If you’re thinking about getting married in a far off local, one look at these destination wedding invitations from the very talented Lisa Tse of Inkbox Design Boutique and your mind may be made up! Love them! Every travel themed detail makes me crave a vacation. If these don’t inspire wanderlust, I don’t know what will! Check out her website for more information and amazing destination wedding invitation and accessory designs.
Oh yeah! The holidays are here, and we’re all about celebrating the joys of the past year and all the excitement to come in 2010! And in our humble opinion, what’s a party without a good cocktail?
Our friends at Seattle’s ledgendary Canlis Restaurant (also an amazing wedding reception location!) have put together a collection of holiday cocktail recipes for all of us to enjoy- from super easy and booze-free to a concoction you may need to be a serious chef hobbyist to try, these cocktails are sure to bring joy to any celebration. No one does delicious quite like Canlis, and their incredible bartender James MacWilliams is here to show us how it’s done. Take it away James…
HIGHLAND EGG NOG
1 1/4 oz Famous Grouse Scotch
1/2 oz Benedictine
1/2 oz Zirbenz (Austrian Arrolla pine liquor)
1/4 oz Simple syrup
1/2 oz Cream
1 Whole egg
Separate egg and beat yolk and whites separately. Beat the spirits, syrup and cream into the whites and then add the yolk. Shake with ice and pour into a long drink glass. Top with freshly grated cinnamon and nutmeg and garnish with pine.
NOTE FROM JAMES: I created this just for Junebug to highlight the fun of creating cocktails for a special event. Many cocktails have more appeal to female guests and so I wanted a cocktail for December that might appeal more to men. We love to create drinks for weddings based on a wide variety of themes from color and season to nationality and taste.
RED VELVET
By Jose Castillo?
2 oz choice of spirit?- vodka, gin, whiskey, rum or tequila
3/4 oz Simple Syrup?
3/4 oz Lemon Juice?
1/4 oz Cointreau?
Float of Infused Claret ?(To make infused wine use a bottle of Pinot Noir , 7 strawberries , 2oz St German , 1.5 oz Cointreau)
?Shake and strain spirits, juice and simple syrup
Float infused wine on top
Garnish with small lemon peel
RUBY CRUSTA (NON-ALCOHOLIC)
1oz POM pomegranate juice
1/2 oz Ginger Syrup
1/2 oz Lime
1 1/2 oz Rhubarb Dry Soda
Shake and strain in Martini glass with Sugar Rim, Lime twist garnish.
NOTE FROM JAMES: The Brandy Crusta was created in the 1850’s by Joe Santini. It is the precursor to the most popular drinks today. The Lemon Drop, the Margarita, and the Cosmopolitan all take share origins in the Crusta. This is a non-alcoholic variation that still has all the fun of a high octane cocktail.
OUR LADY OF THERMIDOR
1 1/2 oz dry fly vodka infused en sous vide with strawberry**
1/2 oz Pineau de Charentes
2 dash Bitter Lemon Elixir
2 dash Campari
Float of Champagne
Sous vide carbonated strawberry garnish***
Shake vodka, Pineau de charentes, and two kinds of bitters. Strain into a cocktail glass and float champagne. (high acid preferably) Drop in carbonated strawberry for garnish.
NOTE FROM JAMES: Born Theresa Cabarrus in 1773 to a French born governor of the royal bank of Spain. Our Lady of Thermidor is a nickname given during the French revolution. She spent some years in the court of Louis the XVI before fleeing the revolution. Her character played a major role in one of the series of the Scarlett Pimpernel. This cocktail however is named not because of her role in the revolution but because of her choice in bath water. It is said that she was of incredible beauty and her secret, bathing in strawberry water. She felt that bathing in strawberry water was good for the skin and complexion.
**For the drink, one strawberry for every ounce of vodka is cooked sous vide for one and a half hours at 75 degrees Celsius in a bath of water. It works out to be 450g strawberry to 750ml Dry Fly vodka. So for poetic effect there is the essence of one strawberry per ounce of vodka. By using this technique I get a fresh strawberry flavor without the problems of a lengthy infusion namely time and earthiness. Furthermore, as a benefit I can extract the pectin from the strawberries at this temperature. The vodka ends up having a wonderful silky texture and body without sugary sweetness. Pineau de Charantes adds a touch more to the honey texture with peach and apricot undertones while Campari and Bitter Lemon Elixir add complexity and a touch of acid, only a dash of each. The bitter lemon elixir I have made with tinctures just for this drink. It is made of lemon, gentian, bay leaf, rhubarb, fennel, ginger, sage and caraway tinctures with just a hint of sugar and water. The cocktail is finished with champagne and carbonated strawberry.
***A note on carbonated strawberry garnish. I sous vide the garnish first to break down cell walls and release the juices. Then I charge them in an isi canister with co2. This adds an extra touch of effervescence to the cocktail. When the guest bites into the garnish the surprise is a bubbly rush of strawberry.
Incredible event designers can take a vision, an idea, a tiny inspiration, and bring it to life super-sized, fully realized, and in technicolor! Today we get to see just that with the ultra-creative work of Daniela of Seattle’s Bella Signature Design. Read on to see how she worked with a wedding couple to turn their love of color and modern design into this striking concept…
and into this stunning reality…
Staci and Brett came to me with a love of all things modern yet lush, and a love for bright colors (Ah, the perfect match for Bella!) They had chosen Januik Winery, one of my favorite venues in Seattle for their wedding. Fabulous modern architecture, great wine, and sensational food! While Staci, Brett and I worked on the color palette (chartreuse, persimmon and raspberry) it was Staci and I that struggled over her point of inspiration. One of Bellas beginning design stages is to find the couples “point of inspiration.” This can be anything; a favorite season, a location, a stunning piece of fabric – anything that speaks to the bride and groom and represents their combined style. This inspiration begins the concept of the design, so that the wedding is uniquely theirs, and not something just created from magazine tears. Staci gave me this beautiful Missoni scarf to use as inspiration, which featured one of her favorite patterns as well as the couple’s favorite colors. What a great piece to use as inspiration!
Staci and Brett were adamant about excluding the cliché “single, giant arrangement” behind them as they recited their vows, although they did want something that would frame them beautifully. Since Januik has an amazing orange-red wall that would be the backdrop for the ceremony, I designed an art piece out of flowers to hang on the wall, with a wave pattern similar to the scarf. We framed it in wood and hung it like a piece of art, and it created a perfect focal point before the couple walked up the aisle! Staci LOVES floral orbs, so we flanked the aisle with them to keep things fresh and modern. Brett loved the trees that line the ‘aisle’, and wanted some color there as well (I love it when grooms get involved!) so 100 glass orbs, to reflect the orbs on the ground, were strung into the trees and bedecked with beautiful orchids. The sketch of this wedding was an immediate winner!
Greeting the guests after the ceremony was a lemonade station, and a wonderful entrance piece on the escort card table, a frame with squares of blooms, in the center of which, of course, was the wavy pattern!
For the reception, we again used the pattern from the scarf and wove that into the centerpieces, using orchids, roses, celosia and Kermit mums. Since the couple did not want tall, overbearing centerpieces, yet the room needed some height variance, we created four custom hanging centerpieces form Plexiglas strung on colorful ribbon from the ceiling. Even the staff commented on how different the room looked! For the dessert table, we worked closely with Jen from Jen’s Desserts, to match her exquisite and delightful sweets with Staci and Brett’s style. For dancing, we turned the tasting room into a swanky dance lounge by adding magenta up-lighting, custom seating in persimmon and chartreuse, and glassybaby candles everywhere. Romantic, elegant and down right sexy!
This was one of my favorite weddings – completely infused with the couples style, and warm, joyful colors. Staci was great at giving me hints of things she liked, and then letting me design away! I always feel I do my best work when given some direction from the client, and then allowed to create wonderful, unusual pieces to fit together into a fabulous concept for this important celebration.
Thank you Daniela! What an amazing wedding! All images by Bella Signature Design and Life Mosaics Photography.
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