friends. food. wedding.
/I’m going to start off with a huge THANK YOU for being so patient with the craziness that was going on with my blog for the past 3 days. On Saturday, while at our friends’ wedding, my domain registration expired. This actually came without a warning email to renew the domain, so I was completely caught off guard. Losing my domain name would have been awful, but luckily I was able to renew. Then, this morning, I was about to publish this post and noticed my site was taken down by my host. For some reason my cache plugin was not working properly, which then caused my site to take up too much of my host’s system resources. After a few hours of plunking away, and trying a few different cache plugins, I finally got things working. Hopefully this will not happen again soon!
Chris and I just returned home from a quick, but amazing wedding weekend in North Carolina.
The theme of the weekend was the perfect mixture of:
friends.
food.
celebration.
The celebrating started off with a bottle of wine + a thank you note from the bride + groom. Best welcome gift ever!
The travel day was quite long, starting with a 3:45am wake up call in Colorado and arriving in Asheville at 3:30pm. From there, we were shuttled to the lovely Highland Lake Inn and then off to the rehearsal. Chris was one of Joe’s groomsmen.
Joe + Michelle are outstanding cooks and huge foodies. Needless to say, food was a top priority the entire weekend. The venue has one restaurant that focuses on the farm to fork mentality. Almost all of the food used in the restaurant is grown on site, or purchased locally.
The menu, even for the rehearsal dinner was extensive. Chris had a handful of options to choose from, and my gluten free/veggie diet was easily accommodated for, which I was so appreciative of.
There were quite a few laughs about my name tag below.
Lay off the GLUE!
I really have no idea what all was in the bowl below, but I do know it was outstanding. A few things I know were in this dish:
- a ring of cooked spinach [not oily, cooked perfectly]
- lentil mash with peas, carrots and maybe potato?? not sure what all was in the middle
- light hint of cinnamon
- hericot vert [skinny green beans]
It was nice to have such a substantial meal. Often times, protein is left out of vegetarian dishes, but this was packed with lentils. Definitely kept me full!
I know these two from Ohio State, as I briefly mentioned the other day. Joe was in the architecture program with me and lived with my husband, 3 other guys and Michelle for 3 years. Joe introduced me to Chris our sophomore year, and we were together ever since. I’m not quite sure how Michelle put up with all of those dirty boys for so many years! It wasn’t until our senior year, when J + M started dating. While no one saw it coming, it made complete sense. They work extremely well together, and are one of the most fun + easy going couples, you will ever meet!
Part of the garden at the Inn.
Saturday morning was all about relaxing. Since everything was located in one place, we had the whole morning to do as we pleased. I never would have thought to have our wedding at a venue like this, but it was one of the best ideas ever. No one had to drive anywhere, or even leave for food. Everything that we needed was within a 1-5min walk away. They even provided an endless supply of snacks!
The wedding ceremony started around 3:30 and the weather couldn’t have been more ideal. 65* + sunny.
Joe + his mom
Michelle’s mom + brother
Joe + his groomsmen.
Michelle + her dad
A very sweet ceremony.
The grins could not be wiped off their faces the entire weekend.
Michelle worked with someone through Etsy on designing her wedding jewelry. I loved it!
Stunning bride!
Married!
Beautiful backdrop.
Cocktail hour!
Guest appearance by the Inn’s white peacock!
It’s hard to tell here, but this was a large tree branch with little lights on the ends. They hung leaves with everyone’s name and table numbers from the branches. At first it was located in the vase you see to the left. That is, until I brushed against the table and it came crashing down!! The black stones were everywhere and so were the leaves! We got it all cleaned up and 2min later it happened again, when someone else touched the table. At that point, we decided to just lay the tree on the table instead of in the vase.
I was completely mortified when I knocked it over!!
In lieu of a cake, these two went with cupcakes. Vegan cupcakes from Whole Foods! The cake texture was thick, moist, and perfectly flavored. One of the best I’ve ever had! [Once every few months I give in to gluten for a special occasion. I feel comfortable doing this because I know I do not have Celiac]
Rosemary sea salt spice jar!!
They had the most creative centerpieces I’ve ever seen. Total foodies, I told you! In the center of the veggie candlesticks, they had a jarred basil plant, loose thyme + rosemary.
Every table displayed different vegetables. Loved this idea!
Michelle made a quick change for the reception. This dress was gorgeous as well!
Miss these guys so much!!
Another great idea they had, was for guests to write notes and put them into a small box, they plan to open on their 10yr anniversary. I’m not sure I could keep from looking before the 10yr mark!!
Truly a wonderful weekend. Always great to catch up with some of our best friends, but sad to say goodbye!
Ashley
