A huge thanks to Hannah Black Photography for your friendship and these photos.
HWD Travels
Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico June 22nd - June 26th, 2017
Before the idea of 12 Trips in 12 Months was born, Brett and I were planning a wedding.
Or, more specifically my mom and I were planning a wedding, with Brett nodding in agreement every now and again. But I digress.
We wanted a teeny-tiny restaurant wedding in a cool city with good food. We wanted a wedding weekend filled with gorgeous first-look landscapes, a food tour with our friends, and a private cooking class in lieu of a rehearsal dinner.
It all sounds very specific and very us, but I laugh at how many different cities my mom and I went through in the beginning stages. Our emails were literally all over the map. The world map.
But, once common sense kicked in a we realized we needed somewhere our friends could easily get to (bye, Hawaii!), with predictable weather (you're out, Big Sur!), and had excellent margaritas (sorry, Portland, but this Texan has her doubts), we loved the idea of returning to Santa Fe almost a year after we first went.
Santa Fe - the place that I announced had my all-time favorite cooking class and favorite hike to date. And I feel like that statement has some weight, considering Brett and I like to take a cooking class and find a few good hikes on almost every trip we take.
It really just made perfect sense to declare our lifetime of love there.
And, oh. How I love that we can now always celebrate the wonderful city of Santa Fe as the place we exchanged wedding vows. It'll serve us so well for many anniversary trips to come.
Edited to add: we now go to Santa Fe once a year. Click here for our other yearly traditions!
To kick off our year of seeing 12 places in 12 months before our first wedding anniversary, I present to you the highlights of our wonderful wedding weekend in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Many of our loved ones stayed with us at the beautiful Loretto Inn. Really, the place is just gorgeous. In short, being under the same roof all weekend was just lovely and many drinks - both poolside and barside - were enjoyed together.
(Edited to add: We try to go to Santa Fe every year, and have enjoyed staying at AirBnbs + rentals so that we had kitchen access. In terms of hotels, we love La Fonda, but we also love the Inn at Alameda — but only if you stay in one of their free standing rooms! I love Inn at Alameda’s happy hour, their breakfast, their hot tub, the courtyard, the ample parking, the walking distance to everything, and their rooms - but again, only if you get one of their ground floor, free standing rooms. I wish I could remember the name of those!)
The day before the wedding, Brett and I wanted to have a first look before the craziness of the festivities and the oh-my-gosh-are-we-keeping-everyone-waiting worry set in. It's really hard to pick the best decision of my wedding weekend, but this one definitely is up there. We drove out to Tent Rocks - our favorite hike and scenery in general - for sunrise pictures in our wedding gear, and it was so nice to take our time and enjoy each other. Plus, all the kind words and well wishes from the hikers definitely didn't hurt.
And, until you've changed into your wedding dress near a string of port-a-potties, you haven't really lived.
(Edited to add: Brett always picks a few hikes for us to do in Santa Fe when we visit. He loved to reference this book as a starting place. But truly, if anything, you HAVE to take an early morning hike to Tent Rocks. Just beautiful.)
I should also add, the day before everything, my mom, sisters, and I went to Ten Thousand Waves for some spa treatments and hot tub soaking (the latter was a private tub with the most gorgeous scenery). When Brett and I visit, we try to always book an hour of one of their private tubs. SO RELAXING.
Before our rehearsal dinner, we wanted to celebrate all of our friends for trekking out to celebrate us. I love my margaritas, so I thought it would be fun to work with Food Tour New Mexico to create a private Margarita Tour of Santa Fe for us to enjoy.
Y'all, it was so fun. Like, oh my word.
And, don't be fooled by the name - we had the best food to go with our margaritas. Special shout out to Georgia, Santacafe, and Thunderbird for putting up with this rowdy bunch. Thank you also to Chocolate en la Plaza for the sweets and the Bell Tower for the views!
(Edited to add: Santa Fe has THE BEST restaurants. OH MY WORD. Every year we go we find a new favorite. Our favorite starting place for finding new restaurants is the Margarita Trail. My favorite restaurant I think is Teahouse Santa Fe. SO GOOD. And I love the Farmers Market, as well as breakfast crepes at The French Pastry Shop. And Plaza Cafe - pregnant me LIVES for their lemonade and sopapillas. And the tableside guacamole at the restaurant in La Fonda is THE BEST I’ve ever had. And Bell Tower is perfect for a margarita with a good view. And the wineries! Agh. I could go on. Brett has too many favorites to name, he says.)
After taking two of the most interesting, well-run cooking classes at the Santa Fe School of cooking, we knew we wanted to gather twenty of our loved ones for a private cooking class.
We were never down with the idea of a traditional, sit-down rehearsal dinner, anyway.
I'm so glad we went the nontraditional route.
We even used one of their cookbooks as our wedding guest book.
If you're ever anywhere near the Santa Fe School of Cooking, I can't recommend their classes enough. When Brett and I first visited, we did two separate classes and were completely smitten. Some of the best cooking classes we’ve ever taken, and we love to do a cooking class or food tour on every trip we take. So if you’re visiting Santa Fe, please consider looking into taking one of their classes!
(Need something else fun to do? Go hot air ballooning - we went on our first trip to Santa Fe and it was MAGICAL.)
We did a cooking class in lieu of a traditional rehearsal dinner and it was SO MUCH FUN. (We also used one of the Cooking School’s cookbooks as our wedding guestbook. CAN’T RECOMMEND ENOUGH. Now we have this cookbook displayed in our home.)
Also, yes - we did our first look, a margarita tour, and a private cooking class all in one day. It was really going to be a hard day to beat.
Until, you know, our wedding happened.
If you're considering a small, intimate wedding, do it. If you're considering a destination wedding, do it. If you're considering a restaurant wedding, do it.
If you're thinking about combining all three and having a non-traditional wedding with good food, amazing drinks, and none of those horrible traditions - do it. Pink Adobe was the absolute best place to have a wedding. Like, the best.
Oh my word, I wouldn't change a thing about my wedding. And I hear that's pretty rare.
Also, let's talk cake.
If you choose to have your cakes from Whole Foods, you can get a several different kinds of cake and get anniversary cake anytime you want. Plus, that leaves more room in the budget for margaritas.
Which is really what matters.
And, it makes getting anniversary cakes EASY PEASY.
Can't wait to celebrate many anniversaries to come in Santa Fe with Whole Foods cheesecake.
Questions? Feel free to shoot me an email!
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