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Early on in the planning process, we decided on our wedding favors. With a serious disdain for knick-knacks and a guest list of 325, we knew we wanted our favors to serve a purpose and come with an affordable price tag. Being a professional wedding guest myself (I should really count how many weddings I’ve been to in recent history) I thought back to the types of favors that I appreciate the most. The edible variety have always been my favorite. They are enjoyable and useful and don’t collect dust on my shelves. They make my tummy happy after a few hours of drinking and dancing. Really, what’s not to love? Edible favors were the clear winners in our book.
Since my family has always been quite proficient in the baking department, the type of edible favor was a no-brainer. We would have to bake some sort of cake. But what kind do we give as a favor if we are serving wedding cake at the reception? Oh yes, the most delicious kind of cake ever… my mother’s cardamom cakes. Delicious and dense, resembling more of a coffee cake than wedding cake, they can be made in cute little bundt cake pans, glazed, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. They also freeze well, which was important since there was no way we’d be waiting until the last few days before the wedding to knock out 325 of these babies. We made a few test cakes, froze them, and ate them after one month and two months. They both tasted fine after thawing, and we were sold on the mini cardamom cake favors.
This past weekend, I sprang in to action and started crafting the invitations for FMIL & FFIL’s family picnic/casual reception. You saw my Post-It note already. Once I got home, I assembled my supplies…
And I turned that Post-It note in to a rough, rough, rough mock-up.
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While I didn’t do this for our wedding since I was already DIYing a lot for our wedding and the cake was included with the reception venue, I know quite a few brides have considered the idea of a DIY wedding cake. It does take a lot of work and preparation, but in the end, you can save major moo-lah and STILL have a beautiful cake for the big day!
Over the past year, I’ve taken all four Wilton courses. Wilton offers these classes at franchise craft stores like Hobby Lobby and Michaels. Usually they are 40-50% off the going rate of $35, which isn’t bad at all if you spread it out over a few months to a year like I did.
Here’s how they divide the classes up. You have to take course 1 first. After that, you are free to take any other class in any order you want!
Course 1: Discovering Cake Decorating
Course 2: Flowers and Borders
Course 3: Fondant & Tiered Cakes
Fondant & Gumpaste
The course descriptions are here, if you want specifics.
If you are considering a DIY cake but are apprehensive, let me tell you, with these courses and a good bit of practice, you will REALLY improve and become a pretty good decorator in no time!
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I am stressed. There is no hiding it, no pretending that I am not… this wedding is stressing me out. I am getting things accomplished (soon I will have oru invitations to share) but wow, are weddings stressful.
I am suffering from severe blog guilt (anyone else know what that is like)? My wedding/life/job/recent move is stressing me out and it is affecting my blogging. I am overwhelmed, nervous that things won’t be perfect, scared that people will think that things are halfway done… and the worries go on and on and on.
(I need this! Ha ha - love the old ad.)
Featured on Weddingbee
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
“Make an elegant invitation statement without the fuss. Stylish invitation sets with matching envelopes, reception and response cards included.”
Seriously what gets better than a beach cruiser, a soccer ball, some pin wheels, and the pier?? I think this shoot turned out great! We just cruised the pier and boardwalk and just shot away… no way to avoid the people so why not just include them, right?
It was really crowded. The red heart was carried through out the whole day to bring the story of the day together. Finished off the night with a cold one… mmmm. 
We are just so excited to shoot the wedding in October. This couple is so fun I am sure the wedding will be a blast!
It seems small plates have hit the reception scene running! I’ve been seeing this type of food service right and left in wedding blogs. We thought about our favorite restaurants in San Francisco and the feel we wanted for our reception, and thought small plates would be perfect for us. While I love our idea to do small plates, my biggest fear is that our guests will see ’small plates’ on our invitations and think, ‘note to self, hide sandwich in purse.’ Which is completely unnecessary!
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
A few weeks ago this cute little card arrived in my mailbox:
An invite to my very first bridal shower, hosted by Gina Sprinkle and my boss/neighbor/friend Annette. Now, when I write “my first bridal shower”, I do mean first. I have never been to one before. Most of my friends aren’t married, and those that are were married long before I met them. It was a new experience for me!
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Well hello there hive! I can’t say what a pleasure it is to greet you as Miss Lightning, It’s an honor and a privilege to contribute alongside the hive’s group of wonderful and inspiring bride bloggers. Stormy Cape Town, you say? Well yes, I’m halfway across the world at the Southern tip of Africa where the two oceans meet. It’s the middle of winter here and my favorite time of year. Bartholomew Diaz named the area the Cape of Storms in 1488 and even today as we settle in for a cold weekend, the phrase reigns true. So with my love of the cold and the cities tumultuous weather, what better name to go by than Miss Lightning!
I moved to this beautiful city when South Africa became a democracy in 1994. My parents lived here before I was born and after many years abroad decided to return to what had become the Rainbow Nation. I’m still a California girl at heart and whenever I can I return home to catch up with friends, family and my beloved Milano cookies.
While living abroad I met Mr Lightning through mutual friends we made at the University of Cape Town. Fast forward two years and I find myself engaged to and madly in love with this kindhearted soul. Our whirlwind romance may have been short and surprised many, but when you meet the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, you want the rest of your life to start now. And that’s just what we’ve decided to do!
Set to take place in a refurbished icon in the Harbour of Hout Bay, a suburb on the scenic coast of the Cape, will be our vintage retrospective wedding inspired by our mutual love of oldies rock ’n’ roll.
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(source)
… but Mr. Swan can!!! 
As you all may notice from my posts I am not the DIY Queen around these parts; however, I discovered that Mr. Swan is pretty darn crafty!
We had this very, very basic thing we needed to get done that would technically require me to flex my crafty skills. Let’s just say that the project won, and I sulked back into my little corner.
Ever since Miss Cowboy Boot wrote about the “love letter box“, I knew I had to have one at my wedding. Mr. Lab and I both think it is important to recognize the fact that there WILL be hard times in our marriage; that it’s not a matter of “if”, but “when”.
In this day and age where something like 40% of marriages end every year, it’s important not to be so naive to think that it could never happen to you. In my family alone, my mother, two older brothers, and older sister have all gone through a divorce. I know of several people my age that have already been married and divorced. During the engagement and wedding planning process, divorce can be the furthest thing from somebody’s mind. But I feel it’s necessary to talk now with your soon to be husband (or wife!) about how you plan to handle the difficult moments in your marriage. It’s all about keeping it real.
No, this realization doesn’t mean I’ll be thinking about divorce all the time. Rather, it means that Mr. Lab and I have made a promise do everything in our power to overcome whatever obstacles that come our way which may potentially lead to divorce. We know many traditional wedding vows imply this promise, but we wanted something that more clearly expresses to our guests that we recognize marriage is hard work and we won’t be taking it lightly. That’s why the love letter box spoke to us.
So, this weekend during a DIY project marathon, I got to work on making our love letter box. I found this little gem at the same A.C. Moore where I found my bridesmaids’ flowers:
Reenie79 is selling her Monique Lhuillier 4-piece wedding dress. This includes the “Jaquelin” top and “Adriana” skirt along with a camisole and a 15-foot sash. She is asking $1700 or best offer.
Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with pictures in the Weddingbee classifieds and you might see it featured on the blog!
Other great items for sale:
Just kidding… I’m too scared I’ll lose again! We’re getting down to the wire here, and we need to submit our first dance (and other) songs. The real trouble is simply deciding the first dance song… everything else has been super easy!
Here are the songs in the running:
Otis Redding - That’s How Strong My Love Is
John Legend - Stay With You
Elbow - One Day Like This
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I have to confess that I had to learn how to pronounce that word, and even now, and after tons of training, I just can’t pronounce it!! Now, as you can guess, and because I knew so little about weddings (besides the obvious white dress, ceremony, and party), boutonnieres were one of the things I only recently came across.
At first, I saw all the normal ones with natural flowers (I have nothing against them), but I knew from the beginning that Mr. Poodle would not dig the “wearing a flower” thing. So, I started the search for ideas for different boutonnieres that would not include flowers in them, or at least, not so obvious flowers.
After I started making the purple roses for my bouquet, I started thinking about ways to add some more green, and in honor of the Irish part of Mr. Poodle, I thought it would be nice to add clay shamrocks for the boys’ boutonnieres.
Anyway, here some of the ones I’ve found:
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This amazing bouquet by Mints Design captures an East-meets-West aesthetic.
Don’t forget to check out all the professional inspiration from the top wedding vendors in the industry in the PRO Folio!
Grandmom Bruschetta passed away late last week. She had bounced back from health issues for the past 15 years like a cat with 27 lives, but at 87 years, was unable to continue fighting any longer.
As a blissfully happy bride in 1943.
We received the phone call from Daddy Bruschetta letting us know his mother likely wouldn’t make it through the night while the mister was acting as the third wheel at a Bruschetta sister dinner. The world seemed to fall out from under us, and the hour or so we’d just spent eating too much guacamole and laughing away the wedding stress that’s been increasing as our date approaches felt like a faint memory.
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