As with all other aspects of wedding planning it’s easy to spend money on wine.  My advice is to pick your budget and stick with it.  Purchasing wine in bulk will also bring the cost down.  Find out in advance if your reception space or caterer has a corkage fee.  If you can negotiate with them to allow you to choose and purchase the wine, you’ll be ahead of the game.  One final tip: When it comes to wine tasting, you like what you like, don’t worry about the “tasting notes” or what you should like.  Here are my recommendations:

L’Ecole No 41 is on Highway12 west of Walla Walla in the town of Lowden.  It’s hard to miss the former schoolhouse with its distinctive architecture.  I’d been curious about the label for a while (a watercolor by a Ryan, grade 3 I discovered), and decided to check them out.  The 2007 Columbia Valley Semillon is dry and refreshing and would be a perfect wine for your cocktail hour with cheeses and seafood.  At $15 a bottle it’s a great value.  You’re sure to find a deal on wine.com and other places if you shop around.  L’Ecole No 41 has a giant tasting list and a wide range of wines.  Surprisingly, I didn’t like any of the others as much as the Semillon, with the exception of the 2006 Pepper Bridge Vineyard Apogee, but at $49 a bottle it’s hardly a steal.

Continuing on into the town of Walla Walla be sure to check out Forgeron Cellars where Maria-Eve Gilla creates masterpieces.  Any bottle you find there is sure to be a hit on your big day. It’s difficult to choose a favorite but for price and uniqueness, I recommend the Walldeaux Smithie.  Forgeron calls it “bold and juicy with firm structure.”  It’s a fun, original and fantastic wine sure to delight. At $16 a bottle it’s easily half the price they could charge.  Forgeron’s 2006 Chardonnay ($25), 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon ($30), and 2001 or 2005 Zinfandel ($30-$40) are all excellent.

For romance and really good wine tasting, but not necessarily wine purchasing on a wedding budget be sure to visit scenic Pepper Bridge Winery.  As an estate winery, it sets out to make ultra-premium wines.  At $55-$110 a bottle it might be best to get one for yourselves to toast with on your first anniversary.  The wines are swanky, plumy, smooth and sophisticated.  The mineral of the estate stamps its mark and the winemaker has highly entertaining descriptions of his wines including “pencil lead” and “pain grille” which makes for a fun wild goose hunt, attempting to track them down on your palate.  If you do splurge, I loved the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon $55.

Taking a break from the wineries, be sure to check out Walla Walla.  It has a classic main street, (which happened to win the 2001 Great American Main Street Award, lest you think I’m exaggerating.)  For old school breakfast, follow the Sunday church-goers to Popular Donuts (706 W Alder St) and enjoy a light and fluffy donut with a coffee for prices you haven’t seen since you were too short to see over the counter.  Top off the evening with an ice cream shake from the stuck-in-time Ice-Burg (616 W Birch St), just steer clear of the food.  As for dinner, I can’t vouch for Brasserie Four (4 E. Main Street) but it definitely had vibes.

Other Budget Options

Heading north of downtown Walla Walla you’ll find the Airport Wineries.  It’s just as it sounds, a bunch of wineries by the airport.  It’s a really unique setting that I loved seeing, especially the old military barracks.  There you’ll find small wineries just starting out among more well-known names like Dunham Cellars.  Be sure to stop by the incubator on Piper Ave.  It’s a complex funded in part by the state to help fledgling winemakers.  There are five buildings with five different wineries that have 6 years to “make it” before moving on to create a winery elsewhere.

On your way out of Walla Walla, if you still haven’t found that budget wine you were looking for stop by Columbia-Crest (Hwy 221, Columbia Crest Drive, Paterson, WA).  Their Grand Estates ($10-$12)  line is always dependable as is their Two Vines($6-$8).  I particularly recommend the Merlot.  If you purchase the wines you like there, they’ll arrange to have them shipped free of charge to their local office in Woodinville closer to the time of your wedding.

Here’s a toast to a fun trip and tasty wine!

Like the napkin ring idea I wrote about earlier, if you commit to potted plant centerpieces, make sure you have ample help on hand the day of for assembly.

Finding the Supplies:

The pots are probably hard to find inexpensively online due to high shipping costs, but please leave a comment if you find some! Your best bet is to find a good deal locally well in advance of the wedding.  It’s one of those things to be on the lookout for.  The flowers you should place an order for in advance as well.  The MOG here placed an order with a local nursery and had them delivered the day before.  It’s probably possible to work out something similar with a Loews or Home Depot as well.  The filler is possible to buy online and cheaply.  I like Save-On-Crafts.  You have many of options here, (I suggest moss, or shredded wood.)

Getting the Look:

Assembly is very simple.  Throw the flower, plastic pot and all into the center of your ceramic pot and gently distribute some of your filler.  It’s really simple and the beauty is in the variation so you don’t have to be perfect.  Voila!  A natural and fun centerpiece.

Here are the steps you can take to get the look.

Supplies

• Shower curtain rings
• Raffia ribbon
• Silk flowers

You can purchase the supplies cheaply if you have time to shop around and online.  I recently saw a 12 pack of clear rings for $1.85 on Amazon.  I also love www.papermart.com for paper supplies for weddings.  They have raffia ribbon there for $4.85 a half pound.  Feel free to email or comment on the best place to get silk flowers, I’ve always gone to Jo-Ann Fabric.

For the nice presentation simply put your hand in the middle of the napkin, then pull the top down through the ring.  Then arrange the rest of the napkin in a fan shape.

The only downside to creating this look is the manpower required! I recommend hosting a crafting party (well in advance of the wedding) with girlfriends.  If you provide the materials, spritzers and appetizers and you’ll able to complete the number you need ten times as fast.  On the day of the event, depending on how many people you are hosting, allow time for setting the tables.  It takes longer than you think to stuff the napkin rings and arrange.

Veuve du Vernay Brut, France  $8

Kriter Blanc de Blanc, France  $11

Bohigas Gran Reserva Cava, Spain  $16

Cara Mia Prosecco, Italy  $12

Veuve du Vernay Brut Rose, France  $8

Additionally, if you simply need help determining what wines will be best for your guests and perfect pairing options TLV offers consulting for $75/Hour.

A friend of mine sent me a link to Valerie Heggenes’ Wedding Cake Toppers website last week.  I immediately knew I had to write about these incredible sculptures!  As with many businesses in the wedding industry, Valerie started by using her talents as a sculptor to create a wedding cake topper for her sister’s wedding, and it has grown from there.

She creates one of a kind wedding cake toppers out of polymer clay such as Sculpey or Fimo.  They are between 5 and 8 inches in height and 4 inches in diameter.  She can make them as fun or formal as the client wishes, but stresses that they’re not exact replicas but meant to be more “whimsical” as caricatures of the bride and groom.  One of my favorites is the sculpture below with the bride and groom in REI garb.  Looking at the photographs of the couples on her website side by side with the sculptures that she made of them, you can tell that she has a knack for understanding her clients.  Her sculptures seem to bring out the best features that make the bride and groom who they are.  I think it would be fun to see one at a friend’s wedding!

It also occurred to me that a benefit to having a personalized mini bride and groom commissioned is that you have a wonderful keepsake.  Once the big day is over there are few things that last and I think this would be such a fun reminder of the day.  It would make a great wedding gift as well, for a friend or family member.

In regard to food, making your wedding more environmentally friendly can be as simple as swapping Chilean seabass for wild-caught salmon.  The former is not only overfished but is also known to have high levels of mercury.  When you’re reviewing your menu choices months ahead of time think of the produce that will be in season for your special day.  Fresh baby greens, asparagus and peas in the spring, cherries, berries, corn, beans and anything else you can think of in the Pacific Northwest in the summer, and squashes, apples, and nuts in the fall.  A couple local caterers known for sustainable, organic ingredients are Herban Feast and Ravishing Radish.

More Green Blogs to come…

I was recently at Paper Source in Bellevue and paused to look at their selection of guest books.  The covers are all made out of different papers, colors and patterns.  They’re unique, but also very simple and elegant.  If you can’t get to a store, they show the collection on their website.  They cost $42 each. 

If you have more time to order a book, and don’t want to spend quite as much money, I suggest you check out www.Etsy.com.  There are a lot of crafty people out there making neat things.  I ordered a guest book from a “shop” called BazaarLatino.  The book was custom made according to what I was looking for, but based on one she had already posted for sale on Etsy.  It cost $26 plus shipping.  Below is the guest book from Etsy.  Either way you’ll have a memorable keepsake!

Just a quick Blog entry to say that I had lunch recently at the Pomegranate Bistro in Redmond and was very impressed!  It’s a great space to spend the lunch hour in and they serve inspired food.  It seemed to me to embody the perfection and style of France combined with the comfort of the Northwest.  As you’re sitting in the dining area you notice the giant windows that allow you to view the catering kitchen of Lisa Dupar Catering (she owns both the bistro and catering company.)  I was familiar with the name as a caterer of weddings in the area.  After eating in the bistro I can only imagine the food her company would serve at a wedding and the classy style they’d serve it with!

It’s definitely worth discussing the pros and cons of a champagne toast depending on your guests, budget and taste.  If no one finishes the champagne you might as well have them toast to your happily-ever-after marriage with whatever they have in their hand.  If you have your heart set on something sparkling, but are sticking to a budget, here are my favorite budget bubblies.

Veuve du Vernay – Brut or Rosé $9

This sparkling wine is a beautiful drink with fine, long-lasting bubbles (an important quality if you consider the length of a toast at a wedding.)  Veuve du Vernay is a steal at $9 a bottle.  It’s French, but not from the Champagne region, so it is considered a sparkling wine.  The Rosé is great for a twist on the traditional champagne toast, and is especially refreshing in the summer.  It will be appreciated by both wine lovers and novices alike.

Freixenet – Under $10

Freixenet is an underappreciated Spanish sparkling wine, otherwise known as a cava.  Cava is usually produced near Barcelona thus leading to the frustrating question of, “How do you pronounce Freixenet?”  As most people aren’t familiar with Catalan, it can be difficult to figure out.  It’s hard to write phonetically, but the closest I can come is “Fresh – eh – nett” If you go to www.youtube.com you can search for Freixenet commercials (which are highly entertaining)  and learn the correct pronunciation so that you’re sophisticated on your wedding day! But enough about that, Freixenet is an approachable, balanced, smooth bubbly drink that might have your guests asking for more.

Argyle Brut 2002, $20-$24

If you’ve hopped on the locavore bandwagon and are looking for a local sparkling wine selection, look no further than the Willamette Valley in Oregon.  Though famous for their Pinot Noir; their Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and sparkling wines are often top notch at a fraction of the price compared to their California competitors.  Argyle mixes 25% Pinot Noir and 75% Chardonnay in its Brut.  The quality is that of a $40 bottle, so you get double the value and celebrate Northwest winemaking in the process.  It may just be worth a romantic weekend trip to the vineyard to stock up.  If you buy at the winery you’ll save on pricing by the case and no sales tax!