and Adam want to someday live on." etc.)
There was another beautiful group gift and I truly was showered with gifts, advice, well wishes, and love.
And finally...There was homemade kumquat marmalade. A few years ago, I babysat for a week in the house where they threw the shower. They had a kumquat tree and I made marmalade while they were gone. It was so good. The really funny part is that when I realized I was going to be in California in May for our wedding, I immediately remembered that May was kumquat time and told my mom I was going to ask her if I could pick them again. She said, well, we'll see when you get here if you have time!

Thanks LeAnne, Pam, Chris, Shirley, Nancy, Cathy...and everyone for a great shower!
It was so thoughtful, I loved it!

Miss B

Check out this great blog by my friend Miss B called the house that Lars built.
She is in Denmark right now studying textile design, both things sound great to me!
If I ever get back into the art/fashion groove (I'm in the science/fungi groove now), I would want to do textile design for sure.

Seeing all the cool photos of Denmark and the Danes reminds me of my trip to Iceland...

She also recently posted about our wedding here. I liked reading her post because it was so personal since we grew up in the same area and our families know each other.

Thanks Miss B!

Oh! I love this! I just saw it on Miss B's blog here.
I love old windows!

For years I have wanted to build a green house out of old windows and doors!
I have two pretty blue windows in my collection so far that have moved from Provo to Salt Lake, to Seattle, and now to Redmond, much to Adam's disbelief.

I am determined to have a window green house in my future...it's only a matter of time...
and storage space...
muahhahhaha!!!

Barn Raising

We wanted our wedding to have a sense of community



Ideally it would have been a barn raising.
Everyone in our community would come help us build a barn for our new life together. And there would be potluck pie and dancing all night long!

In reality we planned a celebration with family style dinner, dancing to a live bluegrass band, and plenty of old-fashioned wedding symbols.
We were inspired by this idea: The ritual of guests sharing a meal together underscores the sense of community a wedding is meant to celebrate.


I would describe our wedding as having antique and old-fashioned aspects as well as woodland and family tree elements.

Some of my favorite details from our wedding are:

-The family history photos. From both Adam's and my family, going back four generations.


-Everyone pitching in their talents to make our wedding special. Many people donated services as wedding gifts to us!

-Antique wedding dress from late Edwardian Era (1905-1910) with silver locket, old-fashioned brown shoes, and handsome groom.


-Hyacinth flower wreaths as the corsages and boutonnières for our family. A wreath is the perfect wedding symbol. I love how they turned out!



Though Adam and I would actually LOVE to have a barn on a few acres of land...we will have to wait a few more years.

***Photos are from Rachel Thurston, rachelthurston.blogspot.com, our fantastic photographer***

references

Here are my references!
So many people spent time making our wedding awesome, here is a simple list.

I loved everyone who helped out and everyone we hired! I'd recommend these folks to anyone!

Custom Stationary - Brooke Hellewell Reynolds
http://inchmark.squarespace.com/
(former art director for Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Kids)
We worked with Brooke over email. She designed our beautiful wedding announcements using designs from the lace in my antique wedding dress.

Photography - Rachel Thurston
http://rachelthurston.blogspot.com/
I loved having Rachel as our photographer! She is great to work with, fun to spend time with, and takes beautiful photos.
I sent Rachel an email and a few scanned pages from a magazine and she made sure to get the photos I had in mind, despite the limited supplies we had to work with! My family and I had put so much thought and effort into planning a beautiful wedding, we are so pleased Rachel captured our hard work and the first photos of me and Adam as a married couple!

Live Band - Silver Mountain Fiddle Band
http://www.silvermtstringband.com/
This band was the best! They really made the party and were easy to work with, sounded great, and did and amazing cover of Niel Young's "Harvest Moon" for our first dance. My sister said: "This band might be a new tradition for our family!" (We have 4 more weddings to go!)

My bouquet and Adam's corsage -
C M Armstrong Floral Designs
949-916-7171 www.cmarmstrongdesigns.com
She made the perfect woodland/antique bouquet!

Dru Kent - my mother's close friend who made toffee, shortbread, mushroom palmiers, and more for our wedding. She also helped plan and decorate the location, and listen to and support my mom. Thanks!

My mother's close friend who helped plan, decorate, and lend us her beautiful garden for our party.

Wedding Cake- Savoie’s Fare
Laguna Niguel (949-240-6613)
Jacques made the best cake for us: chocolate with passion fruit mousse filling...yum!

Woodland Log Cakes - Blackmarket Bakery
Irvine 949-852-4609
2 flavors: lavender with Lemon cream, and pistachio with cardamom. They are great at making custom orders.

Meringue mushrooms - Davlyn Howland
Our family friend lovingly made these to decorate our cakes as her wedding gift to us!

Blue Diamond Co-op Almonds - My aunt and uncle Carol and John.
My Aunt and Uncle grow almonds for Blue Diamond in Central California, they gave several pounds for our reception as a wedding gift!

Hair and Makeup - Katie Hoffman
http://www.katielark.com/KatieHoffmanSalon/HOME.html
I met with her a few days before our wedding and she came up with some beautiful ideas. I originally wanted finger waves, but she thought they might not last all day. Instead she did lovely pin curls. I loved it and it lasted the whole day!

Family and Friends!
Our wedding was a real community event! Our friends and family did everything from arrange flowers, make food, set up, sew cloth napkins, iron cloth napkins, clean up,

Wedding photos

See these links for more wedding photos!

http://rachelthurston.blogspot.com/2009/05/tesss-bridals.html
http://rachelthurston.blogspot.com/2009/05/pretty-polaroids.html
http://rachelthurston.blogspot.com/2009/05/tess-adam-wedding-breakfast-zovs.html
http://rachelthurston.blogspot.com/2009/05/tess-adam-newport-beach-temple.html
http://rachelthurston.blogspot.com/2009/05/tess-adam-reception-coto-de-caza.html

http://www.casandoideias.com/2009/05/tess.html
http://www.casandoideias.com/2009/05/tess-adam.html
http://wemetinabar.com/2009/05/dress-envy/
http://myunwedding.blogspot.com/2009/05/dreamy.html
http://jordanferney.blogspot.com/2009/05/vintage-wedding-dress.html
http://vintageglamblog.com/2009/05/tesss-bridal-session/

May 8th, 2009

So, Adam and I got married May 8th, 2009.

It was a big to do, and all our family came to celebrate and support our new commitment to each other.



The night before our wedding we had a family picnic at a park by the beach in Laguna Beach. Everyone ordered take-out from La Sirena, a mexican restaurant across the street. It was wonderful to see family and friends that came in from different states.













Our wedding celebration started with a family breakfast hosted by Adam's parents, Ka and Stan Barlow. They shared memories of Adam growing up and gave advice and well-wishes to us as a new couple. Stan even wrote a poem to us! We loved it!





Our wedding ceremony was at the Newport Beach, CA LDS Temple. This was the best and most important part of the day. It was so calm, we will always remember how we felt :)

This is me and Adam in the car right after we were married!



Our wedding celebration ended in a big party with lots of lights, plants, tasty treats, a mushroom cake, friends, and a fantastic live fiddle band!













Since we were intent on going to Mexico for our honeymoon, our family decorated our car accordingly: "Swine Flu or Bust!"