Retreat, hotel and a zen-like wedding venue

I've always liked boutique hotels. The role of theme designs play a huge role to make guests feel connected and comfortable. The hotel acts as the sum of a well-planned design, which is a rare sight in the world we live in. Ask me about it. In my college years, I would buy pieces of furniture from various shops due mostly to budget constraints. The apartment feel disconnected, from a design point of view. An orchestrated design makes one feel soulful about the surroundings.

Menlo Park's spanking new Rosewood Hotel, nestled at the edge of Santa Cruz Mountains is designed as a calm California Ranch architecture is a boutique hotel of this sort. The food and art pieces are no different. They only use local ingredients and local artists. The texture (see the five images above) tells a tale about what the hotel's design theme is all about.

We photographed Cathy and Michael's wedding there. As they are rather private people, I'll only showcase a small handful of selected images (without the usual slideshow) in this blog.

Do NOT, however, mistake private for boring. How often do you see a cake_in_the_face during a wedding cake cutting?

- Michael Soo