My dear friends, Sarah and Russell, whom I met in Hawaii, got married in California this past September. Attending their wedding was also an excuse to have a mini-girls weekend with Paula and Annette!!
Annette, Paula and I
We rented a very lovely cottage in Sonoma that was surrounded by a vineyard and had a beautiful view of the mountains!
The retro kitchen...only one wine glass was broken in the making of this vacation.
The cushy living room....great for our late night wine drinking and gossiping!
Let's just say the grapes tasted better as wine than they did right off the vine!
The first vineyard we visited was Jacuzzi- I'd never been wine tasting in California before.
They had a great fountain!
View of the courtyard at Jacuzzi.
Paula really liked it there because they had port shots out of chocolate shot cups!
Next we visited Gundlach Bundschu Winery which is owned by a German family. I discovered that I actually like Cabernet Franc here!!
We spent a lot of time eating, drinking and catching up! I hadn't seen Paula in over a year and Annette in 9 months!
I was excited to be west of the Mississippi again- they have Fat Tire Ale there!
Our third vineyard was Bartholomew Park Winery which is the sister vineyard to Gundlach. They only produce 6 types of wine and are considered an organic vineyard.
I thought the rolling hills surrounded by the vineyards were beautiful!
We also visited another organic vineyard called Imagery. Every year, they commission an artist to create a new label for their bottles. The entire tasting area is decorated with past labels.
Me and my girls!
There were other friends from Hawaii attending the wedding, so I also got to see Polly, Kevin, and Noah.
Paula and Annette with the Happy Couple at their rehearsal social.
Me and Sarah!
Paula and Annette
The wedding was held in the cutest little town called Glen Elen- it took about 5 minutes to walk through!
Blackberries!
On the day of the wedding, Paula and I took a little hike up one of the trails to take in the scenery and enjoy the fresh air.
Then it was time to get dressed up for the big event.
We got picked up from the hotel in a big party bus!
The wedding was held in this beautiful white barn on a wildflower farm.
And the weather was gorgeous!!!
Kevin was a member of the wedding party and I couldn't resist taking a photo with him looking so dapper in his tux!
There were beautiful fall flowers everywhere!
We enjoyed wine and yummy food at the cocktail hour outside the barn.
Waiting to go in for dinner and dancing!
Sarah and Russell as husband and wife!
The Hawaii clan!
She's one lucky lady!!
And they were both so brave during the hora!!
Annette enjoying some of the local wine!
After the wedding, we boarded the party bus for the after party which was conveniently located right next door to our hotel!!
The next morning we had brunch at this great place called Olive and Vine! The owner had catered the wedding.
On our last day, we drove to Sarah and Russell's house for camping and a BBQ. This is the view from their backyard. You could see the fog rolling in over the hills.
We bought food at a local market and cooked up some caprese (OK, I didn't have to cook that), tabouli and spinach/beet/goat cheese salad.
It was a little cold for my taste, so I had to borrow some layers to keep warm! It was just a coincidence that I ended up in UM colors!
