We were quite pleased to plan Phoebe and Julian’s destination wedding! It was a beautiful time! The ceremony and reception took place at the Strawberry Music Festival at Camp Mather in Yosemite, California. The couple lives in Seattle but are both from California’s Bay Area.

About the wedding:

Style of Wedding: Phoebe and Julian got married at an eclectic bluegrass music festival in the forest at Yosemite that they had both been going to unbeknownst to each other as young children with their families. They also were really into continuing their regular practices of camping, living green and eating a vegetarian diet into their wedding festivities.

How They Met: At a Non Violent Communication Workshop in 2003

How They Got Engaged: Julian took Phoebe on a surprise 3rd anniversary trip to Orcas Island to look at wildlife, then he got down on one knee to nervously propose!

Other Details:
Bridal suite: Tent trailer rentals, Chico, CA
Rings: Greenlake Jewelery Works, Seattle, WA
Activities: Dancing at the festival’s mainstage aka the Strawberry Music Meadow, introduction games at the lake, rehearsal dinner at the campsite, breakfast at the Camp Mather camp kitchen/buffet
Traditions: largely pulled from Judaism including Shevah Brachot (seven blessings read by seven friends), a Chuppah and Yichud
Favors for guests: Strawberry name badges, personalized beer coozies and hand-embroidered napkins

All photos by Nikolay Misharev Photography, Bay Area, CA.

Over 80 people from the Shunpike community were present to mingle, drink and talk about their various projects. Many amazing artists, supporters, funders, and friends were on hand to gather around for some speeches from Shunpike board and staffers and kick off the fall arts season. Among the many attendees were representatives from Shunpike Partner Artists:

Crawl Space Gallery,

Manifold Motion,

Helsinki Syndrome,

Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival,

dirty girl productions and many more. The Sole Repair Shop venue was equal parts sophistication and coziness as people from all over the city and state got pumped to win free tickets to see The Snow Project : New dance/sound/performance by choreographer Allison Van Dyck with sound by Kamran Sadeghi.

Brad Benner welcomed in his thirties with a fabulous bash for all of his pals. With psychic Maria Lujan de Peralta on board amid a sea of metallic megaloons people partied the night away. His guests enjoyed fabulous vegan peanut butter and jelly cake by The Flying Apron and delicious drinks/eats by Vermillion Gallery. Charitable contributions were made by the party guests to three separate organizations close to Brad’s heart: PRIDE Foundation, Washington CASH and Cancer Lifeline.

Photo by Jenny Jimenez.

The PopCap Games Summer Picnic was held Saturday August 2nd at Magnuson Park. We created a Neu-Rave Circus atmosphere for the PopCap staff, family and friends. There were tons of kids enjoying the Italian Soda bar and cotton candy while watching a Circus show by
Circus Contraption. Folks were seated in the whimsical beer garden enjoying Choppers and Manny’s by the Georgetown Brewing Company, local draft cider and local wines, eating delicious pizza and salads by Veraci Pizza while big props like 12 six foot banners hung from the nearby amphitheatre. Kids and adults alike were wild for the pedal powered spin art machine conceived by The Adventure School and created by Haulin’ Colin and the tile painting garden. Dog wranglers, kid wranglers and delicious cooking by Skillet were enjoyed by all. The prizes for the Human/Pet Lookalike contest were distributed to a stunning man/dog combo and over 300 dollars was raised in one hour for the Chicken Soup Brigade at the Charity Dunk Tank populated by various PopCap staffers.

We decorated a delightful spot in the Woodland Park Zoo to welcome the Doctors, families and especially children of the Polyclinic. We dressed up in a hilarious and FRIENDLY lion costume while the Woodland Park Zoo caterers served up BBQ. Windsocks in bold colors blew in the breeze as kids engaged in activities with the lovable lion and got their faces painted.

Carol was celebrated in casual style with this Sweatpants!- themed 35th Birthday Bash. With over 300 pairs of paper sweatpants, large and small and a piazza-like festooned backyard, the party was set for perfection. Sturgeon, a crawfish boil and cheese handmade by chef Aaron Cruse complimented copious amounts of beer swilled straight from special “Carol is Turning 35″ beer coozies. A heartfelt speech by the birthday girl’s best pal was capped off with a secret spontaneous synchronized dance scene starring ten friends copied directly from the Freddie Prinze vehicle, She’s All That. The birthday girl and all of her guests celebrated in coordinated sweatpants, track suits, sweatskirts and even one Mariner’s uniform. A tequila toast served in Hard Rock Cafe shotglasses collected by the host’s uncle in as many different international cities directly preceded the Sweatpants Sweet Off Dessert competition – with the baker of a sweatpants shaped cake taking home the Sweatpants trophy. All in all it was a beautiful evening that will not be soon forgotten. Viva la sweats!

On April 24th, 2008 we threw seder-avoiding fifth day of Passover party complete with the hostess in a Kimono airmailed from Tokyo. As this party was Kosher for Passover, Orthodox style we made fresh grapefruit, orange and strawberry juice by hand. Sixty lanterns and plenty of lucky bamboos made the intimate crowd of revelers jubilant as they munched on delicious Kosher non-dairy mango sorbets in real mango peel cups at the pink, white and green themed bash.

On Saturday, March 8th we created a formal dinner for our friends Ellen and Ben at the lovely Oak Manor on Capitol Hill. Chef Etsko Iwata was on hand to prepare a special springtime Japanese menu including blue shell crab Miso soup, tofu salad, chicken gobo salad, Burdock root Tempura, Unagi Oshi Sushi, Miso marinade Rock fish with green asparagus, Beef Roll cutlet Katsu fried with bread crumbs and stuffed with Tokyo green onion, Miso, Umeboshi paste and Japanese basil. The formal place setting featured a playful Tanuki and Girl’s Day dolls as place card holders.

On January 13th, 2008 The Adventure School built a wedding show booth for Dr. Tamar Wishnatzky and Barbara Stern showcasing their work in pre-marital counseling. The Bridal Showcase was held in Sacramento at Cal Expo. The ‘Marriage Success Tools’ booth we designed and executed was sandwiched in between a DJ and a cupcake caterer. The showcase was housed in one of eight buildings overflowing with 6000 brides and lined with copious booths from professional California d.j.’s, bands, bridal salons, formalwear, cakes, photographers, videographers, florists, honeymoon sites, favors and invitations. The booth we created for Dr. Wishnatzky and Mrs. Stern was hub of activity and the only one of its kind.