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I know really creative title there, right?? I wonder what this post is going to be about…
Uh, it’s going be about CAKE. More specifically? Wedding cake. And how delicious it is.
Let’s look at some cakes so we can drool over them and wish we were eating some right now:
Image via Pink Cake Box
I wish I was ballsy enough for this kind of wedding cake.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, Mr. Mink and I are pretty comfortable with embracing the non-traditional in our wedding planning process. We don’t set out to make odd decisions, but sometimes they feel right to us. There have been a few times when the sheer popularity of something has pushed us away from it, though. I think this might be happening with our dessert decision. Cupcakes are everywhere.
Long before people started standing in line at Magnolia Bakery, I loved cupcakes. I was thrilled when they became more popular. When they crossed over into weddings, I was thrilled. I still haven’t been to a wedding with cupcakes, but I feel like it’s inevitable. Dare I say they’re almost common now? I mean, it’s been almost 10 years since cupcakes made the cover of Martha Stewart Weddings…
Cover shot from a 2003 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings
When I discussed having cupcakes at our wedding with my sister-in-law, who is also a bridesmaid, she gently pointed out that eating a cupcake is sometimes a bit messy. I had pictured all the pretty, little cakes displayed, but never imagined the logistics of people eating their cupcakes.
Read more…
I have shared my love for ruffled wedding cakes, my admiration for Martha’s cake designs, and my decision (by that I of course mean “our decision” - I love you Mr. D!) to have an ombre wedding cake. Now I think it is time for a little something to top things off! Okay, that was a stretch…I’m talking, of course, about cake toppers!
What will be atop the mountain of frosting at our wedding? This:
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| Personal Photo |
Not only is this is vintage design, it actually is vintage (if you consider the 1970s vintage). And not only is it vintage, it has very personal meaning to me.
A few days ago, I read an article on The Salt, NPR’s food blog, that broke down the eating habits of the average American over the course of a year. I was shocked by the fact that the average American eats 630 pounds (!!!) of dairy per year—until I thought about how much frozen yogurt Mr. Mole and I eat during our weekly trips to Yogurtland, Pinkberry, and Menchie’s. Gah.
Needless to say, our dessert of choice is ice cream. In fact, I am normally ambivalent about cake—even wedding cake—unless it has ice cream melting on top. (Yellow cake + chocolate frosting + mint chocolate chip ice cream = amazing.) Or if the cake is actually an ice cream cake.
Be still, my heart / World’s largest ice cream cake / Image via National Post
When I was growing up, a Dairy Queen ice cream cake was always present at any celebration:
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Hi, I haven’t blogged here in 800,000 years because wedding planning (invitation design, specifically) and life in general has driven me against the wall in the blogging department. I eat, sleep, work, and wedding plan, but now that my invitations are at the printer, I get to blog again. So, howdy. Again. 
**************
My wedding budget strategy has been to think of how much I think something should cost, double it, and hope I get a nice surprise when I request a quote from a potential wedding vendor. This has worked well for me, and so far, I get to feel like I’m saving tons of money on our wedding when my quotes are constantly coming back under budget. I loop Bossyboots into our updated wedding costs, and he thinks I’m a genius for saving us all this money.
Cue angels singing.
Recently, I said to myself “Self, you should book yourself a wedding cake. Your wedding is happening in two months, and people will expect cake. I know cake isn’t really your thing, but you are having a wedding, so just get a cake.”
Self is quite wise.
As many bees have revealed…I am not a big cake person. White cake is totally boring to me, most other cakes are a lot of meh, I enjoy carrot cake and yellow cake with chocolate icing. The only cake I REALLY love is German Chocolate cake. Not just any German Chocolate cake: Betty Crocker Super Moist.
$1.98, ladies.
(Source)
Don’t judge - $1.98 means more moolah for the fun stuff. My Rue La La addiction won’t enable itself.
With tummies still full from a massive array of appetizers, entrees, and desserts at my parents’ Christmas party, my sisters and I snuggled on the couch with a copy of Martha Stewart Wedding Cakes and got down to business.
We had flipped through the pages of this book many times before, yet the intricate detail and gorgeous artwork of the cakes still causes my jaw to drop each time. So let’s take a quick tour of some of the masterpieces that are featured among the pages of this amazing book.
I have always had a major weakness for eyelet, so this seems like a great place to start! Whenever Mama Dalmatian and I are shopping and we spot an eyelet piece on the racks, my response is always “I do love me some eyelet!” As it turns out, this prolific statement also applies to wedding cakes.
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| Image via MarthaStewartWeddings.com / Photo by Anna Williams |
Along with eyelet, I have also always been a fan of basket-weave patterns. And while I am generally not a huge fan of fruits in desserts (this is a nice little glimpse into my not-so-ideal eating habits), the berries in this add such nice, rich color.
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
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:
I am not a cake person. For some reason it’s just never been my thing. Even as a child I would pass on the birthday cake. Now show me some warm chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies, and we have a different story; however, in the past year or so I discovered something very curious: my distaste for cake comes to a screeching halt when cake becomes CUPcakes. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that cupcakes come in so many flavors: key lime, apple pie, salted caramel, carrot cake, red velvet, s’mores, banana split, peach cobbler. (I could fill a whole post, but for y’alls’ sakes, I’ll keep myself in check.)
Trying new flavors and cupcake shops has almost become a sport for Mr. Hawk and me. If we find a new shop in town, we pick out a half dozen to take home and feast on them rest of the week. (Correction: mine last a week. Mr. Hawk eats all of his within two days and then pouts until I share my half with him.) We even have our favorites cupcakes and shops ranked. (Moistness of cake, cake-to-icing ratio, and cupcake size are all considered.) It.Is.Serious.
Pearl’s Deep Dish Apple Pie—my absolute favorite! / Image via Foodspotting
So naturally, since cupcakes are somewhat of a large presence in our lives, they must be a part of the wedding-dessert menu. It makes me a little sad to be missing out on some gorgeous wedding cakes, but it just wouldn’t be the Hawk wedding without cupcakes.
As I told y’all before, Mr. PF has celiac disease, so that means no cake.
Picture via Gluten-Free Foodie
I thought about buying gluten-free cake mix and taking it with us to Mexico and then just making a small cake for us to cut and eat. I feel like that might be more trouble than it’s worth, and honestly, I haven’t tried any G-free cakes I actually liked.
After thinking about it for some time, I started to think that maybe I was being selfish not having a wedding cake just because Mr. PF can’t eat it.
Read more…
This is something that I am so SO excited about. It may be my favorite wedding detail to date. I am totally smitten.
I know there are TONS of cake toppers out there. I know that some people search and search and become totally overwhelmed by all of the absolutely adorable options. We (I) did not have this problem. The first time I was casually perusing Etsy for cake toppers I stumbled upon The Junk Bucket. These toppers were hands-down the cutest ones on the whole internet, and Mr. Aardvark loved (OK, maybe he just liked, but the fact that he had an opinion on a cake topper says something!) them too.
Eleanor was the sweetest lady and was always quick to answer my questions. She even gave me a HUGE discount (on top of the already super reasonable price) because there was a bit of a delay in finishing my topper! I have to say this has been one of my favorite things so far. Enough chit chat, bring on the pictures!
Pretty sure I didn’t order and uncured chicken franks…but happy to see she recycles!
I love when a meeting with a vendor goes well. Our cake tasting with Creative Cakes went so well that we decided to sign the contract that day. Having that additional large, huge, big deal checked off the list lifted a weight from my shoulders I hadn’t fully realized was there. Also, their cakes are really beautiful. Want to see some? Sure you do.
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| Image via WeddingBook |
Last weekend was a “to do” that was nothing but fun! My mother and I went cake tasting! Really it was cupcake tasting, but who cares—it was awesome!
Image via Food2
We decided to go all out and pick four different flavors. Maybe it was because we wanted something for everyone, but more likely it was just too hard to pick only one or two. So, here they are!
I dedicate this post to Miss Funnel Cake and her out of this world cake topper.
Unfortunately I am not even close to her level of craftiness so I decided to buy my cake topper. Best.Wedding.Decision.Ever! I am so in love with our cake topper it is not even funny. I stalked Etsy for days looking for the perfect topper and finally came across A Simple Start’s page.
Her toppers were so adorable and reasonably priced that I immediately sent her an email with a little inspiration board of Mr. Cuke Sammie and myself.
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| {Top left Mikaella Bridal 1461; Bottom right Girl Photography} |
Jenni immediately emailed me back and said she would love to make us a topper with Pickle Puppy. In about three weeks I had these glorious images in my inbox.
Read more…
A New York wedding can be many things. A traditional New York wedding consists of TONS of delicious food, is held in a beautiful chandelier-ed ballroom, and consists of lots and lots of partying. I mentioned before that I don’t want a traditional New York wedding and am going for a more rustic-chic look. This is not to say that I don’t LOVE attending a New York-style wedding. I’ve found that they are some of the best to go to, but I may be a little biased on that. I thought I would give the hive a taste of what a “New York style” wedding is, something that Miss Fox and I mentioned that may have left people from other parts of the United States/earth stumped. Plus, who doesn’t love some wedding visuals on Weddingbee?
Here goes! Let’s refer to my friends as Mr. and Mrs. Bear. I’ve known the Bears for quite some time. Mr. Bear and I went to high school together, and then we moved on to the same college. Mrs. Bear was my first college friend (after my roommate). Sometime during the first week of freshmen year I had a dorm party. Mr. and Mrs. Bear both attended, they met each other, and the rest is history! So, if you’re counting, that would mean they have been together for almost eight years. We have all been waiting patiently for this wedding day. Prepare for picture overload!
The day was pretty dreary until right before the ceremony was set to begin. The sun came out just in time for them to get all those first-look/wedding-party pics. Good karma juju at its best!
The sun coming out on the beautiful property at The Swan Club
Here are all most of my DIY projects. They are linked up to the tutorials I previously wrote. However, if there’s a project I don’t have a how-to for and you’d like one, just let me know! Enjoy!
Bells
Ah, my bells. It was the biggest and most time consuming of all my DIY projects, but this project had three purposes (escort card, favor, and send-off item), which made it worth the time. I collected them all off of eBay by buying them in lots. Most were in lots of five or more and came from estate sales.
Each bell had a tag attached to it with the guest’s name and a swatch of their table assignment stitched on it. Yep, I stitched 105 swatches onto little tags, but it was worth it!
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