the wedding: part 2
This is the end of the wedding posts, with more photos than ever. While I’ve kept quiet for what I’ve shared before, I have a bit to say this time around. Mostly though, there are tons and tons of photos.
When we first started planning our wedding, looking for locations, choosing vendors, we found ourselves coming up against all these restrictions. In particular with venues, there were a lot of rules: from which caterer you could use, to how loud you could play music. One would think at a public institution such as The Natural History Museum, which really only does weddings on the side, there would be a great deal of restrictions, especially considering the historical artifacts they have throughout. Instead, they were the most open of any place we contacted. We were allowed to roam the museum, nearly all night. This completely shaped our wedding, as we were surrounded by history and our guests were transported out of Los Angeles into another world.
We encouraged our guests to wear vintage attire and many not only obliged, but were enthusiastic. We didn’t specify a particular time period which gave us a range of styles. It was so great to see what everyone came up with. It was as if all the ages of guests to the museum from times passed we converging again.
The one aspect of the wedding that we did not plan at all were the decorations and flowers. The whole time we imagined that the museum would be such a stunning backdrop that the details like centerpieces could be simple and still work. So we didn’t put too much thought into it. Or should I say, any thought.
About a month before the wedding, when we realized that we would actually have to come up with something, we turned to our friend Suki. We knew her from the events she had put together for The Cinefamily and as she had recently started her own event company, we thought she would be a perfect match to not only make our wedding run smoothly, but also to design a good deal of the decor.
Suki and her co-conspirator, Patsy, were able to take the minimal direction we gave them (moss & glass jars) and come up with stunning designs and arrangement. They were even able to incorporate the various pieces we had come up with along the way.
Instead of a typical guestbook, I wanted to make a quilt out of the fabric signed by our guests. I found a selection of bird themed fabrics and the ladies from the happening were able to reflect this by incorporating little nests into the decor.
Being that we live in Los Angeles, one of the most vegan friendly cities in the country, one would think finding a vegan caterer would be easy. For a number of reasons, it became the most complicated part of our planning. Luckily we found Jennie Cook, who was amazingly helpful all around and made amazing food for us. These beanie pops were delightful.
We were really happy to be able to include so many children at our wedding as we imagined they would be able to explore the museum with their families…and just look adorable.
Do you remember those stuffed animals I made? They were much loved by our guests, which made me endlessly happy.
The reception was held in the recently restored rotunda, a beautiful room from the original museum, made almost entirely of marble. (You should definitely click on that photo to see it in all of it’s glory.)
Oh and it is a tragedy that I don’t have more photos of food. We had the most amazing tomato soup. So good that it may have been a figment of my imagination. There were vegan sliders, fantastic cashew cream potatoes and a special fig and rice celebration roast from Field Roast. I ate all of these things. We took leftovers home. It was wonderful.
Kyle gave an epic speech from the mezzanine of the rotunda.
There were touching speeches and long speeches made by our dear friends.
…epically long speeches.
All those cakes I slaved over were devoured.
There was dancing.
It was glorious.
And things got a little crazy, but that’s for another day.
All photos by Photo Pink
except the final photo by Shawn Bannon
So, in case you missed it, here is the wedding roundup:
get invited with our handmade book invitations
come to the rehearsal party
experience the nervous preparations of getting ready
and the main event…part one: the ceremony
May Day
Happy May Day everyone! While we did not have bonfires or May poles, I feel as if this ancient holiday has great meaning for me this year. Today we officially say good bye to our old apartment and hello to our new life in our new home. We are truly closing the door on the cold winter. If I weren’t so exhausted, I would want to dance about like those ladies above on May day back in 1907. I would of course need a matching dress.
It’s been a very full weekend. I made tons of cupcakes and a cake for Kevin & Kelly from The Vegan Collection’s wedding. It was lots of work, but it was so rewarding when we delivered them to see Kevin and family and friends setting up for the big day. The rest of the weekend has been spent moving the last of our things, which was a much bigger task than I imagined. On top of that, my car died so it’s been an even more inefficient process. I’m hoping it’s just the battery, but as my wagon is only a few miles away from the big 100k, I’m a little nervous it’s something worse. More bike riding for me I suppose.
The highlight of the weekend though, was sleeping over at the Natural History Museum. We became fellows when we had our wedding there and have been trying to take advantage of as many of the perks as possible. It was an amazingly fun night, definitely one of the coolest things we’ve been able to do. Not to mention I am just completely enamored with the museum. I always have such a good feeling when we visit.
Many things coming up on the blog in the coming weeks, including the rest of our wedding! Here is to new beginnings.
the wedding: part 1
So this is it. Here is our wedding. Smashed down into two blog posts (that means there is only one more).
Photos by Liesl of Photo Pink
(except no. 10, by Shawn Bannon)
makeup by Jennifer Luna
hair by Tina Lasker
dress made by Rebecca Dominguez
suit jacket by Denver Bespoke
officiant Elysia Skye
location Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
next…details, food, decor and dancing…
and in case you missed it…getting ready for the wedding
easter brunch
Well, we managed to pull everything together and put together a lovely Easter brunch. We even managed to snag an amazing dining set, including a beautiful hutch and a buffet, from Craigslist and pick it up on Saturday. There was a lot of cooking and moving of furniture and cleaning (as we still haven’t quite moved in 100%) but I’m proud to say it went off without a hitch.
We reused the wonderful moss centerpieces from our rehearsal party along with a few pieces we have in our china collection. I am totally in love with this bunny.
We also used the cloth napkins that we got for our wedding (which you’ll be seeing in action, in the next few days). Clearly I have a thing for bunnies. While we do have a lovely set of spring themed dishes, we were one setting short. This mismatched mushroom plate fit in nicely though.
I even tried my hand at flower arranging for the occasion. I obviously chose a vase that was much too large, for my flower selection, but I was really happy with the extra color.
I had to get a little fancy and make these french toasts with asparagus and orange beurre blanc that I found on Martha Stewart. Of course, with a few simple substitutions, I was able to veganize the entire recipe. They were a lovely addition to the brunch, slightly decadent, but not too sweet or overwhelming of the other dishes.
I’ve never had a beurre blanc sauce before so I’m not sure if I made it quite right but it was extremely tasty.
Cooking in our new kitchen is a dream. For the first time, I have sunlight in the kitchen. It’s an amazing thing.
Shawn’s one request was a deep dish quiche filled vegan bacon and daiya cheese. I used the broccoli quiche recipe as the base from Vegan Brunch
Alicia brought some delicious roasted Brussels sprouts and a carrot ginger soup with cashew pesto. So good. I also made some roasted spring vegetables but forgot to photograph them. Oops!
My mom made an orange quinoa salad. Definitely an orange theme this year.
Nine of us fit at our new table! I still can’t believe we found it.
With so many different dishes, we had to fill our plates many times with small servings. Here’s round one with the french toast, quiche, soup and veggies.
Mochi really wanted to be part of the party.
I made some molasses candies as a treat. Having never made them before, I’m pretty pleased with how they came out. I think I could take another crack at it though. I used blackstrap molasses so they were particularly strong. Ideally I’d prefer them to be a bit more subtle and less chewy. Of course, they should also be coated in chocolate. Making candy is like making magic.
Luckily my mom brought an assortment of chocolates from Xan confectioners.
It was a wonderful day filled with family and friends. It definitely showed me how much it takes to host a good party. Thank goodness I had help with the dishes. Now I’m just glad I have the rest of my Sunday to relax.
sanctuary
For Earth Day, I wanted to take a moment and share some of the photos from our trip the the Karori Bird Sanctuary in Wellington, New Zealand. This sanctuary is a massive forested area surrounded by a pest proof fence so the birds are safe from predators. While the birds are allowed to come and go if they wish, they’re provided with additional food inside the sanctuary to help them thrive.
We walked around for quite awhile before we actually saw any birds as we chose a more secluded path. You could hear them calling but would only see the swaying trees.
Then we found the Kaka feeders and were soon surrounded by a flurry of the brown parrots, ready for snacks.
Down in the valley, we found so many other species of smaller birds flying about, playing and chirping.
There was this duck (who I affectionately call Quackers) who was very curious about me and sat down right next to me at a shady spot on a bench.
We walked around for hours enjoying the tranquility of the area, listening and looking for birds.
It was deeply affecting to learn how much New Zealand has been transformed by humans. It is hard to believe that there used to be 12 foot tall flightless birds roaming the island freely. With a saddening amount of extinction, especially amongst bird life, I’m thankful that there are places like the Karori Sanctuary taking action to preserve the endangered species still struggling.
As an island, the environmental impact of everyday life in New Zealand is much more clear. Where here in the US, many are able to push aside ideas about living greener, it seemed to be the general consensus of everyone in New Zealand to conserve and preserve the magical environment that we all reside in.
I hope you celebrate Earth Day by doing what you can to protect our precious world, even in some small way.
