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[bigletter]One year, and what a year it’s been! From moving into a mid-contraction condo and living in unfinished surroundings, loving and loosing our baby Pierre, starting my own business, traveling to Napa, New York, Cancun and Steamboat before the oh so unforgettable lull of life within the COVID-19 pandemic, to getting our new baby girls and my mother as our neighbor: OH WHAT A YEAR IT’S BEEN.[/bigletter]
Our wedding at the end of last summer felt like the grand finale of sorts, the marker before a new year, new projects, the next chapter I was happy to dive fully into. But Arthur and I will never forget how special and fun that day felt, we reminisce on how lucky we were that nothing major went wrong and we were able to fully enjoy ourselves. I can honestly say I cherished the day and was simultaneously grateful once it was over!
Fast forward to now; COVID-19 was not what any of us expected this summer. But if the safest way to celebrate was at home, then of course that is exactly what I would devise a plan to do!
Luckily our patio has become a wonderful outdoor space with mountain views and a sunset quite similar to that of our wedding venue, so I thought I’d take a shot at recreating that same summer day as surprise for Arthur.
Most of the wedding elements were fairly easy to put together given we still had the bar cart we used for “shots and champs,” the illustrated menus and loads of blue and white decor. The only element I stumbled on was recreating our favorite dishes from the night, as Arthur has since decided to go vegan!
Soon enough a genius idea came through and I asked a big favor of my extraordinarily talented friend and vegan food chef Leslie Durso, who immediately came to the rescue! After showing her our dinner menu she recommended a fillet mignon with sous vide portobello mushrooms in a red wine reduction sauce, cheese tortellini, au gratin potatoes and a mini chocolate and vanilla buttercream cake.
Everything Leslie made was beyond delicious and while the potatoes dish appeared large for two people, it wasn’t nearly enough given we had finished the entire thing by the morning! Leslie’s cake was also extra delicious and to be very honest, came in very close competition to my non-vegan favorite marble cake from SusieCakes. Since our original cake was layered in colorful fondant flowers, I decided to stick in an eclectic bunch from a bouquet for the same effect, in addition to our wedding crest, cut straight out of our save the date.
It would be ghastly misleading to leave clues that Leslie or anyone outside myself is responsible for piecing together a sloppy recreation of our strawberry tower and less than basic version of our summer salad with shaved watermelon radishes. Thank goodness for the produce man at Bristol Farms who asked “do you need help” otherwise this salad might have been adorned with an actual radish and yes the difference would have mattered to me!
When it all finally came together, the light perfectly illuminated the little space, the air so warm I knew we’d be good sitting and sipping throughout the entire evening. And after allowing Arthur to finally come out of hiding and open his eager eyes, I am happy to report that is exactly what we did.
