Inspir-cake-tion

I'm meeting with my Baker tomorrow. You would think I would be prepared for this, afterall, I already met with one. But, I'm not, because I'm indecisive. I still don't know what I want. What's a girl to do when she doesn't know what she wants?

Look for inspiration and become more confused of course!

I wish there was a magical place you could go to to look at cakes all day long. I'm sure there are some places like that, but I didn't know of any. And lets be honest, I really don't know the name of any bakers that are famous to look up their websites and portfolios. So I turned to the next best thing, Google images.

Google Images is great. You type in what you want and tons of images come up... of course you have to weed through them, but you can find some great things that way!

Here are some cakes that i'm currently interested in (in no particular order):

#1

#2

#3

#4 This one I think is a little too busy, so I would take out some of the stuff, and it's a little more non-traditional, but I kinda like it.

#5

I originally wanted a turquoise cake, but now i'm thinking it may be a little too much and that white is the way to go.

I just can't decide!

How did you decide on a cake design? Where did you find your inspiration from?

Bakery:Nuts::Cake:___________ (Part II)

So there I was, with my mama, sitting in the bakery at what had to be the smallest table I had ever seen. Out came the woman who was potentially going to make my dream wedding cake become a reality. She was carying three huge binders with her.

We met, she shook my hand, we sat down at the small table and she piled all the books in front of me to look through. However, I had brought a picture of what I wanted with me. I showed her and she said that she could make it easily and we quickly discussed colors of what I'd like to have. She then said she was going to go and "price it out" for me.

Off she went to price my cake, and left me there telling me to look through the books at her cakes.

It felt a little..... awkward. A little ---off. She didn't seem personable at all, she didn't seem like she loved what she did...... she just seemed -very- business like.

She didn't even discuss options with me such as cake flavors or fillings. And in the quickness that was our "meeting" I forgot to mention one very important detail. The allergy. *doh*

When she returned, my mother spoke up and told her immediately of my allergy to nuts, and asked if there was a way she could guarentee that my cake would not/could not be contaminated.

She immediately froze as if I had just told her I had a contagious disease. She looked at me, and pretty much told me there was no way, in her bakery that consisted of (4) four employees, that my cake would be guarenteed to be nut free- it simply could not, and would not happen. She told me no baker would ever guarentee me such a thing because bakery's use nuts.

AND That was pretty much the end of our meeting.

Whatever, I wasn't impressed with her anyway.

I can't and won't be taking any chances with having an allergy attack on my wedding day. I know someone out there will bake me a wedding cake, and it will be guarenteed to be nut free and uncontaminated. I just have to find a baker that is willing to work with my problem.

In fact, I have a meeting with a different baker this weekend. He has said he would guarentee that my cake would not be contaminated AND at our meeting he is going to make cake for us to taste. I already like him. Yum.


Have you met any vendors that were unwilling to guarentee something very important to you?

Bakery:Nuts::Cake:___________ (Part I)

Everyday, all day long, nuts are on my mind.


Get your mind out of the gutter, I'm not talking about THOSE kind of nuts.





I'm talking about the kind of nuts you eat in general, but more specifically this little guy:

It doesn't look like much, this pile of peanuts, but several years ago this little peanut almost killed me.

I won't bore you with the details of how I found out about it, but when I was 21 I suddenly developed a food allergy to nuts. Not just peanuts, but also almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, pine nuts, tree nuts, etc. Pretty much any kind of nut produced I can not consume.

They say that food allergies, specifically nuts and fish, can develop at any time in life. I just so happened to get lucky enough to figure out what was causing the reaction in time.

Once I found out about what was causing the reaction, I had to change everything. I no longer was able to just buy what I wanted, I have to read EVERY label for anything I buy; I have to ask at restaurants what ingredients are used in the food I'm about to eat. Things you wouldn't think nuts are in, they are. If a company makes anything with nuts in it, most likely they use the same machinery to produce other items, and in using that machinery that previously had nuts on it, they contaminate the product that doesn't have nuts in it, so I can't eat that either.

I avoid Bakery's like the plague--they are a definite no-no for me which I found out the hard way by eating a blueberry muffin because I didn't know about cross-contamination at the time and I wasn't thinking when I bought it.

What does all this have to do with weddings? Well, it definitely has to do with my food at my wedding, or more specifically my wedding cake.

I have always dreamed of having a wedding cake. I like cake, that's all there is to it, and really I can't imagine my wedding without one. I decided to go on mission to find a nut free- contamination free cake for my wedding. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I was positive that it could be done.....

So, I met with a Baker a few weekends ago to see what she could produce for me.

The sweet smell of chocolate and delicious baked goods surrounded us when we walked in. I had forgotten how good a bakery can smell. I saw all the "goods" in the display case and wanted to try everything- it smelled so good in there, but instead, I focused on my mission of finding a cake.

The cake baker came out to meet with me and my mama and we sat down with her to look at cakes......

....to be continued

Have you come across any huge obstacles you've had to overcome during the planning process?

They're Here, and they are Fabulous!

I never would have thought I would have had such a problem making a decision on my shoes. But when you think about it, the shoe decision is really quite an important one... after all you are going to be standing on them all day, so they need to be comfortable. And they need to be cute- because every woman knows what a cute pair of shoes can really do for her. That being said, as much as I liked my Amigas, I had to send them back. They were cute, yes, but they just weren't the ones and they were a little too big AND I found a different pair that I liked better.

So....

I got a new pair of shoes.

I think they are fabulous.

They came the other day. And I took a picture.....

from the front



and I'm so happy I bought these. They are really comfortable and sturdy and I can totally see myself wearing them all day long and being okay with them. It was a simple choice, shoes, but it took me buying three pairs before I found the ones. With finding the shoes I feel a huge sigh of relief.

Have you made a simple decision that just seemed to lift a huge weight off your shoulders?

The Evolution of a Centerpiece

When I first became engaged, I started doing some research and looking for inspiration everywhere. I decided early on, since I'm not hugely into flowers, that I didn't want HUGE floral displays on the tables, but that I also wanted something more than just candles.

The first centerpiece idea I coveted was, none other than, the Crystal Tree:

It's outdoorsy, it's different, it's bling-y-- and really, what's not to love?

I realized these could get a little costly to make with the branches and crystals, and I wasn't completly sold on it, it was missing something, and I don't know what it was missing, but something. Maybe it was a little too much for me.

So I continued to search for centerpiece ideas that were different. I'm not your run of the mill typical girl, so I needed something that wasn't run of the mill for my wedding.

Elegance at it's finest--The Ostrich Feather:

I came across these and thought they would be stunning and so unexpected and fun.

Anyone know how expensive ostrich feathers are? Yeah-so- I do now, and as pretty as I think these are these were not in the budget or anywhere even close to being in the budget! I even looked into crafting them myself, and buying ostrich feathers in bulk was not that much cheaper... so they were out, and I moved onto the next idea.

The next centerpiece idea I coveted was the submerged flower:

So Pretty!

oh la la!

and there is nothing better than seeing it all put together:

And really, I LOVED the submerged flower idea. REALLY thought it was georgeous, but the vases... the vases were boring me. They were just so plain. Obviously you need a clear vase for this to work, but there was just something about the straightness of the vases that was not doing it for me.

Then I came across the perfect centerpiece picture on Flickr. It was in someone's "photostream" and I came across it by accident when I was looking at her cakes. The photo is copywrited and non-copyable or postable or printable. I wrote to her asking if she would mind if I printed it and used to to show my florist, and she said sure, but didn't change any of the settings, and so, it wouldn't print. A picture can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/glassslippergourmet/2272433272/

I love that vase. It is elegant and feminine and just oh so beautiful. That is the centerpiece I wanted that no one could give me. AND because I couldn't print the picture out, I had a hard time explaining the vase to Both my florists. Price Chopper had NOTHING even remotely similar, and Cindy kind of knew what I was talking about, but didn't have the vase.

I had been on my own hunt for the vase as well. I came across something very sililar at Pier 1 (yay), but they only had 2 left in store (and it was slightly more than I wanted to spend). Nonetheless, I was going to buy them from every store in the northeast if they had them. Sadly, the only other Pier 1 in the northeast that had any of these vases, only had 3- making a total of 5 non-doable.

While I was looking through Cindy's books with her, I found something else. Something different. Something stunning. Something so simple and yet so pretty. Something very US.

Cindy is going to craft the boxes herself and they are going to be hot pink. She will set up the centerpieces the day of wedding and glue the orchids onto the branches. The orchids are going to be hot pink as well. (i'm lusting over the Chivari chairs in the background)

How many centerpiece ideas were in your centerpiece evolution?

Are you a Modista?

I have come across the best website ever!

If you haven't tried modista yet, and you're a shopper, or you are just looking for the right shoe, purse, watch, or sunglasses--- you must try it out!

Go to www.modista.com and click on the thing you are searching for. Then simply choose a "style" by picking one. You can go up to the top and define you choice by price range, discount, size, color, brand, etc.

TONS of results come up for you to browse and drool through. It's a great way to see all the same shoe styles, purse styles, watch styles and sunglasses in the same spot. If you see one you like and you choose it, it highlights it at the top and changes all the items to be that style, which in turn, helps you find more you like. It also tells you where you can purchase and the sizes available at that store (for shoes).

I love modista! The only gripe I have with it is that I wish it pulled from more stores or that it showcased dresses in this way(that would make it perfection), but the stores it pulls from I'm already a fan of and it makes searching for things you want really simple! If you haven't tried it out, get your butt over there and take it for a test drive. I do have to warn you though, if you try it out, you may want to go on a shopping spree.....

Do you have any shopping tools that make it easier to search for a specific product?

A Tale of Two Florists

Sometimes I wish I was more like
The Donald

so that I say: "You're Fired" to my Price Chopper Florist easily.

Some of you may remember several posts ago about my Dilema with flowers. I had previously met with Price Chopper Florist, after having heard many many good things about them and their prices, and to be honest I wasn't overly impressed. In fact, I had anxiety over my flower purchase for a whole week afterward. I decided something wasn't right with my floral order, flowers shouldn't cause anxiety!

Over the weekend I met with Cindy Murphy, a small town florist, and from the moment I met Cindy it was a different experience than I had at Price Chopper. Cindy was sweet, passionate about what she does, and like me, a crafter! Cindy owns her own craft shop after all! What more could I ask for?

To be fair, I came to Cindy with some ideas that I had printed off of online, and she came back at me with ideas, and pictures of flowers and examples of what she could do... where Price Chopper just took my idea and picked out the standard run of the mill bouquet that encompassed mostly roses and was pretty boring to me, but again, that was probably my fault for not knowing flowers and their names.

Rule #1 of florist choosing: Do Your Research! Have an idea of what you want, and be able to describe it, or better yet, bring a picture!

My Bridesmaid Bouquet inspiration:

Different flowers for each girl, All Fuschia or Hot Pink, all about the same size/shape. I wanted the color, shape and size to unify the bouquets, not the flower. I'm going to chose each girls bouquet to match her personality, which I think is a fabulously great Idea, if I do say so myself.

We also discussed centerpiece idea. While she didn't have the exact vases I wanted to create my submerged delphinium orchid centerpiece

(something similarly shaped to this, but with an invert at the bottom instead of the pedistal)

she didn't write me off right away either. she was searching her books, looking for what could be used. And while she was doing that, I was looking through books too, and true to form,

I. changed. my. mind. again.

Have you ever had to fire a vendor because you found someone you liked better after the fact?