Napa Recap, Part One: The Wine

I'm just going to jump to the chase here. The food in Napa is amazing, the views are stunning, but the real draw is the wine. This was my third trip to Napa (fourth if you include Sonoma county as part of the region), and my favorite visit so far. Each time I learn something new and get to cover a little more ground. The more you know, the less lost you get, the more you appreciate the intricacy of the wine, all the hard work that goes in to producing such high caliber libations, your favorite regions and on and on. I'll try everything, but I'm not afraid to pour out what I don't like. I'm also able to explain to the tasting room pourers what I like. They are often more than happy to tailor the tasting to your specific taste. After all, they want to sell you wine. If  I'm receiving glasses of stainless steel barreled whites, I am unlikely to pull out my credit card. I have also learned to slow down. Sean and I laughed at how our pace has slowed over the years. In the "olden days" we visited six or seven tasting rooms a day. At this point, we found four wineries (with some good meals and plenty of water mixed in) per day to be our sweet spot.

So where did we end up?

Friday:

Stags Leap

ZD

Merryvale*

Jessup*

Saturday:

Rombauer

Duckhorn

Rutherford Hill

V Sattui

Sunday:

PlumpJack

Robert Sinskey

Cuvaison

Acacia

There were no real duds on this list. I genuinely enjoyed each and every winery. V Sattui is a bit tourist-y for my taste, but their Italian deli cannot be beat. They are located right in the heart of it all on St. Helena Highway, and their picnic grounds are perfect for relaxing with a bottle of zin, some crusty breads, salami and cheese.

Stags Leap was our first tasting of the trip and one of our favorites. We were huge fans of their wine before, and this visit only secured our loyalty. Having the opportunity to taste some of their more exclusive club offerings didn't hurt either. The tasting room attendant (sommelier?) was extremely knowledgeable about the region and explained to us the difference between older vines and newer. You could tell just how much he loved his job and Stags Leap wine, as he was excited to go dig up a bottle he thought I would particularly enjoy.

Ina Garten mentioned Robert Sinskey Vineyards on her blog last fall and I immediately made a mental note (and pinterest pin) to visit on our next Napa trip. I hadn't heard of RSV before, however an endorsement from Barefoot Contessa's is as good as gold, and upon researching they were described as a wine house for food lovers. The fate was sealed when the incredibly daunting wine list at The French Laundry arrived Friday night, and one of the less expensive wines listed was an RSV pinot noir. Trying a wine for the first time while consuming one of the most indulgent dinners of my life may have effected my opinion slightly, but our tasting did not disappoint and RSV ultimately ended up being my favorite winery of the trip.  Robert Sinskey's wife is a chef, and their wine tastings come with a small plate of food pairings.  I rarely drink red wine by itself so having a small plate of mini quiche, roasted almonds and some cheese goes a long way with me. Their wine club members are called Gluttons and each shipment arrives with recipes to accompany the wine. They also offer a farm to table tour, an hour and half of wine cave exploring, eating and drinking. I will be signing up for this next go around, I promise you that. All of this to say, if you are making a trip to the region, I highly recommend visiting RSV!

If you want to know more about any of the other wineries we visited, just let me know. I could talk at length about this stuff, but in the interest of brevity I'm sticking to my two favorites.
If you have any recommendations for wineries, or even just wine that can be purchased at Costco, please share!!

*We visited the tasting room (in St Helena & Yountville, respectively) not the actual vineyard. All of the other wineries listed were tasted (consumed?) at the "estate."

Happy Spring

Spring is here at last. I say this from the comfort of my Southern California climate and give you permission to hate me a little. Just because I don't get snow days, doesn't mean I don't jump at the chance to welcome spring colors in to my wardrobe.
Here's what I'm currently lusting over for Spring:

Spring Wishlist by lauraacc featuring pointy toe shoes

1. Pointed tow spectator pumps. Black & white is one of my favorite combinations (I know, super original). I  rarely wear high heels, so the 2.5" height is just perfect for me. 

2. Emerald green is not just the Pantone "it" color of the season, it is also one of my favorite colors. Joie is my go to for comfy everyday tops that can be dressed up or down.

3. I have at least one bridal shower a month for as far as the eye can see. This dress could not be more perfect bridal shower attire. Love the black lace with the soft floral pattern and the high neck.

4. J Crew simple sheath. Great color. I wear these dresses to death. 

5. Bow flat sandals in black & white? These are screaming my name. 

6. Cat eye shades are in a big way and I want to hop on the bandwagon. I hate sunglasses that don't cover my eyebrows and I think these will be perfect.

What are you currently lusting after for spring? 

Things I Never Thought I Would Say

I want to go darker with my hair. I once had a hair dresser say "you're never going to be rich enough, skinny enough or blonde enough." I disagree. I knew I wanted my hair very blonde for the wedding, but now I'm ready for a change. I 'll stay in the blond neighborhood, because I don't have the coloring to pull off brunette. I tried it after Cruel Intentions came out alla Sarah Michelle Gellar. Not a good look on me. My colorist has grown so accustomed to doing the same balayage highlights time after time,  she doesn't even ask what I want anymore. There is no discussion when I first walk in. She has the color prepped and away we go. I'm going to have to tell her before my next appointment that I'm ready for a change. Or is it better to just go to someone new? I'm stuck in a rut.

More Lauren Conrad

Less Kristin Cavallari

Do you have these jeans in a higher rise? My days of low rise jeans are behind me. From this point it's a slippery slope to Mom jeans. Honestly though, how in the world did I ever wear Frankie Bs? Even looking at the crotch to button ratio creeps me out. (Also my stomach never looked like Keira Knightley.)


Let's not go out. I'd rather have a quiet night in. Don't get me wrong. I love a good night out. But in the last couple years I've become more of a home body. Craving evenings in, where I can wear my PJs and curl up on the couch with a glass of wine.

I wish my retainer still fit. I had braces for a very long time. I also have large teeth that only look good if they are straight. From the day I got my braces off (in 9th grade), I wore my retainer at least once a week up until this past June. I chipped my front tooth when I was a kid. You are supposed to get the bonding re-done every few years. I did this right before my wedding, and somehow my front tooth ended up being a slightly different shape. Thus my retainer no longer fits. It annoys me to no end. I worry constantly about my teeth shifting.


And the biggest, most out of character phrase to pass my lips:
I am open to the possibility of moving out of LA (maybe even California). If the opportunity is right. More details to follow on this in two weeks (when we finally get some answers).

Happy Birthday Mama!

Happy birthday to the most patient, kind and creative person I know, my beautiful Mother! Thank you for loving us fiercely and nurturing our every whim.
You are my sounding board, secret keeper and biggest fan. I am so grateful you are my Mom!
Have the best birthday and I can't wait to celebrate this evening.
I can only hope to look half as good as you when I'm 63!


 

Wedding Wednesday: The Venue

Selecting the wedding venue was (for me) one of the hardest parts of the wedding planning, second only to picking my wedding dress (that's a story for another time). The similarities between the two (venue & dress) are not lost on me. There are essentially limitless options, plenty of "really nice" choices and the one you ultimately select will set the tone of the rest of the wedding.
As I mentioned before, from the proposal to our walk down the aisle was over sixteen months. People have asked if I recommend having such a long engagement (actually only two people specifically asked, but I have asked myself multiple times). Naturally there are positives and negatives for both a short and long engagement, but I will say this: the longer the engagement, the more time there is to second guess decisions. Maybe you are the kind of person who sticks to your guns. In this case, I was not. Throughout our engagement, and thus the wedding planning process, our idea of how we wanted our wedding to look shifted. In some ways that's good. Our tastes stayed primarily the same, but our vision narrowed and the end result was extremely representative of who we were at the time we said "I do." However, there were plenty of tears (mine) and restless nights (also mine) along the way. Not to mention, making changes typically has a cost involved. Not great for the bottom line. If I had half the time, I probably would have stuck to my initial vision and most likely been pleased with the result. I read somewhere that if at the end of the day, you are married, you have accomplished your goal. The rest is just fluff.
In the beginning we were fairly certain we wanted a non-church ceremony. We imagined our ceremony and reception being held in the same location (ideally different areas on the same property). Ceremony outside and reception in a ballroom. I also had somewhat contrasting visions of a winery wedding. Perhaps a string quartet set among the vines? For whatever reason we decided in the beginning that we were dead set against a beach wedding (we are more winery people than beach people), a hotel (Sean's preference) or any place with wall to wall carpet (again Sean's preference). There are times when I regretted not going the hotel route. There are so many different hotels, surely we could have found one that fit us. (It probably would have been easier!) We narrowed the field a bit more by deciding against a destination wedding. This limited us to Southern California and about a million venues. The wedding planner helped make suggestions, but in the end it was up to us to pull the trigger (and fast). I felt the clock ticking away and wanted to  make a decision, so we could move forward with planning. Everything was a standstill until we had a date and venue locked down.
After researching hundreds of venues online and visiting six or seven, we landed on a historic estate built in the 1890s. It had beautiful gardens for the ceremony, a ballroom for the reception, a grand lobby and salon for the cocktail hour, a ton of character. We picked a date (July 21st) and the signed a contract.
A few months passed and as we imagined saying our vows, things began to shift. I'm not sure exactly how it first came up (there were quite a few parental opinions volunteered) but we came to the decision that we actually did want to be married in a church. I started researching every church within a five mile area of our venue, narrowed it down to those that were actually our religion and went church shopping. I learned that churches book up really far in advance and vary greatly in terms of flexibility. At this point our date wasn't flexible, as we were already under quite a few contracts. I was 100% set on having the ceremony in the late afternoon and continuing straight to the reception. I wouldn't hear of having a morning ceremony or any gap of time between the two. Luckily we managed to find a beautiful church, with an incredible pastor, that would hold a 4:30pm service and was available for our date. The pieces started to come together!
Having two venues changed our vendor list and the schedule significantly. The pastor we hired to orchestrate our non-church ceremony was no longer needed. The church required us to hire their "coordinator" even though we already had our own. Transportation from the ceremony to the reception had to be worked out. And the list went on.
Add in taking photographs and doing our "first look" at the hotel, and our timeline became a carefully orchestrated ballet. Apparently simplicity was not the name of my game.
Looking back, here are a few of the elements that helped us narrow down our reception venue :
-ability to bring in our own caterer. This was tremendously important for keeping us in budget. I was shocked at how the cost of catering varies. Apparently all Chicken Parmesans are not created equal! I may be a foodie most of the time, but oysters and truffles were not in the cards for our wedding day.

-only hosts one event  per day. Guests were free to roam around and explore the estate without running in to another bride and groom.

-allowed hard alcohol. One of  Sean’s top wedding requests was an open bar. We found that most wineries only allowed wine & beer- no hard alcohol, so they were quickly crossed off our list. I have been to weddings without hard alcohol and had a blast. I tend to stick to wine at weddings, so this really wouldn’t have been a big deal for me. However, the tequila shots we took later in the night were fun.

-end time. I was shocked how many venues turn the music off at 9 or 10pm. We were allowed to go until midnight and needed every second of it.

-Character. Completely vague, but it had to have some sort of "wow" factor.
Missing from our list? A HIGH powered, well functioning air conditioner. Buildings in the 1890's weren't known for their air conditioners. The brochure said the ballroom was air conditioned. I can say from personal experience on that balmy July night, it was not.
So what did we end up with?

 

Escort Card Table in the foyer

And the church:

 

 

 

 

 Have I wondered if we picked the right venues? Yes. Does it matter? Nope. We are married. Everyone had a great time. I love our photographs. 

Moral of the story? Worry less, celebrate more!

New York City Weekend

This weekend I spent forty-eight glorious hours in New York City. Sean and I arrived Friday night, just in time to check in to our hotel, change clothes and head out to dinner.

Travel priorities for me typically revolve around food & art. I tend to shy away from anything overly touristy, I hate crowds, waiting in like at ticket booths and gawkers. Since visits to the empire state building and statue of liberty were taken care of in childhood, we were able to spend this quick visit truly indulging. 

We stayed at the Gansevoort Park Avenue and I would highly recommend it (and Jetsetter for scoring great hotel deals). In my mind, it is ALWAYS worth it to pay a little more and stay someplace comfortable, clean and (in my eyes) that feels like a bit of a treat. I enjoy hotels tremendously and get great pleasure out of a beautiful room, a king size bed, yummy bath products, black out shades, convenient location, etc. It's worth it to me. Part of this may be due to the fact that I'm a terrible sleeper and a truly miserable person when sleep deprived. The room needs to be quiet and dark or else I wont sleep and my trip is ruined. 

I have (too) many memories of sleepless nights spent in budget hotels, listening to gypsies crying in the street. (True story, Rome.)

The Gansevoort bedroom was quite large by NYC standards, well appointed and the staff at the hotel could not have been nicer. There was even a rooftop bar (inside) and pool (outside) with a view of the Empire State building. We had a (complimentary) drink up there and stood outside as a few snowflakes fell and took in the view. 'Twas lovely.

Since this was a last minute tip, I did not have my normal amount of time to obsess over restaurants and make reservations months in advance. Luckily, the number of truly phenomenal restaurants in New York never ceases to amaze me. 

For our "main meals" it went like this:

Friday night dinner- Perla,West Village. Delicious Italian food, great atmosphere. If I lived in the area, this would be a neighborhood favorite. They were aiming for an authentic Italian enoteca feel which was moderately successful (the homemade pasta was exceptional) except for the Jay Z playing in the background (which I enjoyed). It was fun. 

Dinner at Perla & an attempt to capture my outfit in the hotel hallway.

Saturday lunch: Grand Central Oyster Bar (aka my happy place). A pre-teen Laura tried oysters here for the very first time. It was love at first slurp. Fifteen years later I love this place just as much. After hearing the story numerous times, Sean was excited to finally dine here as well. Luckily it did not disappoint.

Grand Central Oyster Bar

Saturday Dinner: WD~50. Wylie Dufresne's mecca of molecular gastronomy. Imagine eating at Willy Wonka's factory. Each plate was a work of modern art, and the flavors were unlike anything I have ever experienced. I first tasted each component on the dish (there were many) and then put together a bite with every item. The synergy was incredible, the sum of the items on the plate was truly greater than the individual components. One bite was too sour, one too sweet, and seemed an odd pairing for shrimp and then you would put it all together and it was delicious. The meal felt like we were experiencing art. That being said, I would only recommend WD~50 if you are an adventurous eater. It was not the sort of place where you could take what you like and leave the rest, as individual components on their own were not really that good. It was very bizarre. Definitely not the kind of meal you want to eat all the time, but an amazing experience none the less. 

WD~50

More WD~50 courses

Sunday lunch: Eataly! I ordered the Norcina (pizza with black truffle and mushroom Pâté, mozzarella, 

topped with diced parma ham) and I can say without hesitation that it was the best pizza I have ever had. I'm not a huge pizza fan, I like it ok- but I don't love it the way Sean does. I LOVED this pizza. The entire Eataly  space was amazing, and I wish we had one nearby so I could grocery shop there. At Eataly we had a foodie celebrity sighting, Susur Lee. Sean and I love the whole Top Chef franchise, and Susur was one of our favorite contestants on Top Chef Masters. Sean immediately spotted him and struck up a conversation. Sean even asked to take a picture with him. I was surprised, since Sean is not the type of person to ask a "celebrity" or anyone for a photo, but he really admires Susur and I guess he wanted to savor the memory. Susur was very nice and complied. 

Eataly

As far as activities of the non stuffing our face variety, we saw the Matisse exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I absolutely love the Met and Matisse, so every second of this exhibition was pure bliss for me. 

And last but not least, one of my very favorite highlights of the trip was an afternoon girls margarita date with my two favorite NYC bloggers: Blair's Head Band and Jewish Girl in Wasp's Clothing. I have loved both of their blogs for ages and I have to say they are even better in person. I wish we lived closer so we could  have girls dates more often. My only regret is that we didn't take a single picture. 

It was a truly exceptional weekend. One that I will remember fondly while sitting bleary eyed at my desk. 

Wedding Wednesday: Hiring a Planner

March 13th will mark our two years engagement anniversary. Do you celebrate engagement anniversaries after you are married? I'm not sure, since this will be our first. I have casually mentioned it a couple times and in typical us fashion we have assigned already planned activities as our celebration for whatever date happens to fall around it. Our Napa trip will be an engagement anniversary celebration, a Sean is finally done with the business school application process celebration (and hopefully we will know where he is going!!!) and perhaps even a half birthday celebration thrown in there. The second we find out where Sean has been accepted to B school, we will likely forget about the engagement anniversary and I will kiss the ground and let out the exhale heard 'round the world. I do not function well with unknowns. As soon as we "know" and we can start the planning, I will be fine, regardless of the outcome. It's the not knowing, not being able to plan that drives me nuts. And this has been 6+ months of waiting for the end of March. And it is almost here at last, hallelujah.
All of this to say, it's been a while since we got engaged. And the more time passes the less I remember of the exact details and order events. This is clear in my recap posts, as we are already out of chronological order, but I guess that's ok.
Rewinding a bit, I believe the order went like this:
-engagement
-hire wedding coordinator
-Italy trip/ engagement photos
-ask bridal party
-select a venue
-Engagement Parties

Our wedding coordinator was Ryan Larson from Savoir Flair Weddings. If you are in the Southern California area and looking for a coordinator I cannot recommend her highly enough. A few weeks ago a woman emailed asking for a reference for Ryan. I stopped what I was doing and wrote an extremely long winded, verbose letter professing my undying love for all things Savoir Flair. I also demanded encouraged my best friend to hire Ryan. Thankfully she complied and her wedding could not have been more beautiful.
 Ryan was the first person we met with after getting engaged. I'll never forget the day. My Mom, Sean and I  went out to meet her and I was wearing terrible fitting white jeans and could not stop starring at my ring. I found Ryan on The Knot, where she was ranked one of the best planners for LA, and immediately emailed her. I just checked my gmail records, this was March 16 (exactly three days after getting engaged).
The three of us immediately liked her. She was confident, experienced, organized, creative and savvy. I wanted to be her best friend (actually that hasn't change, I still want to be Ryan's best friend). Sean decided she was perfect and that we should "just hire her" and not interview anyone else. My Mom and I proceeded to waste our time meeting with another four or five planners. We compared everyone to Ryan and no one measured up. After checking her references (all of whom wrote similar letters to the one I had the joy of writing a couple weeks ago), we were officially under contract with our first wedding vendor.
People will tell you the first decision on your list is selecting a venue (without a venue contract you don't have an official wedding date which is needed for every other contract). Hiring our coordinator first allowed her to help us in the venue search, selection and contract negotiation.  We knew when we hired Ryan (March 2011) we knew we were going to do a Saturday, summer 2012 wedding and at that point she let us know which days she was still available and we took that in to consideration in picking a date.
A few important elements to me:
-Ryan is the principal of Savoir Flair. It was written in to our contract that she (along with her assistants) would be there on our wedding day.I didn't want any of this "I'm sending my associate" business. It was extremely important throughout the vendor selection process that whoever I hired was the person I saw on my wedding day.
-Personality. Ryan and I meshed well. She let me run with my ideas, (micro)manage the entire process and stepped in when I needed a hand or when there were tasks I was happy to hand off. I did not want to show up the day of my wedding and be surprised  I wanted to meet with every vendor, hand select the linens, be at every floral mock up. I had dreamed of planning my wedding my entire life, you better believe I was going to be hands on. She was extremely good at calming me down. When I was freaking out or thought something was ruined, she put everything in to perspective and created a plan of action. If for no other reason, Ryan was worth her weight in gold right there. Having an objective entity who is able to talk sense in to you (not your mom or fiance) is crucial. Plus I trusted her opinion and experience (no offense to my well meaning mother).
-Every wedding is unique; none of Ryan's weddings loo alike. There are quite a few wedding planners out there who are very trend conscious and fixate on a certain look that they do over and over again. The wedding tells you more about the planner's aesthetic than the couple. While that could be good for their business, if you want a rustic hipster wedding in Malibu you know who to choose. I wanted my wedding to look like us, not necessarily Style Me Pretty.
-Cost. It all comes down to the bottom line, right? I've heard a lot of people ask if wedding coordinators are worth the money. I can not scream yes fast enough. Regardless of your budget, the size and intricacy of your wedding- you are going to need some outside help at some point- at least on your wedding day. Even if everything is perfectly planned, you need someone to orchestrate the day. Just because your well intentioned aunt offered to set up the escort table, does not mean she can or should manage everything (there are so many details that will not even occur to you). Plus your aunt will be stressed out her mind, let the poor woman enjoy the party. I can not stress enough how important it is to have (at the very least) a day of coordinator. I would recommend springing for a month of  + day of coordinator if you are able. There is so much going on before your wedding, the last thing you want to do the week before is making and sending out timelines, confirming 25 vendor and trying to figure out who you owe money to and how they are going to get in on the day of your wedding/ day before, etc.
There are wedding planners at all price points. Find someone who works in your budget. Before planning my wedding I was under the impression that wedding planners were cost prohibitive. Wrong. If you are going to spend all this money on everything else, you might as well enjoy your wedding day. The return on investment for a day of coordinator is extremely high. Knowing what I know now, I would have paid twice as much for Ryan. You can't put a price on sanity!

Ryan & her brides