A letter from our editor

Love Marriage & Marriage

Celebrating unions of all kinds in the East Bay

SETTING THE SCENE The calm before the storm… or where a good time will be had.

The last wedding I attended was for Oakland friends on a beach in Carmel, fi ve years ago. It was an elegant occasion, covered by global media outlets, including The Guardian.

The bride wore white lace, her bouquet outfi tted with fresh, large buds of cannabis. Instead of an endof-ceremony kiss, the bride and groom united at the altar by taking “dabs” (i.e., inhaled cannabis concentrate). Infused cotton candy, joint-fi lled gift bags and a dapper pot sommelier provided 70-plus reception guests with an array of event enhancers.

I always imagined my own nuptials would more closely resemble the extended wedding scene in the 2008 fi lm, Rachel Getting Married. Tragic lead character drama aside, the scene depicts a weekend of bohemian bliss: A steady stream of multicultural musicians plays, while friends and family pontifi cate about love amidst an abundance of fl owers, bejeweled and feathered samba dancers, and endless plates of Indian food and barbecue in the backyard.

Now, I’m not married, but this month I’ve entered a union of a di erent kind: editing this magazine.

Previously I’ve edited and written for publications throughout California and Hawaii. Oakland has been my home, happily, for the past 14 years. And it’s a real joy to discover the wealth of local resources we have for all things celebratory and matrimonial.

Everything from o eat venues to catering tips, custom-order bakeries and data to support your impending proposal is here to bolster your big event. Plus there’s a bit of local country twang and Parisian decadence, since we’re into that sort of thing.

In its own way, this magazine is a celebration of love—for the East Bay. I’m grateful to prior editor, Daedalus Howell, for crafting within these pages a dinner party worth attending, as he suggested in our premiere issue. While he continues his prolifi c editing elsewhere, I’m thrilled to catch the fi gurative bouquet (sans buds) and expand our party into a grand, nearmonthly a air.

– Samantha Campos, Editor

Isabella Cook is a Bay Area-based journalist who strives to highlight local nonprofi ts, events and businesses (especially foodrelated). Nikki Silverstein is an award-winning journalist who lives in Sausalito with her Chiweenie and an assortment of foster dogs. Janis Hashe regularly contributes to the East Bay Express and other Bay Area publications. j. poet has been writing about music for most of his adult life and has interviewed a wide spectrum of artists including Leonard Cohen, Merle Haggard and Godzilla. He lives in San Francisco. Jef frey Edalatpour’s writing about arts, food and culture has appeared in KQED Arts, Metro Silicon Valley, Interview Magazine, Berkeleyside.com, The Rumpus and SF Weekly.

Love is Colorful, Bold and Exciting.

Love is worth celebrating!

Contact us today: hello@amoniqueaffair.com | 510.334.3752 A Monique Affair, 1714 Franklin Street, Suite 100-222, Oakland, CA

AMonique Affair is all about effortless and colorful elegance. We are a collective of designers, planners, and producers who are dedicated to creating heartfelt and unique events. We are a full-service wedding, corporate, and milestone event planning and execution firm serving the Oakland–San Francisco Bay Area. Our professionally trained event team has been celebrating colorful love for over 45 years combined! AMA was founded on the belief that all love deserves to be celebrated. In fact, we’ve been celebrating marriage equality since 1999. Our founder, Chanda Daniels, is a celebrated industry leader on the topic of marriage equality and inclusion. You belong here. Weddings belong to everyone. Tell us your colorful love story and we’ll help you curate a highly creative, comfortable, elegant, and unique event. We’ll be beside you as you select your design aesthetic, choose creative partners, and host one of the best events of your life. We’ll be by your side throughout the entire planning process.