wedding recap ~ delicious edibles!!!

it's that time again... more fun photos from our wedding!

today - the amazing food for our celebration {aka - reception}.

being that we mostly paid for our wedding by ourselves {me: grad student, him: self-employed}, we tried to save our pennies every way we could. that's why we ended up with a cozy backyard wedding, all handmade decorations, and food we whipped up ourselves. dannon was in charge of the food, and we enlisted the help of some of our best foodie friends, as well as wrangling up the family to help in the kitchen the morning of the wedding. it worked out perfectly!

we put out cocktails and appetizers for people to snack on when they first arrived at the wedding, which stayed out all day. for the appetizers, we provided large platters of various fruits {hooray california produce!}, and had an old-timey popcorn cart.

for the cocktails, dannon created large pitchers of passion tea lemonade {half tazo passion tea + half lemonade}, ginger limeade {half limeade + half ginger tea + ginger shavings}, and white wine sangria. for weeks before our wedding, dannon made all sorts of versions of the sangria until we found the perfect recipe {in our opinion, that is}.

d+k's wedding sangria recipe:

two-buck-chuck white zinfandel, lemonade, cinnamon syrup {which dannon made by cooking cinnamon sticks in water with sugar}, peaches, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and grapes.

you are welcome!

for our dinner, we had pre-packed picnic baskets, which fed either 4 people or 8 people. not all of our guests knew each other, but we knew that they would all become the best of friends if they had the opportunity to mingle. so not only did we include a lot of fun and games to spark friendships, but we made the dinner a time of sharing and meeting knew people too.

we had two slightly different versions of the menu:

1. cucumber cream cheese sandwiches, wild rice with mushrooms & quorn {delicious soy-free, fake meat made out of mushrooms}, and grilled vegetables.

2. cucumber cream cheese sandwiches, couscous with peas & feta, and grilled vegetables.

the dinner turned out so ridiculously delicious! and everyone loved the spirit of sharing a picnic in the warm sunshine. of course, i barely got to eat. i think that's pretty common for brides and grooms. luckily, my friend sheena handed me her plate at one point to make sure i was getting some sustenance. i got by with a little help from my friends!

the dessert was probably my favorite part! again, dannon spent the entire week before the wedding baking up a storm in our kitchen. and of course, we had to try everything before the wedding to make sure it was all edible and yummy... and also if there were any desserts that came out defective, we had to just go ahead and eat those too!

the desserts dannon made:

* cake lollies {red velvet and spice cake, with dark chocolate, white chocolate, and mixed chocolate coatings}

* mini rhubarb & strawberry rhubarb pies in small tins

* mini apple crisps in tins

* mini peach blackberry crisps in jars

* homemade whipped cream to top it all!

at the very end of the evening, we had some hot tea, hot chocolate and coffee available to keep our guests warm or awake for their drive home {a lot of our friends lived an hour away or more}.

and that was the food at our wedding! yup, seriously delicious! dannon is one talented man, and so are our friends brian and brianne, who helped us brainstorm and cook the meal {thank you!}.

also, we just got all of our photos in from our wonderful wedding photographer, nataliya cole, so i'll probably post a ton of wedding recaps next week. stay tuned!