This weekend was a whirlwind of bridesmaid duties and wedding festivities as we celebrated the marriage of two of our dearest friends. It was a perfectly preppy wedding in a big giant tent at a gorgeous estate — complete with a pink and navy theme (I loved my hot pink bridesmaid dress) and romantic blush florals (I mean, look at those dahlias!). We danced our feet off late into the night and may have indulged in one too many glasses of champagne which resulted in quite the lazy Sunday to round out the weekend.
I am mildly obsessed with how our wedding photos came out (and now that they’re up on Style Me Pretty, I promise to share lots of them in the coming weeks!) so when I thought about narrowing down the images into one formal wedding album, I was stumped. I decided to give Blurb books a try and make some of my own picture books with all of the photos from the day’s events, and that way I’d only have to narrow it down to my top 500 favorite photos (and yes, narrowing it down to the top 500 was still hard). I’m so happy with how they came out — I even ordered some additional books with photos from my bachelorette, bridal shower, and our rehearsal dinner. Plus I love the idea of leaving them on an end table and using them like coffee table books, something to casually flip through and remember our memories of the day.
I spent my Labor Day at the most gorgeous, love-filled weekend wedding up in Maine on a tiny little island. We ate lobsters upon lobsters, and sat around the fire roasting s’mores, and danced our hearts out to big band under the tent. Then after the wedding was over, we spent the rest of the weekend as little reunion of sorts with old friends and had some laughter-filled dinners on the porch of our little rental cottage under the stars (throwing an impromptu dinner party at a rental house called for some crafty touches — like place cards made out of local mussel shells). It was one of those weekends where I don’t mind coming back to reality after a few days off because I’m just so satisfied by all of the fun moments we made. Summer’s over, but we sent it out with a bang!
Last week I went to a super fun event — The Flower Potluck – -thrown by the fun gals of Lauren Wells Events, Boston Pollen, and Cambria Grace. These ladies thought of everything, from the craft paper place cards, to garlands of carnations, to little cookies with edible flowers on them — it was beyond picturesque. Everyone that was invited brought a few bunches of flowers, and the ladies at the event spent the time making flower crowns while sipping on de-licious drinks by Flask & Funnel (I had the orchard fizz, which I’m still dreaming about, yum!). The gentlemen at the event, like my great sport of a husband, crafted up boutonnieres. And I’m so darn my proud — my guy won best boutonniere (and now refers to himself as an award winning florist, ha!). It was such a fun evening spent with lots of creative and kind people, I want to do one every week!
This was one of those blissful summer weekends where we had no plans but to kick back and relax. I wanted to go back to The Sinclair in Harvard Square to try the full menu after tasting a few of their bites at our Boston Blogger meet up earlier in the week. Spoiler Alert: It was delicious. I had oysters, a mustard-y steak tartare and some phenomenal mac and cheese (which is a high praise, as I consider myself a bit of a mac and cheese connoisseur!) We sat out on the roof deck and enjoyed the cool, end-of-summer breezes, and tasted just about one of everything off the cocktail menu. As a result, I was moving a little bit slow on Sunday — but still managed to make it to SOWA Market — my first time this summer! — to check out the food trucks and farmer’s market. Guys, I’m just not ready for summer to end yet — I’m soaking in every last bit!
Earlier this week I worked with my buddy Alison to throw our summer Boston Bloggers meet up at The Sinclair in Harvard Square. I absolutely adore these events because I finally get to put faces to the Boston blogs I love to read. The party went off without a hitch thanks to the fabulous staff at The Sinclair (if you haven’t been yet, go check it out — they have delicious food, crafty cocktails, and a really amazing roof deck). We also added a few extra special touches to this event to introduce our new instagram and twitter accounts for the group — check them out if you’re a local blogger!
I am so excited to share that our wedding was featured on Style Me Pretty’s Little Black Book blog this week! I have anxiously been waiting to share these pictures on the blog, but wanted to wait until these came out first — so head on over and check them out (I’ve only looked at them about 1000 times now). And stay tuned, I’ll be sharing more detail pictures on the blog next week!
Blueberry mint simple syrup is super easy to make, I whipped up a batch this weekend to top off prosecco for a sweet, seasonal cocktail. To make the syrup, combine one cup of sugar, half a cup of water, a handful of fresh mint leaves, a few pieces of lemon rind, and two cups of blueberries in a saucepan. Bring all of the ingredients to a boil, and let them cook down for about 10 minutes. Next, strain the berries, leaves and rind and leave the liquid in a bowl to cool down. I was impatiently awaiting a cocktail, so I cooled mine in the freezer for a short time. After cooling, strain the syrup one more time. To make the cocktails, pour a glass of champagne or prosecco three-quarters of the way full, and then add the simple syrup to taste– I like mine a bit sweeter, so I added about one full tablespoon to my drink. Then garnish with lemon, mint, and fresh blueberries — and cheers! I’m thinking ways to use the leftover blueberry mint simple syrup — perhaps on a bowl of vanilla bean ice cream?
Guys, I can’t even express to you in words how much I love this appetizer. If I could figure out how to put videos on my blog, then I would take one of me eating these, because only then would you really be able to tell how very much I love these little goat cheese crostini bits of deliciousness. This recipe was totally snagged from a spectacular little hole-in-the-wall wine bar on Cape Cod, where I went with some girlfriends a few years ago. And since then it’s been a staple with our group of friends, when we get together, there better be goat cheese crostini. Also, did I mention how easy it was to make? You just slice up a crusty baguette (I used Trader Joe’s ficelle), toast it under the broiler for 2-3 minutes, and then spread the warm bread with goat cheese. Then drizzle the crostinis with good honey — I used orange blossom honey, yum — and sprinkle with fresh thyme. The only other step is try not to eat them all before your guests arrive — I promise, it’s going to be difficult.
We had a little “Sunday Funday” at our apartment this weekend — the arrival of our monthly cheese delivery from Murray’s (best wedding gift, ever) called for a celebration. So my buddy Taz came over to enjoy some cocktails and bites to close out the weekend. We made one of my favorite snacks — goat cheese crostini — and whipped up a fresh batch of blueberry mint simple syrup to top off some prosecco cocktails. And the talented Taz took lots of pictures, so come back tomorrow to check out the recipes!
