Photo Booth Life

Now that our friends have launched a photo booth company and almost everyone we know has gotten married (including us), we've got quite the collection of photo booth strips. I've left them around the house in various places because they look cool all together and it's fun to pick them up and flip through them — they instantly transport you to the fun times you had at everyone's wedding. Having a photo booth at a wedding or event is so, so fun and I'd highly recommend it. If you're thinking about having a photo booth set up in the Bay Area, definitely check out True Photo Booth!

Mexican Wedding Cookies

If I know you and you're getting married, just ask and I'll make you a batch of Mexican Wedding Cookies. They're small, tasty, and totally white-wedding-y. It's become kind of a tradition for me to make these for friends, and this past weekend we went to the third wedding I've made them for (not counting our own). I thought I'd share my official recipe, which correctly reminds us that Mexican Wedding Cookies are a delicious dessert any time of year. Using the real Mexican vanilla a friend brought me back from Oaxaca really took this batch to the next level!

 Mexican Wedding Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar + extra for coating 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup raw pecans, toasted

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 and place the pecans on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake for 6-8 minutes or until they're lightly browned and fragrant. Allow to cool. In a medium bowl cream the butter, vanilla, and almond extracts together. Add the powdered sugar and mix in. Add flour a little at a time until it's fully blended in. When the pecans are cool, place them in a food processor or chop with a knife until fairly fine. Measure 1 cup of finely chopped pecans, and stir them in.

Chill dough in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour and then shape into 1 inch balls. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet or parchment paper about 1 to 2 inches apart. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown on the bottom. Cool on a wire rack. Roll the cookies in powdered sugar so they look like snowballs. When completely cooled, store in an airtight container. Recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies.

*Remember, Mexican Wedding Cookies are a delicious dessert anytime of year!

Mood Marry!

We did it! We got married on October 6, 2012 at Slide Ranch. It was an absolutely beautiful day. The weather, the ceremony, our friends and family, all the work we put into planning, everything aligned and the whole day I had this magical feeling of everything being just as I had imagined - even better than I had imagined!

We had our ceremony on a breathtaking bluff overlooking the ocean and Northern California coastline, followed by a sweet champagne toast given by one of our best friends. The toast gave everyone a chance to spend more time hanging out at this beautiful and crazy scenic spot before we headed down to another (also amazing and very scenic) lower bluff for tacos and yurt partying!

It's true what everyone says, it went by in a flash, and the only thing I would change is to get hang out at our wedding for about 7 more hours. Well, that and I would have eaten one more fish taco :) Luckily, we can already remember the good times with these pictures from Instagram (thank you @pattyhume, @lovelightimages, @brianabreaks, @pandamystery7, and @chalibu!) and the awesome photobooth our friends Steve and Christian set up for us (and these are just until the official wedding photos arrive from Love Me Sailor - can't wait!). The photobooth was really a hit, especially with kids, as you can see in the video Steve put together.



Jody and Tim's Wedding Photobooth from Stephen Loewinsohn on Vimeo.
Some of my favorites from the photobooth...