Stable Cafe Showcase Event

Hello!  It's been a while, per usual :(  I'm finding it's so much easier these days to share via Instagram because it's, well, instant?  But I definitely have some fun events stored up to share with you here so let's get started!

Stable Cafe is of course very near and dear to me (KTW and I married there last year!) and this past October, they let me host a little showcase event with just a few of my favorite Bay Area wedding vendors.  The results were absolutely lovely and I felt so lucky to be surrounded by such wonderfully creative folks.  Green Wedding Shoes humbled me further by sharing the gorgeous images by Edyta Szyszlo HERE.  A few of my favorite details below....

In the bricked fireplace room we set up a faux dinner table.  I was inspired by the million shades of green at Stable and tried to bring those into the tablescape.  The vintage bistro chairs from Pieces by Violet faded from dark green to soft washed white and the bench opposite's fabric carried the ombre pattern as well.  Got Light hung a vine-y brass chandelier that fit right in with the indoor growing trees and vines.

Creamy soft white dinner plates were set off by a pale golden patterned charger, teak silverware, amber goblets and crystal champagne coupes all from Frances Lane.  I found vintage milkglass vases at the Alameda Flea to hold bundles of skinny green tapers that resembled grass shooting up from the table.  The striped green runner from La Tavola brought some structure to an otherwise organic feeling scene.

Lila B's signature succulent gardens decorated the entire space...

Including the walls!

I watercolored different succulent designs and had them blown up to different sizes for this art installation.  Ikea lanterns held bundles of copper wired LED lights for my "firefly lanterns".  These looked so magical once it got dark.

Lilikoi Design letterpress invitations were hand-delivered in the weeks prior to the event.  Each was wrapped in a colorful liner and closed with a gold seal and was handed to the recipient on a copper tray with two mini succulents wrapped in chambray fabric and green and white striped grosgrain ribbon.  Guests were encouraged to keep one and bring another as entry to the party.  Baylor from Lila B will be planting the ones that were returned.

Vintage furniture from Pieces by Violet were tucked into each space in the venue.  I particularly loved this Chesterfield with wooden legged chairs and gold coffee table.

Guests were welcomed through the main coffee shop with a cowhide rug, Got Light marquis heart and draped greens along the stairway.

Maisons, Marques, & Domaines hosted a bubbly bar and poured Scharffenberger into Frances Lane cut crystal coupes on Stable's own custom wood cut bar.

Guests took away burlap bags full of fun treats!

A second beverage bar hosted flavored water and wines served in dark green glass 

Frances Lane goblets.

Although easy to close off, we left Stable's lovely kitchen open for guests to peek into all the hard work that goes into catering such an event.  Chartreuse curtains framed the open space.

A lash bar by Katie Nash Beauty and Marisa Perel was a fun treat for all of the ladies!

Creative and delicious appetizers from Jersey Tomatoes were passed in the courtyard.

The Cheese School put together a lovely cheese spread in the gallery space complete with a "cheese cake" decorated with figs, greens, and berries.  I'm positive nobody left hungry!

Venue: Stable Cafe

Photographer: Edyta Szyszlo Photography

Event Coordinator and Designer: Ryder Sloan Events

Catering: Jersey Tomatoes and The Cheese School

Floral Design: Lila B

Furniture Rentals: Hartmann and Pieces by Violet

Linen Rentals: La Tavola Fine Linen

Tabletop Rentals: Frances Lane

Papergoods: Lilikoi Design+Letterpress

Lash Bar: Marisa Perel and Katie Nash Beauty

Bubbly Bar: Maisons, Marques, and Domaines

Drape and Lighting: Got Light

Our Rehearsal Dinner

As of today, I've been a happily married woman for three months.  Can't believe how quickly that happened!

I figured it's time to go ahead and show some fun wedding details.  I'll start with our Rehearsal Dinner which was hosted at The Wayfare Tavern, one of our favorite SF restaurants.  Celebrity chef, Tyler Florence does his thing there and the food always amazes!  Additionally, it has a distinctly NYC feel which is very special to us as NYC is the city we met and fell in love in.

The only photo of us from our Rehearsal Dinner.  

Really wish we had hired our photographer for this night too :(  

I had met Taylor's sister for an awesome blow-out at Dry Bar earlier that day to ease a little stress and to catch-up with my soon-to-be sister over mimosas!  Taylor bought me the dress when we were out running errands one day from Betabrand, an SF start-up.  

And my Alice and Olivia shoes have tiny red hearts on them for our Valentines Day celebration. 

We reserved the Bartlett Room upstairs which is long and skinny.  It features a view into their wine collection on one side and lush velvet curtained windows on the other side.  There's a bar at one end and a screen at the other end where you can play your own videos or watch enchanting black and white scenes of old San Francisco, we did both!  The long dinner table was perfect for our family style meal.  

We first hosted a private dinner for our family and then opened up the rest of the evening to all guests.  This worked perfectly for us as we wanted to give special time to our family but also wanted to see all of our friends who had flown in to be with us. 

 Since it happened to fall on Valentines Day, I made up a little sweets table in the front of the room with vintage Valentine candies and my mother's heart shaped rice krispie treats.

I bought vintage Valentines off of Etsy and hand wrote all of our 

dinner guests names in gold for place cards.  

We now have our "Bride" and "Groom" place cards framed 

with the personalized menu below in our kitchen.

The dinner was delicious and we had the sweetest toasts from family members.  At the end of the meal, we played a slideshow that my mother made for us of pictures of Taylor and I growing up and then as a couple too.  It was emotional and beautiful and later when our friends started to arrive, we couldn't believe how many people were there to celebrate us.  It's truly one of the most overwhelmingly awesome things you realize when you host your own wedding.  More from the big day later...off to make my husband a little three monthiversary surprise!

Back in the Saddle!

Three months ago, I wrote my last post.  This is by far, the longest I've gone without blogging and my, how I've missed it!  Let's get right down to business, where the hell have I been for the past three months??!  Well, I'll tell ya!

- Got a full-time job at Sweet Lauren Cakes.  So no more crazy days of traveling all over SF each day from one job to the next, I get to sit at one desk, go to one office, and get one paycheck.  I am beyond thrilled to finally have some regularity to my schedule, although I will continue to also do freelance events, mainly with Amy Nichols because she's oh so fab and, I still can't get enough of weddings and events!  So now you've been warned, there will be lots more cake pop talk around here, think you can handle it?

Cake Pops at the Winery SF for a recent Today's Bride event.

-Started RCIA classes at my church.  Actually, I started these back in October.  They've been a big time commitment, every Thursday night for an hour and a half, plus all of the readings we're sent home with...but it will all be worth it when this Saturday night at Easter Vigil mass, I will finally have my long-awaited Confirmation in the Catholic faith.  Woo hoo, go Catholicism!  Honestly, I do take this very seriously though, and I'm thrilled to be making the commitment.

- Joined a cookbook club with three girlfriends.  I don't think we've officially chosen a name for ourselves yet but when we do, I'll be sure to share.  We've also started a Tumblr blog to record all of the recipes we try.  I'll occasionally link to that as well!  Tuesday night, we have our first dinner where we get to share the recipes we've tried over the past few weeks from Deborah Madison's "Greens Cookbook."  Greens is a wildly popular vegetarian restaurant here in SF down at Fort Mason.  Everything I've tried from the book has been superb!  At our dinner, we'll choose a new cookbook for next month.  My, our boyfriends are lucky...KTW has gladly tried all of my recipes and offers helpful tips like "mmm" or "this is awesome!"

Maple Mousse ingredients, this was scrumptious with chopped pecans sprinkled on top.

-Speaking of KTW, we've moved in together!  It's been a lot of fun so far and I'm newly obsessed with decorating the space.  Must reign myself in though because...

-I've also started looking for a car.  Although I love our apartment, it is super far from my work.  We're also constantly wishing we had one. So many fun places nearby for day trips, Napa, Tahoe, Santa Cruz, Carmel, the list goes on.  Unlike NYC, in SF, we've decided, a car is a must.  My dream would be one of those new cute little Fiats in mint green.  But my budget says prob not gonna happen...someday...

-Hmmm, what else?  I read the first book from Hunger Games.  THAT took up three days of my life!  On to the second one!

-We're now planning a trip to Tokyo this summer.  KTW has work and I'm tagging along :)  Must renew passport asap.

-I watched Martha Marcy Mae Marlene and became obsessed with Elizabeth Olsen and her haircut, so I copied her and chopped off all my hair, having a lot of fun with my new 'do.

"Oh hay!" 

(I'll be honest, it took me about 76 tries before I got 

that "natural hanging out on the couch looking cute pic.")

So anyway, I hope that explains why I've been a little pre-occupied.  I'm not able to promise I'll won't go MIA again, but for now, I'M BACK!!

Holidays, #1 Belated T'giving

I failed to write a proper post after our visit to Milwaukee over Thanksgving so I'm going to

do so now, everyone's getting a little tired of Christmas blogposts right? 

 Well, no, me neither but here goes anyway!

Thanksgiving table-setting, we all loved our cute pilgrim place cards 

Bloody Mary, Milwaukee Style, ouch!

After all of the Thanksgiving feasts, we drove down to Chicago for the day, and went promptly to the RL Restaurant for more eating of course...the restaurant is absolutely gorgeous, feels like you're in Ralph's home, definitely a must if you're in Chicago!

 

Cloud Gate presiding over the seasonal ice-skating rink.

Playing with a Felix Gonzalez-Torres candy sculpture at the Art Institute.  Please take a moment to read the link and meaning behind this piece of artwork, quite poignant.

 ...and another Gonzalez-Torres.  Would love to see something like this at an event!  Could be easily and fairly inexpensively done with a bag of mardi gras beads.

Ginormous chandeliers at the entrance of the Public Hotel, designed by Ian Schrager.

 Our reason for going to the hotel, the infamous and recently updated Pump Room.  Check out that domed gold leaf bar, so beautiful in person.

 And the adjoining restaurant, these orbs of all different sizes and shades were fascinating and provided the restaurant with such a nice warm glow.

So that was Thanksgiving, minus a few hundred other pics I took...maybe by Valentines Day, I'll eventually get Christmas pics loaded!  Hope yours was filled with family and friends!

Umami Burger

I hope I don't lose any friends with this statement...

....I do not love hamburgers.  There. I said it.  It's out there and I can't take it back.  It's not that I won't gladly eat one if it's in front of me, but I definitely never crave burgers.

That was until I tried an Umami burger.  One recently opened on Union Street and KTW and I checked it out last week.  O   M   G, so super yum.  We got the pickled plate because we're sooooooo healthy like that, an order of cheesy tater tots (not smothered in cheese though, the cheese is very subtle and baked into the tots, mmmm,) and we each got a burger too.  KTW got the Cali Burger with butter lettuce, slow roasted tomatoes, Umami's own house-made cheese, carmelized onions, and house dressing.  I went for the Umami burger with shitake mushrooms, carmelized onions, roasted tomato, parmesan crisp, and Umami ketchup.  The parmesan crisp was my fave part.  You can see it peeking out of my burger in the 2nd pic.  Drooling yet?

Update: I now crave burgers.

Photo Deluge

Boy, have I been delinquet in posting! Here's why...

 Kate visited, read much more about it here and here.  We walked across the bridge...

 Watched gorgeous food being prepared and then eaten at Pizzeria Delfina...

Ate pastries like this mini lemon merengue tart from Citizen Cake...

I fell in love with a Mackage...and washed my hair very soon after this photo was taken, I swear!

And of course, had cocktails in many shapes and sizes, fabulous trip Kate!

 KTW and I found a sufficient patio in Noe Valley to watch the Packers...and Auburn...and the Badgers...and the Brewers...

True to form, I ordered many options for drinks...

Another weekend we went to Outerlands before driving down to Fort Funston Beach.  My yummy turkey sandwich here and his awesome pastrami melt below...

Sweet Lauren Cakes did a phenomenal display for the Kate Spade launch of their new lipstick colors...

And finally, we went to Napa...

That's right, I tasted red wines in my white jeans, I like to live on the edge!

 KTW tried to get artsy with these shots at our first stop, Mumm.

 I agree with Bette Davis...

We had lunch outside at Farmstead...

 And ate really good, really big lunches...

 Took pictures and tasted in the vineyards at Honig...

 Honig is German for honey, I was so thrilled to realize this. 

I have a long time fascination with all things related to bees and honey...

 Napa...ahhh...

Now, off to our long-awaited trip to NYC!  I can't wait to get back to all of my old stomping grounds and spend time with friends.  We even have a black-tie wedding to attend,

I'm so excited to get all fancy-schmansy!!!