Cato Corner Cheese tasting

We brough some samples back from Cato Corner to sample with our friends, who we know would have a vested interest in our ultimate choice. But, to be honest, it would be difficult to make a 'bad choice' when it comes to Cato Corner.

I paired each cheese with Belgian style beers from my 'cellar', which is almost spilling off the shelves. Esther artfully arranged the cheeses on a plate. The beers included selections from California, Belgium, Maine, and New Hampshire. The baguettes were warm from the oven, homemade from dough I started fermenting the night before. I made a nice, simple rustic roasted chicken and root vegetable dinner to follow the cheese and beer pairings.

What a nice way to spend a cold Sunday evening in February.

Saltwater Farm

Esther reminded me that we still haven't really posted much about our choice of venue for our wedding. It was quite the hefty endeavor...we narrowed a list down to eleven (!!!) places in the Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut area to visit over the course of a few weekends. We were feeling pretty good about one of the first places we visited earlier in the process, but once we walked in to Saltwater Farm Vineyard, we knew that we found what we were looking for. 

For us, its just a perfect blend of natural environs and bold, angular contemporary materials. The open design lends itself to a great flow, and everything is new. And best of all, they had a 'prime' wedding date available...the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. Most of the other venues were going to make us make a sacrifice on many things, the date being one of them. Before we found Saltwater Farm, we were contemplating a Friday wedding, golf courses (if you know us well, that is not us), and very limited food options. We had the option of working with a great caterer who would be very open to working with us on the menu (Thank you Anna!) and they were BOTH Ok with me brewing beer for the day. So cool. It really just all fell in to place once we met with Merrilee and Michael, the couple behind Saltwater Farm Vineyard.

We went to their first tasting a few weeks ago, and were quietly blown away by their estate grown 2006 Cabernet Franc. Yes...I know, but it is a complex and spicey aromatic but still very quaffable red, grown entirely by a new vineyard on the Connecticut coast. We hope to be able to serve some to you at the wedding. It should go nicely with some of the cocktail hour passed hors d'oevres and the artisan Cato Corner cheeses.

But, for now, I'll leave you with some pictures I snapped that will give you a sneak peak at what you can expect to see at Saltwater Farm (without giving too much away, of course).

Cheese & Flowers & Birthday Cake

More quality time in the car today...

Today is my mom's bday (Happy Birthday Mom!) so we decided to multitask and get a little wedding planning accomplished while we were in CT.

We planned to meet w/ Leah, our florist, today for a fun little mockup in Marlborough, CT. Since the stars always seem to be in alignment for JC & I, we had the opportunity to visit nearby Cato Corner Farm for a cheese tasting. Anna, our caterer, recommended Cato Corner for great local cheeses to serve at our cocktail hour. They are a small farm in Colchester, CT with only 40 cows yet they service some of the top restaurants in the country including Daniel, Tocqueville, and Per Se in NYC. (Per Se is owned by Thomas Keller...owner of the ever-impressive The French Laundry in Napa, CA at which we had the luxury of dining this past fall.)

Needless to say, the cheese was amazing. We tasted some young and aged varieties and the complexities and depth of flavor are distinct in the aged cheeses. Delicious. I can pretty much guarantee you'll enjoy!

Next it was on to a couple hours of flowers, and vases, and curly willow...oh my! Leah is so helpful and SO PATIENT when it comes to JC & I. First of all, I have absolutely zero creative vision so, unless you're showing me a full arrangement of florals, I have no idea what you're talking about. Second of all, JC has lots of opinions and ideas so he doesn't do the typical "glazed-over" man thing that florists usually see. End of story, we're a handful. Add in my sister Heidi, MOH, who came along for the ride (and cheese)...Leah had her work cut out for her today. We reviewed the various vessel options, corsages, bouquets, colors, etc. So much detail, but visualizing some of the arrangements and discussing our options gives us more and more confidence that Leah will do a fantastic job for our wedding.


We finished the day at Mohegan Sun, for mom's birthday dinner at Todd English's Tuscany. A little wine, some tasty flatbreads, and fallen chocolate cake w/ my fam made for a relaxing end to a busy day. Then it was back in the car for more quality time...