They were able to do exactly what we wanted, and the food came out perfect. Almost everybody loved it. We made special accommodations for our gluten-free guests to have special gluten-free injera prepared for them, and had rice on hand for anyone who wasn't into the injera (???). Basically, if you didn't like it, you had to try pretty hard not to. This food was so goddamn good, and my favorite of all time.




Even some of our pickiest eaters really loved this food. I was especially worried about my brother-in-law liking it, as he has very specific tastes, but he ended up loving it!! So many people came up to me telling me how impressed they were with the food who had never tried Ethiopian food before.

 There were also a very large number of vegans and vegetarians amongst our guests, as we are friends with the most amazing, smart and compassionate people <333. So this all-vegan Ethiopian spread was a welcome variation on your average chicken/beef/fish wedding entrée options. I once attended a wedding where just fish and rabbit were served as the entrée. Needless to say I drank a lot of red wine, danced without mercy and had to leave around 8:30 because of excessive schmamerrness. It wasn't the first wedding I had basically no food to eat at. One time at a wedding I was served the leftover raw vegetables from cocktail hour... and there was NO taco bell nearby.



We had cute little menus that they made up for us, with a little crash-course on how to eat Ethiopian food, and the descriptions of all the dishes. It may have been a lot of our guests' first time having Ethiopian food, so we wanted to give them the best primer possible.


My favorite tradition that I learned about is when you make a bite for someone, and feed it to them! It's called "gorsha" and they always taste better <3.




We love going to Mesob as often as possible. It's probably our favorite restaurant of all time, and we've been going often for the past 7 years! I can't wait to go there on my way back up north!
If you have ever had Ethiopian food, I'd love to know your favorite spot and what your favorite dish is!

 I got to wear fake eyelashes! They were vegan, of course, but they were only the little tiny ones that go on the sides. I felt classic! Everything stayed in place the whole day, even though My hair and makeup were finished by 10AM. Amazing, right? If I do my own hair and makeup five minutes before I go out, odds are they are going to start smudging or drooping within a few hours, so it's best to leave wedding-day beauty-stuffs to the professionals!
After hair and makeup, we came back to my parents' house to get ready and eat something. My dad put out a cute spread of fruit, crackers, and Miyoko's cheeses!! He also made us a batch of my favorite green smoothie from The Abundance Diet, the apple pie smoothie.
My mom helped me put on my dress, and it fit perfectly! All those salads were worth it!



We also rented a party-limo-bus to get us all to the picture site, and to the venue, and to drink champagne while getting there. Super fun!



We arrived at the venue about an hour before the ceremony and we got to take a peak into the event space where the tables and cakes were all set up! We ordered 5 vegan cakes! The lovely and talented, Maresa, of Sweet Maresa's was good enough to come up to our hometown to deliver these to us, and we are sooo happy she did, because these cakes were not to be missed!!


The venue we chose is called Mill 1 At Open Square, an old paper mill that's been converted into an event space. The mill is a green-space because it powers itself and all it's surrounding buildings from it's own energy! It made our wedding even more vegan!


Before the ceremony, the girls went up to the art gallery where we were having the ceremony to wait while the boys ushered the guests to their seats.



Here's a great one of my mom and I before the ceremony. My mom helped me with SOO much of the planning. I hear so many people say that planning their weddings destroyed their relationship with their mother, but I feel the opposite! I think my mom and I are closer after having planned together! It also made me realize that I have her to count on when I need help, and that she will be a fantastic resource when I one day have children. During wedding planning, I could call her and say "WHAT DO I DO???" and now I know she'll be there when I have screaming kids and ask her the same question. Phew.


I wish I had some pictures from the ceremony, but it was beautiful. You'll all have to believe me. We had a non-denominational service, and were married by a "marriage celebrant" who was fantastic and professional. As a unity ritual, we decided to write letters to each other, place them inside a box along with a bottle of wine, and seal it shut. We'll open it on our tenth wedding anniversary and read each other's letters and share the wine. I look forward to that day!







Here's a picture of me and Berekti, the owner of Mesob! I'm so happy she came all the way from New Jersey to cater our wedding. She and her staff did such an amazing job and I couldn't have been happier with how the food turned out!

 I haven't gotten the photos from my photographer yet, but she sent me just one for now! The reservoir was so beautiful and she has such great skill and technique that I know all the pictures will be just as amazing as this one!

 A quinoa and tofu caesar salad is always a go-to for us. I have eaten this salad four thousand times. It is still good. My carnivorous friend asked me for my tofu recipe and I was shocked and my little vegan heart returned from stone to it's warm and beating state.


Every year I ask for chocolates from Lagusta's Luscious for valentines day and I finally got them!! I got the "box of hearts" which contains three types of caramels and 2 types of cream-filled hearts. The top row is my fave, which are chocolate caramels with some chocolate salt. Next row is a pear cream-filled heart, my favorite of the two hearts. Next row has violet caramels, more flowery than your average, then rosewater cream-filled hearts, a bit perfumey but it is Valentines day, after all, and the last row are cinnamon caramels which were great and literally exactly that. I ate them all. Within a week. They were for me, so...


For dinner, we opted not to go out, but stay in and cook. I made a "seitan au vin" with mushrooms, red wine and seitan, some gnocchi with rosemary and garlicky green beans. It was fancy. Observe:



We hadn't been to Champs in weeks (gasp) so last weekend we trecked out and got lucky because there was no wait. This breakfast burrito always takes me when I go. I think I'm going to order something new but nope. I get this almost always. If it's dinner time I get the awesome bowl and add guac. Sometimes I get mozzarella sticks. Don't judge.


Since Champs moved, we make a habit to stop by Dunwell Doughnuts on the way home. This time we were feeling particularly sugar-starved and got 3 each. My picks were berry french toast, Maple caramel pecan, and raspberry cheesecake. Alex got all the boring flavors. All six were eaten by the night's end.

 Here is my plate: