wedding's eve

Stefan and I love culture.  We love learning about it, indulging in it, joking about it, and finding any excuse to get dressed up because of it.

One of the many, many reasons we were so pumped for our wedding weekend was that it represented the coming together of so many different people from so many unique cultures that have contributed so much to our lives. We had guests from Munich to Maine, Brooklyn to Boca Grande, Canada to Connecticut, Milwaukee to Middlebury, New York to North Hampton, Zurich to Indiana – all unique and special and wonderful. We wanted the night before the big day to represent our special celebration of all these cultures – a toast to the differences in each and every one attending.

It felt rather fitting that Stefan's fabulously generous parents host both the rehearsal dinner (for the bridal party + close family) and then the welcome drinks and dessert (for everyone) at the aptly-named Swiss Hotel on Sonoma's main downtown plaza. 

We decked the place out in Swiss-themed decor - red and white tableclothes, red and white flowers in mason jars, and red and white lanterns hung from Italian string lights.

my Nana giving the loveliest of toasts during dinner

my baby brother charming us all with his words

Frank - a groomsmen - telling embarrassing Stefan stories

For dinner, I designed Swiss-themed place cards and menus - complete with a guide to talking Swiss-style to one's dinner mate.

I would say they were quite the hit for starting up some funny conversations

(Silvan's - Stefan's brother + best man - chatting it up

with Susan - my brother's fabulous date)

We served up Swiss delicacies of all kinds:

Hugos to wet one's palate

Swiss chocolate mousse, apple strudel, and cheese cake (okay, fine - not technically Swiss, but a Stefan favorite)

And - of course - a half wheel of raclette melted to perfection on our new raclette oven.  (Gifted by a lovely bridesmaid that very night - note the pretty ribbon on the oven.)

And finally - to really spice up the night - we encouraged guests to come dressed in “culturally-inspired attire.”

And come they did.

The night was packed to the brim with good food, good drinks, good company, and very good laughs.

xoxo

KK

getting ready

So before I get into all sorts of wedding details goodness, I thought I'd give you a little preview of the weeks preceding the big day.

When we flew back from Europe (two weeks ish before wedding), Stefan's mom came back with us, bunking up in our one-bedroom for a little pre-wedding vaca.  Because she doesn't fly 12+ hours from Switzerland to San Francisco any old day, we wanted to be sure to show her all our wonderful city has to offer. 

Our days were spent having her meet us for long workday lunches or walks, our nights were spent going out to our favorite restaurants (A16, Jackson Fillmore) or watching Giants games or exploring the city's finest sites (Baker's Beach, The Great Highway, Golden Gate Park), and our final weekend before the big shindig was spent wine tasting in Napa and Sonoma.

Pretty darn fun.

But as you might expect, such a schedule did not allow us much time for last-minute preparations.  And while I planned to take both Thursday and Friday off before the wedding weekend to head up to Sonoma with my mom and sis, Stefan did not get a single day off of prep.  So when my fabulous mother and sister arrived to help out the Wednesday before (and were expecting a few relaxing girls-only days in Sonoma), they were a little shocked to see that I had quite some work cut out for them.

First, there was the getting-of-all-the-stuff up to Sonoma.

We rode like this the whole 1.5 hours up.

With cheese on lap, of course.

Then, there was in-hotel-room arts and crafts.
(Post bottle of Champagne mind you...)

Then there was the buying and transporting of all of our beer, soda, water, and smores ingredients.

And then the dishing off of some other projects to able-bodied men and women.

It's amazing how everything does (somehow, miraculously) end up getting done.  (Even those escort cards that got finished at 1:30am the night before the wedding.  Better late than never.)
And if doesn't end up getting done, it becomes just not that important.

More to come on the important stuff soon.

xoxo
KK

newlyweds night

About a month ago, we had the honor of attending the gorgeous and rocking wedding of two German friends of ours in very rural, but beyond beautiful Germany.  The entire event was a blast:
from the ceremony jam-packed with cheerful, gospel-choir-sung songs,
to the getaway-car-led caravan back through the village to the reception,
to the cocktail hour where we released balloons with promises to our beautiful bride and groom,
to the Michelin-starred dinner,
to the glorious first waltz,

Did you know that in Europe

your first dance MUST be a waltz?

More on that later.

to some epic dancing,
to the 4am bedtime.
(And we were some of the first ones to turn in at that hour.  At our wedding - while my brother and his date were strongholds until 2ish - it was ONLY the Europeans that were up with us in the jacuzzi at 3:30am.  How do they do it!?)

When Frank and Marlene found out that our wedding was scheduled only two weeks after theirs (due to various conflicting demands it was the only date that worked), they decided to rebook their entire honeymoon (which was entirely arranged and paid for) to insure they would be there.  Therefore, we've had the privilege of having them in town this entire week.

Last night, we decided to do a newlyweds night and as wedding presents to each other, treat ourselves to a decadent three-course meal out at one of San Francisco's most luxurious spots: Twenty-Five Lusk.

The night began with leftover wedding cake and wedding wine at the overstocked apartment of KK & Stefan:

And then continued on at our restaurant of choice with:
Marin Miyagi oysters, local radishes and burrata, and pork belly confit to start,
and then grilled New York steaks with fresh garbanzo bean puree, toy box squash, spearmint, banyuls sauce as our main.

Not to mention a few cocktails before our dinner wine

There was of course room for Strawberry Lasanga, Salted Caramel Swirl Brownies, assorted sorbets, and a Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Sandwich for dessert.

Stefan had to roll me home, but boy was it worth it.  Sadly, they were back off to Munich today but we promised to see each other and do it again (perhaps on a bit smaller scale) very, very soon.

xoxo
KK

to rehearse

Of all the various things we did in planning this wedding of ours, my most very favorite was the writing of the ceremony.  I knew from the get-go that we wanted it to be 100% ours - every single word written and crafted by us.  

preparing for our rehearsal to begin

I bought book after book of wedding ceremony how-tos, readings, and services, but all of them struck me as lackluster.  I'd heard it before, or it had too much cheese (yes, possible in this context), or it just wasn't us.  

Hooray for breaking molds!

As we hit the 40-days-to-go mark  (sometime in late June) without any inkling of a ceremony or any officiant hired (per usual, I refused to let someone else take the reins), I decided to toss all my books out the window and start from scratch.  One Friday night when Stefan was out of town, I went around the corner to my favorite neighborhood spot (Jackson Fillmore), ordered myself a juicy glass of Pinot and a truffle burrata mini plate and cranked out 7 pages of content.  

After going through it with Stefan and my parents, however, we knew we couldn't have just anyone read it - if we were going to go this route, we needed it to done by people we knew, people we loved, people who had a special place in both our lives.  And thus we decided not to have an officiant at all - instead, having different family members do each of the various parts.

An entrance with lots of kids,

followed by a kick off by the moms,

then a reading found by, made for, 

edited, and read by my grandpa dickie boy,

the body by the dads, 

and then some vows, i dos, rings, 

and a kiss 

by my grandpa poppy.

See - it's going to be easy as pie.

The rehearsal went off without a hitch except for the fact that we had forgotten to tell Stefan's European groomsmen (3 out of 4) that their duties included having to STAND UP in front for the entire duration of the event.  

Stefan: "So guys - you'll actually need to stand here the whole time."

Frank in red shirt: "You're not serious."

Stefan: "Yes, yes - I am afraid I am."

Whoopsies.

More details to come soon.

xoxo

KK

kunde

Okay, let me take a big wedding step back and tell you the story of how this whole shin-dig came to be.  Because since I've been keeping things hidden left and right to make this past weekend full of surprises for all you gorgeous guests, by this point, I'm totally bursting at the seams.

A week or two after proposal, when we had decided upon wine country, but before we had nailed down a spot, we spent a few weekends gallivanting from winery to Napa hotel to winery to Sonoma resort to winery to Healdsburg restaurant to try and select our locale.  It didn't take us too long to figure out that the second you tell a venue you're debating dropping approximately $10k on their site fee alone, the free perks (and extra, extra long red carpet) immediately start to roll.

We milked it for all it was worth, getting free site tours and complimentary reserve tastings and extra samples of that delicious, only-for-special-guests dark chocolate.  For any of you couples out there (or anyone who looks like you could be getting hitched) looking for a cheap and easy way to have a weekend of luxury, simply tell places you're engaged: you'll be on track for perks left and right.

While we enjoyed all the indulgence, we found the majority of spots lackluster.  They showed us (along with the four other couples on the tour) where we'd all sit and how we'd walk in and which champagne we'd toast.  As we questioned the logistics of tailoring the program to our uniqueness, they would proudly boast about the 100s upon 100s of weddings that they did exactly like this every. single. year.

When we got to Kunde, however, there was no talk of such type.  With just us on the tour, they just drove us around - showing us the expansive property and all of its sites. 
"Where do we do the ceremony?" we asked.
"Wherever you want," they replied.
"Which beer do we drink?" we asked.
"Whichever you want," they replied.
"How do we have our guests sit?" we asked.
"However you would like," they replied.

In addition, the place was European-family-owned and the views were unreal. 

a normal night as newlyweds

Boy oh boy have these last few weeks flown by.  Wasn't it just a few hours ago that we were toasting the start of summer?  Since then, however, we've:
taken Switzerland by storm,
attended one rocking and gorgeous German wedding,
hosted Stefan's mom in our 1-bedroom apartment for 1.5+ weeks,
had an epic weekend of wine tasting with said mother,
and - oh yes - had one freaking awesome wedding weekend of own.

I'll be bringing you lots of details on the events gone by in coming weeks, but for now, just a glimpse into our first night of official married life.

With more leftover cheese, wine, beer, pelligrino, and more cheese than I could have ever imagined, and a brand new wedding-gifted raclette oven, it felt pretty fitting to make our first meal a raclette.

Simply melt...

...and then scrape

Easy as potatoes.

I've missed you all.

More to come soon.

xoxo

KK

hochzeit in der schweiz

When we knew we were headed to Europe for the wedding of one of Stefan's closest friends (coming up next weekend), we decided to spend a whole week, also taking time to celebrate our nuptials with all of the friends and family who can't make the trip over to the States in just a few weeks.

This past Saturday was that celebration.

While Stefan and I were desperately jet-lagged from our trip over dying to sleep until noon, we were both up early to help in prepping Stefan's mom's house for the festivities.  I showed my skills at pool cleaning as Stefan helped blow up balloons.

Stefan's family went to quite some trouble to bring us all sorts of important Swiss wedding traditions:

Copious amounts of food,

almost all of which included some form of cheese

A wedding "newspaper" for everyone in attendance

which included a page of warm wishes from each guest,

traditional swiss recipes for us to cook for each other,

and a "truth about stefan" and "truth about kk" page

where we both answered questions to see how well

we knew each other (short answer: very well)

 

Some lovely toasts, complete with a clock that ticks backwards

(oh how I wish!)

Some exceptional presents from some exceptional guests

 

This one:

FIVE jars of Aromat

(my FAVORITE only-found-in-Switzerland spice

that you can put on anything to make it beyond delicious)

wrapped with Swiss Francs

 

Hugos (the most delicious Swiss summery cocktail you ever did taste)

pool-side

Not to mention juicy sausages off the grill, a homemade wedding cake, some luscious Austrian wine, and lots of fun conversations (with my broken, nicht-so-gut Deutsche). 

I'd love to tell you more but I've got German homework to do.  (Oh yes, that's right: After our weekend of fun, Stefan jetted off to London for some work meetings while I stay here with his mom taking intensive German classes in downtown Zurich - more on that tomorrow.)

xoxo

KK