Downtown Napa staycation - Part I

A few weeks ago, my husband and I took off to Napa Valley for a mini vacation. It is nice to take little breaks like this just to take in new surroundings and rejuvenate yourself. We have been to Napa Valley before and each time, we try to go to different areas, this time, we are focusing on downtown Napa.

We stayed at this new boutique hotel in downtown Napa called AVIA. I like that it has a contemporary yet warm feel to it; the color palette in the guest rooms consists of various shades of brown, chocolate with accents of moss green. On their website, they describe it as "rustically elegant". I love the bathroom too! It is big and bright as they use Eastern White marble over the entire bathroom, including the oversized walk-in shower. Bathrooms in hotels are very important to me, if it's too small or outdated-looking, that can break the deal for me.

As it was lunchtime soon after checking in, we decided to take a stroll through downtown Napa to get to the Oxbow Public Market, a smaller market kind of like the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco.

After walking around the entire market, we decided to have lunch at Pica Pica Maize Kitchen. This place serves up Venezuelan cuisine and favorites such as the arepa; a grilled corn flour cake, the cachapa; a sweet corn pancake and the maize'wich; a sweet corn bread. Basically, you choose one of the three breads and then one of the many different stuffings available to make a sandwich.

We chose to have the chorizo capacha (left) and the pulled pork maize'wich (right) with a side of yucca fries (middle).

Both sandwiches were pretty good, I like how the sweetness of the corn contrast with the savory-ness of the meats. I did not try the yucca fries but my husband said that they were good!

In the evening, we went to the Chef's Market that was taking place just a block away from our hotel. For a Thursday night, we were quite surprised at how many people actually showed up at this outdoor event. It is like a farmer's market with live entertainment and cooking demonstrations. We tried the cherries at different stands, wine-infused jams and preserves and sat through a cooking demonstration of ahi tuna tartare salad. At the end of the demonstration, they gave out samplings of the dish and even complimentary sauvignon blanc to go with the dish! This is Napa after all...

Stay tuned for the second part of my recap as we visited Michael Chiarello's Bottega Restaurant and Redd in Yountville!

Wedding Jewelry Giveaway From One World Designs

Bonnie Harper from One World Designs is an amazing jewelry and wedding accessories designer. I had a chance to work with her on The Free Pamper Yourself Event earlier this year and was blown away by her beautiful work and warm personality.

Starting today through next Thursday, July 2nd, she is having a 'Wedding Jewelry Giveaway', where she will be gifting two $150 gift vouchers toward the purchase of any of her jewelry and accessories! Check out this blog on details on how to enter for the drawing.

Good luck!

Destination Weddings at Silicon Valley NACE May Meeting

The other continuing education event I attended last month was held by the Silicon Valley NACE chapter at the Silver Creek Valley Country Club in San Jose. I was really looking forward to this event as there was going to be a panel of wedding industry professionals who were going to talk about destination weddings and high-end celebrations.

The theme of the event was Alice in Wonderland and it was perfectly conceptualized in the main ballroom of Silver Creek Valley Country Club, where we spent the main portion of our time that evening.

Check out the centerpieces!

Dinner at Silver Creek Valley Country Club never disappoints; for salad, we had mixed baby greens, artichokes, tomatoes and carrot curls with balsamic dressing.

For the entree, we had petit filet mignon, roasted shallots with Merlot reduction sauce, garlic herb potato au gratin and fresh seasonal vegetables.

For dessert, we had yummy mini cupcakes from Jen's Cakes.

After dinner, we awaited excitedly to hear from the panel of speakers; planner Sasha Souza of Sasha Souza Events; videographer Andrew Hsu, of Studio MSV; baker Jen Kwapinski, of Jen's Cakes; and photographer Brook Todd, of Alisha + Brook Photographers. They shared valuable information regarding what issues to watch out for in planning and coordinating destination weddings. Do you know that you have to pay customs tax for flowers you bring into certain countries? Do you know what kind of wedding professionals you should hire locally and whom you should hire from where you are located? That is definitely useful information to know beforehand!

I think this event has been very informative and it's nice to see how other wedding professionals work with destination weddings.

Lula Kate Trunk Show at Bella Bridesmaid Los Gatos

You're invited to see the latest in bridesmaid dresses from Lula Kate at Bella Bridesmaid Los Gatos!

Start Time: Saturday, June 19, 2010 at 10:00am
End Time: Sunday, June 20, 2010 at 6:00pm

Address: 465 N. Santa Cruz Ave. Suite A, Los Gatos, CA, 95030

Sip complimentary champagne cocktails and enjoy:
- 10% off orders placed by June 30th, 2010

To reserve an appointment:
Call (408)399-4649 or email losgatos@bellabridesmaid.com

For more information, please visit Bella Bridesmaid.

Alix & Kelly Trunk Show at Bella Bridesmaid Los Gatos

You're invited to see the latest in bridesmaid dresses from Alix & Kelly at Bella Bridesmaid Los Gatos!

Start Time: Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 10:00am
End Time: Sunday, May 23, 2010 at 6:00pm

Address: 465 N. Santa Cruz Ave. Suite A, Los Gatos, CA, 95030

Sip complimentary champagne cocktails and enjoy:
- 10% off orders placed by June 6th, 2010

To reserve an appointment:
Call (408) 399-4649 or email losgatos@bellabridesmaid.com

For more information: please visit Bella Bridesmaid.

ACPWC May Meeting

What a whirlwind past few weeks it has been! After completing my biggest wedding yet (500+ guests!) a couple of weeks ago, I also attended 2 continuing education meetings/events, the first one held at We and Our Neighbors Club clubhouse in San Jose, hosted by ACPWC.

We and Our Neighbors Club clubhouse is a San Jose Historic Landmark and a well-kept secret. It is a Craftsman style bungalow and started out as a meeting place for a women's club in 1892. It is still in use today by several Scout troops and can be rented for special events at a minimal cost.

The main room can accomodate 80 people, there is a small stage area and an upright McPhail piano that is in place and still in use.

This evening, we had floral arrangements sponsored by Christine Le of Pink Lincoln Designs, linens and chair covers by Blanca Samano of A Touch Of Elegance and dinner provided by Michi Sushi.

I love the color combination of Christine's gorgeous centerpieces!

The amazing dinner was a 7 course meal that consisted of salad, appetizers, assorted nigiri and rolls.

The sushi was ultra fresh as Michi brought a sushi bar to the venue.

Our speaker for this meeting was Karmen Reed of Kickoff Topic, a Social Media Marketing Solutions company. Karmen is a social marketing expert and educates, coaches and consults small businesses and entrepreneurs on maximizing the benefits of social media marketing. She taught us about Facebook, LinkedIn and Youtube in particular. Social media is so important for small businesses nowadays, I am still learning about the benefits and how to harness the power of using social media.

Stay tuned for future posts of 1) the other continuing education event I attended this week and 2) of my biggest wedding so far!

Fire Safety, Anyone?

Last Tuesday night, I attended the Silicon Valley NACE meeting at the Stanford Faculty Club in Palo Alto to hear Natti Pierce-Thomson give a presentation on fire and electrical safety in the events industry. She is the President and Senior Lighting Designer of North American Theatre Technology. (You may recall that Natti also provided the lighting at the ACPWC meeting in February.) One of the first ETCP Certified Entertainment Electricians, Natti is also a member of the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association). Who better to teach us on fire and electricity safety than Natti!

She gave plenty of useful tips and information to teach us about how to use extension cords properly, what kind of extension cords to use and not to use in different situations and how to check if a piece of fabric is flammable, among other things. She also showed us the latest in LED lighting technology. Lots of useful information! I also learned that there is a product that is essentially a single-use fire extinguisher about the size of a water bottle. Guess what I'll be adding to my bridal emergency bag from now on!

If you look closely at the centerpiece, you can see that different kind of extension cords have been incorporated and would later be used in Natti's presentation, how clever!

For dinner, we started with an artichoke carpaccio and mâche salad with shaved Parmesan, tomato concassé and balsamic vinaigrette.

The entree was a duet entree consisting of Painted Hills Natural Angus petit filet mignon topped with frizzled leeks and filet of halibut with lemon thyme beurre blanc with white and green asparagus and Gruyère potato strudel.

After the entree, we were treated to a cheese course; various Cowgirl Creamery cheeses with lavender honey, quince paste and herbed flatbread.

Last but not least, the dessert was an Opera cake; layers of almond sponge cake with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache.

All in all, good food, excellent presentation, getting to meet new event professionals and catching up with old ones, what more can one ask for?