I feel as if I’ve been so anxious to jump into this blog that I haven’t properly introduced myself. For those of you who’ve just tuned in, this blog is just a space for me to organize my thoughts while writing and testing recipes for my new, yet-to-be-named cookbook. (It is a newlywed cookbook. I am working with Ali Basye, the editor at Seattle Bridge magazine on this project.)

Ali and I met when my husband and I were featured in Seattle Bride magazine–a great honor, and I think we were chosen in part because of all the fabulous chefs we had helping out on our big day. It was a foodie wedding to be sure–the food was the first thing we planned out the night we got engaged at Mistral, and then much of everything else fell by the wayside until a few weeks before our wedding, when we realized we had to hustle to get things done.

My mom made my glameria bouquet. I got a quote from a florist and it would’ve cost over $300 for them to do this. My mom made it with a dozen Safeway roses (cost: $10?), a sponge foam ball, and some pins. The bouquet holder is a vintage piece by Glam by Pam. (And now that I think about it, I first learned of Pam’s beautiful pieces whilst leafing through an old copy of Seattle Bride!)

I should not have much trouble keeping this post food-related when introducing my husband/intrepid taste-tester, since our relationship has revolved around delicious food experiences from the very beginning. We met by chance on a cooking website, where Henry was picked as a blogger for a week. He was posted about his favorite local restaurants, his favorite markets to shop at, what he cooked at home, and documented everything beautifully through pictures and well-thought out words. Until that point in my life, I had never met anyone so totally consumed by the beauty, importance, and pleasure-giving qualities of a meal–whether it was a simple sandwich at Matt’s at the Market, or a wonderful blow-out meal at the finest restaurant in Seattle.

A bit of our early dating life is documented online–we were avid posters on Egullet for a time, so Henry’s blog (which is how we met) is still online, as are our accounts of our first date in Seattle (a whirlwind eating trip that included numerous restaurants, culminated by a dessert-tasting extravaganza at Mistral and a box of personally-made desserts from Henry’s pastry chef friend, who was following our “meeting” online).

This next month, we will have been together for three years (and married for seven months!) And since this is, in part, a newlywed blog, I’ve picked out a few pictures of our big day to share with you.

Of course, we had to have a whole roast pig!

…and a gelato cart!

And here we are trying to squeeze between the various wine crates, extra tables, and chairs (see them in the background?) for this shot.

We are standing in a freight elevator trying to look edgy and model-y.

I remember Brian, one of our awesome photographers, telling me to arch my back and stick out my stomach more. I was thinking: “The last thing I want is to stick out my gut in my wedding pictures!” But we loved the end result.

I could not have pictured a better day, nor picked a more wonderful person to spend the rest of my life with.