Oh my little chickadees! Did I attend a great wedding yesterday or what?
This was a perfect pairing. I’ve come to the conclusion that there is an unbeatable combination when it comes to planning a fabulous wedding to be remembered for years to come: a chef and a musician.
Mr. Twistie and I met Bryan about five years ago when Mr. Twistie joined a band Bryan plays in. We both immediately liked him. He’s quiet and mellow with a wickedly sly sense of humor. In fact, he’s so quiet we didn’t start hearing about Julie for a long, long time even though they were already getting together back then.
Once we did meet Julie, we found her every bit as delightful as Bryan. And then there’s the food.
Bryan’s day job (most musicians have them, you know) is managing a gourmet Italian import deli. Julie’s is cooking at a gourmet Italian restaurant that foodies flock to due to it’s fantastic reputation. Parties in their home always feature great music on the stereo and some of the best food I’ve ever eaten, in the company of laid back but deliciously witty people.
In short, this is a couple born to plan a fabulous wedding… which they did without a lot of professional help.
A friend volunteered to arrange the flowers. They were an artfully chaotic mix of roses, miniature lilies, carnations, and at least half a dozen other flowers in pale yellow and lavender. The bouquets were lush and the table arrangements were placed in a charming mix of clear glass jars, pitchers, and small vases. Since the wedding was held in a rustic courtyard with lots of pretty vines and flowers around the perimeter, all that was needed for general decor was a couple wooden buckets filled with white hydrangeas at the head of the aisle made of cream colored rose petals.
Bryan arranged the music. He had iPod programs for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and dinner hour. A band mate provided the sound system it played through as well as his R&B band to play the reception. Everybody danced (except Mr. Twistie, whose gout was acting up, darn it!) from toddlers to grandparents.
As for the food, that was Julie’s job and she did an amazing one. A couple of friends pitched in with extra hands and there were waiters to hand it out, but Julie self-catered from apps to dessert. Prosciutto with melon, warm olives with lemon and garlic, mixed nuts toasted with bacon and rosemary, killer deviled eggs… I had a hard time keeping from filling up on the appetizers. But I knew dinner would be special.
From the heirloom tomato Caprese salad, to the watercress salad in a delicate balsamic vinaigrette, to the toothsome mushroom risotto, to the borlotti beans in tomato sauce, to the luscious pork with peach tomato barbeque sauce, every dish was an incredible experience for the taste buds.
Then came the dessert table. Julie went with a dessert bar, and what a dessert bar! The formal cake was white cake filled with an unctuous pastry cream bursting with fresh strawberries and raspberries and frosted with an Italian meringue. In addition to that, there were heart-shaped red velvet Whoopee pies, chocolate chip cookies, fudgy brownies with walnuts, tart lemon bar cookies, and fabulously moist cocoanut macaroons drizzled with dark chocolate.
All the little touches were there throughout the wedding. From the sprig of sweet lavender threaded through each program, to the ceremony written by the happy couple and performed by the bride’s aunt, to the place cards set into half wine corks, to the tables named after cities in Italy (where the happy couple is set to honeymoon), to the carefully chosen wines at dinner, to the basket of complimentary flip flops for guests whose shoes proved to be impractical on the site, this wedding looked as polished as anything I’ve ever seen a professional put together.
But the thing that really made the day wasn’t any of the above, as nice as it all was. The thing that made the day so special was the warmth and thoughtfulness of the bride and groom. It was the way they made sure to talk to every single person sharing their day. It was the way Julie played in the grass with two tiny girls and the way Bryan cried as he spoke his vows. It was there in every smile, every word, and every gesture.
As pretty as the location was, as good as the music was, as delicious as the food was, as beautifully as all the t’s were crossed and i’s dotted, what really mattered yesterday was that we were in the presence of so much love.
That’s really what makes Julie and Bryan such a perfect pair.
I just want to hug them both and mug Julie for her recipes.
Maybe we can team tackle her when she gets back from Italy, Fabrisse. I need to know the secret of the dressing on the Caprese salad. Mr. Twistie couldn’t stop raving.