On a late summer weekday, Jen and I hosted several of our friends at a mid-week wine party and photo shoot at the incredibly beautiful Zen Lakes property in Woodinville. We rented the property for the day and set out to create a beautiful, memorable summer party.
We invited several ladies to come get their photographs taken (whether for their portfolios or just for personal use) and enjoy drinking Woodinville wine and nibbling on delicious treats.
This is Jen’s lovely friend Karen.
We also invited a few local bloggers who needed new head shots and profile pictures. Also on the list were a couple other photographers to come help photograph so much beauty (the ladies and the manicured grounds!) and enjoy the day with us as well.
Our party happened to coincide with the hottest, smokiest day during Seattle’s horrible week of Canadian wildfire smoke washing over us. Our friends were good sports, attending anyway and not complaining about the hot weather and the smoky air. Here are Tanji and Harriet enjoying glasses of crisp cold Woodinville white wine while overlooking the majestic, stunning Zen Lakes property.
This was the biggest and most complicated event I’ve thrown to date, and I admit I wasn’t quite prepared for it. I’d hired just one helper and wished I’d hired another assistant or two. I hadn’t expected how much work it would be to pack and lug all the dishes, food and accessories I needed to set some beautiful tables, and I hadn’t anticipated needing someone in the Zen Lakes kitchen full-time to prep and serve the food and wine to our guests. Next time I’ll know better!
I caught Jen in the house ironing these tablecloths, and I kicked her out to go photograph the ladies. Ironing is a waste of her amazing photography skills! Alas, running out of time, I set the table with wrinkled tablecloths anyway, hoping people’s eyes would overlook them with such a colorful bounty of foods to look at instead.
I’d spent the day before the party shopping happily away at my favorite purveyors of gourmet foods: Haggen in Woodinville, Metropolitan Market in Sammamish, PCC in Redmond, and the Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods at The Village at Totem Lake.
Several of Jen’s friends are bodybuilders, my blogger friend Keto Carole is a ketogenic nutritionist, I’m a vegetarian and my assistant is gluten-free. So I knew I’d have a variety of diets to accomodate. I made sure to get several proteins, the freshest organic fruits and veggies, and gluten-free options. Still, I couldn’t resist setting out some naughty sugary, full-fat desserts for those guests who dared indulge in them.
For this party, I picked up inexpensive potted flowers from Trader Joe’s and Fred Meyer, and stopped by the Crossroads Farmers Market for fabulous big bouquets too. I also cheated on my tablescape a bit by sneaking in some gigantic faux sunflowers from Michael’s.
I was personally excited to eat some grapes – I have a naughty dog at home who gets into everything, and can’t keep grapes at my house due to their toxicity to dogs.
We opened many bottles of wine that day. With so many joyful wine drinkers on the property, we didn’t have to worry about setting the wine in ice buckets. It simply disappeared into glasses (and people’s stomachs!) too quickly to get warm.
We initially offered white wines from Smasne Cellars, Cave B Estate Winery, Isenhower Cellars and Warr-King Wines. Our guests enjoyed them, especially on such a hot day. (We made sure to have plenty of water and sparkling non-alcoholic beverages available for re-hydration, of course!)
We set up platters of sandwiches, salads and sushi upstairs in the air-conditioned Zen Lakes house, but wanted guests to enjoy the outdoors as well, so set up tables of treats and fruits outside near the weeping tree, the fountains and the Zen garden.
Our guests strolled the grounds with wine glasses in hands, exploring the ponds, gardens, and nature trails.
As more guests showed up to the party, we set out more Woodinville white wine from Cave B Estate Winery, Lauren Ashton Cellars and Alexandria Nicole Cellars.
Tanji admired the Japanese teahouse and the view of one of the two ponds on the sprawling property.
Mia and Kristen had not met before, and struck up a friendship near the koi pond.
I’d met Mia the day before at one of my Meetup social events. I dared her to come to the party (even though she’d only known me an hour) and I was delighted when she accepted!
Kristen posed for photographers on the upper deck of the Zen Lakes rental house.
Harriet wore the most adorable chic striped pantsuit!
You can visit Harriet’s Instagram here.
Harriet sunbathed a bit – perhaps drowsy from the heat and from all the wine we were consuming!
We all took turns luxuriating on the lounge chairs.
As the party (and the afternoon) wore on, we brought out more desserts (cute cakes from a local bakery) and Rosé wines from Woodinville tasting rooms, including Chateau Ste. Michelle, Milbrandt Vineyards, and aMaurice. We also offered an orange Gewurztraminer from Savage Grace, thinking it would pair excellently with the fruit and cakes.
It was hilarious seeing how many people who had been quite busy with photography projects elsewhere on the property, suddenly manage to find their way to this table as soon as the Rosés came out!
-Carrie
