Posted: December 1st, 2011 | Author: Brian | Filed under: A Westervin Wedding | Tags: bar, choose your own adventure, cocktails, decanters, diy, embroidered, handmade, mixology, pickle platter, self-service, vintage, wedding | 1 Comment »
What’s a wedding without refreshments? Well, I guess it’s still a wedding, but the point is everybody loves a good wedding bar. It took us a while to figure out exactly how we wanted to handle drinks at the wedding, and we’re pretty happy with how it all turned out.
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Posted: November 30th, 2011 | Author: Sarah | Filed under: A Westervin Wedding | Tags: Blumen Garden's, bridal, brown, garden, good luck, gown, industial, rain, rustic, storm, suit, umbrellas, vintage, wedding | 2 Comments »
Time for the wedding party portraits! These don’t need too much explainin’…
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Posted: November 28th, 2011 | Author: Sarah | Filed under: A Westervin Wedding | Tags: barbeque, Blumen Garden's, dinner, picnic, rehearsal, wedding | 3 Comments »
They have a arrived! We finally have our wedding pictures, and boy howdy are we excited to share them. We know you have been waiting in almost unbearable anticipation (humor us), so we’ll present them in a week-long wedding photo extravaganza! First up: the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.
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Posted: September 15th, 2011 | Author: Brian | Filed under: A Westervin Wedding, Swig & Swill | Tags: bourbon, cocktails, rye, vermouth, wedding | 1 Comment »
Jed, the groomsman, helps wedding-goers Brandon and Alana at the bar. { photo by Sarah Hughes }
{ photo by Soraya Rowley }
Lynne & CC enjoy carefully crafted cocktails { photo by Sarah Hughes }
Layet, Scott & Soraya { photo by Grandma Jane }
Layet, Sarah & Brian { photo by Sarah Hughes }
So we had a pretty great time at our wedding and one of my favorite parts was how much our friends were willing to help out. A prime example was the bar. While Sarah and I procured all of the alcohol and came up with recipes that could be built in a single glass, we hadn’t made all of the garnishes and syrups, or totally thought through the best way to arrange everything. Luckily, our friends (especially Jed and Ben) stepped up in a big way, slicing oranges, juicing limes, and making grenadine. The result was amazing.
The Bar { photo by Soraya Rowley }
CC, Meredith & Jim, Sarah, Matt, and Alana { photo by Grandma Jane }
Here’s another one of the suggested cocktails we had–this one might be my favorite. It ends up looking like ice tea, but don’t be fooled.
The Perfect Lu
start with 1/2 glass of ice
add:
2 dashes angostura bitters
2 dashes celery bitters
1/2 oz. honey syrup
1 oz. dry vermouth
1 oz. sweet vermouth
1 oz. bourbon
stir
enjoy with a slice of lemon
Adjusted from the Perfect Louis
Posted: September 13th, 2011 | Author: Sarah | Filed under: A Westervin Wedding | Tags: family, friends, love, Matt Sharos, PushUp Poetry, wedding | 2 Comments »
We’re back, little dowggies, and boy howdy are you a sight for sore eyes. The big day came and went, and I realized, perhaps for the first time, why we did it all in the first place. Not so we could dress up and be super pretty for a day, although that part was mighty nice. Not so we could try to impress everyone with our wedding planning skillz, though I’m pretty sure we knocked the pants off a few. Not so we could have a Texas ton of presents lavished upon us, though our apartment is now looking pretty snazzy. And not even so we could be self-centered attention whores, though we all know how much Brian LOVES that. Nope. Turns out this whole wedding business helped us celebrate the love we share with each other AND with our dear, sweet, amazing, crazy, weird, foreign, cute, little, creative, beautiful, supportive, giving friends and family. Did I use too many adjectives there? I think I might have missed funny. Man did we have some laughs! And MAN, did we really luck out in the family/friends department. I can honestly say that I had the most amazing week of my whole young life, because I got to spend time with all the people that make my life wonderful.
But before I make myself cry, and before we get started with our recap–for which you can expect several little posts over the next few weeks–I wanted to share a poem with you. Written by one of the colorful friends, Matt Sharos, this poem was inspired by our wedding. It’s sweeter than strawberry jam.
III.
after a mason jar of beer
or a paper straw of bourbon
you must pay attention
hear that banjo?
set down your kazoo
a sublime moment is before you
a vintage veil of flowers
with blue velvet leaves
and little white freckles
and patterned brown sleeves
there is a boy and a girl
both gorgeous and good
they left love
everywhere they stood
on branches and suns
and on skies and on trees
these two lovebirds
were meant to be
You can read Matt’s other wedding-week inspired poems on his poetry blog, PushUp Poetry.
Posted: August 24th, 2011 | Author: Brian | Filed under: Swig & Swill | Tags: cocktail, Dale DeGroff, Deals, rum, wedding | No Comments »
A few things to note here. First, see that awesome glass? We picked up four of these for a dollar each at Deals, and these things are super sturdy. If you are in need of some fancy-pants pint glasses, run to your nearest Deals and buy ‘em up. Second, within the glass is the Añejo Highball from Dale DeGroff, which just so happens to be one of the cocktails we’ll have at our upcoming wedding. We decided to keep the bar fairly small (since we’ll have a lot of beer) and have a suggested cocktail for each major spirit. The other consideration was that I wanted all of the suggested cocktails to be really straightforward. No shaking, no straining, just stirring. Got to keep people moving and put cocktail novices at ease. If you can measure liquids, you can stir up our cocktails. So just what is in this Añejo Highball, you ask?
Añejo Highball
Start with a half glass of ice
add:
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
1/4 oz lime juice
1/2 oz orange liqueur (Cointreau)
1.5 oz aged rum (El Dorado 5yr)
fill with ginger ale
stir and enjoy with a slice or two of lime!
Posted: July 19th, 2011 | Author: Sarah | Filed under: A Westervin Wedding | Tags: arrows, Barrel Maker Printing, cards, cards of wood, country, ecofriendly, handkerchief, invitations, mountain, ozark, repurpose, romance, Sycamore, vintage, wedding, wood | 4 Comments »
We did it! We finally finished and mailed our invitations! Hopefully, all invited parties have received theirs by now, except for some overseas friends. But I just couldn’t wait any longer to share. We are so pleased with ourselves.
Let me give you a play by play. We started with the same French Paper Co. envelopes in four different colors: slate blue, grout grey, packing paper brown, and a darker brown (pictured above). We also used the custom return address stamp, which featured a typewriter font.
Now comes the good part. Open the envelope and what do you find? A delicate vintage handkerchief invite, designed by Brian West and screenprinted by Barrel Maker Printing.
Arrows!
Inside, the hankie was wrapped around a wood card, made of Sycamore wood and printed with our logo (above) and instructions to visit our website for more information (below).
Our vintage typewriter came in handy once again when it came time to address the envelopes.
I had to keep a few of my favorites. They’ve come in handy in other ways. More on that to come!
The real fun part was collecting all the vintage hankies. We searched every antique mall and flea market from here to Timbuktu and found a few winners in Etsy and Ebay lots. It sounds tedious, but you know I enjoyed every minute of it! The real challenge was finding ones that fit our color scheme and general aesthetic but weren’t more than $1 each, give or take.
You like?
Envelopes: { French Paper Co. }
Return Address Stamp: { Note Trunk }
Screenprinting: { Barrel Maker Printing }
Wood Cards: { Cards of Wood }
Handkerchiefs: vintage, various sources
Graphic Design: Brian West!
Posted: June 30th, 2011 | Author: Brian | Filed under: A Westervin Wedding | Tags: cards of wood, postcard, wedding | 1 Comment »
In keeping with our Ozark Mountain theme, we thought it would be great to print part of our invitations on wood. “Wood?” you ask. Yes! Sycamore wood, no less, since the wedding will be in Sycamore, IL. Luckily we found a nifty little web shop that’s actually based in Michigan, not too far from us: Cards of Wood. Not only do they have a big-ole selection of card shapes, sizes, and wood types to choose from, they’ll also do the printing for you at a pretty reasonable price! Perfect for business cards, greeting cards, even notebooks. We don’t want to give too much away, so we’re just sharing the back of our postcard today, but soon (very soon), we’ll detail our entire invitation plans!
Posted: June 16th, 2011 | Author: Sarah | Filed under: A Westervin Wedding | Tags: Barrel Maker Printing, Chicago, invitations, organic, screen printing, soy, wedding | No Comments »
There are some people you should know. Especially if a) you live in Chicago, b) need something screen printed, or c) like nice, friendly folks. Say hello to Justin & Erin of Barrel Maker Printing. They printed our wedding invitations, and the experience couldn’t have been more pleasant. We don’t wanna give away our finished invites just yet (we haven’t put them in the mail yet, sheesh), but we did want to let you in on the process. Not only do they have a cool workspace that they let me photograph, but they’re laid back and their services are very affordable (and worth the price). Thanks, Justin & Erin, for being yet another lovely, hassle-free vendor we’ve worked with in planning our wedding. Maybe we’ll see you at the farmer’s market in a couple of weeks?
