and so it begins

I’m going to tell you now that the hardest thing about posting these photos will be not giving a commentary on each one. Instead I will try to let them tell the story on their own.

Starting with the preparations…





























Hair by Tina Lasker
Makeup by Jennifer Luna
Dress designed by me, made by Rebecca Dominguez
Garter by Jennifer Luna
Shoes from Beyond Skin
Images by the wonderful Liesl of Photo Pink

coming soon

Well my dears, it’s been a strenuous weekend of packing and unpacking, but I couldn’t not share just one of the many amazing photos from our wedding which I now have in my possession.

Normally I jump the gun and share things before I probably should, so just know this it is extremely difficult to not just post everything. There are a lot of photos though, so I wouldn’t do that to you. Mainly though, the photos are basically the last little bit of surprise I have left about the wedding before it’s really over.

So I’m going to hold out just a little bit longer (but not too much longer, don’t worry).

Look forward to: dinosaurs, elephants, ghosts, vintage outfits, crazy outfits, my goofy faces, terrariums, moss, marble, lots of lace and possibly some shirtless dancing men (and by possibly I mean definitely).

Photo by Photo Pink

wedding sneak peek

I just couldn’t contain myself and had to share this photo from our wedding.

It’s up on the Photo Pink Blog. Go look. Seriously.

I am dying to see the rest.

In other news, we spent the weekend painting our dining room & living room and ironing curtains and making our new place extra awesome.

Did you go look at the photo yet?

stuffed animals

stuffed animals Possibly the hardest secret to keep about our wedding was these little stuffed animals. These guys were our gifts to our guests, so I couldn’t share without ruining the surprise.

I started making them nearly as soon as we had set our date, spending any spare time I had sewing, embroidering and stuffing them. Not one is alike or from a pattern. While the task was daunting, and took several months, it was never unpleasant. Not to mention, I had a great deal of help from friends. I made them out of eco-felt and a good deal of scrap fabric we had at home. The faux fur is from a film Shawn made years ago. I think they were my favorite.

This is Bebop and Green Bean. We became a little too attached them, so they had to stay with us.

stuffed animals I really wanted to do something exceptional for our favors. I know it’s something that is last on the list for many weddings, but it is one of the few very memorable things for people. It’s the piece of the wedding guests get to take home with them. Ultimately we pinned little name tags on each and they became our escort cards.

IMG_3257 With them living and multiplying in our apartment for so long, it was a bit sad to see them all off to the wedding. On the other hand, they were pretty excited to go on a ride in the car.

stuffed animals In the end, we ended up with a few more than we needed so a handful still live with us. The rest found new loving homes with our guests.

Wedding cakes

Hello dear friends! We’re back from our honeymoon which means back to blogging for me. I hope you all enjoyed the guest posts while I was away.

With everything that happened in the past few weeks, I’ve got lots to share. There were many adventures on our honeymoon. There were many fun times with our visiting family and friends. And of course, there was the wedding. So I’ll have lots of details and treats in the next few weeks for us all to nibble on while we wait for the official photos from the wonderful Liesl at Photo Pink (I’ve seen just one photo so far, and it’s stunning and I can’t wait for the rest).

I want to tell you all about everything, the food, the music, the rain, the craziness and all the fun, but it just won’t be the same without photos I think, so I’m going to string you along a little bit longer. Not to worry though, the road to the finish will be highly entertaining and delicious.

Let’s start with cake, shall we?

i am a messy baker sometimes Perhaps you recall, I chose to make our wedding cakes. Yes cakes, plural. There were eight of them.  I took over my mom’s kitchen for 2 days and made a huge mess. We spent one day baking and one frosting more or less.

lots of chocolate cake When I say that I made eight cakes, I really mean I made about 24 (or 30, I lost count), since each cake was several layers. We made 10 chocolate cakes, in 3 different sizes alone.

cake crew Luckily, I had lots of help in the kitchen to get everything done. Robin, Agatha & Shiri, some of my oldest friends, came in from out of town for the wedding and spent their extra time preparing frosting and measuring ingredients for me. I would not have been able to do it without them. I put Robin to work as soon as she got off the plane. Shiri and Agatha were also kind enough to actually drive all the cakes across town to the wedding.

frostingMany cakes were made, and even more frosting. Vanilla frosting, chocolate frosting, espresso frosting, peanut butter frosting. More than I needed it turned out.

raspberry sauceI made a raspberry sauce for one of the cakes. It’s one of my favorites, as it’s sweet and tart, with only a few ingredients. I also made a chocolate ganache to top a few of the cakes, but something went terribly wrong along the way. This is the sort of thing that happens when you are making a ton of cakes at once, and also trying to organize the final details of a wedding. So there was no chocolate covered cake, though I wish there had been.

layer cakeHere are the beginnings of a little coconut cake. With these cakes being a bit taller than usual, I reinforced them with some wooden dowels. A few were still a little wiggly though.

the ugly cakeDespite everything being rushed, I was happy with all the cakes except for one. If only that chocolate ganache hadn’t turned to chocolate fudge, it would have been lovely. Instead this cake was a chocolate raspberry mess. I couldn’t leave it alone even with the reassurances of my friends. Alas, despite my best efforts, it remained a mess. It tasted awesome though.

wedding cakes

So for the record, I have no regrets making the cakes. Even with all the time it took, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Nearly everyone told me that they tried a few flavors and loved all of them. Every single cake was completely eaten by the end of the night. I would say that’s a wedding cake success.