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I must warn you: this may be my first post about wedding cakes, but it will most certainly not be my last. You see, I have a mouth full of sweet teeth (and miraculously enough not a single one of them has ever had a cavity!). Every member of my family is a huge fan of candies, cookies, cakes, and most of all: frosting. When we were little we used to express our desire for a little something sweet after a solid meal by explaining that our dinner shelf was full, but our dessert shelf was empty!
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| Did someone say dessert shelf? My hometown bakery / Image via NorthshoreUpdate.com |
Clearly, wedding cakes were one of the first things I started bookmarking for inspiration when we got engaged. When I look back on this mouth-watering section of my wedding folder, I notice a certain trend: ruffles! This is not too surprising, given I am a self-confessed ruffle-aholic. Here is a little sample of how this addiction translated into cake-spiration:
The other weekend Mr. Gazelle and I put our Christmas tree up. This wasn’t the first time that we’ve hung ornaments on the Christmas tree together, but somehow it felt different this time now that we are married. We’ve collected a few ornaments over the year that will remind us of some special things and occasions.
Mr. Gazelle has a dream to own a boat some day. So I bought him one! Perhaps a bit on the small scale though…
We love to hike in the mountains…
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Before I get to my invites (we’ll get there eventually—haven’t even shared our save the dates yet), I thought I’d share my “experience.” Warning—it’s minimal.
One of my bridesmaid duties in a wedding this past year was shower invitations and, needless to say, I set myself some lofty goals to create a high-quality product for the bride-to-be. I didn’t totally DIY the invitations, but many of the elements are DIY.
For context, the bridesmaids chose coffee as the primary theme for the shower. The bride was a huge fan of coffee, and we thought the color of the caffeinated beverage (brown) went quite well with the scheme chosen for her wedding (purple and gold). So, when starting the invitation journey, I searched online for any options with a coffee motif.
I found, quickly, that this was an uncommon theme, which meant some creativity and flexibility was in order. Ultimately, we decided upon these invites from Papeterie* featuring a pot and using purple, brown, and gold.
Hate to blur it…
But an invitation was only so much in the greater scheme of the suite I had in mind. First, we needed to type up directions to the location and explain the contents of the envelope. I have shared my invitation suite online here (albeit in altered form to be generic). The suite also included recipe cards.** I created a template to be 4 x 6 and put in space for well wishes beyond the recipe itself. Each recipe card has a different image, either wedding or coffee related. It’s easy enough to change the images—just make sure they all have the same dimensions. For both the directions and the recipe cards, I used card stock for printing and cut them with different decorative scissors.
I like to think that our wedding will be “retro inspired.” I don’t mean vintage, the most often overused/misused adjective in the wedding lexicon. I mean retro. When I think of “vintage,” I think of faded photographs, artfully aged furniture, and whimsical wild flowers in milk glass. When I think of “retro,” I think of beehive hairdos, polka dot shoes, red lipstick, and poufy skirts. I’m not sure what era I actually like. Believe me when I say history was my worst subject ever—I’d literally rather retake calculus, physics, philosophy, and even P.E. than ever take another history class. So I’m not sure if I like the ’50s or the ’60s, or some combination of the two. I’m not talking poodle skirts or flower power. Maybe mid-century is a good descriptor. Mad Men, Dior’s New Look, and rockabilly/pin-up styles all intrigue me. Again, I’m not sure if those all took place at the same general time or not. I’m more concerned with applying them to our very 2012 wedding. Instead of jabbering on, for once I’ll just show you a bunch of fun pictures.
Image via Divine Jewel on Etsy
Pearls that would make Betty Draper drool
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All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
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I am probably not going in the direction that you think…I am talking about my furbabies: Bella, Jetta, and Tug. Some of you may think that I have a screw or two loose, but in my eyes the Hawk pups are a legitimate part of our family. In fact, they are our family. When we first moved in together, the joining together of my Bella and Tug with Mr. Hawk’s Jetta under one household was the first real step in creating our own little family unit. In my head I’m picturing the intro from The Brady Bunch with dogs. (I probably lost a few of y’all with that statement, right? Yes, I’m the crazy dog lady.)
Tug
I’ve been sharing quite a bit about shopping for my bridesmaids recently, and it’s probably time for me to revisit my wedding-gown search, which had started online. My first dress-shopping excursion wasn’t really my idea. A fashion-blogger friend of mine was writing an article for a regional magazine’s annual wedding issue, and she wanted to have a few pictures of a bride shopping at a local boutique to go with it. So, I made an appointment at the small bridal shop in town and invited a couple other friends along.
This was just going to be a fun shopping trip with some friends. I knew we weren’t going to find my dress at the shop. A lot of what they had was embellished and sequined with layers and flounces.
Closeup of Maggie Sottero Saige / Photo by Dana Holler of CvilleFashion.com
Now, I love bridal fashion. During Bridal Market, which is the wedding industry’s version of Fashion Week, I hang on the blogs of the people I know are attending. I have a hard time pulling myself away from Twitter, where I can see pictures from the shows. I can look at almost any dress and find something positive about it. So, I can objectively say that the dresses I tried on were lovely. They just weren’t the kinds of dresses that I want to wear myself.
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
The Trail Mix Wedding
Klloyd1 and her hubby show off their purple shoes and socks
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After our family pictures, we jumped into the cars and headed straight down to Lavender Bay, a harbourside park with many different photo opportunities, many with the Harbour Bridge in the background. We started off on the gravel in front of a massive brick wall. I love that Mr Teaspoon’s little brother is kicking the ground in this photo like, “are we done yet?”
Mr Teaspoon soon became the expert dress carrier. We headed down onto the tiny little beach to get my beloved sand photo.
Or, an alternate title: Why Mr. Mole and I Almost Got Married Before Our Wedding
Mr. Mole and I moved to Los Angeles in July. He had found a great job with a higher salary and benefits; in fact, that job was the reason we decided to move in the first place. I, on the other hand, would be unemployed. I had a couple of good leads on some jobs — including an available teaching position in the Los Angeles Unified School District — but nothing concrete.
Good news: I ended up finding a job in my field within a week or two of moving. Bad news: the job offered no benefits. I still took it, and I immediately started the process of finding insurance. Going without some form of medical insurance was not an option for Mr. Mole and me. Want to see one very convincing reason why?
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Wedding planning is one of the greatest times in our lives. We are busy running errands with all our bridesmaids every weekend, there are champagne brunches in our honor, and non-stop fun. But what happens when your bridesmaids, your bestest friends, live more than two hours away from you? You do that shit alone. Except maybe the party thing—I haven’t thrown a party for myself in my honor… yet. 
Picture via Identity Magazine
I’m sure a lot of us are in the same situation.
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So all the bridesmaids had accepted…now what?
I was starting to think about bridesmaids’ dresses, but with all the inspiration and options out there, it was impossible to narrow down. I decided who better to ask for feedback than my bridesmaids themselves!
To get (honest, open) feedback, I decided to prepare an anonymous questionnaire via Survey Monkey. Judge away, but Survey Monkey was an amazing resource to me during business school—to choose team leads for projects, resolve team issues, and, most importantly, collect data.
Image via Survey Monkey
My goal was simple: see if there was any sort of consensus on color or style for the bridal-party attire (dress, shoes, accessories). Let’s face it, it’s rare for a bridesmaid to rewear a dress, no matter how thoughtful or stylish a bride is. By asking these women, my hope was that this was a step in the right direction in minimizing the chances of simply contributing a dress hanger to their spare closet.
So, here are the details of the survey. (If you’re nice and read to the end, you can even see the results.)
I left you guys hanging in absolutely agonizing suspense after my last dress post. My apologies. Feel free to move off the edge of your seats because the trick I had up my sleeve is about to be revealed! (How did you get so lucky?) But first…
No, I’m serious, Mr. Unicycle. Get. the. hell. out. I’m about the reveal The Dress.
Check out these great projects hive members have uploaded to Weddingbee’s DIY section! Click on the title of each project for tutorials.
If your project is featured in DIY Friday, you’re eligible for a special Weddingbee badge for your blog or website! See instructions on how to grab the badge here!
Foam core cupcake stands by j-adore01
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