San Francisco Nights - Day 2

Day 2 - Palo Alto, Wedding day


I woke up pretty early and wandered the hotel grounds for a bit. Then had a good workout at their gym and get back to the room to change and get ready for breakfast. I ran into Michael and his best man, Josh, in the pool area doing yoga with Kim, one of his good friends from college.  It was such a random moment in time that I had to take a snapshot.

Josh, Michael and Kim

We met with Teresa for breakfast and went to Hobee's which apparently made the best cinnamon buns int he area and pretty darn good breakfast burrito too. I had an egg white omelet with potatoes and their famouse blueberry coffee cake. 

Dh had a breakfast burrito stuffed with potato's, eggs, onions, etc.  It looked and tasted absolutely delicious.

vegetarian breakfast burrito

Since we had time to kill before the wedding ceremony, Teresa kindly drove us around town (a CA native) and we decided to drive through Stanford University which was literally across the street from the restaurant. We drove through the grounds and never came upon the main entrance with a welcome sign so the only photo opp I had was at the visual arts building. Yeah, I know, so exciting!!! :

Soccer / Lacrosse grounds

Afterwards, we ended up in downtown Palo Alto and walked around for a bit.  It's a cute town with lots of boutiques and restaurants, but it was small and we didn't really have time to shop. We did have time to stop at the Anthropologie store where I happened to get a belated wedding gift (thanks to Teresa) that was unique and memorable. 

Before you know it, we had to get back to the hotel to change for the wedding.

WEDDING CEREMONY - The Family Farm, Woodside, CA

Thank god I brought a few dresses with me because I wasn't sure what to wear to an outdoor wedding, but I ended up wearing a black dress with big bold flowers, poppies to be exact, and it was the perfect dress.  Shoes were black slingback wedges.  (Side note: poppies are the CA state flower and bloom wild everywhere.  I had to take a few photos). DH wore his grey suit and we all quite nice together.

The night before, we had met Kim, Michael's friend from college, so she had called wanting a ride with us.  Everyone looked nice and I took a few snapshots of us at the Family Farm in Woodside, CA, an exclusive gentleman's club/ldoge (not that kind of gentleman's club - what were you thinking?). This venue doesn't even have a website so you have to know someone to sponsor you for an event.  

How to explain this place: a gorgeous green venue with lots of redwood trees, huge garden area to accommodate up to 500 guests, a lodge to hold parties.  I could go on but I will show you in photos.

Teresa, Bill and Kim

 wedding flowers were arranged beautifully in orange and yellow tones

The non-religous wedding ceremony began at 3:30 with a family friend officiating.  If I know Michael, I knew he wanted to be outdoors.  He got his wish.

the wedding party

Just a perfectly grand wedding.  I think this might have to be one of my all time favorite weddings, next to Bill's sister in Jamaica.


RECEPTION
Cocktails were served at the bar near the garden.  The wedding party left to take photos while the guest moved on to the garden area for cocktails and h'ors d'hoeveres.

A bulletin board below had a list of where guests were to be seated for dinner. 

A sign-in poster had a tree where we can put our  fingerprints on the tree and leave a little note for the bride and groom. Such a great idea.

We found our seats and we were seated at the Colorado table which consisted of all his out-of-town friends from CO to DC to VA.  It was a nice group of people and we didn't feel out of place.

The menu: I had the seared halibut which was divine and Bill had the truffle risotto.  Michael has a lot of vegetarian friends so they planned everything right.