Walla Walla Wedding – Let's Wine About It Sister

Our little Michael brother is married! How is that possible?!?! Known as BBQ Mike, Pizza Mike, Dirty Mike, The Big Skillet, Son of a Buff (our dad’s name is Buff, story for another day!), I cannot believe that the baby of our family got hitched. I still remember when our parents brought him home from the hospital. Mallory and I spent last weekend in Walla Walla, Washington celebrating Michael and his lovely bride Laura. It was an incredible wedding – beautiful, delicious, fun and HOT. All of the wedding and Walla Walla details are below.

The wedding and all its festivities took place at the Abeja Winery and Inn. The family and wedding party all stayed in Abeja’s accommodations. Years ago, Ryan and I stayed in the Inn’s lovely “Summer Kitchen” cottage to celebrate my birthday and my parents happened to stay in the same room for Michael’s wedding. The rooms are beautiful and the included gourmet, two-course breakfast with fresh squeezed orange is absolutely delicious. Michael and Laura’s rehearsal dinner took place in Abeja’s lovely treelined driveway – the setting was breathtaking and its trees provided some much needed shade. You also do not want to miss Abeja’s extraordinary, limited-production Cabernet Sauvignon!

Mallory and I stayed in this Vrbo just a mile and a half away from Abeja to accommodate our four kids and childcare. It was well appointed with five bedrooms and right next to Rooks Park – perfect for kids. Highly recommend! Laura and Michael’s wedding photographer, Sydney Baye, was amazing – would absolutely use her if I were to get married again (sorry Ryan!). Their cater – Castle Event Catering – prepared amazing food for both the wedding and rehearsal dinner fiesta. And the Adam Williams’ band had Mallory and I (and my mom! and even Ryan!!) dancing all night.

And because we were in Walla Walla we just “had” to do a little wine-tasting. Ryan and I tried out Valdemar Estates – the first internationally-owned winery in Walla Walla with an excellent tapas menu. Highly recommend you try it out! We then headed to Tranche Cellars for live music and more wine tasting. Tranche produces my favorite rose – Pink Pape – which is sold out for 2021 but highly recommend you stock up in 2022. We had dinner on Thursday night at Hattaway’s on Alder – highly recommend their southern food. We couldn’t get a reservation at Passatempo Taverna, but our parents stayed an extra night after the wedding and reported having an excellent meal. Definitely on our list to try next time we visit!

Outfit details: Megan’s dress, purse / Mallory’s dress, purse, shoes

And while the boys golfed, Mallory and I tried out Devium Winery, which has a brand new Walla Walla airport tasting location. I first tried Devium’s Lewis Peak Pet Nat at a friend’s house and fell in love. Unfortunately, the Pet Nat is sold out for 2021, but Keith Johnson (Devium’s owner, winemaker, and who served us our tasting) promises more will be released in January 2022. So get on their email list and jump on the opportunity when it arrives to your inbox. Otherwise, I might just buy it all. Interesting facts: Devium foot crushes all their wines with the least amount of intervention possible and Keith Johnson is also the winemaker for Sleight of Hand Cellars. Mallory and I both really enjoyed (and brought home) Devium’s Breezy Slope White Pinot Noir.

After Devium, we headed to Walla Walla Vintners to try out their new wine tasting patio. Walla Walla Vintners is the winery that originally made me fall in love with Cabernet Franc many, many years ago. And we ended our wine tasting adventure at Gramercy Cellars because Mallory has been talking about their sparkling picpoul that they only serve in their tasting room since she visited Walla Walla last September. Unfortunately, the sparkling picpoul was unavailable but make sure to ask for it the next time you visit.

At the conclusion of Michael and Laura’s fiesta rehearsal dinner, I gave a toast regarding a college admissions essay I wrote about my little brother Michael (and actually found a copy that I brought as a prop!). The essay contained funny anecdotes about my accident-prone little brother and his many trips to the emergency room. How Michael consumed dogs pills and (toxic!) poinsettia petals in potpourri; drank battery acid out of an old flash light; and somehow managed to break his foot while on a bike with training wheels and deemed too young to handle crutches by his doctors was put in a wheelchair which he managed to upturn more than he was upright. These accidents have continued into his adulthood. While traveling in Africa, Michael broke his toe so badly in the shower he had to have foot surgery upon his return (Sam & Emma still believe a gorilla stepped on Michael’s toe); he got his hand stuck in a blender (which he had to take with him to the ER to have removed and be stitched up); was burned by hot soup exploding from another blender; and split open the back of his head the last time he was in Walla Walla for my brother Will’s bachelor party. So it should have come as no surprise that Michael again ended up in the Walla Walla emergency room the night before his wedding and showed up with nine stiches in his eyebrow for his own wedding. Thank goodness my new sister-in-law Laura is a nurse!!

With hopefully a better segue, my college admissions essay and toast concluded with the acknowledgement that in spite of all the accidents, I am so thankful and proud to be Michael’s big sister. Being the oldest of four children is truly the greatest gift my parents ever gave me. As we head into the Fourth of July weekend, cheers to family! We couldn’t be more excited to add Laura to ours and to watch Michael and Laura start their own.