Carlos Huber, fragrance designer and founder of Arquiste, and his husband, Andrew Timberlake, a plastic surgeon, decided on an intimate wedding. A big event wouldn’t have allowed their families to get to know each other, they reasoned. So Huber and Timberlake held their ceremony in Puerto Escondido with 15 family members, and promised their extended circle a party at a later date. Their friends still wanted to send gifts, so they built a focused registry of items that felt special. “Not just the practical Riedel wineglasses. We wanted things that tell our story,” says Huber.
With that in mind, the couple landed on items from Venice, an important city in their relationship (more on that below), as well as a few practical kitchen gadgets and elegant homeware for cooking and hosting — two activities they enjoy doing together. “Even on weekdays we use these things, because we think about it as hosting for ourselves,” Huber says. “There’s something about making a weekday night special after Andrew comes home from a hectic day. Even if it’s just the two of us and we’re going to watch something on Netflix after.” The result is a mix of versatile, elevated pieces, like a hand-painted carafe and tumbler set for guests, easy-to-clean coated linen placemats, and napkins from their favorite swimwear brand.
We use this mainly for sautéing or whatever needs to be done on the stove. Le Creuset is classic, and we went with the matte white to match our kitchen. It has navy blue cupboards and a subway-tile backsplash of blue and white. We leave the Le Creuset out on the stovetop most of the time, and it just looks good.
This is a German kitchen gadget, but I actually know about it from Spain, where I lived before coming to the U.S. It’s super-popular there, and my Spanish and Mexican friends here in New York all swear by it. They were like, “You have to put it on your registry. Either people can contribute or you’ll get it from somebody.” It is a life changer. It does everything — weighs, cuts, blends, cooks, air fries, you name it. We love making soups. All you have to do is throw in some veggies, add water, and blend for a beautiful, creamy soup.
We love hosting friends and family when they’re in town, and we wanted to have a special carafe set for our guest bedroom. The room itself is mustard yellow, but we try to incorporate blue in pretty much every room in the apartment. Petra Palumbo makes these beautiful hand-painted carafes inspired by the environment, and we thought the sky-blue lavender made the most sense. If someone’s over and we bring it out into the living room, it matches the aesthetic of the rest of our home, too.
Venice is a special place for us. Back in 2019, we visited friends there, and we got engaged soon after. I think we both knew it was right after that trip. One of the things we discovered about each other is that we both love bringing back quirky things local or specific to a place or even from particular moments that we loved. For instance, these perfectly round, balloonlike glasses we saw during a dinner at Quadrino in Saint Mark’s Square with a friend. They’re handblown and made on commission, and they’re so delicate and fun. Truly a delight. We couldn’t bring them home because we were already bringing a lot of stuff back, so they were a must-have on our registry. If someone’s over for a glass of wine, we serve it in one of these, and their face just lights up. Everyone’s like, “Oh my God, these are so fun. Where’d you get them?”
Andrew actually introduced me to Carolina Irving and Daughters’s tabletop collection. (One of the daughters is a close friend of his.) Everything is hand-painted in Portugal with a very traditional, casual southern European or Latin feel. As I’m from Mexico, the collection really spoke to me. I could see the connection with traditional Talavera and ceramics from my home country. We both love the Tulip collection in particular. We use the plates every night when we sit down at the dining table. Because they’re hand-painted, they’re not dishwasher safe, but it’s only the two of us and we’re washing dishes by hand anyway.
We bring out the mini conchas whenever we have guests over for a drink. They’re cute for serving olives or nuts or anything like that. Or, if we’re having a taco night, I’ll cut up some limes and put them in there. They’re versatile and some of my favorite things in the house.
This was another Venetian find Andrew discovered. Even though he’s a plastic surgeon, he loves interior design and has a good eye. They make really traditional but practical tabletop linens. The linen is coated, so they’re easy to clean and the quality is fantastic. We picked the Nura placemats because we have a round table in our dining room at home and they go well with the Carolina Irving plates. That’s like our everyday setting. We also wanted the mango checkerboard ones for our vacation home in Merida, Yucatan.
We’re actually huge fans of this brand for its swim trunks. We love the prints, from its Mexican-inspired designs to the classically French Charvet collaboration. When the company started a home collection, we were excited to find some of our favorite patterns on napkins, like this toucan one. Our plates and glassware are more traditional in feel, so the napkins are a casual contrast to make the tablescape more fun. We especially like them in the summer when we have more of a light menu, like pasta salad or watermelon salad. And they work as both napkins and placemats.
As I mentioned, we have a vacation home in Merida. It needed some art for the walls, but the house is pretty open to the elements. The humidity and seasonal rains mean we can’t hang oil paintings as much as we would like. We also wanted something of quality but not too expensive since we only enjoy the house a couple of weeks a year. The rest of the time, it’s a rental. Persona on Paper was perfect for this because it offers really high-quality prints from up-and-coming artists, and they’re really well framed. You don’t have to sacrifice art for practicality. I especially love Mario Zoots’s work and Pamela Ocampo’s photography.
I’ve always loved the traditional Alpen Schatz collars you see on postcards of Switzerland — the ones on cows or Saint Bernards and Bernese Mountain dogs. We have a mini dachshund, Chorizo, and we wanted him to have this because we like things with a sense of humor. We thought it would be funny for this little sausage dog to wear something a mountain dog would wear. Everyone smiles when they see it. And I like that it’s this very blingy collar, but it’s obviously not since it has this pastoral background.
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