paper anniversary

hello! i feel like i all-too-often start out posts apologizing for the big gap of time between, but i feel i've barely been keeping my head above ground lately - working lots, but more than that, working extraordinarily odd hours that have turned the idea of a "sleep schedule" into a sadistic joke and me into an exhausted, cranky pastrarian (pastry chef/contrarian.) the little bakery where i work is lovely in almost every way, but it is un-air-conditioned and poorly ventilated and that basically means there are precious few daytime hours when i can work without my butter melting all over the table; i end up working in the middle of the night here, the early morning there, a regular day between and basically yawning my way through the rest of the week. so - my apologies. ac is (fingers crossed) being installed as we speak and i hope to return to a semi-normal work schedule.

but this is a post long overdue - sam and i celebrated our one year wedding anniversary a few weeks ago, in quiet, old-married-people fashion, as is our way; we stayed in, made a big seafood feast, and watched back-to-back episodes of law and order: svu, aka the most romantic show on television.

sam visited our favorite fish market in new jersey and grabbed a couple of live lobsters, a dozen fresh oysters, and some jersey corn on the cob; i picked up some fingerling potatoes and truffle oil with a vague idea for a fancy potato salad. we decided to keep it simple - boil the lobster and serve with drawn butter, serve the raw oysters with a simple mignonette, steam the corn and make the salad.

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potato & arugula salad with truffle oil & goat cheese

1 bag of fingerling potatoes

1/2 container washed baby arugula

about 1/2 teaspoon fresh or dried thyme leaves

a couple teaspoons of truffle oil

a splash of olive oil

about 4 oz goat cheese

salt & pepper

steam the potatoes and cut them into quarters (or so - bite sized pieces.) sauté them for a bit, to crisp them up, with some olive oil, then just toss it with everything else. ta-da! so simple, so delicious.

i sprinkled the corn with a little old bay, just to add a little something.

we even ate a bit of our extremely freezer burned cake, which was. . . extremely freezer burned. ah well. it was a lovely night, and very us; i feel so incredibly lucky to have found such a smart, funny, incredibly considerate, loving and thoughtful man to spend my time with; it definitely helps that he's crazy tan, handsome, and talented too.

and a happy birthday to my little sister, esther, who is one of my favorite people on the planet (and who is finally starting to like seafood, hallelujah!) love you lady!

as long as we both shall live.

all right! the last excessive wedding photo-tastic post. surely a relief for us all. well, okay, to be completely honest i can't look back through these photos without cheesing like. . . well. . . like i am in every single one of them. i had a really clear picture of how i wanted our wedding to look and feel - i mean, a wedding is pretty much one big party combining all things i love to do: paper crafts, food, playing dress up - and it really did turn out pretty perfectly. of course, i probably would have felt that way no matter what, but i'm very grateful to sam, and to both of our families, for letting me do this the way i wanted. it was a pretty sweet party.




oh, the balloons. i had wanted to hang a million streamers inside the tent, but the (very kind, i should mention) tent guy said no way - the dye from the streamers comes off in the tent on humid days. fair enough - how about balloons? as many as you like, he told me. and how. i bought 700-some odd balloons and my dad, little brother and brother-in-law filled every single one of them on the morning of the wedding. i'd had this picture in my head of balloons filling the roof of the tent, with the ribbons hanging down, kind of streamer like - of course, the balloons all quickly migrated to the 3 highest points in the tent and stayed there, but at least i still had my ribbons! . . . until the wind kicked up a bit.



yeah. . . goodbye, balloons. we managed to rescue about 75% of them but lots got away - which made for beautiful photos but possibly also some dead birds, which i felt pretty terrible about. the whole idea was that the ribbons would make 'em easy to grab down and hand out at the end of the night, so they wouldn't escape. thankfully i have an unusual number of extremely tall friends and family, so we tied them all down for the remainder of the night.

first dance jam! sam and i are both huge kinks fans - one of our first road trips together, we heard an album neither of us knew playing in a record store and bought it from the guy on the spot. it turns out to be a fan-club only album and is absolutely my favorite of theirs - the song we danced to is the first track, appropriately titled "until death us do part." (you can listen to it here.)



oh, we got fancy, it was just to quick to be captured on film. or something.


we served locally brewed beer by the keg (and, uh, a few bud lights for the discerning drinker and also had our favorite bottles of red and white wines; this banner hung over the walkway that the wedding party, um, walked down, and was made by the sweet caitlin.
cheers!

after dinner (mussels, corn on the cob, and lots of barbecue - chicken, ribs, and salmon,) we rounded everyone up for the battering of the piñata - just one of the many ways in which my wedding resembled the birthday party of an eight year old. i made it waaaaay too big without really thinking, but my sister and mom decorated it and it turned out pretty awesome, like a big ol' sun. i'd thought about trying to make it heart shaped - love! - but the idea of beating a heart until it burst seemed kind of wrong.





it took three people and two good whacks (one of sam's groomsmen, johannes, claimed 'piñata controller' as one of his skills, and i tell you what, he did not lie,) but it broke right in half and everyone snagged candy, those boxing-balloon thingies, and army men. and one friend turned the discarded piñata into a headress. a true visionary.



friends!

we cut the cake. . .




. . . which i threw into sam's mouth AND HE CAUGHT because we are a TEAM! and he fed me a piece very gently which i appreciated. high fives. then. . . dancing!



my dad and i danced to "do you realize" by the flaming lips, and sam and his mom to csny's "our house." my dad and i were THIS CLOSE to just busting a move to "burning down the house" by the talking heads (an old family favorite) but we realized that the message ("burning down the house" right before "our house"? "burning down. . . our house"?) was questionable.




jammin' out with my ma & ma


i'm fairly certain that i am shouting "shout." you know the song.

and that was it! our dj was supposed to leave at 10:30, but we kept slipping him $50s and he ended up staying until about midnight. the photographer left at 10 or so, but beyond this there was some pretty insane dance moves from my friend john, sparklers, bubbles, and lots more drinking. . .

on a more wholesome note, i leave you with some gratuitous pete pictures (cutest baby ever!) and one of my favorite portraits of me and my handsome husband.




clichéd or not, it was the happiest day of my life, and i am the luckiest lady i know.

in sickness and in health

hi there friends! as far as wedding posts go, this'll be the meat and potatoes - the ceremony, the portraits, a lot of kisses. if lots of smooching isn't your bag, this may not be up your alley. but let's not waste any time, shall we?

sam's little sister, sheila, is one of my absolute favorite people of all time - she's hilarious, smart, sweet and wise way beyond her years. we asked her to serve as the minister for us, and she wrote some really beautiful vows. i have no idea what she and sam are giggling about.

sam's older sister, rita, led her daughter and sam's niece, sunny, down the aisle as our flower girl and she was perfect! she can be a shy kid so it was a nice surprise that she seemed to really enjoy it. (and you can see our moms in the front row! my beautiful mama on the left side, and sam's seated on the right.)

my beautiful bridesmaids. (a better look at them soon.) my older sister, emily, is wearing my cutie-pie nephew pete, esther is in yellow, then ashlee, erika, rachel, amy and katie.

sam waits with his groomsmen (his best man is his older brother mike, and then his friends johannes [who makes a mean lobster roll,] brendan, tj, tommy, ryan, and mike) and my poppa walks my down the aisle.












honestly, i can barely remember the vows. i was just staring at sam, grinning like an idiot. i remember he had a hard time getting the ring over my knuckle, and i remember saying i do, and trying not to kiss him too hard in front of all our friends and family. we walked back into the house, hugged everyone we could get our hands on, and then went back out for portraits.




first up, bridesmaids! emily is my older sister, in the red; esther my younger sister, in yellow; ashlee is an old friend from chicago, in the seafoam and headscarf; katie, in blue, introduced sam and i in brooklyn; rachel, another friend from chicago whom i followed to new york, is in the bright green; and erika, the brunette in purple, is another dear friend from chicago, as is amy, the blonde in purple who now lives in portland, oregon. whew! i told them all to pick a bright color and get whatever dress they wanted, so long as the hemline came to their knees-ish. i'm really happy with the way all the colors turned out. and i have to give a HUGE thank you to seychelles - the sweetest people ever - they outfitted not only me, but several of my bridesmaids in the shoes of our choosing and i am so delighted with mine!


that's my sam.


the whole crew.


and now, forgive me, but a round of obligatory sam and audrey kissy shots:




i changed into my original dress for the end of the photos and the reception - much better for dancing (and much less of a disaster if i spilled something on it.)

my siblings and i. . . (colin, my little brother, is on the left, then emily, me, and esther,)

and my wonderful parents.


all right. . . i'll wrap up tomorrow. thank you guys so much for all your sweet words, as always - i really have the nicest readers ever, it always blows me away. if anyone has any questions about anything or would like advice, i'm happy to chat, anytime.


yep, that's me, blowing the jump shot.