Cindy+Tom’s Beautiful Berkeley Wedding!

26Sep09

Cindy is the eldest cousin on my dad’s side.  She and Tom recently got married at Berkeley Gardens, and, as I said in my last entry, my father and my brother both flew out from the East Coast to join in the celebrations (unfortunately, the baby bro has just started high school, and so he and my mother stayed in the East to make sure his adjustment to a new level of school wasn’t thrown totally off whack by a jolly old weekend.)

It was a beautiful ceremony, and I am super happy for both of them!  The only problem now is that all the cousins older than me are married.  Which leads my uncle to constantly turn to me during the course of the entire weekend and ask pointedly: “So who’s next?!” Ha ha, very funny, Uncle John . . .

The wedding took place at Berkeley Gardens Redwood Grove, and all of the family showed up early to explore the gardens themselves and get some pictures.

Here are me, my dad, and my brother, smiling and looking pretty for the cameras.

It’s strange– The East Bay is an entirely different world from San Francisco.  I felt like I had traveled to another state, and the law books I had brought with me, stashed in my luggage?  Unopened and untouched.  Oh well, it’s not that often a cousin gets married, right?

Did I mention . . . we like to pose? 😀

In any case, the reception was at Adagia, a really cute restaurant in Berkeley.  There, we drank mimosas and ate skewers of halloumi + portabella mushrooms, thinly sliced beef, and other appetizers.  The newlyweds had their first dance together as husband and wife, and I popped around to look at the scenery.  The cake was gorgeous!  The picture I have here is a little blurry, but you get the idea, right?

It was so good, actually, that our cousin Jimmy had at least two slices (we had to send the waiter to the back in order to find some more cake!).

And the flowers!  So beautiful!  I don’t think I would ever have thought of using an orange theme, but this definitely worked out in Cindy’s favor.  I didn’t mention this earlier, but Cindy basically put this entire wedding together on her own!  The entire ceremony was simple and elegant, without any of the normal frou-frou that I usually think of when I think of weddings. Keep it simple but beautiful, no?

I actually took two of these centerpieces home to decorate my room.  Sadly, all the flowers have since dried up and died.  I still have the vases that they came in though, and they’re still making themselves useful in my apartment!

Considering this is a food blog, where is the food?  Here it is!

We had three options for our main entree:  steak, salmon, or vegetable risotto.  Because all of the people at my table (aka, all my cousins and their respective spouses) ordered the steak, I made a deal with my brother: I’d get the salmon, he’d get the steak, and we’d share pieces of both.

I really liked the salmon.  It was well cooked, and very flavorful.  Personally I liked it better than the steak, but that might just be personal bias.  First of all, I’m not a huge steak person to begin with (I prefer seafood over red meat usually), and second, my brother ordered his steak medium, while I prefer medium rare.

No matter!  They were both pretty good, and I loved the roast squash and polenta the salmon was paired with!  Squash is delicious in any form, and the yellow squash was exquisite.

The steak, on the other hand, was paired with (surprise, surprise) mashed potatoes.  Why is it that they’re always paired together? I gues it doesn’t matter too much, as long as our palates are satisfied.  And, trust me, they were.

Looks good though, don’t it?

So after our entree, we were served chocolate cake.  I can’t say how good it tasted – I don’t eat chocolate.  But considering how much my cousin enjoyed in, I’m sure it was great.

On the other hand, my dad seems to be enjoying Uncle John’s drunken coma.  I mean, food coma . . . 😀

(The reception was all-you-can drink mimosas and beer.  Dangerous, says I.  Great-o, says everyone else!)

I really enjoyed the wedding.  Good job, Cindy, for planning it so well!

And to both Tom and Cindy — Congratulations!!!

Filed under: desserts, friends, photography, restaurant, Travel   |  2 Comments
Tags: Adagia, Berkeley, Berkeley Gardens, cake, Cindy, East Bay, family, friends, photography, Redwood Grove, salmon, steak, Tom, wedding