I like to think that with a long engagement you better manage your time but I’m not sure so that is the case. Here I am with 5 months to do and I feel like I have so much to do still! Fortunately, most of things I have left are just the little details such as reception decor. I believe I have mentioned where we are having our reception before but here is an inside look of the Glendale Lyceum through some pictures of a past wedding that have taken place there. I intend to have mine look much similar. Funny story about the gold chargers…my Mom and I ventured to the Christmas Tree Shop on Sunday in search of them. I told myself I wouldn’t spend more then $1 a piece since I had to buy almost 225 of them. Well….they were $1.50. So I went to the register and told myself I would buy 10, take them to the Lyceum to see how they looked and decide from there. The awesome, wonderful, fantastic sales woman, Dakota, told me that she would not only give them to me for $1, but she would also give me a 20% off coupon. Needless to say, 2 hours later, my Mom and I walked out with 225 gold chargers at just $.80 a piece! Whoo hoo!!!!

The whole set up....so pretty!

Gold chargers have my heart

Gorgeous table!!!

I would highly encourage any brides who are reading this in Cincinnati to check out the Glendale Lyceum on facebook. It’s an amazing venue!!

I was going to write about this topic at some point in the future but since Martha Weddings tweeted brides asking what the biggest challenge is I thought I’d talk about the theme issue now.

So here is my take on the topic: I guarantee that the first 3 months or so after you get engaged you will do nothing but scour every wedding website known to man and write down dozens of things you think are neat, cute, pretty and memorable.  Therefore, you will inevitably become totally confused and disheartened about the fact that you have no clue what you want.  Well, my tip is this, do all of that until you are blue in the face and then give yourself a break from the planning as it will all come together in time.  It all comes down to budget and the initial feeling of how you wanted the wedding to go.

Me and Mr.Pom initially wanted to go to an island and have a really small ceremony followed by a party closer to home.  Thinking all of it through I am now, after 4 months of deliberating with myself, going with a simple theme.  I never wanted to pick colors and I also never truly wanted a theme.  So here goes, I’m thinking of classic white – because it’s classic AND simple – with pops of yellow, because yellow brightens even the gloomiest days.  This would not only give the whole reception tent an airy feeling but it would also keep true to our original desire of having a simple and effortless wedding.  The fact that we are getting married on a lake only adds to the simplicity and fun.

So, since I can’t physically decorate the tent prior to the actual day I stumbled upon Pinterest and began pinning my ideas of white and yellow accents.  You can see my wedding pinboard here:

How has the theme process been for you?

Mr. Peach and I recently went to our first wedding since getting in engaged.  It’s definitely true that you look these celebrations now with a very different lenses.  What did we like?  What didn’t we like?  What hadn’t we thought of?  This wedding was one of my very good friends from college, who has very similar tastes to me, so on top of being over the moon happy for her and her new hubby, I was very excited to see the final product of her special day, knowing all the hard work and details that went into her planning.

Anyway, we go to the church for the ceremony and then off to the reception.  We arrived an adorable italian restaurant with a very European feel.  The cocktail hour was in one room and after some munchies, we were ushered into the main area of the restaurant for the main meal.  The dj welcomed us for the evening and then introduced the newly married couple, but no first dance.  Hmm.  Then our salads were served and her MOH and the best man gave speeches.  Then our main course was served.  Midway through my filet, I turn to Mr. Peach and say, “When are we going to dance?”  Peachy MOH who was sitting on the other side of me responds with a quick, “Um, after dessert!”  To which I must have looked shocked and surprised, because I had never been to a wedding like this. Sure enough, we finished eating.  They cut the cake.  We were served dessert.  And then danced the remainder of the night.

Our entire table started talking about the order of events on a wedding day and apparently I’m the complete outsider.

dance now? dance later? dessert now? toasts first? the possibilities! Photo: weddingbee.com

Every wedding that I’ve been to (mostly NJ/NY area) you have the cocktail hour, then the first dance, then the salad, then more dancing, the entree, more dancing, cake cutting, more dancing, dessert, more dancing…dancing…dancing.  Everyone varies with where the toasts are: ours will be very early on in the night to take the pressure off of the speakers.  I had never seen a wedding where you don’t dance until all the courses are complete.  Yet, it seems like I was the only who who hadn’t.

What’s the usual event flow of the weddings you’ve been at and how are you doing yours?

How is everyone doing?  I hope everyone’s wedding planning is going well. Today I wanted to give my two cents about a good place to have an engagement party, or even a small wedding reception, in Boston.  A couple of years ago a friend of mine got married and we knew that there would only be about 12 people coming.  My friend and I decided to throw him and his partner a reception so we began scouring Boston for a nice place for the celebration.

Luckily, we didn’t have to look too far when we came across a “function” room at Stephi’s on Tremont.  The staff there was extremely accomodating and because they don’t bake cakes they told us that we could absolutely bring in one of our own.  Below are a couple of pictures of the room but they can help you plan things out the way you want.  The food is also extremely delicious.

While there, we ordered some great appetizers  (prosciutto and parmesan fritters, salty pretzel crusted crab cake and hoisin bbq chicken). The bbq chicken came with some mandarin pancakes that remind you of flour tortilla’s so you could make a little wrap.  Be cautious though, the carrots are spicy!

The majority of us then went for some savory comfort food for our entree.  The macaroni and cheese could not have been better and unless you have not eaten in a while you will most certainly have some delicious left overs to take home to enjoy the next day, the same would go for the meatloaf.

So although Mr. Pom and I aren’t having any kind of engagement party, if we did, this would be the place to go!  Happy planning!

I came across this super cute idea to help spice up the traditional guest book. As a bonus, it seems super easy to make! Here is the idea…have your guests answer questions about you and your hubby. Leave a pen at their plate or have the books set out for all to sign. This is a great way to capture some funny memories that you can look back on for years to come. Simply buy some notebooks with a blank cover, type your questions out, print on some sturdy paper and place on front. Some fun questions would be “where should we go for our ten year anniversary?” or “what should we name our kids?”. You could ask “what is your favorite memory of us?” or “best marriage advice. Go!”. The possibilities are endless and responses can be super fun to read.

I’m a huge fan of making the wedding reception an interactive experience for everyone involved. We have a room in our reception venue that is a lounge type area away from the music and craziness of the main room. This would be a great place to put something like these books! Once I find the time to make them, I will post pictures!

Any other ideas of creative, interactive guest books?

In my last post, I shared about using home grown wheat and corn in our centerpieces. The rest of the centerpieces were also a DIY project…one that was certainly a group effort.

At first, I wanted to use tin cans as vases for flowers – no big enough. So I turned to wine bottles…but after collecting about 30 of them there was one in particular that caught my eye – cobalt blue wine bottles! At the time, I was not yet 21 – so I had to turn to friends and family for some help. I told them of my plan and before I knew it empty wine bottles were being given to me left and right.

small aqua accent vases

I knew I was in trouble when at a family Christmas gathering someone pulled out a jumbo bottle and it was that same beautiful cobalt blue…I had to get my hands of some of those! Lucky for me lots of stores were running sales on such bottles. What’s more, I’m told the wine was not only cheap, but it was good too! Before I knew it I had more jumbo cobalt bottles than I did regular sized. This was due in large part to the fact the Poppy Aunt called me one day saying she had a box for me. Low and behold it contained 20 empty jumbo wine bottles complements of her neighborhood!

This was probably the easiest project I’ve done thus far. All I had to do was soak the bottles and remove labels to turn them into a vase. To create a centerpiece all that was needed was a single tall stem flower – I used silk.

wine bottle vases with silk flowers

Now the question is what to do with all of them after the wedding. The least I could do is recycle them I suppose, but they are so pretty! Maybe wedding guests, especially those that contributed to the “cause” will want to take one home? They could be recycled twice over!

Poppy Dude and I are very much in love with the simple rural surrounding that we were raised in. It was important that our wedding really reflect those values. I wanted to find a way to get Poppy Dude really excited about the wedding planning process because I know sometimes the groom just smiles and says “whatever you want, honey!” when it comes to picking and choosing wedding details. I had an idea that fit the ticket for both wishes – a touch of country.

Poppy Dude is a “country boy” when it comes down to it. He was raised on his family’s farm/ranch where three generations of men come together to make the operation a success.

When researching and coming up with ideas for centerpieces – it struck me. What’s yellow and plays a huge part in our agriculturally centered lives? Corn and Wheat. I ran my idea by Poppy Dude and his eyes lit up. We decided to incorporate corn and wheat grown right on the Poppy Dude family farm. Corn would be easy to get – Poppy Dude’s family has some stored in bins on the yard. The wheat on the other hand only presented a certain window of time for cutting at the perfect golden color. That’s usually around the 4th of July here in south-central Nebraska, but because it’s been so wet this year it was a little later – even better for us!

Poppy Dude hand cut the wheat from the field while I bundled it. It then needed to hang to continue to dry.I then sprayed it with a clear coat of matte acrylic spray sealant (to ensure that the seeds don’t shatter out all over the tables – or worse before the wedding) So far they are holding up beautifully! Here’s a look at what we’ve done with our natural resources:

moodl lighting

centerpiece: mason jar with wheat & corn

Poppy Dude and I will be setting out a mailbox for guests to “deliver” their cards at the reception. This was our solution to keeping the cards contained and safe – after hearing a horror story from Poppy Dude’s mom.

Long story short – at a family friends wedding they left the cards out on the table all night to find that someone had stolen them. One of the guests who had purchased a gift card called the store where they purchased it and they caught someone trying to use the card…turns out it was the DJ.

Anyway, Poppy Dudes’ mom was concerned that we have a receptacle and plan for the cards that evening. We didn’t really like the look of a card box (that really didn’t fit with the feel of our wedding). So we opted for a chocolate brown mailbox. Of course I had to DIY something on it. Using our decorative element from our wedding stationary, burlap scrapbook paper, and  my soon-to-be last name…tada!

you've got mail!

details

The plan is for one of the host couples to empty the cards into another box for safekeeping periodically throughout the night, so just in case someone swipes the mailbox, all our cards are not whisked away.

When I got home from work today I had planned to write a post about either our engagement pictures (They’re AMAZING!) or our save the dates (they are still non-existent).  I promise I will write about each.  However, when I sat down to start typing I began fumbling through some other wedding blogs and websites I frequent quite often and found this:

Its apparently a wish tree type of thing.  To me it seems like a cuter version of a guest book!  While I think the idea of a guest book is amazing in theory and something that I’m sure most couples would treasure forever, I just can’t grow to love them.  However, this I might be able to grow to love.

What do you think about guest books?  Are you having one at your wedding?

I love the idea of ribbon wands. I mean, how cute is this??

LOVE. Since we’re already doing a bubble exit, I thought about another way to incorporate ribbon wands. And I think I’ve found it! At our wedding, our guests will “wave” their wands in the air for a kiss from the bride and groom. I looked and looked, and finally I found Pebbles, who makes the most adorable wands based on your wedding colors (at absolutely amazing prices):

So pretty, right? You can have the whole handle — the wooden dowel — covered with ribbon, half (candy cane style), or not at all.

I decided I wanted our wands to make noise…. after all, if they’re going to be used for guests to use instead of clinking their glasses, they need to make noise!

So here are mine:

all images from Pebblescatto

In our colors: pale pink, gray, and white, with three bells attached at the top.

I highly recommend Pebbles if you are looking into ribbon wands! You won’t be disappointed!!

Are you on the ribbon-wand bandwagon?

We found our Music Man through our photographers who are friends with him.  So often now, DJs play from an iTunes-esque setup with computers and preset playlists.  While there is nothing wrong with this, technology has, after all, made things easier, we were super excited to hear about our DJ. He actually spins vinyl!! He was the only DJ in OBX we could find who still spins.

Moon Blossom let me know that she used the same DJ and that he was awesome. It was so nice getting a confirmation from someone who has used him.  The next task became choosing what music for which occasion.

Little did I know that you have to choose more songs than 1st dance, last dance and mother/father-son/daughter dances. Entrance music for the bridal party, bride/groom, garter removal, garter toss, bouquet toss, and cake cutting. Having recently finished choosing our songs, I would like to offer a few tips/options. For the entrance music, each member or couple (bridesmaid-groomsman) can have their own song or the entire party can have the same song. The bride/groom should have a different song to alert guests that the “main attraction” is coming up.

You also need to make a “Must Play” and a “Do Not Play” list. If you don’t want to hear the “chicken dance” at your reception, you better tell the DJ up front because inevitably, someone will request that horrid song. Before booking your Music Man, talk with him or her. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I called a few before we books ours. Even interviewing over the phone let me know that I would not be able to work with some of the DJs. If you need to have a “Do Not Play” list, ask the DJ whether he/she is comfortable telling a guest who requests a prohibited song, “NO”? If the DJ waffles on that answer, that is not your DJ. I read a review of a DJ (randomly found online) and the reviewer stated that her DJ politely told guests who asked for songs on the do not play list to ask the bride or groom for permission, then smiled broadly. I realized that one DJ was not for me when he said that he did not believe in “Do Not Play” lists. While I’m not going to dictate every single song that will be played and when it will be played, if there are certain songs that I do not want played at my reception, I feel like, as the paying customer, I should be able to say “Don’t play this song.”

When making your “Do Not Play” list, think of songs that may have a special meaning or significant history to them. For example, if you and your ex had a “song”, then you do not want to hear it. If a song, no matter how beautiful, was played at a sad occasion like a funeral, then you do not need to hear it on your wedding day. For me, everytime I hear Sarah McLachan, I think of this commercial about abused pets and trying to raise money to help save them. I almost break out in tears when I see that commercial and now, anytime I hear one of her songs, I think of the sad puppy faces. Not an image I need on my wedding day.

I did not look into a band, so I can’t offer any insight in that arena.

What are you doing for reception music?

Alright, so by now you know a little more about Apricot Dude and I. Now- let me share to you where we are at with our wedding plans. After all, this is what I’m here to talk about! Here is a little information on our church and reception site….

Our actual wedding will take place at Saint Francis de Sales Catholic Church. (The church we currently go to does not have the capacity to handle a wedding over 200 people in their chapel.) Here is the catch; I’m not catholic. But I have always dreamed of getting married in a huge church with beautiful stained glass windows, long aisle, etc. I decided to make the choice not to become Catholic so we took our chances and starting looking around at churches. We found some that were too small, too big, too expensive….and then we heard about St. Francis de Sales through a friend of a friend and decided that this was the church we wanted to become husband and wife in.

So you’re probably wondering how we pulled this off…well, all we did was call and ask if it was possible and they said yes. We simply have to provide our own pastor and go through Pre Cana classes. So my advice for those who are not sure if something can be done; simply ask. You never know- they might say YES!

I absolutely adorable our wedding reception venue. After much searching (which I will discuss in a later post), we finally found the Glendale Lyceum. The term lyceum, in case you were wondering, means a hall in which public lectures are presented. The Glendale Lyceum is actually a private, social club who also rents the venue out for wedding receptions. My favorite part about it is that it was built in 1882 and has lots of history. The décor has been modernized but it still has that old-time feel to it. There are many different rooms including an outdoor patio which will be perfect for our June wedding. Another selling point for us was the amazing staff. They were so attentive to us even during our search process. It really is nice to work with people you like!

Here are a few pictures of the Lyceum. I can’t wait to dress it up for our day!

We also have a few other things already set…our photographer, videographer, band and my dress! All of these I will discuss in separate posts at a different time. But for now…think about my advice and just ask if you don’t know the answer. It seriously might surprise you!!

Or stocking the bar rather.

There are many different types of wedding bar options ranging from dry weddings to full open bar options. Ours is somewhere in the middle. All sorts of soft drinks as well as beer are provided by our hall. However the bartender will serve anything else that we provide, so we set to the task of stocking the bar.

{Image from: chiqweddings.com}

To save some on the booze, we visited a local bulk-shopping club to find some of our stash at better prices. There we found our wines, champagne and a couple of pre-mixed cocktails (we opted not to provide tequila so margaritas will still be available this way).

We made sure to tell everyone who gave us weird looks that we were stocking the wedding reception bar, we really aren’t alcoholics!

Our bulk-shopping club didn’t have our various liquor needs, so we ended up at a state liquor agency to find the rest. We wanted some of the more common ingredients in cocktails so we decided to provide rum and vodka as well.

Since I hate going to places that don’t have bar menus, our wedding reception will have one. (Well it will actually be called a beverage list) Being my creative self, I’ll list the normal beverages first, then the ready-made options and finally the additional alcohol choices and some cocktail suggestions. This will go in a picture frame on the bar so that the beverage options are clear.

What would be your must-haves if you were stocking your own reception bar?

Indiebride is a blogger that I follow on Twitter and one day she shared this opinion piece by Peg Fisk that was featured in the New York Times. I suggest you give it a quick read before I go on.

…

OK. For those of you that didn’t read it, the gist of it is Ms. Fisk, who apparently is divorced, is sometimes invited without a guest to weddings. She rants about being the single person, sitting at the “loser” table, forced to make conversation with other singles. Halfway through the article I thought, “Jeeze, if you’re going to be bitter about it, don’t go to the wedding.”

I was relieved when I read the last paragraph.

“So whenever I get invited to a wedding and can’t bring a guest, I send a generous present, show up at the church and then go home to a nice glass of chardonnay. I toast the happy couple, and perhaps do my own version of the hokeypokey in my living room. ’Cause that’s what it’s all about.”

I see her point and don’t really disagree with her, but as someone who is planning a wedding this is a decision that we often agonize over. It’s not a decision we make without knowing that it will hurt some people. It’s not a decision that’s often made lightly.

I’ve been to some weddings that invited everyone with a guest regardless of their status. I’ve also been to weddings that didn’t invite guests with a plus one unless that you were married or engaged to that plus one.

Not for nothing but being that this woman lives in New York I can bet that adding a guest so she has someone to talk to would set the couple back a good $200. She does make this point in her piece, but it doesn’t sound like she’s really given the financial implications of inviting guests much thought. $200 per plus one can quickly add up. Just five additional guests adds another grand to the bill.

While our venue isn’t charging us $200 a plate, we decided to keep costs and our guest list down by only adding a plus one for guests who were already in long-term relationships. We also have a limit to the amount of guests our venue can hold so this was a way to keep our guest list down. We made an exception for one guest who wouldn’t know anyone at the wedding aside from Orchid Boy. The rest  of our single guests know enough other guests that finding someone to buddy up with shouldn’t be an issue. I think it is common courtesy to make an exception if your guest won’t know anyone else at the wedding, but you shouldn’t feel obligated to invite everyone with a guest if you can’t afford it.

I’ve told a few of our guests who are in causal relationships that once we find out how many No’s we have, we can open the party up to guests. For a planning bride and groom, this isn’t an easy decision. It’s often an awkward conversation and there is no way you’re going to make everyone happy. If money or space were no object, sure you can bring that guy from accounting that you’ve been chatting up in the lunch room, but money and space is often an object. A line has to be drawn and guests and children are often the first to go.

So, to be blunt, if you’re cranky about being invited sans guest do your friend a favor and check that little “No” box and stay home.

*I didn’t want to get sued for any kind of trademark infringement.

The one thing I wasn’t expecting when I began wedding blogging was meeting all of the amazing fellow wedding bloggers throughout the country. The writing world is generally a dog-eat-dog kinda world so the fact that I have met such wonderful, helpful and inspiring women is beyond amazing.

One such woman is Jacin from Lovely Little Details. She’s kickass to say the least. Her wedding had a lot of the same inspiration as I had and confessed that I wished I could send her my venue photos and get her ideas for what I could do with it. Her response was, “Go for it!”

So I did.

I emailed her a picture of my reception venue and a LONG description of our theme, colors and feel of our wedding.

A few weeks ago, she sent me this image and I absolutely loved it:

I was also quite impressed with her Photoshop skills.

I was beyond thankful.

Pomming

No matter how many times I’ve seen these tissue poms used, I never gave them much thought for my own wedding. I guess I’m just not creative enough to have the vision in my head like designers do. But, once I saw Jacin’s image, I had to make it work.

I found this tutorial on Intimate Weddings and cleaned out Hallmark’s supply of  blue and yellow tissue paper. Why did I go to Hallmark you ask? Because they had the most extensive selection of colored tissue paper. I went to Michael’s, Walmart and Party City and was SOL. The blue was too dark, the yellow was too bright, or the right color came in a multipack with colors I’d never use. The only place I didn’t check was Target (I was exhausted, hungry and had no desire to drive to the opposite end of the shopping center.).

But, the problem with Hallmark is that you get five sheets per package and you need eight sheets for each pom. So, you end up doing a lot of math to figure out how many packages you need.

Example: If I need 10 blue poms. That’s 80 sheets of tissue. 80 sheets divided by 5 sheets per package = 16 packages of blue tissue just to make 10 poms. At $1.29 a package you’re looking at $20.64. That’s still cheaper than what I’ve found on Etsy, but it can end up getting a little pricey.

Anyway, after cleaning out Hallmark’s supply of these particular colors, a friend of mine suggested making one before I head to other Hallmarks and clean out their supply and thereby spending more money. Good call, Rachel.

And I did just that.

Whaddya think?

We didn’t spend too much time doing research on DJ’s, we didn’t really think it was THAT big of a deal. I knew what we DIDN’t want (old-fashioned/cheesy), but we were pretty open to a bunch of different options. There arn’t many DJ’s local to the Outer Banks, maybe a handful or so. Their prices were all very similar. As we’re out of towners, and were planning the wedding from a distance, I have to say we placed a lot of weight on the DJ’s websites and reviews on various websites. When we found DJ Bruce, we hit jackpot again. His prices were slightly lower than the competition, as he’s a bit newer on “the scene”, but his equipment was topnotch, and his ability to read the crowd was incredible. He fit in every song on our “must play” list, and was attentive to our “do not play” songs. We had MANY of our guests afterward tell us how fun the dancing was, and that the DJ did a great job of playing the songs requested by our guests, even when my grandma wanted an old Italian polka, I hadn’t thought to ask him for in advance! We recommended him 100%!

Thought I’d share some photos of the killer dance party to share with you just how amazingly fun a wedding can be when you have a great DJ and a lot of people having fun!!

Photos courtesy of my wonderful photographer Julie Dreelin.

p.s. my boy loves to dance, so we were on the dance floor for much of the reception. (to see just HOW much he loves to dance you’ll have to wait for the next post!)

Our RSVP deadline is tomorrow. Since we sent the invites, I think I have heard every excuse and scheme under the sun. It has not been a pretty six weeks. I’m not going to go into detail (this is not supposed to be a ranting blog, I had to remind myself), but I do want to share with you our numbers thus far.

Invited: 106

Accepts: 59

Accepts with condition*: 10

Regrets: 13

No answer: 20

Hmm. That makes me think of some of my guests!

*Okay. Let’s talk about the “accepts with condition”, shall we? Part of my family, some of my father’s cousins, have marked “accepts with pleasure” on their RSVP cards, which I received today. On Monday, however, while chatting on the phone with my aunt, it is mentioned that this “accepts with pleasure” is conditional to how their mother, my father’s aunt, feels on the day. She’s elderly and doesn’t have many “good” days. If she’s having a good day, then they would all love to come. But they’re all going — as in all 10 of them — if she’s well, or not coming — as in all 10 of them — if she’s not. Now, I understand that she’s not well. I sympathize. My Nonna isn’t well and she won’t be able to attend the wedding and that breaks my heart. But please. It’s a small wedding. A table of 10 in a small space matters. It isn’t a big 250 people wedding where a table more or a table less won’t make a difference. In an 80 or so people wedding, 10 people less is a lot less people. And it’s a lot less people to have to pay for if they don’t show up, because you can bet the venue is going to charge us if we say they’re coming but they don’t show up. What bothers me the most is that these people have all been married and know how weddings work. You can’t just RSVP a “conditional” yes! So… we’re going to have to call them and say they need to say a definite yes, or a definite no, because we have to let the venue know. That’s just how things work.

Also — 20 people with no replies, one day before the RSVP deadline? I’m guessing most will be regrets. We’ve been pretty surprised at the turnout of the RSVPs, to tell you the truth. People we were sure would be there are part of our regrets — for various reasons.  Like I said, it’s been a tough six weeks.

Do you have any “accepts with condition”? Or, have you had any surprises in your regrets?

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?

I am in need of a reception dress. If it were only for comfort reasons, considering that it will be hot and humid at my wedding, I would still be hesitant to change out of my wedding dress. I absolutely love my dress, and as is obvious, I will only be wearing it for a short period of time. While I plan to extend that amount of time as long as possible, I will need to change into a reception dress at some point in the evening.

I say need because of a matter dear to my heart. Years ago my mother purchased two strings of pearls, one for my sister and I when we got engaged. The day she took me dress shopping, she gave me my pearls and oh how beautiful they are. I love them. My sister married her husband a couple of years ago and wore her pearls most of the days during the year or so she was engaged. I loved my pearls so much I got a little jealous that my sister could wear hers nearly every day and my job makes that somewhat not possible. Anyways, I wore them trying on dresses knowing they would be worn with the dress.

A couple months later, my uncle called for my mailing address. He asked if I would be wearing a necklace with my dress and if Kenny had ever bought pearls for me. I told him I would be wearing a necklace, and no, Kenny has not bought pearls. He informed me that he would like to give me the pearls that he gave my recently deceased aunt on their wedding day. He just knew they would look beautiful and that Aunt Linda would be so happy for me to have them.

Two very special, and very different looking, strings of pearls. The ones from my Freesia Mom are smooth and classic, the ones from Freesia Uncle are three strings of freshwater (thus varied in shape) pearls. Both absolutely perfect and beautiful, from two people with the sweetest of intentions that I would never want to hurt.

After much deliberation, and discussion with Freesia Sister, as well as a friend who happens to have 2 daughters around my age, I decided a change into a reception dress would be a perfect time to change necklaces. Freesia Mom’s pearls with the wedding dress we picked out together, Freesia Uncle’s pearls with the reception dress.

So, to find a reception dress within a reasonable budget. When I imagined my wedding dress, there were a few qualities that I thought of that did not end up a part of the wedding dress I chose. I’m hoping that maybe this will be a chance to incorporate a few of those qualities: something flowy, with an open back…and above the knee since it will be a summer reception dress. I’m aiming for less than $200. I have emailed a couple of dressmakers. One would make the dress for $250, but I’m concerned of the chance that it wouldn’t turn out. This is the “sketch” I sent (I know I’m no designer!):

"front", "back" option 1 or "back" option 2

Of course, while I have ideas of what I would like, I am definitely open any dress that might work. These are some I am considering, though none have completely grabbed me. Likely because I can’t try them on, but nonetheless:

Inexpensive, straight across back, love the flowers, from Ruche

An etsy dress from MoonCircus, can be made in other colors, perhaps ivory??

Nicole Miller dress, on sale at edressme.com

Max & Cleo from Bloomindales, has a great cross-back, maybe shortened?

A little expensive, but I love this etsy dress, The Ruffled Chameleon

Way too expensive Donna Karan, and not flowy, but love the deep V and open back...and the shoes, but that's for another post

So, Buds, what do you think?? Do you plan to wear a dress? Or Blossoms, did you wear one? Any dress suggestions? I’d love some feedback!

Luckily for us, our venue provides tall centerpieces. They look like this:

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When we revisited the venue, I had the chance to see the tables set up for a wedding that was going to occur the next day. Here’s what the tables looked like:

{Personal Photo}

Pretty, yes? I’m debating getting colored table cloths though, more on that later. The menu, which you see on the butter dish, will actually be folded into the napkin, and placed on the dinner plate. The favors/donations will be placed on the butter dish.

So that is how the guest tables will be set. The “head table”, which is going to be a round table of eight set in a half-moon of four people (Mr. Magnolia and I, and our two witnesses/attendants — his best friend and my sister). This table will have a large flower arrangement on it, like this (except imagine four chairs side by side here):

And, since its round like the other tables, it needs something to mark it as a “head” table, other than the flowers. So what’s a girl to do?

Look on Etsy, of course!

So, I can get….

a laser cut monogram…

a Mr & Mrs sign…

a burlap banner…

The choices go on and on, really… what would you pick?

If you know me, I absolutely love anything vintage!  I was shopping at Anthropologie one day and I discovered this vintage glass (listed below).  I fell in love with the design and I knew I had to get something like this for all the guest tables.  Unfortunately, I’m probably having 30+ guest tables and I don’t want to be spending $6 for each glass.  I found ones from Pier 1 for under a dollar, but I’m not too crazy about the design.

Do you have any suggestions where I can find each for $1 or less?

Anthropologie: $6.00

Pier 1: On Sale for $0.98 each

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.

Ah, the famous list. We drew one up shortly after we got engaged, but since then the “list” has not been revisited. Time to take it out – and finalize it! We have a strict venue person limit, so we have to make sure to not go over it. At the same time, it’s important to invite the “right” guests.

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Umm, yeah. I wish it was as simple as following a flow chart, LOL.

So many questions! Family we haven’t seen in years… yes or no? My coworkers, who change every year since I’m not “stable” in my job yet… yes or no? Where to cut? Where to add? A list and B list – yes or no?

So, we’ve gone with the “People We are Related To and see Frequently + Close Friends” formula.

Anyone else have trouble with the famous guest list?

Having your parents pay for your wedding obviously has its advantages.

But it has its disadvantages, too – namely, if you disagree on something. Luckily, so far my parents have been very flexible and have let me have pretty much anything I want, which is more than generous.

One of the things we disagree on, unfortunately, is having a sweethearts table:

{I have no idea where this picture is from! I saved it to my computer awhile ago!}

We’re not having a bridal party – except for our two attendants/witnesses, so I figured the sweethearts table wouldn’t be a problem. I love the concept of the sweethearts table. I love that Mr. Magnolia and I would be able to be just the two of us (at least while we’re sitting and eating) at some point during the wedding. So many couples say that they don’t get any time together, and I was hoping this will steal some time for us, even if we’re surrounded by our loved ones. My reception hall also wasn’t too pleased with the idea of the sweethearts table, calling it “sad/lonely” for the bride and groom. Ummm… no.

Personally, I love how cute sweetheart tables look!

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Except, we’d sit side by side and our backs will be to the wall so everyone can see us.

*Le Sigh* But, this is something I’ve had to compromise on.
Would you ever consider a sweethearts table?

To add to the list of rebel bride things I am not having, please add “The Bouquet Toss”.

And it’s really not because I have anything against them. I participated in bouquet tosses and I haven’t felt ridiculous or anything like that. I don’t think it’s degrading, or desperate. I think it’s just a reception tradition, and it’s fun when there’s a large group of women.

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The reason I’m nixing it is because of our guest list size, only close friends were invited to the wedding. And I don’t have that many close friends and cousins of bouquet-catching age, and I think having, you know, a small group of women waiting to catch a bouquet is awkward. So, we’re not doing it.

What I am considering, however, is having the Anniversary Dance – a song is put on and all married couples are invited to the dance floor. The song is stopped at intervals, in which the DJ says “Those who have been married 5 years or less please step off the dance floor” and so on and so forth, until the last couple on the dance floor with the us is the couple who has been married the longest. And I would hand my bouquet to that woman. I think that is a sweet ode to marriage.

What do you think?