Monday, June 8, 2009

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***

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

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/

Friday, May 29, 2009

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!"

Thursday, May 28, 2009

I got married!


Hello all!

Adam and I got married May 8th, 2009!

We are slowly getting back into the real world after all the glorious festivities.

I will post photos soon!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

moved out!


I moved out of my city cabin last weekend and now I am a city bum!
Sort of.
A pretty sweet city bum with lots of nice friends to stay with.
Thanks everyone!

Here is Adam and lemon lime getting ready to help me move:

Adam was happy I moved out:

Thursday, February 19, 2009

fermentation


Hello all!
Here is a great how-to video from Sandor Ellix Katz, author of Wild Fermentation.

In his book and on his website you can learn about the ancient and modern craft of fermentation.

Delicious examples:
Sauerkraut
Miso
Tempeh
Sourdough
Pickling
Wine, Mead, Beer, etc.

Here's the video, have fun!!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Darwin


Happy 200th Birthday Charles Darwin!
Your ideas and life have contributed to mine.

Monday, February 2, 2009

mini truck


If I had $9000 I would buy this for my sister!!!!

Christmas tree

I just have to post this. I saw it on Arthur's blog, and I love it!