We were debating on a destination wedding vs. a wedding at home in Santa Barbara, when I came across The Monastery in Toro Canyon. As soon as I saw the photos of this unique property in Montecito, I knew that we had found our venue. We fell in love with the modern architecture and the use of indoor-outdoor spaces. We also loved that the property had history. The original house was built in the early 1930′s by a famous conductor, Leopold Stokowski. The outdoor firepit is one of the original indoor fireplaces designed by Stokowsi to resemble the Hollywood Bowl. The next critical component was catering. My dream has always been to have my cousin Vicki and her husband, Kazuto, cater my wedding. Chef Kazuto worked at Spago and Chinois on Main, and their restaurant, BEACON, was voted one of LA’s Top 25 Restaurants by Los Angeles Magazine. When Vicki and Kazuto agreed, I was ecstatic.
We didn’t have a formal theme for our wedding. I guess I would describe it as “modern but with heritage.” I wanted to build our wedding around what the venue had to offer — amazing landscaping, 100-year old olive trees and panoramic ocean views — and to use as much of the existing infrastructure as possible. We had limited space indoors, with capacity to accommodate up to only 45 guests, and we wanted the wedding to take advantage of the indoor-outdoor feel of The Monastery, so, we decided against a sit-down dinner. Instead, we created a series of lounge areas on the veranda and offered passed hors d’oeuvres followed by a buffet dinner. Our menu was comprised of my favorite items off the BEACON menu, including ahi tuna pizza, miso marinated cod and grilled hanger steak with wasabi relish. To complement our food selection, we chose a cake with passion fruit curd, toasted coconut and butter cream frosting. To infuse some heritage in the background, we chose a 40′s swing band that played excellent music and even looked the part. For centerpieces, we used beautiful bonsai trees on loan from our friend, David, who brought them up from his home in La Jolla. One bonsai was a 50-year old maple from China. Other table décor included topiary calamondin trees, garlands of fruit and leaves from The Monastery orchard and fresh calamondins and limequats. Originally, I wanted to use kumquats but they weren’t in season. We also used calamondins and limequats on our cake and in our signature cocktails — calamondin martinis, calamondin+limequat mojitos and Moscow mules. To be more sustainable, after the wedding, we used the fresh calamondins from the tables to make marmalade and gave some away as holiday gifts. We kept and planted the live calamondin trees, along with the succulents from our gorgeous bouquets made by Kerstin at Blue Magnolia in Summerland, who uses locally sourced flowers.
With a small guest list and cocktail party feel, we were able to spend time with each and every guest and enjoy the atmosphere without it flying by in a blink of an eye. It was a really special day that turned out to be perfect in every way for us.
