In honor of all of the barbeques I’m sure will take place this week for the 4th of July, I thought I’d share a few pictures from our wedding barbeque.
Before I go on, though, can we take a second to talk about the fact that “barbeque” doesn’t mean the same thing on the west coast as it does on the east?
Here (in Maryland) it’s pulled pork, there it’s a cookout.
CORRECTION: Mark informs me that it’s really “more about slow-cooked smoked meats, not just pulled pork…” and what we call a barbeque in Oregon, they call grilling here. It’s very serious stuff, this east coast barbeque.
Whatever it is, though, I obviously haven’t accepted the change, so let’s just call the thing what it is.
Our barbeque was essentially a rehearsal dinner, but since we’d already drug everyone out to California for the weekend (and everyone only amounted to about 30 people) we decided to have them all over the night before the wedding for a little welcome party. It was a great chance to connect with everyone as they came into town, and, of course, to keep the fun going as long as possible. We wanted the trip to be less like a wedding and more like a mini-vacation, and I think in a lot of ways we succeeded.
The party was casual. We decorated the same wooden tables we used for the wedding day with air plants, linen runners, and tea towels wrapped with wooden utensils and tied with a little twine. Every guest picked up a welcome bag and enjoyed a barbeque buffet from El Rancho Market (originally we had wanted to cook it ourselves… but as it turns out, we already had plenty on our plates) complete with so much delicious food we could barely make a dent. We served some of our favorite local beer and hard cider and kept cozy by the fire. The weather outside was cold (and oh did we feel it during the actual rehearsal) but the farmhouse was toasty and full of friends.
I have to thank our amazing photographer, Steve Steinhardt, for sticking it out in a chilly farmhouse room all weekend long to get us these shots… we’re so glad he was there to capture every moment leading up to and after our day.
Our barbeque was the perfect start to an amazing weekend that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
P.S. You can find all of our wedding details here, just in case you missed something or want to take another look.
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