We got our king bed & mattress delivered this weekend!! Oh my gosh, the thing is enormous! The headboard is massive and I look so tiny in the bed, haha – every time Jason and I walk into our bedroom, we’re like “woah” and then we bust out laughing because we can’t believe how big it is. It’s going to take some time to get used to, at least from a standpoint of LOOKING at it. We’ve already gotten used to sleeping on it ;) the space is heavenly! Although, I will say, since we did get a Tempur-pedic, there’s a “break in” period. We both woke up sore and achey but that’s normal with a new firm bed. Hopefully in a couple of weeks, it’ll get better and soften up a bit!

I’m sure everyone has one set of obnoxious neighbors. There’s the good and there’s the bad. It’s funny how much the bad really stand out, though. There’s a family that live across the from us who has a son that comes by every day to pick them up every evening. It’s the most obnoxious thing because he pulls up to the garage and just sits there honking. He’ll honk like every minute to be like ‘hey, I’m here!’ – and he has the most obnoxious honk too. It’s like MERP MERP. Every time he pulls up, I just want to run out back and yell at the guy and be like STOP BEING SO LAZY. GET OUT OF THE CAR, GO INSIDE THE HOUSE, AND GRAB YOUR PARENTS.

Anyway, about this glazed orange pound cake. Rachel gave me a bundt pan for our wedding. I have been dying to get one and I just never got around to it. To be honest, it wasn’t the whole buying process, it was more the fear factor of having to actually use the pan. I’ve seen and heard so many horror stories of people’s cakes just completely sticking to the bundt pan. I really didn’t want that to happen to mine. My heart would’ve sunk if I had flipped this baby inside out and saw that all of it stuck to the inside. Luckily, it didn’t happen. I greased it good and it also helped that the one she got me was a really good nonstick one. Very happy with it! Thank you, Rach :)

This pound cake didn’t last long in the house. I loved how moist it was and it was filled with orange flavor. My mom and dad had come over the weekend I made it and they took about 4 slices home with them because they loved it so much – and let me say that they NEVER take home desserts, ever.

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

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It’s Friiiiday! Let’s have some raspberry peach prosecco punch to celebrate, shall we?!

Well first, let’s talk about how the government is super inefficient with everything. Well, we all knew that, so let’s get specific and talk about how much of a bitch it’s been to change my name at work. It takes like 14 different departments just to get my name changed on every little thing. Like, why can’t the system just be all linked together and you change one thing and it changes all the rest and notifies all your insurance companies and everything in one simple click of a mouse? Oh right, it’s because that would be WAYYYYY TOO EASY. Seriously, I needed to change the way my name displays on the phone when I call people, that’s a different department from where I would have to get my name changed in the phone directory (again, what sense does this make? They’re both PHONE related). I needed to get my badge changed – different department. I needed to get my Intranet profile name changed – different department. Email – different department. Chat services – different department. Mobile phone – different department. I could go on and on. There’s pretty much NOTHING that is in the same department where they can TALK to each other and make the whole existence of TECHNOLOGY work in a harmonious tune. It’s crazy it’s taken over a week to even get some of this process pushed through. Oh, and the best part is? There is ZERO documentation for this so the next lady that comes along that needs her name changed, I feel bad for her. I feel so bad for her that I want to be the one to write this document so no one has to go through what I’ve gone through. I’ve literally called every department trying to figure out WHO TO TALK TO for each specific task. And of course it gets pushed around cause no one wants to do the work. C’MON, is it really that hard to change the last name field in a form? I’m pretty sure I could do it blindfolded.

Yeah, so that’s been my week at work which is why this raspberry prosecco punch is SO WELL DESERVED! You know who else deserves a drink like this after writing a fantabulous cookbook? Miss Heather Christo.

This raspberry peach prosecco punch is from her cookbook, Heather Christo’s Generous Table. Jason and I couldn’t stop drinking it. As girly of a drink as it was, Jason really liked it. I love raspberry and peach combinations and Prosecco is my drink of choice – always – at any restaurant (shut up, I know I sound high maintenance right now) so this was the PERFECT drink and I knew I had to make it as soon as I saw it.

I completely adore Heather and her talents and her incredible skills of entertaining. As soon as we started communicating over email the beginning of this year, I knew a great friendship would blossom! So, the book is separated into seasons – Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. I love that idea. It gives you awesome inspiration and delicious recipes to use in-season ingredients and she gives great tips on how to entertain within those seasons – especially the holidays in Autumn and Winter. She also takes note of her readers – we all have busy lives but we all still want to entertain those closest to us. She does such a great way of showing you how in her cookbook. None of her recipes are hours of preparation or hours of slaving over the stove. She created her recipes around the time you should be spending with your guests. I love all the drink recipes in here too. I’m ALWAYS struggling with drinks and she gives a great variety. The food photography & styling in this was all done by her. They make you want to lick the book ;)

Cutest promo video ever:

Generous Table is split up into four sections corresponding to the seasons. Each section features five sample menus for a variety of fêtes from the most casual to the most elaborate, including Early Spring Dinner, Game Night, Southern Housewarming, and Snow Day Lunch, along with special events like showers, anniversaries, and birthdays. Every recipe, from Cheddar and Chive Scones with Red-onion Jam to BBQ Grilled Wild King Salmon with Apricot-mustard Glaze and Grilled Stone Fruit to Rustic Pear and Cranberry Crostata emphasizes fresh, seasonal ingredients. The book also includes Stylish Sidebars that tastefully correspond with each menu. In total, the book includes 105 recipes and about 20 sidebars with useful information such as “How to Set Up a Tasting Bar,” “Glittery Decorations for a Spooky Halloween Supper,” “How to Prepare a Brunch Ahead of Time.”

Heather is most concerned with making food that is not only beautiful to look at but tastes amazing, food that you find yourself thinking about days later that come from recipes that will last a lifetime.

I went to Heather’s book signing at Busboys & Poets in Arlington when she was in town. After numerous emails back and forth, we finally got to meet and what better place than to meet at her own book signing? This lady is GORGEOUS. If you think she’s gorgeous in photos, she’s absolutely stunning in person. She’s so vibrant and bubbly. Just being around her makes me feel so giddy and happy. I think it’s the way she presents herself and how she’s constantly smiling and her warm personality. She has the BEST laugh. You can’t help but smile and laugh back with her.

Cheers to Heather and her beautiful creation!! Go get yourself a copy and entertain your loved ones with style!

Continue reading: Raspberry Peach Prosecco Punch

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

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I have been sitting at the computer staring at these cupcakes for the past 45 minutes. I seriously feel like a high school or college student right now just FISHING for words to write for an essay. I have some serious writer’s block. NOTHING is coming to my head. I really just want to be like, “I love lemon in desserts because they make them so cheery and springy and floral scented. You should make these lemon blueberry cupcakes. Here’s the recipe.” Haha, I honestly think most of you wouldn’t mind that. You’re probably thinking, “just get to the point.”

Well, so I guess I could talk about my goal of getting thank you cards out by the end of the month. I heard that you have up to a year to send them out but then I’m also hearing you have up to 3 months. We’re just about to hit 2 months at the end of this month so I really want to get them out sooner rather than later. I don’t want people to think that we’re not grateful or anything or that their cards won’t be coming. I just haven’t had the time to order them and write them. I’m flying to Nashville next Thursday so I’ll use those 2 hours on the plane to write and address them all. Should I ask the person sitting next to me to help? ;)

Or I could talk about my obsession with all things stripes and maxi dresses this summer. I have a ton of stripes in my closet as it is and I just recently bought loads more. I bought like 3 striped shirts and 3 striped maxi dresses (can I just say how much I adore them? They’re SO comfortable and you can always dress them up or dress them down). Every time I pick up anything striped, Jason says, “surprise, surprise, how did we know that Julie was going to get this in stripes?” Haha – whatever!! I just like it.

But really – my main point is that these lemon blueberry cupcakes are the epitome of warm weather. I love the bursts of lemon throughout this cupcake. The frosting is so good and the cake is really moist. My coworker said it was dense, but Jason and I thought it was pretty fluffy. At least it’s moist, that’s the key. I hate biting into a cupcake or cake and have it be crumbly dry. I feel like gagging when that happens.

So in summary – you should make these. Here’s the recipe (below).

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

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When I was young, I was really into paninis, and clearly, I still am. I really can’t put my finger on as to why I liked them so much but I always had my mom grill my sandwiches so they would be all flat with grill marks and melty cheese on the inside. Not quite sure the fascination with that, but I swear it made the sandwich taste 10 times better and I was more apt to eating the entire thing that just a plain, cold, regular sandwich. I would always beg to go to Panera (when it was the cool thing to do back then) so I could get a panini. I know, I was such a strange child.

You must agree with me when I say that I’m 100% convinced that calories don’t count on the weekends. Aren’t I somewhat right?

For the past few weekends, I have been eating like a monster. I indulge myself in any and everything on the weekends but during the week, I’m very careful about what I eat. I think I like to think that if I eat well during the week, then erasing all that good eating on the weekends will balance it all out and I won’t gain any weight. It’s wishful thinking but as long as I can put off exercising as much as I can, it works for me ;)

I’m also 100% convinced that no one knows how to say my new last name. Which kind of sucks because I dealt with that my whole life and was excited to have a new last name but now it’s all just whatever. It really does bug me though when people call me Julia or Judy or July. Julia – I get the similarities there but Judy or July really irk me. Maybe it’s because my childhood pediatrician still insists that my name is Judy or the fact that every time I receive a Christmas gift from one of my parents’ friends, it’s always written as “July” and not “Julie.” I can only laugh about it now though since it’s been so many years that this has happened.

Anyway, here’s a recipe for my undying love for paninis. A hot, pressed, & grilled sandwich always wins in my book.

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

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I’ve always had this irrational fear of eating alone anywhere. Do you ever feel that way? Like, I can’t just be one of those people to go to a restaurant and get a table for one. I feel like people would think I’m a loser or something, or that they’d look at me funny. I mean, I know it’s stupid to think this way because who really cares what other people think? But, I can’t EVER do it. I always feel weird about it. I think it stems from high school or college, where you’re constantly surrounded by friends and then when you see someone alone, you automatically wonder why they’re alone and you just keep looking at them. Maybe it’s the introvert in the extrovert me that can’t do something as easy as eating at a bar or restaurant alone, but whenever I go on work trips and am forced to be by myself, I always just order room service cause of the fear of going to the bar and eating alone. It’s the weirdest thing, but then yesterday, after I went to the DMV, I went to get breakfast at Chick-Fil-A (I NEVER get a chance to do that because we’re always too late on the weekends) and when the lady at the register asked me, “here or to-go?” I actually said, “here.” I mean, I guess it’s like conquering a fear but I really just wanted to try to it to see how I felt about it. Maybe it’s an age thing. The older I get, the less I care what it looks like and the more it really is just about EATING. It felt fine, normal. I actually kind of liked it. I could focus on the food and could just people watch and think random thoughts instead of having to talk to someone else and keep a conversation going. Haha, I’m sounding really weird right now, but all I’m saying is, I definitely am ok eating by myself somewhere now! Although, it’ll still be in the back of my mind if people are looking at me funny :)

Strawberries are back in season and I’ve been buying them by the POUND every week! Wegmans has some good deals on them every time I go and just yesterday, I went to Costco and I totally bought 3 pounds of strawberries. Lots of yummy things to make :) they’re one of my favorite fruits. I almost ALWAYS get a strawberry banana smoothie anywhere I go and I will always choose strawberry as one of my ice cream flavors.

When we were on our honeymoon, we drank a lot of margaritas and mojitos. Ugh, it makes me miss Turks & Caicos that much more. Anyway – we would have one nearly every day. The mojitos on the island were so well made and when we went to dine at Stelle, Jason got this strawberry mojito. I knew I had to try to recreate it at home especially since strawberries are so abundant right now.

You’ll want to make a pitcher full of this. It’s REALLY good & can get a wee bit dangerous ;)

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

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On Friday, I officially changed my legal name! I decided to go to the social security administration during my lunch break. For some reason, I was really optimistic about getting in and out in an hour and it really did happen. I think it’s because I went on a Friday at 2pm and they close at 3pm so they wanted to get everyone done and over with so they wouldn’t have to stay late. The place is zoo though – so many people in a tiny room with metal benches. I feel like it’s worse than the DMV (which I’ll be going to on Tuesday, so I’ll let you know how that goes, lol). It’s a depressing site, but at least I got what I needed to do done! I’ve been practicing my new signature all weekend. It’s not pretty. It’s just a bunch of squiggles after Julie W, lol

Coming home to a shipment of Sockeye Salmon from Copper River Salmon in Cordova, Alaska was pretty much a great way to kick off the weekend. I had so many ideas on how to use this gorgeous fish. I wanted to grill it but I also wanted to create salmon burgers with it. We still have about 3/4 pound of it left so we’ll likely grill it sometime this week but on Saturday, I decided to make these salmon burgers! These were probably one of the best salmon burgers I’ve ever had. Not saying that because of how I made it, but moreso the fresh salmon made all the difference in the world. The salmon was so buttery and vibrant in color. It had the perfect salmon taste. I can see why these fishermen are so proud of this catch every year. These really are worth every penny. Have you ever had any of the Copper River Salmons before? They’re only around a short period of time and they sell out fast – for good reason! I’m a total convert and I will definitely miss them when the season is over. I should buy a ton now and freeze them for year-round deliciousness :)

I tired to make these salmon burgers as unadulterated as possible so you could REALLY taste the freshness of the sockeye salmon from Copper River. You can use this recipe for any salmon, of course, but if you’ve never had Copper River Salmons before, I highly suggest the splurge!

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

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Did you see the new feature on my blog? If you hover over an image now, a Pinterest button will show up in the upper right hand corner and you can pin the images to Pinterest!! Test it out above! :)

Now that we bought our king bed and I’m prepping for it to come, I’ve been looking at all these bedding sets and swooning over them. It’s kind of like waiting for a baby to arrive – the whole nesting part and buying all these cute clothes for the baby – except I’m sure getting a bed delivered is FAR different from delivering a baby. Do you like that I just compared delivering a baby to delivering a bed & mattress set? It’s SORT OF similar. Ok, fine. It’s not, BUT the whole buying stuff in preparation is similar. You just want to put it on them so bad but you gotta wait. That’s how I feel right now. There’s all these cute bedding sets that would go perfectly well with our color palette but I can’t make that purchase yet because I’d just kill myself by staring at it every day.

It’s funny – I say all these things now but by month two I’m going to be so over duvet covers and sheets and making our bed. Jason is actually the bed maker in our relationship. I’m the worst. When I was younger, I would always get dinged by my parents for not making my bed. I prefer the roll out of bed and crawl back in it at night approach. I mean, why make your bed when that ONE spot was super comfortable and you can crawl right back into it at night? Haha, at least that’s my philosophy.

So these mini veggie bites..I construed them up in my head one Friday when I was working from home. I was thinking of all the random stuff we had in the fridge and how I wanted to use them that weekend. I was hoping this idea that seemed so perfect and beautiful in my mind would actually play out to be something I could share with you all….and luckily, it worked out. I know this is like the easiest thing to make, but when you’re thinking of what kind of appetizers or finger foods you want to have at a party or get together, this might come in handy. They’re extremely flavorful and I love the texture from the tortilla chips (might I add that they’re homemade and BAKED). I used two types of cheeses. We had left over muenster cheese slices that I placed at the bottom of these bites then I topped them with the bell peppers & onions and then topped it with mozzarella. I pretty much inhaled these.

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

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It’s finally time for me to give a FULL, DETAILED review of ALL our wedding vendors. The good, the bad, and the dirty. If you know anything about me, you know that I don’t hold back and that I say it like it is. I will throw this disclaimer out there: everything is from our OWN, PERSONAL experiences with these vendors. After working with them for over a year, I feel that I have a pretty good idea of their integrity and the way they run their business. My main goal of this post is to help other brides in the DC area with their vendors choices. Yes, I have some horrible experiences that I pray no bride ever has to deal with, and yes, I have some above & beyond experiences that I hope every bride can experience if they hire those vendors. Of course, I’m not getting paid anything to write this. This is merely just a guideline and cheat sheet. I know when I was wedding planning, I couldn’t find anything like this. It was all bubbly reviews on Wedding Wire or The Knot. I wanna get down and dirty and to the nitty gritty. I wanna tell it like it is. And here we go…

Wedding venue / ceremony & reception: Raspberry Plain

One of the first things you do as a newly engaged couple is look at potential wedding venues. Well, turn that car right around and avoid this place like the plague! Sure, it’s stunning on the outside and the location is ideal, but the owner, Maria Guerra, is toxic and has poor business practice. She’s SUPER SWEET in person, but once you give her the money and once you leave her property, she is a complete jerk to you. Would you like to hear stories of our experience with her? Of course you do! Let’s put together a list, shall we?

1. Her communication skills are horrid. She won’t reply to emails (and when you’re a bride, you kind of need answers!!) and I would have to email her 3-4 times before I got a response. She’s good in the beginning, obviously, cause she’s trying to get your business, but after that, she just stops caring
2. I don’t know any other venue that makes you pay a 50% deposit within the first week of you signing your contract and then 30 DAYS LATER, you pay the other 50%…that’s really weird to me, but whatever. It was in the contract & we clearly read it, so I’ll let this one go. It’s just odd, ya know?
   
3. Our event time was 6pm-10pm. For an additional hour (with the event ending at 11pm), it was $700. Jason & I decided, this is the ONE time we’re ever going to get married so we finally decided to pay $700 for an extra hour. We pay for an extra hour, we get it, right? Wrong. Maria went up to my day of coordinator and said that she wanted everyone “out by 10:45pm” and my DOC said, “um sorry, no..they paid $700 for the extra hour, everyone will leave at 11pm” and Maria goes, “I own this place, this is my property, people will leave at 10:45pm” and my DOC said, “it says in the contract that it will end at 11pm, that means it will end at 11pm, no earlier.” So then Maria goes up to my DJ and tries to get him to CUT THE MUSIC at 10:45pm. He wouldn’t because he knew this event was ending at 11pm. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?! WHO DOES THIS?!
4. My parents went up to the venue a couple weeks before our wedding to check up on the renovations of the place. For the amount of money Maria gets from each bride, she could do a lot better job with the upkeep. My parents weren’t thrilled with the rotted wood so they wanted her to fix it before our wedding. What does a real professional business lady say? “If you don’t like it, we can just cancel the wedding.” YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. Thank God I wasn’t there that day, I probably would’ve punched her. Luckily, my dad ended up yelling at her and she realized what she did wrong. Ridiculous, huh?

5. This is the KICKER: So, in Maria’s contract, it says that the security deposit (which is a hefty $1500) will be refunded to you within 30 days of the event. I emailed her early on in May to give her our address to send the check. The 30 days was coming close (April 26th) so I called her last Thursday (the  23rd) to see if she’d be sending the check soon or if she had sent it. She said, “oh! I’m sending it today!”…on Tuesday (the 28th) we hadn’t received it yet but I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and see if we’d get it today (the 29th)…nope. Didn’t get it. So this was our email interaction:

Hi Maria,

We last spoke Thursday morning, the 23rd, and you had mentioned you were sending our security deposit check of $800 that day. We should have received the check by now and we have not. I have already emailed you once about this earlier this month and given you our address so there should’ve been no confusion as where to send it, and if there was any confusion, you could’ve emailed or called me.

According to your contract, we should have received the security deposit 30 days after the event. This has not been the case. Therefore, I’m asking you to overnight us a cashiers check of $800 paid out to me, Julie Chiou, by this Friday (which would be 35 days after the event), otherwise, I’m going to file with small claims court on Friday. This is absolutely unacceptable and a breach of your own contract! We have done our part and followed your contract word for word and made timely payments, and for you to not even follow your own contract is completely hypocritical and a poor way to do business.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me or call me.

–

Maria responded with: I am sorry that you dis not get it yet. I sent it already  You should have gotten. Check your mail today and please let know that you got it. Please keep in mind that this was a  holiday weekend. I am sorry that you are stressing over this. I’m stressing out over this? $1500 is not some chump change, lady.

–

I responded with: We didn’t get it today. Even if it was a holiday weekend and you sent it Thursday, it still would’ve gotten to us by now. There’s Saturday delivery too. So technically Friday, Saturday, Tuesday, or today’s delivery would’ve produced your check as it does not take 4 days for a letter to get from Leesburg to Fairfax.

Photographer: Katelyn James Photography

Need I say more? I love her. She’s a doll to work with and she has great business practice. She knows what her clients want and you don’t even have to ask. I cannot recommend her enough. She is SO professional and on top of things and probably one of the sweetest persons I’ve ever met in my life. She genuinely just wants to capture your special day perfectly. You need to hire her :) We also got our pictures & gallery in TWO WEEKS! It was so fast!! Her and her husband are a great team. Even on the night of the wedding, they finished a quick slideshow of the pics that were taken up until the reception. Crazy good!

Videographer: Michael Brazda Films

Michael Brazda and his team are really professional. They stay out of your way and really know how to be discrete. Watching our wedding video, it was incredible to see all the shots he got because 90% of them, I don’t even remember him even being in the room!!!! He’s SO good! I didn’t talk much with him the day of, but I contracted him over a year before our wedding and all our email communications have been very prompt and professional. His prices can’t be beat – for what you get, it’s a really great deal compared to all other videographers that are on his level and experience level and quality. I can’t wait to show you our wedding video!! :)

Wedding Dress: Bustle

I got my beautiful wedding dress from my SIL & BIL’s bridal store!! It’s a Pattis gown and everything about it is stunning, if I do say so myself. My SIL did an extraordinary job helping me out with my wedding in every aspect. She was attentive and gave advice and she really knows how to RUN a business. She understands that brides are stressed and she tries to ease that by always communicating and always asking how she can help. Really, that’s just outstanding customer service. Her store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and it is STUNNING. They have a floor to ceiling mirror – which I’ve NEVER seen before in any bridal stores. Her store is super organized too and every dress in there is on wooden hangers (I hated walking into some DC bridal stores where they had metal hangers that were BENDING due to weight of the dress). You really need to check out her store if you’re in the area – it’s jaw-dropping and the customer service is top-notch. She really teaches her consultants well and how to treat clients. Every bridal store I went to in the DC area, I really couldn’t compare their customer service and attitude to my SIL’s. I’m not just saying this because she is family, she really treats EVERY client like a friend/family member.

Caterer: Better Events Catering

Roberto Torres is the owner and catering manager of Better Events Catering. I cannot praise him enough. He is the most PATIENT and flexible person, ever. I think we changed our contract almost 30 times and we had all these random issues arise and all these questions and he took everything with such grace and professionalism. There wasn’t ONCE where he seemed annoyed at us or angry. His answer is always, “yes.” His team is really good too. They know how to setup the event super fast and our guests kept commenting on how their glasses were never empty. They were on top of it! The food – I mean, c’mon, would I have a bad caterer? I have pretty high standards and Roberto & his team definitely came out on top. All our guests were raving about the food and how fresh and delicious it was. Nothing was super dried out (we had a buffet) – everything was tender, moist, and juicy. I’m so happy with the quality of service Roberto provided us.

Florist: My Wedding Flowers

Melissa Sylvain owns My Wedding Flowers and I loved working with her. I didn’t appreciate flowers at all before working with her. She actually has made me love flowers – which is very hard to do since I’ve always hated them! I went into our consultation not knowing ANYTHING about what I wanted or what flowers I wanted in my bouquets. I just had pictures of what I liked and what colors I wanted. She took all my thoughts and put them in a bouquet that was absolutely stunning. I was seriously SO THRILLED when she dropped them off at my bridal suite. She’s really patient, too, AND she even did a FaceTime chat with me when all the flowers came in so she could show me what would go with what. Her prices are definitely really competitive and they’re AFFORDABLE. Flowers were at the end of my budget and she definitely was able to work within my small budget for flowers. She’s awesome!!

Day of Coordinator: Project Posh

Shelley Landon is the owner of Project Posh and I absolutely loved working with her. If you can, HIRE a DOC. They will save you from so much stress. Shelley ran the day SO beautifully. Even Katelyn said that she was amazed at how we were running EARLY for everything. Shelley’s assistant, Sadaf, is a doll. They both work really well together and are a well-oiled machine. They ran rehearsal with promptness and everyone knew what to do on the day of. Shelley really goes above and beyond for her brides. I left some stuff at the venue and she offered to go back to the venue to get them for me. I loved having Shelley and Sadaf being apart of my day because I could actually enjoy it and know that everything was taken care of. They followed all my instructions for how to place things around the venue correctly and they even put their own personal touches on decor. I was really in awe when I walked out of the bridal suite and saw how they arranged everything. It was SLIGHTLY different than what I told them but I’m SO glad they didn’t listen to me and used their own best judgement because it turned out way better than what was conjured up in my head. I think they have great eye for design and arrangements. Shelley and Sadaf also had the task of wrapping the ivy flowers around the arbor of where we were going to get married. Wow, it was stunning. It looked like a professional florist did it. It turned out AMAZING in the wedding video, too. At the end of the night, they gathered all my belongings and gifts and placed them in my parent’s car for me. Not one thing was missing and I’m so grateful! Communication with Shelley was flawless. I never had to wait on her for an email. She always responded fast and she’s so super nice and attentive. Highly recommend her!!

Make-Up: Melissa Goss

Phenomenal. She has some flawless skills when it comes to make-up and the ultimate test, I feel, for a make-up artist is doing Asian make-up and she killed it!! She’s so fun and really laid back. I love her personality and she’s actually a friend in real life (not just a vendor that I’ll never see again). I look at the photos and I’m like “damn, I love my makeup…I love the eyelashes & the eyeshadow…everything.”

Hair: Joy Greene

If you want a killer team, get Melissa & Joy to do your hair & make-up. Seriously. They both have done hair & makeup for the White House Correspondents Dinner three years in a row – doesn’t that say something? Joy is my regular hair stylist so there was no doubt about it that I was going to hire her to do my wedding. She ROCKED my hair style. I mean, I grew out my hair for 8 months but she was still able to make it seem as if I had super long hair that was curled up into a design. I slept in my braid the night of the wedding and wore it all day the next day. I just couldn’t bear to let it down! Haha – to this day, I stare at the photographs and die over my hair.

Cake: Kogibow Bakery

We chose this bakery because they specialize in Asian-style wedding cakes. They aren’t too sweet and they’re spongy. I had no problems dealing with the owner and they were very prompt to deliver the cake. Exceptional price, too!

DJ: Ian Lade, Digital Sound Services

For some reason, I feel like Ian is apart of our family now. He’s done my cousin’s wedding, he’s done mine, and now he’s doing my other cousin’s wedding in August. What can I say? We love a good DJ!! I love Ian, he’s so professional and super prompt and plays the BEST music to get everyone on the dance floor. It was like a dance party. It was amazing. Everyone kept commenting at how much FUN they were having and even the ones that weren’t much of dancers were even out on the dance floor. I loved that Ian called a week before the wedding to hashout the timeline with me and to give me some advice on music selections, etc. He’s really genuine and does a great job. He’s got a British accent too, so that was entertaining!

Officiant: Rev. Jeffrey Maszal

Rev. Maszal was good but he was a little cocky and wanted to run the show and kind of took that thunder away from my DOC at the rehearsal. I felt that he didn’t really want to work with her and he basically stole the show. I don’t remember much of the ceremony, but I know he has great communication because he’d always reply promptly with emails and he showed up right on time. I was a little miffed at what he said to my DOC and her assistant at our rehearsal. He walked up to my DOC’s assistant and said, “I know the difference between Arabs and Persians.” Ok, not necessary. And then, he mentioned to my DOC that he had a wedding to do right before mine and that it wouldn’t be terrible if he were a little late to my wedding because it’s “an Asian wedding, and they never start on time.” Obviously, I didn’t hear this myself so I can’t say that he did in fact say this, but if he did, then that’s just all sorts of wrong.

Wedding stationery: Melissa Coleman, Wooden Spoons Kitchen

A fellow food blog friend, I hired Melissa to do our entire invitation set. Her design skills are flawless and the calligraphy she used for our names was designed by her. I was so happy to work with her. She is really patient and we did a couple Google hangout sessions so she could walk me through the ordering process. So thrilled with how all of it turned out. I felt bad with all the minor color changes I kept having with the dark purple but she was always more than happy to make changes for me. I highly recommend her for all sorts of design projects!! That girl has a great designers’ eye :)

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

The post Wedding Vendors Review appeared first on Table for Two.

Why do they make it so hard for you to change your name? Although, now thinking about it, I guess it’s a good thing that they make you jump through hoops to change your name so you don’t have those imposters & crazies, but when you’re a legit person trying to change your name – it’s the most frustrating thing! I mean, I would LOVE to work for the Social Security Administration. Working hours of 9am-3pm & only 9am-12pm on Wednesdays? Um, where can I sign up?!

It was really nice to have a long weekend this past weekend. I love starting the week on a Tuesday. It just makes the week fly by that much faster. Don’t you think? Since it was Memorial Day weekend, Jason and I figured there’d be a lot of decent furniture sales going on so we finally accomplished one of our “after the wedding” goals. We bought our king bed!! Just thinking about it makes me squeal with utter joy & excitement. We’ve been sleeping on a full bed ever since we moved in together. Did you just make a face? Yeah, I’m sure you did. Everyone does when we tell them. They’re just in shock at how we can even sleep like that. Really, we’re so used to it. We’re so used to it that we barely even touch at night. There’s always a perfect “section” for him and I in bed. We even wake up in the mornings still separate. Yeah, it’s kinda crazy. Every time we go on vacation and get a king bed at the hotel, we’re seriously in heaven – and then we come home to a full size bed and it’s sad. I honestly cannot wait to just spread out all I want and wave to Jason on the other side of the bed, haha! The bed is unfortunately backordered, though, and although the mattress isn’t, we didn’t want them to deliver them separately, so we’re getting them delivered together….July 8th :( hopefully it flies by fast. I cannot wait to jump in that ginormous bed!

These peanut butter sandwich cookies kind of evoke the same emotion for me. It’s a peanut butter lover’s dream. The cookie itself is crunch on the edges but as soon as you get to the middle, it’s really chewy and the perfect consistency with the peanut butter filling. I think this is one of Jason’s favorite cookies. He ate so many! These were one of the few cookies we didn’t give away to anyone – and that’s rare!! We usually love to share, but these are truly too good to share. They’re REALLY easy to make too. Pretty much everything is in 1/2 cup measurements so it’s easy to remember as well. This is definitely going on our cookie rotation.

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

The post Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies appeared first on Table for Two.

Let me preface this by saying: yes, you have probably seen tutorials like this before and plugins out there like this before BUT I’ve checked out NUMEROUS pin it button plugins and I can say that this one is the best (in my opinion) because most “pin it” plugins don’t allow you to create your own descriptions and only take the blog title as your description. This one does!! I personally love having my blog URL in all my pin descriptions and more details than just the title of the recipe so this plugin solves all my frustrations because I finally found one where it’ll actually take the description YOU give it.

And one other thing that I love about this plugin is: you can pin the image from your homepage but the Pinterest picture link will be the post link. Does that make sense? Here’s an example: How many times have you seen a pretty recipe on Pinterest, clicked on the image to go to the recipe, and find out that the link only leads you to the homepage with the recipe post nowhere in sight? How frustrating right? Most people don’t realize that you have to actually click into the post and then pin from there to get the correct URL but this plugin does the work for you if you happen to pin from the homepage. I LOVE THAT!! No lost URL links anymore to phantom recipes :)

See below? I hovered over my cookie image on my homepage, clicked the Pin It button on the image, and the plugin grabbed the link to the respective recipe post AND my description from the title of the image (it can also grab from your alternative text). It does the job for you :)

Oh, and yet another thing I love about this plugin: I really like that it doesn’t do that hover item on ALL your images on your site. Just your blog post images. Like, if you hover over my header, it won’t give you that hover pin it button..or images in my sidebar (so you don’t need to go changing all your images to have the no pin code). It only does the blog post images!

Hopefully this tutorial has helped you and will help out the Pinterest community, too, by having properly linked pins!

Here’s the link to download the plugin!

Note: I’m on a self-hosted WordPress.org blog. I’m not sure whether or not this WordPress.com platforms. I also don’t believe this works for Blogger platforms. Sorry! :(

© 2011-2013 Table for Two | Julie Chiou

The post Blogging Tip: How to Add a Mouseover Pin It Button on Your Blog appeared first on Table for Two.