the cake

Mmmmmmm! Cakes!

Apparently in the US they use sponge cakes for their weddings - no fruit and no marzipan, so I have of course put my foot down and said that I'm going to have a marzipan covered fruit cake if it kills me. I plan to make my own(!?) to save about $500 or whatever a cake costs these days. I think what I might do is have a fruit and sponge combo - nice big fruit cake on the bottom and a couple of smaller sponges on the top. That way I'll keep everyone happy! I might actually cheat and buy the sponges (sponges have never been my forte). Oooo, maybe I can have one chocolate and one regular sponge...hmmmm. Anyway, as I'm no professional at cake decorating, I need a plan for making a simple cake look beautiful without all the expertise. I love the rainbow butterflies cake on the Martha Stewart picture below and I've found a wonderful lady on Etsy that sells them in all different shapes, sizes and colours. They look so pretty! I've also found this cake that looks so gorgeous and would be pretty easy to recreate, using silk flowers. I'm having a lot of fun looking at cakes and it's much less stressful than bridesmaid dresses! Any ideas, send them my way! x

bridesmaids

Out of everything I thought about for the wedding, including my own dress, the biggest nightmare is the bridesmaid dresses. My dear sister and bezzy mate, Dan are the chosen ones but they are so so different in their tastes. They both send me pictures of different dresses, none of which the other likes. One wants pastels and the other will not be seen dead in pastels (her words!). What's a girl to do?!

martha

Well, I am now a fully fledged member of the Stewart empire, Martha that is. She is a domestic goddess and crafter extraordinaire and if anyone can help me pull this off, she can! Her website is full of DIY ideas, not your average crafty crap but gorgeous and classy easy to make decorations and things to do in your wedding - including some truly AMAZING cake recipes. Might just have to have a tea and cake reception! (seriously, you have got to take a look at the cake recipes!). This sounds amazing...

It may seem like a break from tradition to serve more than one cake at a wedding, but it's actually quite an old custom. At medieval Anglo-Saxon weddings, many small cakes would be served in a mountainous pile, and eventually pocketed for the journey home. Sometimes the bride and groom attempted to kiss over this pile of cakes.... Five cakes are festooned with tuile cookies bearing words of love. Toasted-coconut frosting coats featherlight Angel's Food Cake. An Almond-Paved Dacquoise Cake has rich crunchy almond meringue, chocolate ganache, and thin layers of cake inside. A traditional French Croquembouche is built from profiteroles filled with passion-fruit custard; it has a halo of spun sugar. Read more at Marthastewartweddings.com: Five Little Cakes 

YUMMY!!

LOVE these - might have to make a bunch of these beauties! They'd look so pretty hanging from the trees, blowing in the breeze.

Also this bouquet is brilliant, might end up just having paper flowers for everything!

Watch out Hope and Tina - might be dragging you in for duties!

Anyway, that's way too many exclamation marks for one posting.

inspiration

Ok, so here's the inspiration for the wedding - the tea party meets enchanted forest theme. As we're planning to host the reception in the back garden amongst the trees and plants these two ideas work perfectly. I've always wanted a romantic candle lit wedding since I saw Ross getting married in Friends - the English wedding in the ruins of some abbey. I also have always loved the kitschy quaintness of the shabby chic tea party. So, I figured, why not do both, kind of a enchanted wood tea party! 

I'm going to be on a huge mission when I eventually arrive in the States to find every old wooden chair and table at the thrift stores! If any of my US friends have any going spare, I'd be happy to take them off your hands!

I'm also thinking gorgeous flower wreaths wrapped around the trees and lanterns hanging from the trees, kitschy pastel coloured table cloths and if I can find enough of them, lots of pastel coloured tea cups. I like to think that most of the wedding costs will go to charities through all the thrift stores! Which reminds me of the other major theme - to do all of this as cheaply as possible. Most of you know that I can't stand the idea of spending thousands on just one day, and, as someone pointed out to me the other day, less than a day. I'm on a DIY mission to have a beautiful and very cheap wedding! We're not hiring a venue, not having cars, I'm refusing to spend a small fortune on flowers, cakes and crap for the table - I plan to do and make everything myself (or rope one of my friends in to do it for me!) and spend the saved money on something else like a car or part of the mortgage or a new wardrobe!

I realise that it's going to take some organising to get it sorted in around 2 months, but I'm going to darn well try. 

I also realise that I'm saying a lot of I's and me's and not many we's, but that's the way it's going to be and the man indoors is completely compliant! (I love you! xx)

:-)

well, hello there!

Welcome to the blog that is attempting to gather all my ideas and inspirations for George and I's wedding. I know that most people won't be able to make it to the actual wedding so I thought it'd be nice to have one place for everyone to see what's going on. Plus I'm hoping that it will help me stay organised! So here goes...