We have been given the coveted badge of honor from Style Me Pretty! The badge has been proudly displayed everywhere because we are just that ecstatic!

If you didn’t see our post on the wedding, you can see it by clicking here.

Thanks again to Cliff Brunk for the amazing photos, Calistoga Ranch for having a beautiful location, and Valley Flora for all your floral inspirations.

–

A major cable network is casting brides getting married between now and October of 2010 in Southern California.  Brides must be willing to book their wedding hair and makeup with one of the glam squads featured in the show. Brides will receive free hair and makeup!!  If you are interested, please contact us and let us know:

Wedding venue/Time/Date/, Contact information (phone number, email, address), and where you plan on getting ready for your wedding.

We would love to give you more information on how your wedding memories can be featured in one of our episodes!

Speaking of great vendors, Cliff Brunk www.cliffbrunk.com photographed this wedding. C&J picked very wisely working with him for their special day.

I posted the majority of the photos on our Facebook page. Here are a few to preview:

Chris has great style and she had a vision to create a conversation friendly, dinner party setting. The florals were beautifully done by Polly of Valley Flora. I loved all of the different containers that were used, including tiny glass bud vases, bowls, and asian soup spoons. We had a chance to incorporate Chris’ love of peonies and succulents, mixing the delicate with the stronger and angular plant.

If you go check out the photos on our Facebook page, you’ll even see the digital caricature artist at work. Jon Casey was a hit!

Congrats again you two! Love you guys lots and was so happy to be part of your special and SUPER fun day. XOXO

My parents just celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary here in LA. It’s so amazing to think about how for 40 years they’ve been side by side going through thick and thin, raising all their children and now even being around for grandchildren. I can only hope that I will have their strength and passion for me to get to 40 years and beyond.

My siblings and I decided to host their happy celebration at Mastro’s Steakhouse in Beverly Hills. The Napa room on the second floor is a beautiful cellar room, complete with a view of their entire collection of wine.

I selected some springy and earthy tones to set up well with the colors of the room, the ambiance of a wine cellar, and just to keep it more natural. My parents are super mellow when it comes to parties and celebrations, so I didn’t want to overpower with too much going on. (linens provided by BBJ Linens)

The Napa room was really romantic, so Gina (Mille Fiore) suggested lots of candles to make the lighting really stand out. It was a great effect. By the way, don’t you love the florals she did with the bubble bowls? Modern and clean, but simple and beautiful.

This champagne glass is a vintage 1970 from my parents’ wedding! At my wedding, my parents gave me these glasses as a keepsake. My parents received these as a wedding gift on their wedding, and now they were passing it on. I was the lucky one to get them! I had to take these with me to dinner and surprise them with a toast at the beginning of the dinner.

The great part is that my mom saw them as they were being set, and asked “Hey aren’t these our glasses?” I loved it so much that she knew right away! My parents were super happy that we had a chance to break these out to use.

Melody (Sweet and Saucy Shop) made me an incredibly delicious cake for the event. I was so glad she was able to help me with this request. I wanted to give my parents something special and look a bit like a wedding cake. We even had my parents cut the cake together like they were getting married again! So cute!

I wanted to leave you with the food photos. I love food and so I couldn’t leave you without showing you all the deliciousness.

Congratulations to my mom and dad on 40 years of marriage. You guys are my inspiration and I love you both so much!

I’m a transplanted Angelino so in honor of the upcoming Cinco de Mayo celebration, we have for you a special festive party! Cinco de Mayo like St Patty’s Day and Oktoberfest is a time to celebrate different cultures. I think its just fun to have themed parties!

Aren’t these baby Pinatas so cute? I wanted to be authentic, so I went far and wide to pick up my decorations. 

On my quest I found vendors selling decorations, Mexican food, candies, and arts and crafts. I’m lucky to be in LA as all of these things were available to me just a short car ride away.

Me setting up for the fiesta time.

Handmade paper flowers in bright colors. I wish I had 100s of these to make all sorts of garlands. It’s eco-friendly too since its reusable!

Ready to party. The hanging garlands were so fun, just a little bit added to the ambiance.

Party time – Cocktail style… with TACOS!

A very lovely woman named Rosa came to cook delicious tacos for us all night. I personally ate 6 tacos and almost exploded.

What a fun night for all! I was able to do what I love to do – plan parties, and also to treat my special people to some fun, great tacos and drinks to commemorate our anniversary. What’s in store for next year?

Don’t you love the pretty paper flowers? What a find on Olvera Street!

In my post about the Long Beach Antique fair, I talked about the treasure hunt for decor for the shower. You’ll get to see here what we ended up with, and also thanks again to V, for making the trips to Anthropology to grab some additional darling pieces. V was definitely my partner in crime on this project; we had so much fun bouncing ideas off each other. She is also really creative and crafty.

The morning of the bridal shower V and Em, two of the bridesmaids, came over to work on flowers.

Our venue was Bouchon in Beverly Hills. We held the shower in the private room overlooking the Montage hotel courtyard. The sunlight was really so awesome. It wasn’t too warm that day so we were able to keep all of the patio doors open to get fresh air throughout.

Here are some detail shots for you to check out.

The welcome area with empty frames, candlesticks, the wedding date on jars, wine crates, and white paper bags with chocolate bouchons and shortbread favors.

Vintage everywhere!! Ranunculus flowers in vintage tin cans next to a vintage typewriter. Can you see the pretty bridal shower invite?

Guests were asked to leave some sage advice for the bride to be. Don’t you love this book made by V?

More vintage! Beautiful camera and some old books.

Food, glorious food! Bouchon’s famous fries in a rustic looking cone server.

The bride did not want afternoon tea for her shower, so instead we made it a butler passed canapes afternoon cocktail reception. This was really fun and relaxed with everyone just socializing amongst each other, holding a glass of wine, and just grabbing some canapes and fries.

Congrats, C! I can’t wait to share your big day soon!

I wanted to share a couple of my very favorite images of the day.

Happy and relaxed

Having lots of fun!

Go to Cliff’s blog to see a few more photos > http://brunkblog.com/2010/04/14/engaged-chris-jeff-napa-winery/

I really can’t wait to see what Cliff has in store for us for the wedding next month!

I would like to present my favorite display of the day…which very accurately describes the scene at this fair, swap meet, etc.

I would have to say there is definitely buried treasure, and you have to look for it. Luckily, between me and C’s bridesmaid, we were able to find all the fun stuff that you’ll see in my next post about the bridal shower! In one day, we found most everything that would fit the theme of vintage, rustic, and romantic for this beautiful bride to be! I guess we can call this a successful trip to the antique fair.

I’ll just include a few clues and hints for the next blog post. We’ll call this an inpiration entry, where you see some themes in unedited format and then you get to see the final product later.

I had an obsession for vintage wood soda and wine crates.

Another obsession, old typewriters

Oh and in case you wanted to know what the line looks like at 6:30am, my view from the back of the line.

In early March, my husband and I went to Whistler and Vancouver for our trip to do some snowboarding and hanging out. Our last trip to Whistler was two years ago, and since it was so fun, this trip was a must re-do. We elected to skip the 2010 Winter Olympic games to avoid crowds, which worked out so well! No lines at the lifts and no crowds on the mountain.

Even with the games over, we still had a chance to see this on the Whistler mountain top:

This was a breathtaking view and since the weather was nice, we could see the entire village below. We couldn’t ask for a better memory.

After 5 days in Whister, doing a lot of snowboarding, we had some time to explore the beautiful city of Vancouver. The Vancouver part of our trip was kind of an afterthought due to flight schedules, but boy was it such a pleasant surprise. We had an opportunity to meet up with some new friends who lived in town, and to see some signs of Spring bloom.

We don’t get to see Cherry Blossoms in LA! This was such a treat in an overcast day.

This gorgeous view was from our hotel room, overlooking Stanley Park and the waterfront. Ahhh serenity… I love how you can see the snow capped mountains in the distance.

As you can see in these very few photos, Whistler and Vancouver are both great cities to visit for a special anniversary trip or maybe your honeymoon.

Finally, I have to throw in a food shot. I got to visit the famous Japadog stand downtown. YUM! I got an okonomi dog to share with my husband. I enjoyed it, but he said he prefers the ketchup or chili dog. Boo on him.

By the way, there is a lot of great food in both Whistler and Vancouver. It’s perfect for you foodies out there.