Vegan Winter Wedding

Candace&Josh at the Malibu Nature Preserve, Winter 2008






Candace and Josh are a seriously vegan, humorously quirky and life enjoying couple:
Their table numbers were Muppet figures and their first dance was accompanied by Kermit, the frog. Tiny Ninjas popped between pine cones on the pimento and gold tables, sat on the napkins and gave the saturated and elegant design a funky touch of childlike fun. Who called a green Ninja their own, was the lucky winner of one of the centerpieces: wrought iron candelabras. An enthused quilter herself, Candace decided on quilt making instead of the traditional guest book: her guest wrote or drew on recycled cotton squares, which will be made into a blanket of happy sentiments...
Their rehearsal dinner had everybody fight each other via Wii games - so it's not really surprising that gender attributes also don't quite matter for the unconventional twosome: Josh cried with joy when he saw his girl enter over the romantic little bridge to the ceremony site of the Sycamore lawn.
Sierra Nevada beers, Yellowtail red wines and Frey white made the vegan list and Diana Temple served a delicious vegan meal. I loved the Ratatouille stuffed tomatoes and the Bruchetta bar. (Don from Twenty1West will do a "mashed potato bar" in Martini glasses for Dan&Danilea's Malibu beach wedding on April 5. I'll report!!)
What's a Vegan cake made of? This is Candace order: "Carrot cake bottom with butter cream frosting, cream cheese in between the layers, Italian mocha espresso with Ganache for the middle layer with that scribble lace stuff in white and then the Italian mocha for our top but with the white butter cream frosting to balance it out...."

Design with Nature

Treehugging looks fabulous.
Outmoded wedding habits: book a hotel ball room, schlep in thousands of dollars worth of flowers, deliver the guests in Hummer limos leaving dizzying trails of carbon emissions, have a Las Vegas style DJ fire up the crowds and get everybody boozed up to enforce oblivion. So over: Bridezilla, the creation of clever marketing pros. She was perfect, as norms had to be reached, new levels of "awesome" had to be created and budgets had to be exceeded. Guys gave up on the craze and decided that their role was just to show up.
Today's life partners party exuberantly in nature without following a set of rules and regulations nobody really knows where they came from and why they exist. $$$ Competition with the cousin's 2007 wedding? No need, if you're different.
The princess in the woods has a whole new green cornucopia of choices and creates a wedding, which "has not been there before" without needing to waste cash and resources. Her natural hero loves to get involved in his wedding, as it is hands on fun and, being Eco, even somewhat scientific.
Nature locations resonate with romance and lush design as much as with the smart and savvy trend of saving the earth.

Fairies and Fauna

Pluck your place card from the tree

Keep it simple with flower bulps

Tree favors are still cool - if your guests actually plant the tree.

Rustic with Bamboo and succulents


Wheat Grass looks better than it tastes.

Earth Goddess

Michelle Moore did an eco fashion shoot and her photos are just amazing - as finally is the bridal eco fashion. Inspired by the flow of nature, these dresses love the back drop of trees and flowers. More on Ecocopia, with weddings, eco-fashion and catering news and a few drops of green girl gossip.

Diana's Creative Fare

Please enjoy: Vegan Polenta on a bed of organic Ratatouille...

Diana Temple, who's mother was the personal chef for Grace Kelly, has cuisine in her genes and is the Nature Preserves creative chef. I always found, when a chef is able to create vegan wonders and vegetarian visions and make people ask for more, he/she is a God in the culinary genius culture. “Diana” is the goddess of the hunt but chef Diana shines with vege’s made into the banquets of dreams. Most of the time she creates “regular cuisine” like Panko-Coconut encrusted Chicken Breast with a Wasabe Ginger Beurre Blanc or Miso Sake glazed Striped Bass on a bed of Bok Choy and tunes in to all tastes and diverse palates - just slabs of meat slapped on charcoal grills is not quite the aim..... Check in for additional photos of her culinary delights.

The man behind the Nature Preserve

Peter Ireland, president of the “Nature Trust”, the non-profit company who owns the Malibu Nature Preserve, a certified hiking coach, does not seem to stand still. When he is not hiking himself, he is organizing nature and yoga retreats, shows his guys which branches to cut or bridges to repair and in between he sets up weddings and parties. Which vitamins is he taking? He swears on the Elderberry trees of the property, packed with anti-oxidants and enriching his life.
While driving us up to the bluff with its breath taking ocean view, he stops to close a gate here, points out a huge bird there and slows down for a "parking" sign, which he grabs with one hand through the window: "Doesn't belong here", he smirks. 50 yards further he finds the spot and lets it plop down. Busy with the enormous property he brought multi tasking to a mastery level. It is no wonder that notes and business cards, phone lists and invoices crowd his small office; paper work is not his favorite part.
The lawns, which I had assumed to be nature-given gorgeous like the whole property, are looked after by eco-instructed gardeners who created green carpets, soft enough for brides to walk on. Some more rustic than others, the grassy areas are beautiful inside and out as they are void of fertilizers and pesticides. Wild life of all kinds can graze them without dropping dead or sick. Not that the foxes, bobcats and mountain lions would come that close, the lawns are by the human dwellings, but the deer do. They look at Peter with those beautiful wondering eyes and accept his presence at least for a while as he vibrates caring and sensitivity. They usually dash off when he moves, he’s a human after all and who can trust us? But Peter doesn’t like to hold onto things or deer, he goes with the flow, the ocean breeze and follows the natural laws of the land. That’s how he could restore the property back to health after it was abused for years by a rather rowdy equestrian center. Just recently he found three Salamanders by a little stream and they only thrive where there is prime spring water. If that isn’t amazing enough, he plans an organic garden in one of the fenced tennis courts - so that they don’t have to shush and slash away the rabbits and other critters who naturally find delight in stealing fresh goodies. Considerate? There’s more. All alu, plastic and wine bottles are recycled and a bunch of solar panels provide most of the energy necessary for the lodge type dwelling - with fire place, wooden floors and ceiling and a rustic long bar.

“Sometimes we’ll find red tail hawks arguing with wild parrots”, Peter says, “but other than that it is all about peaceful coexistence and the love for life”.

To follow:

The Preserves many locations

The Preserves Future Plans

The wedding of Candace and Josh