Be loved Issue no. 4
Welcome
Style and elegance. Two of my favorite things. And, as luck would have it, the two things that are a constant through every image in this issue. As I’ve worked to rid my personal life of the clutter and excess, it, as would be expected, has trickled into my professional life, as well. Though I am rather minimal in my design philosphy to begin with, this issue of Beloved is the product of my increased need to create more breathing room around me. This issue is shorter. It’s about less. Because of that each feature was more thoughtfully selected; loved for what I felt the minute I saw them. I want you to be able to savor each feature without the invisible pressure to get to the end . Be sure to take note of the fantastic talent that has made issue no. 4 possilble. Their names and site links can be found at the very back. A heartfelt thanks to you for reading and, as always, may you feel love and be inspired to find and create beauty in your every day. Nikkol
real wedding Beth + Tomu page 56 | photography by alixann loosle
28 rental cakes contributors page 106 on trend entertaining
cover feature pg4 real wedding jenn + jr page 80 photography by heather nan
18 mermaid wishes photographer
44 young love by stephanie sunderland
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cover feature
loved on a
desert island
Anna knew she had to cross the desert. Over it, on the far side, were mountains - purple and orange and gray. The colors of the dream were extraordinarily beautiful and vivid. The dream marked a change in Anna, in her knowledge of herself. In the desert she was alone, and she was a long way from the Springs. She woke knowing that if she was to cross the desert she must shed burdens. Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook
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mandi nelson photography, photographer Sego Event Planning and Floral Design, styling and florals antelope island utah, location
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At the beach
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life is different.
A day moves not from hour to hour, but leaps from mood to moment. We go with the currents, plan around the tides, follow the sun. We measure happiness by nothing we can hold. . . nothing we can catch. Everywere. . . life is jumping and elusive and momentously momentary. sandy gingras
styled shoot
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memories by ellie, photographer lacielle roselle, hair adornments and dress embellishements Ksenia, model deerfield beach florida, location
g n i r t s e o sh
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Beauty on a Budget T
hink you can’t afford the wedding of your dreams? Let us help you think again. See how we splurged and where we saved on this gorgeous styled wedding shoot.
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styled shoot
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henever I chat with couples who have a shoestring (read: itty-bitty) budget, the first thing I tell them is to pare down their guest list to those people that, if they didn’t come, would actually make them (the couple) feel bad. The goal is to get the guest list down to about 50 people. The next step is to decide what the two most important aspects of their wedding are. I always recommend giving the photographer one of those spots. Afterall, what’s the point of going to great lengths to create unforgettable memories if they are only fleeting in the mind?
In this case, we splurged on the photographer and custom invitations. Hard to believe that the flowers and cake, well, and the makeup, hair and pretty dresses were things we saved on, but we did. We scoured second hand shops and used wedding dress sites, which are plentiful. Since the weather had a slight chill in the air, we added the deep red knit cowl scarf. It was the perfect touch. The cake was our biggest savings find. It is a rental cake from Tiers of Perfection. Rental cakes are one of those really great ideas that deserve to be shared. It’s no secret that many couples don’t have their actual wedding cake cut and shared with their guests. Instead, they have a sheet cake (still delicious and baked by their
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chosen cake designer) already plated and ready to be served to their guests. A rental cake takes away that additional expense of having real cake under the towers of frosting and sugary artwork. We chose a single, large, square tier for our styled wedding because it fit our style. It cost a mere $75. Though we chose simple, elaborate and tall cakes are available, too. Even if the kitchen is not your favorite room of your house, by setting a simple buffet with foods that are in season, you’ll save money and suprise everyone with your tasty secret. Go with foods that serve a lot, such as mini bowls of soup, berry bread pudding and fresh fruit. Add a few seasonal pies from a local bakery and you’re all set. I’m sure you are wondering how we actually saved on florals because these bouquets and centerpiece are stunning. Quite simply, we used less. By only purchasing one centerpiece for the dessert table, a bouquet for our bride (an absolute must) and a smaller bouquet for our maid of honor, we were able to have a gorgeous selection of seasonal flowers that fit our budget perfectly. In order to still look picture perfect, but maintain our budget, we opted for a mini makeup and hair session. Our models came with basic makeup on and their hair washed and almost done. Tia, with Celise Artistry, simply had to add the finishing touches on their makeup and do some pretty braids in their hair. All-in-all, it took her about an hour to do both models.
extending the size to 6 feet can be done for under $30.
As is to be expected, there is always a do-it-yourself element in budget weddings. The DIY projects for this wedding were easy, cheap and full of impact. To get the white-washed farm table look, while keeping costs down, we bought a 12 foot plank of wood and had it cut down to three 4 foot sections, which we then roughly painted white. We then laid these 3 planks atop a 4 foot table with a basic white catering tablecloth underneath. The basic tablecloth is very inexpensive to rent and the supplies totaled less than $15. If you need more room at your table,
Our arbor of fall branches was even more simple. We found a sprouting tree along the edge of a canal bank and snipped a few small branches. We wired the branches together and hung torn strips of sparkly fabric from it. Cost: less than $5. We’ve proven, again, that, with a little creativity, a gorgeous wedding can be had on a shoestring budget.
sami jo photography, photographer peter loves jane, styling, backdrop and invitation merit and vine, bouquets, bouts and centerpiece tiers of perfection, rental cake celise artistry, hair and makeup private residence, location
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real couple
She was passionate about the rain and I was passionate about the way she loved it. It was that way with everything. It is safe to say that if I didn’t have her, there would be no fire in me at all. C h r i s to p h e r Po i n t ex t e r
stephanie sunderland photography, photographer
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real wedding
beth & Tomu sundance resort story recounted by beth and tomu
Anyone who knows Tomu knows that our story is a long(winded) one. Now that we’ve been together for over nine years, there are lots of stories to tell. But perhaps our favorite stories are how we first met and how Tomu proposed nine years later.
How We First Met Beth: For the sake of brevity (Tomu is about to spend way too much time telling you how he proposed—too long, didn’t read), I will give you the cliff notes version of how we first met. Tomu and I were both nerds who did debate in high school. And, believe it or not, Tomu was kind of a jerk back then. In a spectacular and public display of his jerk-dom he managed to embarrass me in front of my fellow teammates by laughing in the middle of my speech in a widely attended debate round. Needless to say, I did not see a love connection in our future. But a year later, Tomu’s twin brother, Jiro, convinced me to give Tomu a second chance (thanks, Jiro!). When I was introduced to the nicer, 2.0 version of Tomu, I asked him to be my friend. And that’s how it all began. How Tomu Proposed (and Tricked Beth into Marrying Him) Tomu: Let’s start this story with a little bit of background. While I was the kid who never tried to find his Christmas presents, Beth was the kid who knew what her presents were well before they were wrapped and under the tree. Beth has spent years honing her skill at the divining the contents of a present before the giver has an opportunity to surprise her. Some people have mutant powers, Beth’s super power is guessing the content of a gift. Beth: I warned you this was going to be long. 56
Tomu: With that background out of the way, fast forward to winter break during our first year of law school. We were in Las Vegas with some friends, and Beth and I decided to break away from the group and stop in a jewelry store. We looked at several rings and found one that we liked. We were poor law students at the time, so there was no way we were going to buy the ring at that time. But we got the details for the ring written down on a business card. Over the next two years of law school, anytime we would travel to a new city, we would go into another branch of the jewelry store and update the details on the ring. After we were done with law school, we took a trip back to Vegas and stopped in at the same jewelry store. We found the ring that we had originally liked and I, making a serious judgment error, asked Beth if we should buy the ring on the spot. In an effort to retain some magic, Beth kindly suggested
that I surprise her with the ring at a later date. Given Beth’s aforementioned super power, this was not going to be an easy task. I knew that if I brought the ring home, even if I hid it in the most secret of places (my sock drawer), Beth would somehow find it and spoil the surprise. So, I hid the ring in my desk drawer at work. Now all I needed was an opportunity to surprise Beth. Thankfully, Beth and I took a week of vacation last August. Our trip would start in Seattle, stop in Woodinville, and end in Victoria, BC. I figured Beth would be on to my plan to propose while on vacation, so I had to play it cool. If there was any indication that I had the ring, the whole plan would be ruined. So, knowing that she would be looking for any hint that I had the ring with me, I played it cool. When we got on the plane for Seattle, 59
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Tomu: I casually threw my luggage in the overhead compartment. When we checked into the hotel, I didn’t use the hotel safe. But whenever we left the hotel room, I kept the ring on me in case the perfect moment arose. Unfortunately, Seattle would not be the place where I would bend the knee.
time, and I knew Beth’s super powers were strong, so I had to make sure that she had given up all hope on the proposal. Later that evening, we went to dinner. While on our walk earlier that day, Beth had not so subtly kept mentioning romantic activities we should do together like go hot air ballooning or go on a bike ride. I adamantly dismissed both options because: a) I am deathly afraid of heights, and b) I didn’t have biking shoes. In my view, these were perfectly acceptable justifications for skipping out on those activities. But Beth was frustrated, and by dinner she had become morose.
When we got to Woodinville, I asked Beth if we could walk around the town. While on our walk, I found a perfect place to propose, but I decided to wait until later that evening. I also sensed that Beth was starting to give up hope that I would propose. This is right where I wanted her. If she had given up hope on the proposal, then I could pull off the surprise. Now, I’ve been with Beth for a long
Now, what I did next was mean. But remember that Beth had given me explicit instruc-
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tions to surprise her. I figured Beth would completely lose hope on the proposal if we started arguing at dinner, so I decided to bring up the air ballooning and biking idea again. After some back and forth, Beth, through teary eyes, looked at me and said, “Tomu, sometimes a girl just likes to be surprised.” Game, set, match. With that one sentence, I knew Beth had given up on the ring, the proposal, and maybe even the idea of marriage altogether.
plan to throw her off the surprise had worked a bit too well, because at this point, Beth refused to go on a walk, and she insisted that she just wanted to go back to the hotel room and watch TV. After some convincing, Beth eventually agreed to take a walk with me. With a full moon lighting our way, I took her to the spot I had spotted earlier: a little dock by a stream. We walked down to the dock, and when Beth sat down, I dropped onto one knee and said, “Beth, nine years ago you asked me to be your friend. I want to know if you’ll be my best friend for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?”
Beth: I was not “teary eyed.” Tomu: ...But she totally was. After dinner, I asked Beth if we could take another walk. But my
And to my surprise, she said yes.
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alixann loosle photography, photographer attention 2 detail, event planning honey of a thousand flowers, florals peter loves jane, invitation and paper goods the perfect dress, allure bridals, bride’s gown beckett & robb custom suit, groom’s suit emily golie, hair and makeup digital memories / chris koch, videographer sundance resort utah, location
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real wedding
jenn & jr salt lake hardware building
Jenn and JR like to joke that their meeting was a miracle, nevermind the fact that they managed to make a long-distance relationship work! While on a business trip to New York City in the spring of 2011, a mutual friend suggested that Jenn and JR have dinner because JR didn’t know anyone else in the city. He bravely contacted her; she bravely said yes to dinner and they met up for Thai food. Jenn’s first impression of JR was that he probably spent more time in the morning on his hair than she did. She completely misjudged him and made some huge assumptions. Mostly, she assumed he was a player. It’s so far from the truth that to look back on it now, it’s comical. Over the course of the next week that JR was in town, they met up several times and took a guided bus tour of the city, had burgers in Times Square and went to a comedy club where a friend was performing. They said their goodbyes on a street corner in the East Village and she never thought she’d hear from him again. Shortly after meeting JR, Jenn started dating someone else and put the tall, spiky haired Arizonan out of my mind. However, JR kept her in his mind and called several months later, completely out of the blue. They never lived in the same place as long as they dated. They’re a long-distance relationship success story, falling in love over eleven months of official courtship all over the country from Miami to Seattle. Mostly, they fell in love over hours of conversation on the phone. Hours of JR making Jenn laugh until her abs hurt, hours of discussing the mundane details of everyday life and hours of trying to figure out how in the world their crazy relationship would every work out. In fact, that’s one of the things JR loves about Jenn is that it’s so easy to talk to her and from the very beginning they’ve been open and honest with each other about everything. Long-distance was not the easy path. They both could have called it quits many times when it was too hard. But that’s not who they are and it’s one of the things Jenn loves about JR. He’s a man who is true to himself and who does hard things. And love is a hard thing, demanding much, but giving back so much more.
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heather nan photography, photographer events by lmg, event planning studio stems, florals culinary crafts, caterting layers, cake pink piggy designs, invitation suite and paper goods colette komm custom gown & kate spade, bride’s gown and shoes valentino, groom’s tux kambria thomas, hair and makeup joe muscalino, dj salt lake hardware building utah, location
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entertaining
h t i w t s a o t A riends f
One of the greatest joys during the Holiday season is gathering with friends and family laughing, reminiscing and creating new memories. Make your party memorable for your guests, as well as, yourself with these delicious and simple finger foods. Add a bit of sparkle and your favorite drink and let the fun begin!
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Brandy Snaps
5 1/5 tablespoons unsalted butter, chopped 1/3 cup caster or brown sugar 1/3 cup golden syrup 1/3 cup plain flour, sifted 1 teaspoon ground ginger grated rind of 1/2 lemon fresh whipped cream for filling Preheat oven to 350째 and grese two baking sheets and round handles of three wooden spoons. Combine butter, sugar and syrup in a sauce pan. Heat over medium heat for 1-2 minutes until butter melts. Cool. Stir in flour, ginger and lemon rind until combined. Make 3 brandy snaps at a time. Place 1 teaspoon of mixture onto the prepared tray. Using a spatula, spread into a large disc. Repeat for 2 more. Bake 5-8 minutes, until golden brown. Let stand for 1 minute. Carefully lift snaps from tray using a metal spatula. Working quickly, wrap each one around prepared spoon handle, smoothing down, then slide off onto a wire rack to cool Repeat with remaining mixture. Pipe whipped cream into both ends to fill. Arrange on a platter and serve.
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Marinated Mozzarella with Rosemary
fresh mozzarella balls rosemary sprigs 1 teaspoon sugar 3/4 teaspoon basil dash of salt fresh ground pepper 1/2 cup olive oil 1/2 cup white wine vinegar 2 ounces diced pimentos (drained) 3 tablespoons chopped parsley 3 tablespoons minced green onion 3 garlic cloves, pressed Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add the mozzarella balls and coat evenly. Let marinate in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to overnight. Remove mozzarella balls from marinade. Stick a sprig of rosemary in each ball. Arrange and serve.
Brussel Sprout + Leek Bruschetta
About 10 brussel sprouts 1 leek 1 head of garlic, roasted olive oil butter salt & pepper parmesan cheese for garnish 1 loaf baguette First, roast the head of garlic in the oven at 350° for about 30 minutes. Thinly slice brussel sprouts and leeks. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil + 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy pan on the stove. Sautee the brussel sprouts and leeks until they are soft, but not browned. Season generously with salt and pepper while sauteeing. Using either the back of a spoon or a mortar and pestal, smash the roasted garlic into a paste and stir in with the brussel sprouts and leeks during the final moments of cooking. In the meantime, slice the baguette loaf into 1/4� thick slices and arrange on serving platter. Using tongs, top each slice of bread with the vegetable mixture and top with a shaving of Parmesan cheese.
Shaved Pears with Goat Cheese
2 pears 1/2 cup goat cheese 2 tablespoons chopped pistachios 2 tablespoons dried cranberries 1 tablespoon orange or lemon juice Core and slice pears into 24 pieces. Toss pears in citrus juice to keep from browning. Spread cheese on widest end of the pear slice and top with pistachios and cranberries. Arrange on a platter and serve.
Caesar Salad Cups
1 bunch romaine lettuce, chopped Caesar Dressing
8 anchovy fillets (packed in oil) 1/4 cup lemon juice 1 garlic clove 3/4 cup olive oil
*if you prefer a creamy dressing, add a few tablespoons of mayonaise Parmesan Crisps
3 ounces parmesan cheese, grated finely chopped rosemary fresh ground pepper
Combine all ingredients for the dressing in a blender and puree until smooth. Alternatively, use your favorite store bought dressing. Toss with chopped romaine lettuce. Set aside. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and make rows of piles of 1 tablespoon of parmesan cheese. Flatten with the back of a spoon. Sprinkle with rosemary and pepper. Bake at 300째 for 5-6 minutes, or until golden brown. Fill small cups with the salad mixture using one parmesan crisp for garnish.
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Green Veggies in Baguette Cups
Choice of: asparagus celery snow peas green peppers Spinach Dip
1 clove garlic 1/2 cup chopped scallions (white parts only) 10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed 1 cup sour cream 1/2 to 1 cup mayonaise 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme 1 teaspoon worchestershire sauce 1 dash hot pepper sauce 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper 1 loaf baguette Make the spinach dip by combining all ingredients in a bowl and mixing well. Wash and slice the vegetables into thin stalks about 4 inches tall. Slice the baguette loaf on alternating diagoals with the shorter side about 2 inches tall, and the taller side about 3 inches tall. Pull out the bread in the center, leaving the bottom in tact. Spoon a dollop of spinach dip into the bottom of each baguette cup. Then stand 4-6 stalks of vegetables in each cup. Arrange on a platter and serve. mandi nelson photography, photographer ella bella floral, styling and rentals Peter loves jane, styling and paper goods Sego Event Planning and Floral Design, centerpieces marcie taylor events, linens
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special thanks to our contributors photographers Alixann Loosle Photography Heather Nan Photography Mandi Nelson Photography Memories by Ellie Sami Jo Photography Stephanie Sunderland Photography
florists / event planners Attention 2 Detail Ella Bella Floral and Rentals Honey of a Thousand Flowers Merit and Vine Sego Event Planning and Floral Design
hair and makeup artists Celise Artistry Emily Golie
hair adornments Laceielle Roselle
paper goods Peter Loves Jane Pink Piggy Designs
cakes Layers Cake Tiers of Perfection
gowns and attire Beckett & Robb Colette Komm Lacielle Roselle (custom embroidery) The Perfect Dress
p h oto by m a n d i n e l s o n p h oto g ra p h y , bo u q u et by s eg o
See you in March -