Chelsea Harrison2 Comments

Solstice Dinner

Chelsea Harrison2 Comments
Solstice Dinner

I wanted to elope and Sam wanted a big wedding.  I conceded but asked that in lieu of a "rehearsal dinner" (we didn't have anything to rehearse anyway) we have an intimate dinner with our family and a handful of close friends.  

We decided to do a potluck of summery Italian food.  I would have loved to do all of the cooking myself, but with friends and family in town and a very DIY wedding, I let that idea go and called on my family for help.  We dined on the back porch of a glass treehouse.  I wanted to spend the weekend enjoying the people I love, so I put very little energy into the decor.  We threw some tables together, put some herbs on them and let everyone serve themselves.  Rather than transport dishes to and from the airbnb, we dined on eco-friendly compostable plates.  My thought for the entire weekend was to keep things as simple as possible.  I think I drove everyone crazy saying "Is that really necessary?"

I'm sure what you really want to know is what we ate. The menu included:

Fruit & Cheese Board

Sprouted Bread & Olive Oil

Ratatouillie 

Radicchio Salad

Pasta

Roasted Vegetables

Eggplant Parmesan

Sugar Snap Pea Salad

And with the money we saved by not doing the dinner at a restaurant, we were able to rent the glass house for the whole weekend, meaning as soon as the dinner was over we could go to sleep.

Chelsea Harrison14 Comments

Coconut Rosewater Floral Popsicles

Nothing says spring quite like flowers.  I have been flower crazed lately.  So when I saw edible flowers at the market I couldn't resist.  I brought them home, not sure what I'd do with them, but knowing that I had to have them.  Then at Yoga Teacher Training we volunteered our time at Crack in the Sidewalk Farmlet, and we ended up harvesting edible flowers ourselves.  So by the end of the weekend I had more edible flowers than I knew what to do with.  Knowing they wouldn't last long, I decided to make floral popsicles to preserve their beauty.

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Coconut Rosewater Floral Popsicles
Chelsea Harrison4 Comments

Sugar Snap Pea Salad with Mint & Ricotta Salata

When you plan a wedding in Atlanta on the eve of the Summer Solstice, you know one thing: it will definitely be hot.  Despite the nearly 100 degree heat, I decided to have a dinner outside the night before the wedding.  We asked a few people to bring dishes and had an intimate potluck style dinner on the porch of a glass treehouse.  As hot as it was, salads were definitely the perfect food.  So I recreated a sugar snap pea salad from the dinner to share with you.  With mint and lemon, this refreshing salad is the perfect thing to eat when it is too hot to turn on the oven.

Chelsea Harrison4 Comments
Sugar Snap Pea Salad with Mint & Ricotta Salata
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Local Produce Delivery!

When Fresh Harvest asked me to try one of their produce baskets, I really didn't think this was a service I'd use. I was excited to try it, but I like going to the store and picking out my own produce. I thought it might be a great option for someone else, but not for someone like me. And  of course I was totally wrong. But first, here is how Fresh Harvest works:

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Local Produce Delivery!
Chelsea Harrison7 Comments

6 Tips for Planning a Wedding on a $5K Budget

When Sam and I decided to get married, one thing was clear: We were not going to splurge on a wedding. I wanted to elope, but Sam wanted a wedding, so we began planning. The average cost of a wedding is about $30,000. We are incredibly practical people, so spending enough money to put a down payment on a house for one party was out of the question. We set a goal of spending $5,000 knowing that we would probably go over and spend closer to $10,000. But the more we planned, the more we realized how little we really needed and the more we got excited about proving that we could actually make a wedding with more than 150 guests (we have HUGE families) happen on a shoestring budget.  Here is how we did it...

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6 Tips for Planning a Wedding on a $5K Budget
Chelsea Harrison1 Comment

Travel: Joshua Tree

For our honeymoon we knew three things: We wanted to go somewhere warm and sunny. We wanted it to be somewhere completely different from home.  And we wanted to keep it affordable.

We decided on Joshua Tree after finding TONS of great Airbnb's at reasonable prices close to the entrance of the National Park. I couldn't make up my mind so we actually booked two different Airbnb's and split our time. We flew into Los Angeles, rented a car, and drove the 2.5 hours to the high desert. 

Chelsea Harrison1 Comment
Travel: Joshua Tree