First, there was a wedding..

Photo courtesy of The Danger Booth

Hello again! It's been a little while and I've missed, I mean really missed, writing to you. I'm so happy to report that on June 1st, we did it! We got married. The weather was sticky and hot (one of the first days to hit the 90's) but the sun shone happily as we said our vows in front of all of the people that we love. It really was one of the happiest days of my life. We had busted our butts during the planning process and it was a long process to say the least, but looking back on the day, we both agree, we wouldn't change a thing. It was casual without being too casual, fun, and most importantly to us, all about the food. It was the perfect way for us to make the commitment of our life together official.

I can't let this post slip by without mentioning all of the people that helped make our day so memorable. We feel fortunate enough that we have a lot of friends who are just like us, small business owners who are so passionate about what they do, that we asked them to help us with our wedding. So here it is, in no particular order, the list of people that made our day possible:

- Sam Monsour and Mark O'Leary: These guys need no introduction because they are so well known for the passion and creativity that they bring to the Boston food scene. Lucky doesn't even begin to describe how we felt to have them there in the kitchen, they really did an outstanding job and our guests couldn't stop talking about the food. Both Sam and Mark are such good friends of ours and it has been so inspiring to watch them really make a name for themselves. Here's a peek at our menu:

If you haven't stopped over to JM Curley's yet to check out the crazy inventive things that Sam is doing over there, get on that! And Mark, formerly of JM Curley and the mastermind behind Gucchi's Midnight Ramen, is currently (and fortunately for you..) taking on personal clients for dinner parties and such.

- Nookie: If you've been following his posts on Eater Boston, you know that he's in the process of a opening up a restaurant in Cambridge. We were blown away that he took the time out of his hectic schedule to make us some burnt end brisket sliders for us. Resting in cute little poppy seed studded buns, these were a HUGE hit with our guests and they were devoured during the cocktail hour.

- Roxie's Grilled Cheese: To close out our night, these guys showed up to give our guests a grilled cheese for the road! We had two different kinds (a his and hers, if you will..) and it was so cool to see their yellow truck roll up to our venue and even though people were stuffed, they found room for some grilled cheese. Though I haven't seen our wedding photos yet, I think some of my favorites are going to be grilled cheese based. It was the perfect ending.

- Zac Wolf: Our buddy and wedding photographer extraordinaire, he snapped the pictures for our wedding (we should be getting them soon) and also generously gifted us the "Danger Booth" to use at our wedding. I was generally opposed to photo booths because I don't like the idea of people running around in big sombreros or ridiculous mustaches (can that trend go away already?) so we avoided props and only gave people the option to write on a chalkboard sign, which forced people to get even more creative. To my surprise, the photo booth was one of my favorite aspects of our wedding. Pretty much all of our guests at one point or another got in on the fun and we were left with over 1,000 pictures of everyone at their happiest. We had a blast looking through all of them and I would recommend this to anyone getting married as something fun to do.

Another Danger Booth Shot. There is a story to the sign but it's a long one..

- The Van Buerens: These guys rocked and provided the musical backdrop for our wedding. They played while our guests arrived for the wedding and then during cocktail hour and dinner, they performed jazz classics and our guests really got into it. Their music just gave our wedding such an energy that we wouldn't have been able to have without them. They perform regularly throughout Boston and also do special events and private gigs as well.

- Simone Montali: A Culinary School buddy of mine, hailing from the great city of Florence, Italy, Simone created one of the appetizers and helped work with Sam and Mark on getting the food out to our guests. We can't thank him enough!

- Patrick Maguire: We felt so fortunate to have Patrick as part of our serving team and it was great to have a friendly, familiar face there helping us out. One of our favorite surprises was that he and the rest of our servers and chefs also jumped into the "Danger Booth" at the end of the night. If you don't know Patrick, stop into JM Curley's and say hello. He's usually right up front, welcoming you in.

Another photo from The Danger Booth

Without this list of incredible people, our wedding would not have come close to being the memorable event that it was. Of course this goes without saying too, our parents and siblings (both mine and Richard's) also offered so much help, love and support that we owe them a big thanks too. Also a huge thanks to all of guests who traveled to our wedding to be there to celebrate the exciting start of our new life together. At the end of the day, and still even now, I can't help but be so happy, that not only did I get lucky enough to marry the man of my dreams, I was reminded of all of the amazingly wonderful, talented and just honest-to-goodness great people that I (and we) have in our life.