I was apprehensive to just go with the bakery recommended by our reception venue, so we met with the baker.

Andrea put Lilac Dude and me at ease with a book full of photos and a great go to attitude. She recommended that we bring in pictures of what we wanted and not just try to pick out something from the book.

So we returned to Johnnie’s Bakery in Canton with a few photos that we wanted merged into one cake.She assured us that it was possible and she definitely delivered! The cake was exactly what we wanted… and I mean it looked exactly how I pictured it in my mind.

And it tasted good too!

All photos in this post are by Chatman Photography

I’m a detail-oriented person so I think as I begin to share the elements of the Lilac wedding with you, I’ll share some details first. Bring on the pictures….

What details are you most interested in for your wedding?

All photos in the post are by Chatman Photography

I know that in my previous post I said that my mom was planning on making our wedding cake.  I would still be 100% thrilled by this ideas as she is a very good baker but she is having reservartions due to the fact that she wouldn’t be in her own kitchen and that she will be flying in with the rest of my family only two days before.  So I have signed myself and Mr.Pom up for a cake tasting!  I am further along in our decision about colors and saw this cake and fell in love with it.  It’s simple but so pretty:

This cake would perfectly incorporate all of our colors and would look so wonderful!  My idea is to have a cake for us, and anyone else who wants some, and then have a bunch of mini pastries from Whole Foods perhaps.  I just always find it such a shame that cake is given to every person at each table and if those people don’t eat it, or aren’t around when the table is cleared off, then the cake gets tossed.  I think our option would give a variety of sweets and hopefully everyone will find something they like.

So the cake tasting, I found this wonderful bakery in New Hampshire called, Jacques Fine European Pasteries.  They have even delivered to the Naswa before, our ceremony and reception site.  They have a number of different fillings and overall options, I just know that I do not want any yucky fondant.  How is everyone’s cake decision coming along?  What kinds of cakes are you considering?

Because Mr.Pom and I are very concious of the amount of money that can be spent on a wedding we are trying to keep all of our costs to a minimum.  We are the kind of people who do not want to spend our life savings on one day and then have nothing to live off of.  We are also not the type of people who are willing to have their parents spend ten’s of thousands of dollars on one day either.  So we find ourselves in a very lucky situation with the friends and family that we have.  I say this because here are the things we are cutting out of our spending budget.

Photography-my mother and brother are excelent photographers and honestly I’ve been to weddings where people have spent thousands of dollars on photography and somehow my pictures turn out very similar and just as good as the professional.  I’m not at all tooting my own horn, but rather saying that you don’t get what you pay for.  We are also going to put together a way for people to take their own photos in a feauxto booth

Cake-my mom is also an excellent baker so as of right now she has decided that she would like to bake a cake for everyone to enjoy!

DJ - Mr. Pom’s brother in law and cousin have been and are DJ’s so between one of them mixing our tunes and the other brining some fantastic sound system with him we are good to go!

Where are you cutting back on the costs?

MMMMMM CAKE TASTING.

I basically could leave it at that… but it makes for a boring read.

The venue we are having the wedding at has their own pastry chef, but unless they’re doing a wedding they aren’t baking cakes, so they don’t do a tasting. I’ll give them that it’s probably a good cake. But how can I know which of the many flavors I want to choose if I’m not sure what they end up doing best? However, our venue does offer one great option. They’ve partnered with a cake shop down in the valley (because our venue is up at a ski resort) And with this particular baker they don’t charge a plating or cutting fee. (Yeah–look out for that charge, and find out if they partner with someone to avoid that fee). So, we opted to use their out of house cake vendor, as she does cake tastings ,a bit more for the decor, and we avoid the plating fee. She plans all of her cake tastings for Tuesdays so that she has fresh cupcakes for tasting once per week and can do one big batch.

So, we came in and looked at pictures and planned a bunch of things with our cake. And for the ENTIRE time that we were planning there were two plates each of eight delicious looking cupcakes covered with delicious looking butter cream frosting.

So we still don’t get to taste yet, we talked about decor and cake set up.

Instead of having a big tiered wedding cake we’re having an eclectic set of cakes on different stands and different flavors. And we set it up in foam to see how it would look and feel.

However, there’s certainly not enough cake there for us to feed the whole party. So we’ll have a couple of cakes in the back that are frosted, cut and ready to eat when we cut the cake. It’s also cheaper to have a cake that’s in the back than up front it turns out, even if there is some amount of the same decor. And will make it so that your cake gets out faster to your guests. It’s a good way to save, and a way to make the ‘show’ cake really special if you’re on a tight budget.

(still no cake tasting)

Finally after discussing decor a bit more we were finally allowed to taste the cake flavors. To my excitement there were no strawberry and banana flavors, which meant i got to eat all 8 delicious looking pieces. (As I am sadly allergic to these things) I was so excited for the cake that I forgot to take a picture. The eight flavors were: vanilla, chocolate, orange, raspberry almond, lemon, coconut, red velvet and carrot cake. The red velvet and carrot cake have a cream cheese frosting. and the Lemon has a lemon-butter-cream frosting. The rest are just plain butter cream..

My favorite was the lemon cake with lemon butter cream frosting. Love it. However we choose to go with three flavors and split them up kind of 30% 40& and 20% with Lemon, Red Velvet, and Vanilla respectively. Mr. Daisy is generally a chocolate man. (hence the Red Velvet) and I am a vanilla cake with butter cream frosting, or a yellow cake type– but lately i’ve been on a lemon kick. I like a bit of citrus to break up the sweet.

Frosting… Now, I’m a big fan of Ace of cakes and all that cakey television fun. However, I’m a HUGE fan of eating butter cream frosting and not eating fondant. Seriously. She does do fondant but I more or less told Mr. Daisy that I didn’t care how it looks, I want a real cake with real frosting, besides we’re going with a vintage-lite wedding anyway, ditch the modern frosting. SO on her butter cream she uses only real butter, no shortening. So it’s a creamy color, instead of white white, so if you want white she simply has to add white food coloring ( I didn’t know that existed.). However I like the cream/antique white look anyway, but she mentioned it, and it might be something to keep an eye out for if you’re looking for a real white cake with out the fondant frosting.

I do wish we had scheduled more time for the consult. We were there about an hour and Mr. Daisy had to head off to work, but an hour and a half would have been much better and have included more wiggle room, and more time to relax instead of feeling like we had to get business done.

I now have a serious sugar craving again–Gotta love the cake!

Apricot Dude and I had our first cake tasting this weekend! I know it’s pretty early but before football season hits (I work in collegiate athletic marketing), I need to get as much stuff done as I can. So we headed off to a local bakery here in Cincinnati, one I grew up going to. I have always loved their baked goods so it was a no brainer that I would love their wedding cakes. Their white cake is delicious and then we picked out a strawberry and lemon filling, not together…on separate layers. The tasting was great and I’m sure we’ll go with their cakes. However, since the cake is fairly simple, I know I want to add some awesome decoration to it. I can across this idea to do a cake with crushed candy on the outside. Since our colors are coral/orangey/peachy, I thought that an orange hard candy would be delish. The lady at the bakery also suggested CreamSavors too! What do you think of this idea? I think the crunch on the outside would be yummy!

Candy cake!

Or how about this literal candy cake? Haha! How fun!!

Button Candy Cake!

I’ve narrowed my cake design choices down to two. Are you ready?

Option #1: a mix between Cake A and Cake B.

Cake A.

So, our cake would have the little pearl dots lining the bottom of the cake, the swirls above the fondant ribbon. No flowers (we’ll perch our love birds on top). And instead of having a fondant ribbon, we’d have a ribbon bow, with a medium-sized flower on top. Like this:

Cake B.

For the fondant flower, I found this sweet little bakery  through Etsy — ModernLuxeEvents – that makes the most amazing fondant creations! I could get a peony, to match my bouquet. Look how pretty!

open peony

closed peony.

Such beautiful details, yes? So this mix of the two cakes would cost $6.50 per person + the cost of the peony (about $40 shipped).

Option #2: Off white cake with ribbon, pearls, and pretty lace detail with my own love birds on top.

This was Mrs. Button’s cake (via WeddingBee).

The details on this cake are incredible. And I think it would look really good with my love birds. Try to picture them on this cake:

via Etsy seller BentBranch.

Total cost of Option #2 is $7.75 per person, excluding love birds, of course.

I think I’m leaning towards Option #2, it would really “go” with the topper, and our chic venue.

Are you torn between two cakes?

… because you’re going to be, after reading this post.

It’s all about cake. I LOVE cake. I love cake almost as much as I love chocolate. And the cupcake trend? Totally cute. But wedding cake to me is the second thing I think about when you say “wedding” (“princess dress” is the first thing). And so, ladies (and gents?), I present to you my cake inspiration.

Wowza. Just look at the details on this cake. I love the flower arrangement.

here, I like the scalloped edges and the lace detail… although I don’t have any lace on my dress. Hmm.

I love how whimsical this cake is — plus I’m a fan of love birds. We do have our own set, however, and they’ll be perched on top.

this cake is so girly and frilly … I love it. I’m just kind of scared as to how much a cake like this would cost.

another cake I’m absolutely in love with. I love the details and the shape of it.

So, my plan is to view the options available at my venue (they cater, I have to order all food & beverage from them), see what they offer, but apparently they can do anything (it just comes down to cost). So we’ll see…. and I’ll keep you posted!

Do you keep inspiration pics of your favorite cakes? What are you drawn to?

Life is uncertain.  Eat dessert first.  ~Ernestine Ulmer

It’s no secret with my friends and family that I am a fan of dessert! After my dress this was the next item on my list…my initial thoughts were to do many different varieties of sweet treats – a dessert bar.

www.sweetandsaucyshop.com

www.sweetandsaucyshop.com

Beautiful, no? I just wanted a smaller cake that Mr. Poppy and would cut for tradition’s sake. Surrounding the cake would be colorful, delicious desserts on a variety of beautiful dishes. After all, we eat with our eyes…that’s half the fun right? I was really excited about my dessert display. It would be something different that totally fit with out country “home-made” vibe for the reception.

To make a long story short – Mr. Poppy was NOT impressed. He explained to me that his favorite part of any wedding was the cake. If our guests were deprived that, there would be an angry mob – and our cake eaten, the rest of the dessert thrown in rage. Now I’m exaggerating a little, but he was upset.

After many discussions about what this would entail, Mr. Poppy indulged me and let my go ahead with the idea…it’s almost as if he knew what was in store!

We went in to a local vendor for a taste test. Everything was wonderful! Variety, something that everyone would like – I was so excited to see my vision slowly become a reality and for other people to jump on board.

Unfortunately, that was put to a quick halt when we got a quote. I had a great idea, but it came at a great cost. Something which was NOT in our tight budget!

Our solution was to combine cake and a great display.

Our Wedding Cake Inspiration {www.sugarrush.com.au}

The tiered wedding cake will be surrounded by a variety of 8″ round cakes. This way Mr. Poppy can have his cake…and the guests can eat it too. I get a fun display that showcases some family dishes.

display inspiration {www.countryliving.com}

Everybody’s happy – not to mention to variety of flavors! We chose a white wedding cake for the tiered cake and and a few of the rounds. The round cakes will also be carrot cake, strawberry, lemon, & marble. The groom’s cake will be German chocolate.

It was odd to stress ABOUT desserts normally this quote totally describes me -

Stressed spelled backwards is desserts.  Coincidence?  I think not!  ~Author Unknown

What’s for dessert at your wedding? Any great display ideas?

My wedding colors are pale green and blue. Obviously since it is a wedding, there will be white involved… especially since this bride loves pearls!

So I’ve decided to include a lot of white on white details to make things look more clean and romantic… and to not push the color too much.

Here are just a couple of my white on white details that I’ve been working on:

White ribbon on white bubbles {Personal Photo}

White pearls on white tulle {Personal Photo}

If you’re interested in more white on white details, here are some more that I found wandering online. Even though I’m not using them, maybe they’ll inspire another bud!

White accents on white shoes {Real Simple}

All white table settings {Real Simple}

White lace on a white bouquet {Martha Stewart Weddings}

White vest/tie on a white shirt {Tuxedos Online}

Are you doing anything interesting with colors?

In lieu of a dessert party or a wedding cake, what about ice cream??  There are actually a few ice cream shops that own trucks or carts that can cater for your wedding or any private party.  Who doesn’t love ice cream on a hot summers day?  Now I’m craving ice cream….sweet creamy goodness…mmmm.   If my friends brought this to their wedding or party…I would definitely be the first one in line! =)

Here are two ice cream companies that are local to me…

Carmela Ice Cream ( Los Angeles, CA)

Sweet Lucie’s (Los Angeles, CA)

With all the craze of food trucks going on in LA, why not ice cream?  This ingenious mother decided to start her own ice cream food truck company.  You should read how she started the company…super cute.  In terms of presentation and design, this one was my favorite.  It has this cute little retro 50s truck that goes to your event.  Also, they’re coming up with a 50s style ice cream cart in the future!

The truck…

The cart…

For more ice cream catering companies in your area…check out yelp!

The bakery sent us home with three 6″ cakes in white, chocolate and marble with the assurance that we could also sample their other three flavors at another time (when they had notice that we would want samples, they were able to provide us with samples on the spot surprisingly). The other flavors were spice, almond, and yellow, which weren’t on our list.

Since the samples were fairly large and not expected with called Lilac Dude’s parents and said, “hey we have dessert!” That won us a lunch invitation to a possible place to have a rehearsal dinner (which is a whole different blog post for another time).

Being the nerd that I am, I made a scoring system for the three cake flavors:

We were surprised at the results. Instead of going with flashy flavors, we’re probably going to go with more classic choices that people would be comfortable with. We are considering fillings and multiple flavors.

Yay cake!

All photos in this post were taken by me on my phone.

I have been sketching wedding cakes and looking at pictures but when it came down to it, Lilac Dude and I didn’t have a whole lot of direction on cake.

All I knew is that Lilac Dude wanted an impressive cake and preferred that it be tall. I knew that I liked round tiers and white icing.

Image from weddings180.com

We decided to go to the bakery where we had a discount due to our hall rental for a first visit. We were impressed by the fact that the baker was enthusiastic about doing whatever we wanted, she liked doing new things and was able to send us home with cake samples! After talking logistics about servings and tiers we had much more direction.

Having a tall stacked cake was just not feasible and the servings worked out better with three tiers and a later order on a sheet cake to make sure there would be cake for all. We were provided with books of previous work the bakery had done as well as a book of cakes that they were able to do. When we were flipping through  the pages Lilac Dude pointed out a cake on a stand and said, “I like that one a lot.”

I looked at the picture and there was the same exact cake stand that we had used at my brother’s wedding when my mom made their wedding cake (and I helped!). So I asked if we gave them a stand if they could use it. The baker said with a glow, “I can use anything you want to give me.”

Image from eCrater.com

We’re still looking at styles and the possible use of color and design elements. I see my sketch book and I spending some more time together, but over all, it was a very informative meeting. (Plus we found out that we get free delivery too!)

Apple Sauce and I just got back from our first cake tasting! We met with the very lovely and talented Betsy at Nine Cakes, a boutique cake studio in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, and we were pretty much sold as soon as we walked in. In fact, before we even tasted anything, Apple Sauce whispered to me, “I like her. Let’s give her money!”

Credit: Nine Cakes

At the end of every spoon is a frosting.

What a lovely sight to be greeted by, am I right? In addition to five different flavors of cake — lemon, ginger, coconut, almond and dense chocolate — we tried seven different frostings: lavender, strawberry (which, I swear, tasted exactly like strawberry ice cream), passion fruit, lime, mint, lemon curd (technically not a frosting), and raspberry. And they all tasted AMAZING together!

For our wedding, we decided not to go the traditional route and get one big, multi-tiered cake. Instead, we’re opting to do a dessert table with many different cakes, plus other sweet surprise nibbles. Basically, a modern version of a “Venetian hour.” That way everyone can choose and enjoy a cake flavor or treat they like, instead of being force-fed the usual chocolate with vanilla buttercream, or the now-ubiquitous red velvet cake.

But even though going this route frees us from having to choose just one cake and one frosting flavor combination, it was still tough to narrow down our favorites to just five! And that was enough of a kick in the head to make us realize that we’d found our baker.

If you haven’t guessed by now, I love cake in all its delicious and tempting forms. While my highest love and devotion for cupcakes cannot be overshadowed, I did come across a new and pretty sweet treat (pun intended): The Cake Lollipop. I first learned of these little yummies when a client of mine dropped them off as a gift to me after my company printed her cookbook. After a little research – I learned these babies are not only easy to make, but they’re making quite an impact on current wedding trends.

How GOOD does that look? (photo courtesy of Project Wedding)

Basically, you pick any cake flavor you want (even cheesecake!), and any icing flavor you want (or just straight up chocolate!), and voila! Awesome, one-bite, cake pops that are delicious and beautiful. What a way to incorporate multiple flavors of cake for your guests, while still adhering to your color scheme!

Photo courtesy of {dala} creative

I found a DIY-recipe here, courtesy of Little Miss Momma.

What do you guys think of Cake Pops?

I’m not an ice cream person, I never have been. I don’t even really crave chocolate, my candy of choice has always been of the gummy variety. But, as far back as I can remember, I have LOVED cupcakes. Doesn’t matter the flavor, or the icing-to-cake ratio (although I prefer more cake than most) – I just love them.

Photos by: Dolce Baking Company, Simply Perfect Weddings, A Cake Life, B.R. Cohn Winery, Kupcakespot, Kristen Steele Photography

Olive Dude knew before he proposed that at our wedding their would be no traditional cake. Instead of giving me flowers throughout our dating for special circumstances or bad days, I’d come home to a little Georgetown Cupcake (which is who I’d LOVE to cater for my wedding-they live up to the hype) with my name on it. Bless his heart.

The one thing I am unsure of – how to still have the cake-cutting tradition. Olive Dude said we could just get a GIANT cupcake to cut into, but that to me might cross over into cheesy territory – and I’m pretty sure he was kidding anyway. My one thought is my friend Ava LOVES to bake (and is quite good at it). I am thinking she could bake us a little traditional cake that we can cut into for ceremony purposes, and freeze for our one year anniversary.

What are your thoughts on cupcakes instead of a cake? Also – when it comes to flavors – should you try and match your cupcakes to your wedding colors?

Very early on in my planning process, I fell in love with personalized cake toppers. There are such unique and original toppers out there. And since I love Etsy and support handmade, I knew that somewhere on Etsy would be my perfect cake topper.

I looked, and I looked… and finally, I came across a pair of love birds too irresistible to pass up:

{From BentBranch}

It was love at first sight. Just look at the details on those little birdies! Each about 3.5″ tall and about 3.5″ long from beak to tail. The girl birdie will wear a sweet forget-me-not flower upon her head. They boy wears his around the neck. Both birds’ heads are jointed and turn for some gentle posing. Each bird also wears a coordinating silk ribbon around his or her neck.

Entirely customizable in colors, but the ones I saw first are the ones above – in exactly my wedding colors, gray and pink! I didn’t change very much in my order, except for the flower and ribbon, and I added glasses for Mr. Magnolia:

{From BentBranch}
{Although the groom birdie looks like he’s brown, he’s actually gray, it’s just the lighting}

I am so incredibly satisfied. If even possible, the birds are even more adorable in person. Krista, who is behind BentBranch, is a gem to work with, she’s so open to ideas and even sends you a picture of your birds before shipping them! You can’t get better customer service, seriously. I can’t wait to display these on our cake!

By the way!! BentBranch is having a holiday sale! Enter code Holiday2010 for 10% off anything in the shop! Enjoy… and thanks to Krista, for making the most perfect birdies I could have ever dreamed of

I may be the only bride on Earth who doesn’t watch “Say Yes to the Dress” but I still get my fill of reality wedding tv. The other day I was watching “Amazing Wedding Cakes” and inspiration struck. I whipped out my sketch pad and started sketching out some wedding cakes.

I was proud of my sketches until I tried drawing a cake with offset tiers. The outline looked more like a tugboat then a cake. I really saw no way of salvaging the design so I added some steam, water and an anchor.

My tugboat cake. Personal photo

I lovingly call it the tugboat cake, which will not be featured at our wedding reception in case anyone wondered.

We haven’t gotten to cakes yet so sketching them made it feel a little closer. I’m not sure if a baker really wants me to hand them a sketch (that does not look like a tugboat), but on the other hand I don’t want to be in the dark about my wedding cake until the day of. I want to know what we’re paying for.

I can draw cakes that don't look like boats! Personal photo

Did you draw your own cake? Any pleasant cake surprises or horror stories out there?

In my last Post, I talked about the cake tasting disasters.  But now on to tasting #3 and our cake!

Tasting #3:

I had done some research and found a tiny bakery about 45 minutes away from our venue.  The place did wedding cakes but they were mostly a catering company/bakery in the heart of Annapolis, MD, called Palate Pleasers.  When we walked in the owner created us with a huge smile and FINALLY I was excited about our cake.  I had brought some pics to show him, giving him a rough idea of what we wanted.

Idea #1:

For the colors

Cakes Photo: marneycakes.blogspot.com

Idea #2:
(obviously just the shape, not the color)

Cake Photo: weddings.theknot.com

The one thing I haven’t mentioned about our cake – was that we were on a really tight budget for this – and we still needed to feed 160 people with it.  So after tasting delicious pieces of chocolate on chocolate, butter cream on vanilla, I decided on the tradition vanilla cake, vanilla icing – and it was delicious!  After a few bumps in the road, here’s our cake:

Photography by: Tom McCall Photography

I am not sure if I have mentioned in the past that I absolutely love to cook! Now, I am not saying that I am any good at it, but still love it and find it very therapeutic.  I have just become addicted to a website called Food Gawker, and during my lazy Sunday ran across an amazing cupcake recipe on a blog called 17 and Baking… yes, that’s right folks, the blogger is only 17! Even if  you decide not to try out this amazing recipe and design for cupakes, perfect for a wedding, I suggest you check out the blog just because she is incredible!

This is the ultimate in DIY, and could save you some big bucks on a wedding cake/cupcakes! I mean seriously, how perfect would these be for your wedding in your colors?!

Chrysanthemum Cupcakes from 17 and Baking

You can see the full recipes here, which include Chocolate Cake, Meyer Lemon Curd, Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and assembly instructions or check out a printer friendly version here!

The cake tasting, for many of us, is something we get excited about. I mean seriously – you get to stand in line somewhere, or have a personal session, tasting 10+ types of cake. It’s every child’s dream!

However, for me, because I’m not a HUGE cake person, this part of the wedding planning process wasn’t something I was thrilled about. But, Lavender Dude was. We ended up having THREE tastings, but not by choice.

So let’s start with Tasting #1.

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/lard.jpg

Lavender Dude and I go home for the weekend and my mom has asked a local baker to give us a few samples of her cake. We test the cake – it tastes okay. We are sick for 3 days after. Hence the photo above – we were unaware that the woman was still living in 1940 and made all of her batter and icing with lard. I’m sorry, but GROSS. Tip: Ask the baker what ingredients they use before you taste it!

Tasting #2:

samanthawilsonphoto.wordpress.com

We went to a local bakery and they were having an open tasting (apparently they do them on Sundays). We stood in line for 45 minutes and were rushed through the tasting very quickly not having time to ask what flavor was what or even savor the flavor of each. Tip: Go with a knowledge of what you think you want so you know what type of cake to grab if you’re being rushed through the line.

Needless to say – I was ready to skip the cake all together.  Stay tuned for Tasting #3 and our amazing cake!

One thing I have absolutely loved about BridalBuds is the feedback I have gotten from everyone! I had so many questions along the way, and my wedding colors were probably one of the biggest dilemmas I faced.  After much thought, I ended up going with Coral and Turquoise/Tiffany Blue.  I was pretty excited about our colors given the room we were working with, and the amazing natural light that filled the room especially during the sunset. Of course with all the candles we had, it was just as beautiful at night.

Here are a few pics of our decor, with a special thanks to Charlene Lopez at the Key Largo Hilton, Blooming Design and Events and Edda’s Cake Designs for making our wedding an absolute dream.  The creativity that went into designing this amazing scene was well beyond our wildest dreams.

Our wedding cake… I couldn’t stop starring at it, I was just so obsessed with it!

I loved this centerpiece design because I felt like it was bright, colorful and refreshing.  We had floating votive candles in blue water, a few smaller floral centerpieces and a larger center floral design with a round style vase floating in a square vase.

A view of the amazing natural light.  I had originally wanted white chivari chairs, but due to budget constraints went with the white wood folding chairs… personally I thought they still looked great!

Close up of the incredible centerpiece!

A bar shot

And just because I love it, one more close up of the cake!

Thanks to Emily Harris Photography for capturing every single detail so I can relive it every day!

Thanks to the Key Largo Grande for providing a vision and such an amazing backdrop for Blooming Designs and Events to work with! And last but definitely not least, thanks to Edda’s for a beautiful… and tasty cake!

I am officially a married woman. We were married this past Saturday.  Today is Tuesday and my husband and I are still drained!  I just want to share a few brief hits and misses from our wedding and then I will get into the details in subsequent posts.  Here is our first official wedding photo. Our amazing photographer, Amy Sandoval, posted this sneak peak on her blog and Facebook for us Sunday morning.  I am dying to see the rest.

Wedding Hits:

*Our Photographer - I knew from the moment I saw her website and then again when I met her she was the one for our wedding.  I simply cannot wait to see the rest of our photographs.  This was one of my areas where I did not try to save any $ on and just booked the photographer I liked as the photographs are probably one of the most important aspects of the wedding to me.

*Our Wedding/Reception Site- Everything at the venue was amazing.  They accommodated our last minute need to move inside (due to rain…see my misses below) .  Their banquet manager, Courtney,  was FABULOUS and so was their entire staff.  The food was AMAZING and we received so many wonderful compliments.

*Our Candy Buffet – I am so glad I did it.  Everyone was so impressed by it.  My ring bearer (nephew) loved it the most…he walked around all night with various candy items.

*My Hair – I loved my hair and my daughter’s hair.  Our hair stylist, Sarah, from Salon Icon in Virginia Beach definitely did a great job.

*Our Flowers- Claire at Bella Flora was amazing.  Her shop is so accommodating and affordable.  When I saw my bouquet and centerpieces they were EXACTLY as we had discussed and how I had envisioned.

Wedding Misses:

*Our Beach Wedding- I knew not everything would go perfectly.  Our wedding was set for 6:15 and it started raining at 5…. as I was getting dressed and getting my make-up done I kept getting all sorts of phone calls and texts.  At one point they had closed the entire beach and nobody was allowed on it.  At about 6, my groom and I just decided to scratch the beach wedding (which forced us to lose about $650.00 in chair rental fees…..waaah), but with the uncertainty of the weather and the beach opening/closing, we decided it was best.

*The Wedding Cupcakes – Lets just say I hated the frosting (which I had tasted before and didn’t appear to be the same).  My colors were hot pink and lime green.  Icing colors were to be white, hot pink, and lime green.  Let’s just say my cupcakes were not lime green.  I am still trying to get over this big wedding miss and trying to decide how to word my email to this vendor.

We don’t leave for our honeymoon for two more weeks (BEST wedding advice I received) so I will have some time to do my more detailed posts.  All in all it was FABULOUS and we are so happy to be married.  We had an amazing day with lots of amazing friends and family.

Now, let’s talk about my favorite thing…the details. As I mentioned before, the colors of our friends wedding were two tones of green with yellow. They did an amazing job by selecting just the right tones of green and yellow for their country wedding.

The following is what I am very passionate about and that’s cakes! The cake table was sweet and classic. Our friends focused more on flavor and they nailed it! They had marionberry or peach filling with orange cake. This was my first time tasting orange cake and it was out of this world. The cake was made by Mike’s Amazing Cakes, one of the most famous bakers in WA State.

Their cake topper was the initial of the groom’s last name.

This was one of the guest tables.

And here is the centerpiece. I fell in love with this because tied in perfectly with the beginning of summer.

This was the wedding favor. Towie Bear got addicted with the lemon drops. By the way, the green one’s were apple flavored. However, they look like lime. This was a clever concept.

My first country wedding was a great experience. I can’t wait for the next one!

Oh wedding cake topper. So many choices to choose from. There are whimsical couple figurines, the traditional bride and groom kissing figurines, word toppings (I do, Mr. & Mrs., etc.), monogram toppings, flowers… I mean, there is an endless list of things you could choose from. But for me, none of those were clicking. I did find a Mr. & Mrs. topper that I liked, but I didn’t love it. It just didn’t feel right.

From Etsy Seller: sophieskeepsakes

So I continued on my journey to find the perfect cake topper. Something that would fit mine and Sunflower Dude’s relationship, life and our wedding. Then it dawned on me that I like the whole vintage feel for the wedding and the search began for vintage themed decorations and touches for the wedding. And I stumbled across this:

From Etsy Seller: bentbranch

And I immediately fell in love How perfectly cute, whimsical and vintage looking!! And unique! Definitely got to have it. And even Sunflower Dude agreed because we (well, okay, mostly just me) have a love for the artist Kurt Halsey and we have a few of his prints. A lot of Kurt Halsey prints include birds. And there is just something about birds that fascinates me… I’ve always had a love for mourning doves because they mate for life (which matches my take on life and marriage) and then there are swans who also mate for life. So, the Etsy cake topper seemed perfect for us since it fit into so many facets of our life. Now I’m just trying to figure out the right time to buy it.

Always 'member, never forget -- Kurt Halsey

Birds and Banners -- Kurt Halsey

If I would have stuck with blue and green as my colors, I totally could have incorporated those photos into our wedding theme. But I changed my mind… as girls often do. But I’m very content with pink and green. I’m all about taking babysteps and taking each thing at a time. Now that we have a lot of things reserved, it’s about the small details. And there are a lot of small details to be discussed and decided!!