One Month
…to go until the wedding! I’m excited, nervous, a bit stressed, but mostly excited all at the same time! A year sure flies by these days.
And we have a marriage license! I wasn’t expecting to have to take an oath – kinda felt like we were married after the oath, especially since a couple congratulated us on the way out.
I came home and made sweet potato enchiladas to celebrate. Only I forgot the verde sauce and had to use salsa. Oh well! Things are getting busy with a hair apt, hair trial, small bachelorette dinner, a dance lesson, and lots and lots of wedding related emails to be sent in the next week. Happy hump day.
Read MoreWedding Invites!
All invites are out, so here they are! I loved how they turned out, although I can’t say addressing them was my favorite part of wedding planning:)
I used Southern Fete Creative, and had them design a custom invitation based on the Garden Suite on their website. Early on, I decided to have custom napkins made through Etsy, and have been using the swatch of fabric as inspiration for a bunch of wedding items.
I would highly recommend Southern Fete Creative because Valerie was easy to work with, the invites were reasonably priced, and they were really flexible with the design. But the invitations are more causal. I was actually a bit disappointed when they arrived because the paper wasn’t matte and didn’t have that heavy fancy feeling. I had to sacrifice the matte finish in order to get the full color invite – it turned out great in the end, but I didn’t fully understand that you can have full, smooth color on a matte finish going into it.
There’s no need to hide the details, since several commenters have already let me know that they’ve dug around for my website. Let’s hope the moat keeps any wedding crashers away:)
To dress them up a bit, I ordered pockets to hold each invitation in a heavy cream linen. I ordered them from Envelope Me and was so happy with the quality! I also ordered outer envelopes and rsvp envelopes in the same paper, because the ones the invitations came with just felt too thin to me.
Tied everything up with a piece of twine from a giant roll that was like $2.99. I had wanted fancy ‘belly bands,’ but this was much more cost effective and I love the rustic touch!
I think I had the most fun designing custom stamps on Zazzle.com. I used the same design from the napkin fabric and the usual be married saying in fun fonts.
So that’s that! See ya.
Read MoreWedding Weekly (Slash Monthly): An Update
I haven’t written much about the wedding these past two months because I’ve been working on a lot of little things. Thankfully, all the big stuff is done! The details are my favorite part.
Invitations
When I first started looking at invitations I couldn’t believe how expensive they are! $600 for a piece of paper with black letterpress cursive? I knew I did not want that, so I went for a more modern and colorful invite from a small business: Southern Fete Creative.
This is next on my to-do list! I’m just starting to think about passages/songs/structure, but I’m overwhelmed at the moment.
Cake
We picked our cake a while back, but the baker has been sketching fun ideas and sending them my way. Love the big sugar flower on top, but haven’t picked a design yet.
Wedding Weekly: Shoes
But I just can’t decide if I want sequins,
or something really traditional, but extraordinary.
Regardless, the shoes have got to be under three inches (for comfort and height restrictions). It’s tempting to get carried away with all the beautiful designer shoes out there (like the manolo blahnik’s above!), but even if I had the cash, I’m kind of against the principle of spending that much money on shoes. But they sure are pretty!
For now, I’m happy to just dream about my wedding shoes and the day that will come with them.
If you’re married, what did you choose for The Wedding Shoe?
Read MoreWedding Weekly: The Flowers
The church, venue, photographer, coordinator, DJ, dress, and honeymoon are all done, so it’s time to focus on details! I’m quite excited to be finished with the big stuff, because it’s the aesthetic elements (and food) that I’ve been looking forward to planning the most. Although flowers are a big part of most wedding decor, I really don’t know much about them! And since they are one of those things that can get really expensive, really fast, I knew I’d have to put a lot of thought into how I could use flowers to add hints of color without spending a fortune. I’m also not into those huge arrangements as centerpieces because they get in the way of conversation – thus, I knew I’d be working with either very small arrangements or lots of single flowers.
I liked the idea of using lots of vases in a variety of different sizes and colors to hold single flowers. I’m a big color person, and I figured this would be a good way to get even more color on the tables. I think this is pretty trendy right now, as I’ve seen a ton of examples online and in wedding magazines:
I still wasn’t sure what flowers to use though. Luckily my coordinator is also a florist, and she has proposed some beautiful ideas for coral and orange flowers mixed with white spider mums to go in white and bluish vases. We’re thinking:
What do you think? I LOVE that all the flowers are so unique. I just hope we can actually get them and that they’ll survive the ferry ride to the island. So, that’s the plan for now!
Any flower advice (besides don’t waste money on them…) from the experienced married people out there?
Read MoreBeach & Back
I didn’t expect to be sitting on a sandy beach on Saturday! But, we drove to Wilmington to do two cake tastings, and one of the bakeries was a few blocks from the beach. Given that we had a lot of cake to eat, Matt and I picked up a salad for a last minute beach picnic.
Of course, we forgot a blanket, and since it was overcast and a little rainy, we decided to have lunch up on the lookout rather than get all sandy.
It was harder than I thought to climb up! But the view was beautiful and the beach so peaceful in the fall.
Greens [and sweet potatoes and sweet + sour pork and feta] for good measure.
And then we were off to our first tasting! We spent a good hour chatting with the owner and baker and helping them envision our colors, design ideas, and overall cake vision. The whole time I just kept wondering when we’d get to eat!
Finally, the time came. And while I was thrilled to see so many flavors, I was a bit disappointed with how little icing was on top of these pieces. I was told too much icing might overwhelm my palate (yeah right). We tasted:
- almond pound with apricot marmalade and amaretto buttercream
- yellow butter cake with raspberry marmalade and vanilla buttercream
- lemon pound with orange-lemon curd alternated with citrus buttercream
- coconut – infused cake with key lime curd and alternated with key lime buttercream
- chocolate fudge cake with black oynx cocoa layered with rich vanilla buttercream
- milk chocolate pound with cappuccino buttercream
- banana cake with chopped bittersweet chocolate, layered with a decadent triple chocolate buttercream.
The verdict? They were all amazing. But they were all quite strong and very unique and none of them really hit me as a well-rounded wedding cake. The yellow butter cake was the closest, but we much preferred the texture and the moistness of the pound cake and Matt concluded that the raspberry marmalade tasted too much like jam (it was actually a jarred marmalade, imported from Switzerland). All the icings were perfect though!!!! The cake designs were absolutely beautiful too.
Our next tasting was located a the baker’s house. We sat down one-on-two and talked through the design in depth. She even sketched out our cake and showed us all the different molds that she could use to make different designs. The neat part about the second baker is that she specializes in a certain type of buttercream, so no fondant is required to make the cake smooth on the outside. I have no idea how she does it! We tasted:
- amaretto cake with an amaretto filing and vanilla buttercream
- lemon cake with lemon curd filling and vanilla buttercream
- vanilla cake with strawberry cream cheese filling and vanilla buttercream
- vanilla cake cake with key lime filling and vanilla buttercream
- red velvet cake with cream cheese filing and vanilla buttercream
- carrot cake with cream cheese filling and vanilla buttercream
- chocolate cake with peanut butter filling and vanilla buttercream.
All of the cakes were super moist and the filings were incredible! I didn’t like the buttercream as much as the first bakery, because it tasted more sugary and less buttercream. Overall, the cakes tasted much more like a delicious birthday cake and less like a specialty cake. I think the cakes are more well-rounded for a wedding cake, but didn’t seem as firm (I worry about durability, especially without the fondant), but trust the baker knows what she’s doing! She can also make a raspberry chambord, which was something Matt and I really wanted after being obsessed with my sister’s cake for years.
Overall, we had a wonderful experience and it’s a very close call in terms of which bakery we will pick. We don’t have long to decide though!
I never ever thought I’d say this but I had a sugar overload! Matt and I both had intense cravings for savory food, so after 2.5 hours in the car, we stopped in Raleigh in search of bar food. We ended up at the famous Poole’s Diner and were not disappointed with the buttery comfort food. I was also soo thirsty (and continued to be for 48 hours) and basically chugged this pumpkin beer.
We weren’t that hungry and were just craving flavor, so we split an open-faced burger and the famous mac and cheese. Little did we know these would be huge and rich. I dare say the burger was the best I’ve ever had!!! It was thick, rare on the inside, cooked in fat, topped with applewood smoked cheddar, and served on a toasted brioche bun. Holy smokes, I was blown away.
And the mac n cheese was also to-die-for (literally, could probably clog arteries after one serving). Matt and I were mmming through this, and would you believe we could only finish half!? We rolled right onto the couch after this dinner, but only after one more bite of cake:)
The first bakery was kind enough to send a to-go box home for my parents. We took a few bites from their box, but happily passed it along to them. Ummm, after a working Monday though, I’m regretting this! I could really go for one of those slices now. But it was for the best.
I loved hearing about the kinds of cakes you guys like! I think we might pick two flavors, just to try to satisfy more people….
Good night.
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Welcome to TBT!
I've created this blog because I'm in a bit of a quarter life crisis. Since graduating from college in 2008 and earning an advanced degree in school psychology in May, I still don't know what career path to follow. All I know is that time is moving way too fast and I find myself living only for the weekends. Bear with me as I attempt to reclaim my twenties by finding pleasure and balance in the work week and incorporating my passions of food, fashion, fitness, and fun into everyday life. 
She said what?