E&T's Wedding Day

This past weekend we had the pleasure of helping some good friends of ours on their wedding day... most of my readers know this couple... I didn't actually get a pic of them on my camera, so this is their engagement picture from their invitation, which the bride designed herself, and they were SO beautiful... Frank smoked the Texas style brisket for them, and since he was working I lent a hand in the kitchen getting the meal put together with some other family friends... it was really fun. We worked hard, but I think we'd all agree that most of all we had a really great time. Since I was in the kitchen for most of the event, I never actually got people pictures. And, that's a little painful for a blogger, haha! But, I think we all were pretty pleased at how great the meal turned out.


The dessert table was a collection of desserts made by family and friends...

The food tables... the meal theme was Pacific NW meets Texas, since that is where the groom is from, so it was grilled salmon and brisket, with lovely summer salads.

My cupcakes... lemon cake with lemon avocado frosting. When E asked me to make a dessert for her wedding, in our discussion about different kinds of cakes, I ended up telling her about this recipe. As we are both foodies, she thought it sounded about as cool as I did, so she gave me permission to do it at her wedding. Believe it or not, it works pretty well. I know people are hesitant to try new (possibly weird) things, but I think most of us are happy when we do. Whether you like it or not, it's always good to try new things, wouldn't you agree? Of course, I'll try anything once, and rarely eat things that I don't like, haha!

The fruit trays... with lavender from my garden...

One of the amazing salads... Orzo salad... and mango salsa and lemons for the salmon. And, one of the shining details from the wedding was the handmade paper flowers. Normally I am a "very strict about flowers" girl--flowers must be real to be acceptable in weddings--I can't help it, I love flowers. But, these were AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL! Wow. And, so fitting since the bride is a graphic designer, and she definitely does awesome work with all things paper!

More examples of her amazing designs. I happen to know her and her mom worked very hard at these, and they were worth every moment, they were gorgeous. I'm not done yet... haha, you're in for a few more flower pics before I'm finished here.

See, I told you so. :-) Wow. Some of the paper was patterned too, which looked so neat, and really added depth to the floral designs.

The beverage table--cucumber water (so refreshing!) and iced tea.

In lovely apothecary beverage jars.

Flowers... :-)

I must say too, that the grounds were amazing. The wedding was held at family friend's house as well--R&R did amazing work on their grounds in preparation for the event, and it was spectacular. Their home is so lovely, and opening it to 200 people for a wedding was incredibly sweet of them.

The Salmon grilling area... The salmon was spectacular, and this Pacific NW girl knows her salmon. :-) It was great!

My guy's amazing brisket. He really knocked it out of the park with these. Five 15-ish pound briskets, smoked to perfection, starting at 4am, and coming off the smokers at 5pm. Then he sliced them all. I knew he could do it, and I was expecting it to be awesome, but I was still impressed when it was even more awesome than I expected it to be. That was some award winning brisket right there... we know that for a fact, because several Texans were at the wedding, and they said so themselves. While all the compliments he got were pretty cool, the one's from the BBQ'd Brisket capital of the world truly meant a lot. He also made our super secret family BBQ sauce recipe, which also got rave reviews... which is nice, because we happen to think it's pretty fabulous ourselves. :-)

Testing each brisket is an important part of quality control. :-) I can assure you that the kitchen staff made certain every brisket was of most excellent quality before it was served to the guests. :-)

And, since I realized I didn't get nearly as many pics as I wanted to of all the lovely details that made up months of work on E's part before her wedding, I assembled just a few things from start to finish on my kitchen counter this morning to take a pic of them... her lovely invitations--I can't even say how amazing these were... her re-labeled bottled water... I heard so many compliments on these. Not to encourage your insane attention to details there, E, but they were quite cute and I know it was a detail that was much enjoyed by your guests... :-) And, my lovely corsage. Cute! E&T's gift to us was a magazine about meat. Since we share an infatuation with all things meat/food/BBQ with E&T, this was a highly appropriate gift for us, and much appreciated. We love it!

Thanks for letting us help you out on your song-day! Praying for many blessings for you as you start your life together. We shall be saving our dinero for a trip to Texas to visit you, and do a Texas BBQ tour. :-)

And, I must also say, THANK YOU to my dad who drove all the way up from Portland to babysit my girls for one very long day so that Frank and I could do this on the wedding day. We appreciate it so much dad!!