Wedding Extravaganza 2015

Every year RIGHT AFTER THE HOLIDAYS our town holds this huge "Wedding Extravaganza" at our civic center as a kick-off to the wedding planning season. So right after everyone gets their ring for Christmas they can come down and check out pretty much every wedding vendor in town. Its lots of djs and photographers, venues and rental depots. And of course cake. Cake and other food. People looove their samples!

Every vendor there spends big bucks to have a booth and brides also spend some cash to even get in. There is a lot of money being made somewhere here but I digress a bit. The grocery chain I work for has three locations in town and for this one event we band together to make a super kick-ass display of cakes, flowers, and catering. All the big display cakes are fake underneath but it is a cool way to show off a bit and show the people what we can do. Each of our stores is expected to bring 5 cakes, along with matching bouquets and other floral arrangements and samples. We meet months earlier to talk broad-strokes to make sure we are not doing anything too similar and to decide who will bring what flavor of cake for samples. Its a lot of work but it is a chance to showcase our best. Did I mention it is RIGHT AFTER THE HOLIDAYS!!!? Argh. I don't know why it couldn't be held any other weekend in January but its always right after busy bakery season plus personal holiday business and all sorts of busy!

I contributed 2 tier cakes and some cupcakes and overall I do think the show was a big hit.

 My cake is the square one on the corner and this shot gives you a bit of an idea of our booth!

I am pretty happy with my 1920's square cake. It was a challenge as I am still working on my fondant skills but I am glad I pushed myself. The wedding show is a great time to experiment and try something that probably wouldn't normally be ordered.

And this is my large petal cake. There are many lovely versions out there on pinterest and the like. Mine I dusted the edges of the petals with some purple luster dust to give it just a hint of color and sparkle. What I love about this cake is that it is so versatile. You can keep it solid white or really get crazy with color, whatever will match your wedding best!

Happy with the day overall but glad its done. Every year we say "It wont be like this next year, next year we will plan ahead!". Well as long as it continues to be right after the holidays I'm sure we will continue to scramble. Oh well. Yay cake!

Misadventures in mobile blogging

Well there is no excuse for it but my long 'break' from blogging is at a close. A tumultuous year is settling back into old patterns and allowing me to return to those things that have been left patiently waiting for me. To sum up this last year in two simple events:

1.

I have become a full time cake decorator!

My dream of working with my hands in a creative environment has come true. I am learning new stuff everyday and am so inspired by the amazing work of decorators near and far. Many posts will now be cake related! (Yeah even more than before!)

2. <warning extreme cheesiness ahead>

I fell in love. Wow that sounds cheesy when typed out. But this last year has been the happiest of my life. So much has happened and changed but all for the best. Now that I am engaged (woot) I can have a legit Pinterest wedding board and all sorts of fun stuff. Wedding posts will probably happen- I am hoping for a super DIY/hands on wedding, but no bells will be ringing until 2016 at the EARLIEST. So stay tuned.

Yep that's pretty much the two big reasons. And also my computer is on it's last legs. Will be rocking the mobile posts for a while until I get a new one. With those major life events on top of the roller derby, awesome friends, weddings, babies, and general life fabulousness I have missed this blog, my little corner of the internet. Well now I'm back. Let's do this thing!

Weddings, and Derby, and Pie! oh my!

This month has been CRAZY. But now it is almost over and we can get on to more important things, like Halloween!!! But seriously what a month.

I made pies for my friends wedding... 27 pies.

 Crusts

 Heading to the bakery to bake them in the giant oven. Thanks bakery!!!

 Delivered. 

 Pie table. 

County Apple, Peach Blackberry, and Cherry. Nom. 

For as much as I flipped out about this project it all came together in the end. I may be a terrible procrastinator (ahem...friend's t-shirt quilt I still haven't finished...ahem) but when it comes down to it I get shit done. 

The day before the wedding I was running around doing last minute projects, including making helmet covers for my roller derby team! We were short a set so I found a pattern on the internet, ran to the fabric store and busted them out! On Saturday after my hair appointment (which on a separate note I am never doing again) I sneaked over the arena where my girls were setting up for their bout. They ended up loosing but I am so proud of all of them and I am sad I could not be there for them. After a day of recovery it was back to grindstone. Now here we are a few minutes from October and it starts all over again! Another bout to plan, more baking to be done and costumes to figure out and be made. Let the epic-ness continue! 

Farewell September. You have been busy. 

Wedding Sweets

Most days I am a bit cranky about work (shocking I know) but some days are pretty good. This day I got to make these lovely wedding cookies. I have seen the idea several places and it was really fun to make them.

Have I mentioned that I am making wedding pie for my friend's wedding? Well I am. And that project is coming up rather quickly. I will hopefully be documenting the successful process right here! : )

Weddings

Another wedding this past weekend. Busy busy! This time it was one of my best friends in the world. I am so happy for her and I wish her and her new husband many happy years! (P.S. Please have babies-they will be so adorable.)

Wedding Embroidery

Getting back into embroidery has been really good for me. I was super into it about a year ago and then I just sort of fizzled out on it. Really loving it again! Here is the piece I made for my friend's wedding this last Saturday.

I had seen similar designs around the internet and I just really liked the simplicity of it. Her wedding was on her farm so it was very nature oriented and they incorporated oak leaves into everything from the invitations to their wedding rings. It was outside which was a little chilly but really fun.

Hillbilly Bachelorette Party

I planned/threw a bachelorette party in June and now it is September and I had to plan another one! This bride to be is a city girl but she is marrying a country boy so we decided to throw her a Hillbilly bachelorette party.

Because I am a one-track kind of person I made goody bags again...

This was the 'Bride to Be' bag. Her colors are orange and red so everyone got a bandanna, sucker/rock candy, and tractor in those colors. We also got name tags, John Deere noisemakers and 'ugly teeth'. The bride also got a cowbell that we tied to her belt so we could keep track of her throughout the evening. It became this great game of running over to her and ringing it as loud as we could and screaming "MORE COWBELL!". Yeah, we are that cool.

We were planning on going to a pumpkin patch but it was closed so we ended up going to a local orchard. They had pumpkins there and a mini hay-bale maze (for kids but we did it as well!) so we still got a lot of fun pictures out of it.

We went back to 'home base' where we had a delicious meal of homemade chili, loaded potato wedges, and coleslaw. There were plenty of sweets including rosemary-apple pie, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and caramel apples. Topped off with apple cider and 'butter beer' we were full and ready for a nap before it was dark out.

We rallied and after a few more games at the house we hit the town. A good night was had by all but I can't vouch for how good some of our mornings were!

(Our bride using the extra name tags to put 'dibs' stickers on random boys on our behalf. Good times.)

Gearing up for a wedding.

Mom and her bridesmaids, in color
Originally uploaded by epicharmus

My best friend is getting married this weekend! I am so excited I can not stand it. I have never even been in a wedding before! Crazy right? Well I was just a little to old to snag a flower girl spot (damn younger sister nabbed with that head of curls she had) and I have yet to be close enough to anyone getting married to be a bridesmaid. Now I am MOH! Yesssss! Not that I know what I am doing but I am still excited and I have been reading tons of blogs and basically I really just want to plan my own wedding. (I seem to be missing something though... oh right a fiance...you dont really NEED that though do you?)

As excited as I am for my friend's wedding mine would be full of vintage fabulousness like this picture here. Isn't it great? I really wish we could have these bow-hat things. I am kind of in love with them. I wonder what the bouquets are made of? Looks like ribbon and....?

Now I just have to finish writing my toast and pray that the dress still fits and that everything goes smoothly.

Bachelorette Party: Part 2

The Party.

We were ready to get our party on. We started at a local comedy show. The featured comedian really liked us because we were (and I quote) "classy." That's right ladies. It is possible to go out, have a good time, celebrate your friend's upcoming wedding and not end up like a bunch of crazy people. Well....at least at the beginning of the night!

The headliner was so funny my whole body hurt from laughing so hard. We knew it was going to be a good night!

Next on to a new local 'hotspot' (a term I use loosely in this town.) More friends met up with us and then some phallic objects did make it into the party...one of the girls made a huge box of penis cookies that we gave to the locals...if they let us take a picture of them with it. This was great fun.

Another bar...more fun.

Then we ended the night dancing. This is that place that when you are sober you say "Oh, lets not go there tonight" but as soon as you are drunk you start screaming at people "I WANT TO DAAAANNNNCEEEE!!!! WE HAVE TO GOOOO THERE NOW!" Yep. That was me. And 10 other girls. Good times. The favors were fun and we all looked great in our 'pink and sparkly' theme. Our little tiaras and sashes were adorable and it made it easy for us to keep track of each other.

To all the ladies: go out and have fun but keep it classy(ish)!

Bachelorette Party Part 1

Have you ever planned a bachelorette party? This was my first and while it was fun I was pretty stressed out! The other bridesmaids and I could not find a weekend that worked for all of us between may and July! Tis the season for weddings, graduations, family camping trips, etc....making this summer super busy. (But fun!)

A few days before the party I went out looking for favors. I knew I wanted to stay away from the phallic references (don't we already have enough of that everyday?) so we were going to go with our theme of 'pink and sparkly'. Hey, it may not be the most creative but it all gave us something to work with that was fun, easy, and do-able.

For the gift bags each girl got a pink martini glass, a mini tiara, a big bling ring, some pink beads, 'Hello Kitty' chapstick, blow pops, ring pops, and starburst. The bride got more beads than anyone else and also a big tiara but sadly it was a bit small so she felt more comfortable rocking the mini-tiara.

(Also notice glow in the dark bracelets and a large amount of underwear...for the bride!)

I also wanted sashes for everyone so our group would stand out even more. Do you have any idea how expensive those things are? The cheapest ones I found were $3 a piece and they were kind of lame. Being the crafty person I am I was convinced that I could make them for cheaper than that.

I already had some leftover iron-on transfer paper from another project and I also already had safety pins. All I needed to buy was 2 rolls of hot pink ribbon from a craft store. I made 12 sashes for $1.16 a piece. Not too shabby.

Just remember to reverse your words before you print them off so they will iron on the right way! Also I found that ironing them on to the ribbon I had to iron for longer than I would have for a t-shirt. I would recommend using a scrap of the ribbon to practice on.

This was a fun way to do it because I could put whatever I wanted on them as well. The Bride was easy: "Bride to be". But what for everyone else. A good chunk of the girls were bridesmaids but there were of course other people. 'Friend of bride'? Bleh. I didn't want to do the whole MOH, Bridesmaid, Friends thing so I went with "Team Bride." Because really we are ALL on team bride and we have to support our favorite team right? This way no one was 'put above' anyone else and it was just a lot simpler. Win.

Next up: the party.

Balloons

While reading my daily blogs I came across this picture and I could not take my eyes off of it! It looks like this would be one amazing birthday party but I am thinking you take this same idea and have the balloons in a more monochromatic palette and you have an amazing wedding reception. Well at least that is what I thought. I like the idea of a huge table square like this where everyone can see each other- you could even just make a gap in the tables somewhere and the cake could be in the center. I am the MOH in TWO weddings this year and while I am so happy to help them create their special days but it really makes me think of my wedding day. (Which is a complete hypothetical at this point.) I just can't help thinking of how I would do things. Does anybody else day dream about weddings that may or may not be happening in the near future?