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!

Bring on the Roar of the Holidays!

Just this week, I've added about 5 or 6 new things to my already jam-packed calendar for December.  I had kind of expected a slow one considering I moved to the Bay Area just a few months ago and still feel like I don't know too many people.  But I've been delightfully surprised with the invitations, some social, some for work that December has brought.  Like most people, I can get a little carried away over the next few weeks with all of the celebrating.  I know it's important for me to remember to drink lots of water and stay well-rested so I can enjoy all of the fun things ahead!  How about you?  Are you prepared for the festivities?!

I'd like to post some pics from my first Milwaukee Thanksgiving with KTW, but they'll have to wait until next week.  For now, I'll leave you with this guy.

While in Milwaukee, we took a road trip one day to Chicago.  After leaving the Art Institute, I snapped a photo of one of their lions all decked out for the holidays.  He looked so regal gazing out to the skyline of the city and certainly ready for the "roar" of December festivities with his wreath!

Gallery Wall

Still trying to pull together my new apartment but thought I'd share my most recent project for a sneak peek.  KTW was given the task of helping me hang a gallery wall in my kitchen.  I laid everything out on the floor the way I wanted it hung and then sat back, ate bon bons, and watched tv while he did the rest.

Not really, I handed him nails and gave directions like "a little to the left."  But he was definitely the master of this project and I think he did a phenomenal job!  I smile each time I turn the corner and walk into my kitchen.  Big thanks to my favorite dude!

Mapping out the plan and measuring each frame.

All done!  The items hung in black frames are some of my grandmother's embroidered hand towels.  My mother cleaned and ironed each one for me.  I truly treasure them.  I painted the Le Sueur Peas can and bee.  My mother painted the flower.  The green framed picture is of Spanish Bay at Pebble Beach.  This photograph is particularly meaningful to me because it's one of the moments I decided I must live in California!  The shell sketches I bought in a gallery in NYC, they've lived in many apartments with me over the years.

Renewable Clothing

By Fernando Brizio

*Felt tip pens bleed out over time to create one of a kind, re-wearable dresses. 

Insert pens, wear, wash, repeat cycle.  Fantastic.

Loving: Christian Faur

Christian Faur

Loving: Miss Capricho

Miss Capricho

My Inspiration Board

For about a year now, I've been ripping pages out of magazines.  Recipes and images of decorating tips, parties I want to recreate, and clothes I'm pining over have all been piling up because I didn't know what to do with them, I just knew I had to keep them.  Finally, I bit the bullet last weekend and bought a cork board and some tacks and went to work.  Why keep them in a box in my closet?  If these are images that I currently have some sort of response to, they need to be up, I need to see them, they need to inspire me.  The main thing I realized once I pulled it all together is how much color inspires me.  Take a look, I love how bright and vibrant this came out.

Getting started...I had to discard a lot and just keep my very favorite images. 

The recipes have been set aside for a "cookbook binder."

These were strategically placed to blend with the colors that were in the pictures.

Final outcome, it hasn't been hung yet so this isn't the best picture but it gives

you an idea of what I'm going for.  My plan is to continue to add and take away as I see fit. 

Hopefully this will keep my studio apartment a very creative one!

Payton Cosell Turner

More cool installations...

From Turner's website:

Each wallpaper pattern is made up of thousands of hand-applied stickers, and can be removed and re-applied in any space.

The Salon at Sundown

A multi-media exhibition by Brian Kaspr and Payton Turner

2009

Stickers???!!! Awesome!