Destination Spotlight: Pt. Reyes

Spent this weekend in the cute little town of Inverness, just next to Pt. Reyes Station.

We ended up getting a room at the super cozy and adorable Manka's Inverness Lodge where we were greeted with rum spiked hot apple cider in the Airstream lobby. Our room was sweet, complete with a fireplace, big soaking claw foot tub and a little balcony overlooking the mountains. In the morning we were woken up to a thermos full of hot coffee, fresh baked cinnamon bread, granola and yogurt with fruit, and the sweetest apple juice I've ever had.

Decided to explore Pt. Reyes Station at night and found ourselves listening to the Muddy Roses, a country western band based out of SF at the local Old Western Saloon. They were pretty awesome and definitely livened up the place.

The next afternoon we made our way over to the Cowgirl Creamery in town, which was a pretty cool spot to see in person. Then, we went off to a late lunch at Marin Sun Farms, the local butcher shop. Unbelievable meal we had there (Hint: if you go, get the brussell sprouts, they're salty and tangy and perfectly cooked).

Anyway, thought you'd enjoy the photos and if you ever find yourself in Inverness, I'd definitely recommend all these spots. Oh, and if you love the mountain lodge feel, Manka's does weddings (see one we did a couple years ago here).

Have a great week!



xo
a.b.

Packing for a Destination Wedding

We've been going through some old files doing a little "spring cleaning," because we'd like to think it's always spring in california. And some of the really fun things to note are packing lists for destination weddings. Whether you're getting married in wine country, somewhere tropical or off in the mountains, it's always helpful to know what not to forget when you're packing. So, we've compiled a little list here of some of the most interesting things we encourage people to pack. Let us know if you have anything to add to the list!


-Vitamin C for good measure
-Vitamin E for glowing skin
-Multi-vitamins
-Hoodies and sweats for extra cozy down time
-Shawl or cape for windy nights
-Mini First Aid Kit (include things like benadryl, cold meds, advil, tums, pepto bismol, neosporin, allergy meds, band aids, hand sanitizer, alcohol wipes, vaseline, chapstick, after bite for bug bites, sunscreen, bug spray, airborne, emergen-c, etc.)
-Ginger candy, gum or tea for stomach upset
-Travel umbrella
-iPad loaded with audio books
-Wrist bands for motion sickness
-Super glue, tape, general adhesives (could come in handy if your shoe breaks)
-A great, dependable and comfortable pair of flats
-Black leggings to keep in your purse in case the temperature drops
-Noise canceling headphones
-Ear plugs
-Watch that you can adjust to your new time zone in case you run out of phone battery
-Mophie for the iPhone is great if you need extra battery juice
-Pocket translator/dictionary
-Travel app (see our previous blog post for tips)
-A copy of your passport (make sure you have one with you at all times, but also make sure you leave a copy in the hands of someone at home)
-Granola bars
-Prescription restock if there's anything you take regularly that you might not be able to fill while abroad, especially if you think you might end up traveling longer than planned
-Mini wallet and/or mini purse so you're not clunking around with the usual satchel
-Backup cards for your camera in case you run out of photos
-International adapters if traveling abroad (tip: check that your electronics will be okay at a lower voltage)
-Running shoes
-A great hat for sunny weather
-Shout wipes
-Sewing kit
-Sunglasses!
-A killer pair of heels


Enjoy and safe travels!


Photo Credit: Alison Conklin Photography in a shoot styled by Styled Creative featured on Green Wedding Shoes (a.k.a. adorable engagement shoot)

Dreamy Destination: St. Barth's

We're so fortunate to be working with a client we adore who is planning to get married in Harbor Island later this year. So, we've been abuzz with talk of island weddings and dreamy locations where we'd love to do weddings and this hotel called La Banane fell on our radar, making an instant impact. It's located in St. Barth's and is a very retro-chic hotel that was founded by french cabaret legend Jean-Marie Riviere back in the 50s, welcoming the likes of Brigitte Bardot, Zaza Gabour and many other legendary ladies. The hotel has been redone in recent years, but still captures that modernist charm in each of the nine bungalows.






We're still searching for the perfect St. Barth's wedding venue, but stumbling upon these amazing hotels along the way is pretty awesome. Do I sense a scout trip coming on? Perhaps! Other hotels on the island that might be worth checking out are the Taiwana and Hotel Le Toiny.

AE Favorite Travel Apps for iPhones

Top 10 Useful iPhone/iPad Apps for Traveling Abroad


1. Skype

You need to be connected to Wifi to use it, but a $10 Skype credit lasts a pretty long while. An hour long talk with someone in the states will typically cost around $.05. You can use it for face time calls or just plain old phone calls.

2. Currency

It's always nice to be able to quickly convert the bill from foreign currency into US dollars so you know how much you're spending. The good thing is you don't need a wifi connection for it to work after the first time you use it, it will just use the most recently updated exchange rate.

3. Lonely Planet Spanish

You should probably go through some of these phrases on the plane as a quick refresher for Spanish. It's also nice to have in your pocket if you completely blank on how to say something like, "Donde esta el bano?" This one costs $6 and it's worth it, but if you'd rather not shell out the coin there are plenty of decent free spanish phrase apps on the app store. Lonely Planet offers many additional languages.

4. Google Translate or iTranslate

Speak English into your phone and have your phone spit out the spanish - it's just like Star Trek. The only downside is you need a wifi connection for it to work.

5. Word Lens

This may be more of a novelty than it's actually a useful translation tool, but it's pretty amazing to hold your phone's camera up to a spanish language menu and see the words translated to English in real time!

6. The Weather Channel

It's always nice to have the forecast at your fingertips, no matter where you're traveling.

7. Yelp

Yelp is awesome when you're in unfamiliar territory. It's sort of like finding out about a great restaurant or cool bar by word of mouth - but in the modern way, where you don't have to actually interact with anyone.

8. WhatsApp Messenger
PingChat!
Textie (only one also built for iPad)

These are all free SMS like apps that are free if you're on Wifi. They're all cross platform apps so you can text people on different devices and different networks. They all work well.

9. FlightTrack (for ipad as well)
GateGuru

Track your flight in realtime, find your gate, departure info, find delays, rebooked your flight - it works pretty well most of the time.

10. Sit or Squat: Bathroom Finder

Last but not least, it is as advertised - a network to locate and rate good, clean, public restrooms all over the world.

BONUS: Best Photo Apps
Camera+
Hipstamatic
Instagram (also a social network for photos)

Most people with iPhones already have one of these apps. If you don't do yourself a favor and download one of them. Make your low res phone photos actually look good - by covering them in a layer of vintage camera effects.


NOTE: Major props to Pete McCoubrey for contributing to this list

AE Loves Mexico!

Okay, so we're doing a week of postings about how much we love Mexico and here is just one more reason that really takes the cake. This is Alex. Alex owns a company called Pura Vida, right on the beach in Tulum. He makes smoothies with a blender that's powered by his bicycle. It's such a ridiculously awesome concept, we simply can't keep it to ourselves. Check it out. Alex makes us want to drink more smoothies in life.

AE Holiday Wrap Up

The adventures never end here at AE. After an amazingly successful 2010, we decided to shut down our headquarters for two weeks in celebration of Christmas and the welcoming of 2011. So, we each took off on different trips around the country.

To clarify for those of you who don't know us very well, AE Planning + Design is comprised of four very different, creative and lovely women (and so humble too). Alison is the big picture maker, Kelsey is the creative head, Alyssa is the details editor and Lindsay is the all around ninja. We all assume many different roles on a daily basis, but what makes us work as such a great team is the fact that we each play off each others' strengths, so all of our projects end up being a very collaborative effort. We work really hard, but we also take our free time very seriously and the holidays were no exception, as we covered a total of 13,825 miles of American soil between the four of us.

Alison spent week one in Aspen, skiing with her friends and soaking up the fresh snow and mountain sunshine. Then, she flew off to Connecticut to be with her family and bake cookies with her adorable niece Phoebe. A couple of snow storms later, she was able to get back to SF for New Year's Eve with friends.




Kelsey and her husband Mike went on a road trip to Portland for Christmas before heading up to Seattle to ring in the New Year. They spent a lot of time relaxing with friends and got to meet their friend's sweet little infant baby for the first time.




Alyssa spent the full two weeks in New Orleans, eating too much, dancing to too much loud music, and riding her yellow cruiser bike every second she could get. She also got to spend some time with her family and her adorable little toddler cousin Maxwell, with whom she is quite obsessed.




Lindsay spent her holidays in Arizona with family, bouncing from town to town, totaling out at sleeping in five different towns in the short week she was there. She also made it a point to not only support, but encourage her younger sister's obsession with Harry Potter.




All in all, we really enjoyed the time off and made it back to SF feeling refreshed, inspired and ready to tackle 2011. Yahoooo! A new year, a new astrological sign, a new east coast office... may the list forever go on.

Cool Couple Alert

We say it all the time and don't mean to continue bragging, but we are so, so very lucky to have the most interesting, inspiring, well rounded, adventurous people surrounding us, that we call our clients. Laura and Dustin are no exception. This couple got married in a small, private ceremony last year, then embarked on a trip around the world together. By the end of their trip, they will have been gone for 365 days and visited twenty countries. And you thought your honeymoon was cool.

We're looking forward to their safe return at the end of the month, followed by a big welcome home and wedding reception for their friends and family that we'll be cooking up this summer. In the meantime, we thought you too might enjoy reading about this witty couple's travels and oohing and aahing over some of their pretty pictures.

Click here to check out their adventures abroad!