Love Is Sweet

Since our wedding was fashioned after a fun, rustic, outdoor California family feast of locally farmed ingredients, I wanted our guest favors to fit in with that same vibe. A quick flip through those wedding catalogs that somehow tracked my mailbox down (eg, "Oriental Trading," which suggested personalized shot glasses, organza bags of Jordan almonds, or heart-shaped keychains) made me nauseous. I've rarely used wedding favors that I've brought home from other events, unless they're food-related (meaning, my stomach used them). So, naturally, I figured our take-home gifts should be delectable and in line with our fruits-of-California aesthetic.

An arduous search online finally turned up a local southern Californian bee farm called Newsom Honey Farms, which migrates their bees seasonally from wildflower fields to sage blooms to cherry blossoms, all depending on the time of year. The bees, depending on what they've been eating, will produce different shades and flavors of honey, from crystal clear to dark, deep amber. Who knew bees were such picky divas? Anyway, I caught the beginning of the summer season, which yielded me lots of wildflower honey, as well as a really delicious, light and fragrant orange blossom honey. I ordered 200 mini jars for our friends and family to take home something sweet. Someone from the farm even dropped off the boxes at our doorstep, overalls and all. Ok, no overalls, but wouldn't that have been quaint?

I wanted to personalize our honey jars, so I asked our good friend and wedding coordinator extraordinaire Sara to design little labels for us to commemorate our day. I struggled really hard to resist quoting Ralph Wiggum on there: "Bee Mine! And it has a picture of a bee on it!" But in the end, I figured not everyone would get the Simpsons reference.

The royal bee crest is an ancient symbol of the Chang family.

The wildflower honey variety was more amber than the orange blossom (second in line), which was a light gold.

Then, to country-fy these suckas, I got creative. Went to the dollar store and picked up these clear hair bands...

Ordered some cute fabric from Contemporary Cloth, my go-to online source for modern fabric for reupholstering, etc. Once it arrived, I sat in our garden and cut it into 2"x2" squares, under the watchful eyes of Twiggy...

 

I made sure to leave some time to humiliate some cats with the leftover fabric...

I'm a bohemian

             

Then, using the clear hairbands, affixed the cloth to the top of the honey.

Along with my bridesmaid Shianling, I painstakingly tied ribbons around them and trimmed the fabric.

Here was the final result on our guest table settings, photo courtesy of my friend Lynn's food blog, The Actor's Diet. The honey jar favors greeted each of our guests as they found their seats, on top of our place cards, then atop our dishcloth napkins, which were folded over the menu.

Did anyone really take home the honey and use it in their tea or on their toast? Who knows. But it's the thought that counts, right?

Love Stamps

In an effort to make up for my past few weeks of slacking, I'm doing some retrospecting blogging on some of the DIY projects I embarked upon for our wedding.

Today, let's revisit middle school block printing. I wanted our gift bags for guests staying at our hotel to have a more personal feel, but we couldn't afford to get custom-made gift bags (plus, I didn't love the mass-produced look). DIY to the rescue.

First, a trip to the Interwebs to get some plain brown kraft paper bags and a trip to Blick to grab some art supplies: some linoleum blocks, speedcutter tools, a roller, and some ink. I started by tracing our intials and a heart onto the linoleum block, then hollowing it out with the carving tool:

D'oh! I forgot printing goes backwards, so I'd have to write backwards on the block in order to get a normal-facing print.

OK, take 2. Luckily, I had bought an extra rubber block in case I messed up. Turned out rubber was much easier to carve (this is like the elementary school version as opposed to my middle school attempt).

Spread some turquoise ink on a paper plate and coat the roller...

                                            

Wet the block...

And voila!

A little punk, a little kindergarten. We had 142 guests, but since I couldn't keep track of where everyone was staying, I decided to make just enough to cover the people who had purchased their hotel rooms at the Ponte Vineyard Inn and the Springhill Suites Marriott through our wedding block discount.

My mom graciously filled them with stuff guests might need when traveling for a wedding: band-aids for high heels-wearers, tissues for ceremony criers, restaurant lists for the hungry, dental floss for post-meal hygiene, gum for making out, granola bars and water for snacks and dehydrationg, and aspirin for hangovers.

Yeah, yeah. I know it kind of looks like "aVe." 

Wedding Day!

Friends, countrymen, I have been very remiss at updating this blog because as the big wedding day approached, I was unable to keep up with writing as I was busy glue gunning, painting, and creating all sorts of bloggable situations. No worries, my friends, I did document it all. But I haven't yet had a chance to write entries about it.

In the meantime, I got MAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRIED!

Here's a sneak peek at some of the unofficial wedding day pics that show some of the end results of a lot of my DIY work (with the help of my mom and bridesmaids) from these last few months. Updates on how and what soon, I promise.

We opted for long, supper-style tables rather than the traditional round wedding tables. This was better for the communal, casual vibe we were going for. I wanted people eating at our wedding to feel like they were at a rustic California feast of friends and family, like if the first Thanksgiving was on the West Coast. Our food was served family style, so plates were passed and everyone got to taste a bit of everything.

These pics were courtesy my friend Margot, who straightened her very curly hair for the wedding, so I almost didn't recognize her when I saw her. This was the view from our ceremony, which was held in an old, repurposed greenhouse, with vintage windows hanging from the wooden beams.

I can't take credit for our bouquets, as they were created by the very talented Jolene De Hoog Harris from The Dutch Flower. But I did talk extensively with her about what I wanted: something unique and gardeny, modern and more along the wildflower vibe than something upscale (no hydrangeas, lilies, or orchids). I wanted succulents, ranunculus, and billy buttons, and the rest was up to her. She added in seeded eucalyptus, garden roses, blue eryngium, red hypericum berries, tulips, and a host of other beautiful flowers and plants that made our flowers awesome.

And there are my blue shoes, ordered from Gilt from weeks ago! I had a moment of doubt a few days before the wedding...were they too casual? Too blue? I hurried to Nordstrom's and bought a pair of gold Michael Kors shoes that were very disco. But in the end, comfort won out, and I'm so very glad I wore the blue shoes for that pop of color!

For much more detail and great photos, check out my friend Lynn's wonderful food blog, The Actor's Diet. She did a food-focused, 3-part entry on our wedding: Part I, Part II, and Part III. Since the night was mostly a blur for me, I love the attention she paid to detail and the moments that I didn't get to enjoy since I was busy rushing around and toasting...it helps me re-live the day as if I were a guest at my own wedding.

Maison Midi

One of my favorite places to shop for housewares and gifts is Maison Midi, which is on La Brea and 1st, adjacent to American Rag (a great clothing store full of brands I can't afford...case in point, I once saw Drew Barrymore there blindly plucking up clothes and then going to the register with an armload of new outfits, without mind to the cost).

Maison Midi has beautiful modern, bright, cheery linens, housewares, and all manners of things from France (like cheese knives and French bistro chairs), handblown glasses, art books, kitchenware, and John Derrian-esque decoupage paperweights and ashtrays.  I wanted to register here for our wedding, but apparently their wares change so quickly with the season that it would be hard to pull off. It's a great place to grab latte at the cafe and pick up a gift.

Glass Rainbow

Oh how I wish I could afford you.

If you feel like spending a good $70 on your pepper mill...

Down With Love-style lemonade!

"Miss, stop taking photos!"

Stormy Weather

And by stormy, I mean Dark 'n' Stormy! I first discovered this delectable drink a few years back when I was a travel host for a network called Voyage TV.

Ok, ignore my horrible host-y banter; see the dapper, pink-suited Bermudian gentleman seated to the left of me? That's Charles, our unofficial ambassador to Bermuda. He invited us into his gorgeous, well-curated home and treated us to some local eats and drinks on his patio while watching the Bermudian sunset. Not only did this amazing guy inspire me to own pimpin' house slippers (which he called his "house creepers,") he also introduced me to the local specialty drink, Dark 'n' Stormies. It's pretty simple: ginger beer, Bermudian rum, and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

For our housewarming party months ago, we decided to make Dark 'n' Stormies our specialty cocktail since they were pretty easy to mix. My mixologist friend told me it's simple: put some ice in a glass, pour in some ginger beer (not brew, since it's not as strong), then top it off with rum and a splash of lime, and you get that cool gradient effect. What I didn't realize is apparently it's all in the ratio, as my first guinea pig friend whom I made a drink for can attest. Too much rum makes for immediate lampshade on head inebriation. Apparently 1:1 ratio isn't quite right.

So now with this end of summer weather and a lazy, holiday weekend, my betrothed and I decided to escape the heat by revisiting ol' Dark and Stormy land and hanging out in our garden with a few books.  I used cool spherical ice courtesy of our awesome friend Sara, who gifted us cool Japanese ice ball makers.

Thank you registry for these Orrefors old fashioned glasses!

The ratio is more like 3:1, depending on the brand of ginger beer and how much spice you like. Looks like a storm's moving in...

Yum!

DIY Blackboard

I've been toying with the idea of making my own blackboard signs in keeping with the DIY, rustic feel for our upcoming wedding (less than a month, eek!).

I decided to do a little test run with some chalkboard paint, which I picked up at my favorite hardware store, Anawalt.

First, I picked up some cheapie little framed art at the Goodwill down the Street. This was only $7.

help me, i'm cheezy!

Ideally, I would've removed the frame and just painted the glass. But the back of the piece was totally sealed up, so I had to keep in in tact and tape the gold frame with painters tape to protect it from the black chalkboard paint.

How fun! I felt like my own personal Banksy. Minus the million dollar price tag.

Sssssst!

Sssssssssst! Spray painting is great fun. Vigilant watchers beware.

Who wants to be a skunk?

All done! Leave it for 24 hours to dry...

And voila. We have a chalkboard for our front entryway, where my betrothed and I can leave important messages for each other, like the one above. For our wedding, I may take this down and use it to display our specialty drinks menu (Which is still TBD. Cucumber green mule? Blood orange-artichoke fizz? Thai basil vodka & tonic? Strawberry fix?)

Something Blue

As all the little details of the wedding come together--planting teacup succulents, sourcing vintage dishes, finding bud vases--it's nice to relish in the small successes that just come easy.

I was ready to embark on a quest to find the perfect shoes, but then I realized nobody will even see what I'm wearing on my feet underneath my floor-length dress. Which means, I'mma wear some comfy dancing shoes.

I found these ballet flats on Gilt for under $40. They feel like I"m wearing slippers. When "Dancing Queen" comes on, I'll be the first one on the dance floor.