Mrs. Raccoon, IndianapolisAge and Occupation: 22, StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: Christmas 2010Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Catholic Church, Chateau Thomas WineryAbout Me: I'm a wholesome Midwestern girl, TV series junkie, professional shower singer, and Anglophile. I love my fiance, crock pot cooking, my cat Heepo, going for the gusto, and all things wedding. Mr. Raccoon is pretty sweet, too! He’s a mad scientist that loves to travel. We met my first night on campus and have been inseparable since.
Each time I visit Mr. Raccoon in Nashville, we’re sure to stop by a little place called Gigi’s Cupcakes. Kentucky bourbon pie is Mr. Raccoon’s favorite, and I really like their champagne cupcake.
Miss Kettle, Chicago, ILAge and Occupation: 26, Non-Profit Donor Resource CoordinatorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Musician & TeacherEngagement Date: May 29, 2011Wedding Date: February 2012Venue: Patrick C. Haley Mansion, Joliet, ILAbout Me: I'm a city girl who loves a good escape, so I'm planning a Chicago wedding outside of the city. I've been described as a quirky yet down-to-earth drama queen who loves fiercely. I used to be a scientist, but now I'm learning to navigate the world of non-profit organizations. I love cooking, blogging, shopping, and music, and movies (Hans Zimmer is my favorite movie composer). Mr. Kettle and I had a short courtship and now we have a happy home with our cat-who-thinks-she's-people, Belle. We spend our days and nights with good food, live music, video games, family, and friends. Our wedding has become this wonderful excuse to bring together hundreds of people we can't bear to be without.
The time is finally coming up this weekend for our tasting with our wedding venue. I’m so excited. I feel like I should store up extra free space for all the food we’ll be trying that day. It will be me, Mr. Kettle, Momma and Daddy Kettle, Mima and Poppa Kettle, FSIL Grand, and Grandmother Kettle. We take entourages everywhere we go now, apparently…
All the food possibilities overwhelmed me just a bit. Luckily, we only had to choose three entree options. I’m guessing they’ll fill in the sides with options that complement those choices best.
I just had a scary thought. What if we don’t try any sides?! Oh, the horror! I’d hate to have to choose sides without knowing how they taste.
I must admit that I’m not so worried about side dishes. I’m really thinking about…cake! Read more…
Miss Porcupine, NYC/Lancaster, PAAge and Occupation: 26, Sales Coordinator/PublishingFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Assistant Manager/SalesEngagement Date: August 8, 2010Wedding Date: March 2012Venue: Riverdale ManorAbout Me: I'm a born and bred New Yorker with a love/hate relationship for the city I have always called home. Although I may seem quiet from afar, I have a loud personality once you get to know me. I am a book nerd at heart, but love a night out in the city with good friends. I have a serious addiction to all things cheese, chocolate, cardigans, Mexican food, and reality TV. The future hubs and I met in college, settled in New York, and decided to go with a rustic/peacock infused wedding in Lancaster, PA, right near his hometown. Come the big day, we will be together 5 years, and we're looking forward to making it official!
I love all things paper. When I was a kid I was always way too into my back-to-school supply shopping; I love roaming around the stationery/journal section of bookstores; and I still prefer a paper list to a digital one—but paper products can be pricey! When it comes to the wedding I have been looking a lot into chalkboards. They go perfectly with the rustic feel of our venue.
Miss Porcupine, NYC/Lancaster, PAAge and Occupation: 26, Sales Coordinator/PublishingFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Assistant Manager/SalesEngagement Date: August 8, 2010Wedding Date: March 2012Venue: Riverdale ManorAbout Me: I'm a born and bred New Yorker with a love/hate relationship for the city I have always called home. Although I may seem quiet from afar, I have a loud personality once you get to know me. I am a book nerd at heart, but love a night out in the city with good friends. I have a serious addiction to all things cheese, chocolate, cardigans, Mexican food, and reality TV. The future hubs and I met in college, settled in New York, and decided to go with a rustic/peacock infused wedding in Lancaster, PA, right near his hometown. Come the big day, we will be together 5 years, and we're looking forward to making it official!
Miss Petit Four, San Antonio/Isla MujeresAge and Occupation: 25, Technology teacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Math Teacher and Football CoachEngagement Date: Feb 13, 2010Wedding Date: March 2012Venue: Zama Beach Club, Isla Mujeres, MexicoAbout Me: I am a polka-dot obsessed, destination wedding diva living and loving in the great state of Texas. I am an island girl at heart and I visit the beach as often as I can. I am a wannabe DIY goddess, but that doesn’t mean I won’t give it my best shot. I love pearl earrings, the color pink, and ruffles are a part of my everyday wardrobe. My wonderful fiance and I are planning a destination wedding with our closest family and friends and we’re leaving a trail of glitter in our path!
About five years ago Mr. PF was diagnosed with Celiac disease. For those who aren’t familiar with what that is, he is basically allergic to wheat, flour, barley and rye. Have you ever looked at the ingredients in products you’re eating? Gluten is in like, everything, y’all!
After struggling with it for about a year, he is completely gluten-free and he is much happier and healthier. So, what does all this mean when you’re planning a wedding? Well, we aren’t going to have a cake since he can’t eat it, anyways. That means no cake face smash pictures that I love so much, like Mrs. Prairie Dog’s.
Also, we had to be very careful about what we include on our menu. Read more…
Mrs. Ladyfingers, Saint Petersburg, FLAge and Occupation: 30, Marketing ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Sports WriterEngagement Date: December 24, 2010Wedding Date: November 2011Venue: Palma Sola Botanical ParkAbout Me: I hail from Oklahoma, he was born and raised in Long Island. Fate brought us together, and now we live in a cute little rental house with our nutty dog, and our aloof cat. We both love to read, watch movies, explore our town, and laugh like hyenas. When I’m not obsessively wedding crafting, I enjoy stalking style and decorating blogs, making collages and painting, napping, thrifting, rearranging our bookshelves, and being a total weirdo with my friends. Hi!
I’m a firm believer in the power of the edible favor. I’ve never been to a wedding with a non-perishable sendaway, and I’m not a fan (for us) of anything but. This is not to say I don’t love things such gifts as wildflower seeds, mixed CDs, recipe books and the like. Honestly, I just don’t want guests to leave their favors behind if I can’t eat the leftovers. I also don’t want to hand out anything that guests can’t easily transport back home on an airplane.
Favor Idea #1: Italian cookies
With all that in mind, I decided a few months back to purchase trays of Italian cookies from one of my favorite stores EVER — Mazzaro’s Italian market — and pack up three to five cookies per guest with a cute little note.
Mrs. Skunk, AtlantaAge and Occupation: 23, Post baccalaureate studentFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Mechanical DesignerEngagement Date: February 13, 2011Wedding Date: November 2011Venue: Neverland Farms About Me: I’m a Georgia peach born and raised in the dirty dirty. I love reading, baking lots of sweets and forcing them on my friends, and most of all, rock climbing. I am in the process of applying to graduate school in physical therapy and I work at farmers’ markets around town selling bread for a local bakery. The mister and I met while rock climbing just over two years ago and have been inseparable ever since. Our climbing friends mean the world to us and have played an integral role in our relationship. We’re planning a barnyard shindig filled with good food, good friends, and lots of love.
I love to bake goodies. Despite my own dislike of cake, I love making pretty cakes. And eating anything out of a jar has a bit of Southern nostalgia that makes me weak in the knees. There was no question that I’d be doing some sort of sweets for our favors. One of my favorite blogs to get ideas from is Our Best Bites. They have tons of great recipes, and I have yet to try something that hasn’t turned out amazing.
In late September two years ago, they posted a recipe for pie in a jar. Oh how glorious. I have a couple of these on hand at all times to pop in the oven on a whim. Then late last year as I was contemplating what to gift my bosses, they posted cupcakes in a jar. Hallelujah! This is how they turned out.
Mrs. Skunk, AtlantaAge and Occupation: 23, Post baccalaureate studentFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Mechanical DesignerEngagement Date: February 13, 2011Wedding Date: November 2011Venue: Neverland Farms About Me: I’m a Georgia peach born and raised in the dirty dirty. I love reading, baking lots of sweets and forcing them on my friends, and most of all, rock climbing. I am in the process of applying to graduate school in physical therapy and I work at farmers’ markets around town selling bread for a local bakery. The mister and I met while rock climbing just over two years ago and have been inseparable ever since. Our climbing friends mean the world to us and have played an integral role in our relationship. We’re planning a barnyard shindig filled with good food, good friends, and lots of love.
…we all scream for ice cream! Right, y’all? I have a passion for ice cream. Complete passion. I eat it, I make it, I love it. I saw this article earlier in the summer talking about how ice cream sales are up this year and, quite frankly, I feel proud to have taken part. My addiction is fueling the economy, no? As you may remember from earlier, we aren’t really cake people. We’re having cake to make folks happy but, honestly, I don’t like the texture of cake. Pies, sure. Cheesecake, m’kay. Ice cream, hell yeah!!!
So it just makes sense to have ice cream. The logistics of which would normally prove trying. Neverland doesn’t have the freezer space.
Miss Petit Four, San Antonio/Isla MujeresAge and Occupation: 25, Technology teacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Math Teacher and Football CoachEngagement Date: Feb 13, 2010Wedding Date: March 2012Venue: Zama Beach Club, Isla Mujeres, MexicoAbout Me: I am a polka-dot obsessed, destination wedding diva living and loving in the great state of Texas. I am an island girl at heart and I visit the beach as often as I can. I am a wannabe DIY goddess, but that doesn’t mean I won’t give it my best shot. I love pearl earrings, the color pink, and ruffles are a part of my everyday wardrobe. My wonderful fiance and I are planning a destination wedding with our closest family and friends and we’re leaving a trail of glitter in our path!
If y’all haven’t figured it out yet, Mr. PF and I are total foodies. We love tasting new food, eating food in general, and making food, too! So, it’s no surprise that food is a huge part of our wedding. We had to make sure to find a venue that had amazing dishes that not only looked pretty but also tasted great. It just so happens that the chef at the venue we picked was the winner of one of the Iron Chef competitions (yummmmmmm).
Now, I already talked about what we will be eating for dinner, so you must be wondering…what else could she possibly have to say about food?
Well, we want to do a midnight snack attack for all our guests and offer them some more delicious stuff to eat while dancing the night away.
Not to be confused with a Zack Attack (Image via Red Reporter)
Mrs. Parasol, San Ramon, CaliforniaAge and Occupation: 25, Non-profit writer, editor, and bloggerFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Law school studentEngagement Date: December 19th, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Bent Creek Winery (Livermore, California); Reception: Family Residence (San Ramon, California) About Me: I am a California girl at heart. I love the outdoors, sunny days at the beach, and hiking in the woods and mountains. I also love good books and am fresh from completing my Master's degree in English and Comparative Literature in New York City. Living in NYC was an amazing experience, and while I'm glad to be back on the West Coast, I'm also thankful that my two years back East gave me an opportunity to explore new places, make new friends, and indulge my passion for Broadway shows. Oh, and I received a pretty awesome proposal from Mr. Parasol in Central Park. Above all else, Mr. Parasol is my biggest cheerleader and my best friend. But even though I'm thrilled to be marrying him, I wasn't always totally on board with this whole wedding thing and at first, I wanted to run off and elope. I've finally been convinced to throw the wedding I never thought I wanted, and so now I'm busy planning an intimate September wedding filled with DIY details. Along the way, I'm slowly learning to appreciate, perhaps even love the wedding planning process.
When it comes to wedding favors, I was surprisingly (and thankfully) very decisive: we would be providing an edible favor or nothing at all. I can’t tell you how many bottles of bubbles and little boxes I’ve collected at weddings over the years, and they all end up forgotten at the bottom of some drawer. Edible favors, on the other hand, always get put to very good and tasty use.
Mr. Parasol and I bounced around a few different ideas and ultimately decided on providing homemade granola for our guests. We both absolutely love granola, it’s easy to make, and it’s a relatively affordable favor option. And when Cousin Parasol E, who is just about the best 17-year-old cook in the history of the world, said she makes a mean granola, I was totally sold. So one weekend, I went up to Cousin E’s for a sleepover, and between lots of gossip and bad TV, we whipped out more than enough granola for our 90 wedding guests.
Our first stop was WinCo, the most amazing and affordable store ever. I still can’t believe I’d never heard of it before. We quickly stocked up on all the granola supplies we could ever need.
Mrs. Magic, Chapel Hill, NCAge and Occupation: 30, Licensed Clinical Social WorkerFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, ResearcherEngagement Date: December 1, 2009Wedding Date: October 2011Venue: Barn at ValhallaAbout Me: I’m a tall drink of water (5’10”!) and a Southern bride with an enormous appetite for Mexican food, good deals, anything French, and all things wedding! By day I am lucky enough to work with individuals with autism and their families. By night, I’m even luckier to be able to spend time hanging out with awesome friends, crafting, shopping, thinking about exercising, and kicking it with Mr. Magic and our two cats. I tend to have sudden, intense cravings that will not be denied (seafood enchiladas! new jeans!) and I’m prone to being a disorganized mess of anxiety and stress. After waiting (and waiting!) to get engaged, I am finally planning the colorful, fun, fabulously awesome Fall wedding of our dreams. In an effort to share the fun and craziness that is wedding planning, I’m gonna blog about it for y’all---the good, the bad, and the pretty!
brownies from scratch are so much better than brownies from a box.
So, ’member when I wrote about middle brownies being da bomb, and you all posted a bunch of recipes, and I said I would make every single one? Well, I didn’t do that…yet. But I did make four brownie recipes that The Hive suggested, and two from a box. After I did all that, I wiped my sweaty brow, declared that I hated brownies, and I never wanted to see, much less taste, a brownie again.
Then all my girlfriends came over and we ate the brownies and drank milk and wine. And all was better again.
Also, I made them taste test the six different brownies BLIND. I mean, I didn’t blind them. But I put tiny brownie bites on plates, and a sticky note in front of each plate, so they could write their thoughts and opinions down. [Yeah, I should have taken photos of all this, but after baking six batches of brownies in a row, I was feeling a little bit lazy...sorry.]
It was completely obvious which brownies were made from a box and which were made from scratch, which really impressed me…I felt like they would be more similar, but clearly, I was so wrong. I might never be able to make brownies from a box again!
Guest Amy was the first person to respond to my previous brownie post, and she recommended salted fudge brownies. I was all like “Salt and fudge?!? Yes, please.” So I made them.
Even though I over baked these (oops), they were delicious…definitely a favorite of the ladies!
Coffecake suggested Alton Brown’s Cocoa Powder Brownies…so I made ’em. Read more…
Mrs. Parasol, San Ramon, CaliforniaAge and Occupation: 25, Non-profit writer, editor, and bloggerFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Law school studentEngagement Date: December 19th, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Bent Creek Winery (Livermore, California); Reception: Family Residence (San Ramon, California) About Me: I am a California girl at heart. I love the outdoors, sunny days at the beach, and hiking in the woods and mountains. I also love good books and am fresh from completing my Master's degree in English and Comparative Literature in New York City. Living in NYC was an amazing experience, and while I'm glad to be back on the West Coast, I'm also thankful that my two years back East gave me an opportunity to explore new places, make new friends, and indulge my passion for Broadway shows. Oh, and I received a pretty awesome proposal from Mr. Parasol in Central Park. Above all else, Mr. Parasol is my biggest cheerleader and my best friend. But even though I'm thrilled to be marrying him, I wasn't always totally on board with this whole wedding thing and at first, I wanted to run off and elope. I've finally been convinced to throw the wedding I never thought I wanted, and so now I'm busy planning an intimate September wedding filled with DIY details. Along the way, I'm slowly learning to appreciate, perhaps even love the wedding planning process.
There was one wedding-related decision Mr. Parasol and I thought would be incredibly easy, and that was choosing a caterer. Given that our reception is pretty laid back and casual, Mr. Parasol and I wanted the food to match, so it seemed like a no-brainer to go with our favorite Mexican restaurant. And really, who doesn’t like good Mexican food? It’s so yummy!
(Note: Because we’ve had a bad experience with this restaurant, I’m not going to publish their name and information here. I don’t want to use my blog to give them bad press. If you’re in the Bay Area, though, and would like to know more about this particular restaurant, please send me a PM.)
We thought things would be pretty straightforward and easy. Read more…
Miss Ticket, Riverside, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Executive AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, HVAC TechnicianEngagement Date: November 14, 2010Wedding Date: October 2011Venue: Crestmore ManorAbout Me: I'm a lifelong So Cal gal, a chocoholic, a closet gamer, and a television enthusiast (love me some Vampire Diaries!) who adores playing in the kitchen and lives in flip flops. Mr. Ticket and I are best known for singing and dancing in the car, our World of Warcraft addiction, adoring food, crane game playing, and our general homebody ways. Oh, and GO STEELERS!
Food. That simple four-letter word became the center of our universe for a few weeks early in the wedding-planning process. Mr. Ticket and I knew we wanted good food and lots of it for our wedding guests. (Both our families will judge our wedding by the food we serve and we know that.) That being said, good food doesn’t come cheap (or so we thought!), and with an estimated 85 guests coming we needed to find a caterer that both worked with our budget and had something tasty to offer.
I called dozens of caterers, including a few I had worked with in the past, and the numbers we were getting scared me to my core. At $45 a head plus tax and service charge, NOT including drinks, rentals, or cake, we were looking at over 40% of our budget going just for food.
Mrs. Macarons, TampaAge and Occupation: 26, Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Renaissance ManEngagement Date: September 12, 2009Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Lange FarmAbout Me: I'm creative at heart and a graphic designer with an unhealthy obsession with type. I love roller coasters, spicy foods, and a good glass of Crianza. We’re planning a soft and lovely vintage-meets-modern wedding in a state that’s known for its beaches, glitz and glam. I have a ton of DIY projects and lots of little details I’m dying to share and can't wait to celebrate with our closest friends and family.
Or more importantly what are we eating? I’d like to think our guests will be just as excited about the food as we are and with a super yummy menu, boring signs just wouldn’t do.
I wanted consistency throughout all our printed materials so my identification cards use the same pattern and font as our invitations. I tiled the design in illustrator and was able to fit 8 to a page. Each was slightly bigger than a standard business card. Read more…
Miss Snapdragon, Chicago/DallasAge and Occupation: 32,Associate ProducerFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Lighting DesignerBlogging Since: November 14, 2008Engagement Date: January 1, 2011Wedding Date: March 2012Venue: Marie GabrielleAbout Me: Voracious reader of short stories, Russian literature, National Geographic and Cosmo. I'm a GENIUS at spicing up Weight Watchers recipes and a pathological cheater at board games. I run a slow marathon, but my feet are learning to move faster. Mornings aren't my thing, but I can night owl with the best of them. Don't tempt me with your Cherry Cokes---I'm trying to quit. Tomorrow. Or never.
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
Not to be confused with a Zack Attack (Image via Red Reporter)
