Candy buffet genius

If you need some ideas for a candy buffet at your reception, check out Amy Atlas. This picture is from her blog that she just started. They are so bright and colorful. It looks like she uses a lot of homemade goodies and mixes in some store bought. I've seen some tables that look kind of boring and plain, but her's are so vibrant and fun. I know I bookmarked her website to reference when I'm putting mine together.

I can't make up my mind to save my life

I came across this inspiration board and was definitely inspired my the color combinations. I love the use of mint and hint of dark green with the teal and lemon. Ahhh, why can't I make up my mind?! I'm taking a break from wedding shananigans while I paint vacation bible school murals for the next two weeks. After that, my mom and I will have to get cracking on the rough trial of my dress with muslin and find fabric for the bridesmaids. She got a book on sewing couture bridal dresses and it said to figure about 100 hours of sewing. Wow.

Craziness of the cake and centerpieces

I think (maybe) that I've come to the decision to buy my cake instead of baking it myself. I'll just get a three tier plain frosted white cake and then make the gum paste peonies to go on it. I can do those wayyy in advance (just need to teach myself how to do them!). If for some reason it doesn't work out, I'll just keep a couple of real ones on hand. After much mental debate, I figure it will be too much added stress if it doesn't come out right, or if its dry, or if its lop-sided. I really don't want an ugly cake! However, I can still do some homemade candy for the candy buffet. Not all of it, but just some of it. Now, if I could get my peonies to look like this (different color of course) and find a really cool topper, I could check this off the list.

Last night I was wandering around my favorite store...Target. Target has everything and the one close to me is a Super Target with groceries and more importantly, a pretty good wine selection. Anywhoo, I saw these little guys in one of their displays and thought they would make super cute centerpieces without having to use a ton of flowers. They're $16 each at Target, but I'm pretty sure I could make them for much less and much prettier.

Bridesmaids

I found this dress on Etsy by Amanda Archer not too long ago and after looking and looking for bridesmaid's dresses, I kept coming back to this one. I absolutely love it. Being that my mom is a fabulous seamstress, she will be making them (along with my dress). What is good for her is that I only have two bridesmaids, what is good for them is that they will have a dress tailored to fit them exactly in a pattern that they can actually wear again (for real). I think we'll tone down the collar a bit so it doesn't get clown like. My mom sent me a blurb from the Silk Road site that if you wash silk dupioni, it will lose some of its stiffness and sheen making it a more casual look. Maybe then it won't look so "bridesmaidy." Plus, if its washed prior to sewing it, then you can handwash it from then on instead of dryclean only. Lord knows we all have a ton of bridesmaids dresses we never more than that one day. What a waste! I'd love for them to jazz them up with fun jewelry after the wedding and have a dress to add to their party collection. I'll have to get a swatch of the silk and see how it comes out. My sister also suggested cotton sateen which would make a lot more casual, but I'm not sure if I want it to look THAT toned down. Who knows, it all depends on what fabric I can find.

Tonight's finds that I LOVE

I love the idea of clustering the paper laterns. They look like colored cloud puffs. Plus, I haven't seen them done like this until now. I'm thinking it would look even cooler with lights strung in random ones...

Photos by martha manning

Here are my yellow ball flowers! They must be very popular right now because they are popping up on wedding websites all over the place. They look so good in this bouquet. I never thought of a whole bouquet done out of them. Its so unique. My friend (and coordinator), Paige, suggested to use these in the boutonnières as something a little funky and not too foo foo.

In the last pic, I found a beautiful centerpiece arrangement that incorporates my two favorite obsessions...lemons and peonies. They would look so good with the soft yellow tablecloths and lace overlays. My mom and I have tried to come up with more centerpiece ideas that don't use a ton of flowers to keep the budget in check. I could probably do a scaled down version of this and use a hurricane vase/candle duo in the middle. I haven't ruled out the idea of using mason jars colored with glass paint as candle holders either. I think they would give a great vintage feel to the table. Oh, how the ideas get jumbled in my head!

Holy Bloggers!

After a little digging around on the net, I came across blog after blog of super cute ideas! It is an endless supply of information. I added some of the ones that caught my eye to this blog. I hope you all don't get sucked in like I did. I wasted a good hour and a half looking through all of them!

Trip to the flower market

We went to Austin Floral Co. and Central Market yesterday to see what flowers are in season this time of year. I came across quite a few that I really liked. However, with the lace table toppers, the centerpieces can't be too "heavy" or it will look really weird. I also have come across lots of centerpiece ideas that incorporate fruit other than lemons. It makes it look so fresh! Here are a few of my favorite blooms:

New background

I found this new blog background this evening. Its almost the same color palette I'm looking to do for the wedding. So cute! Mom and I are going to the flower market tomorrow to see what's in season this time of year. I'll post some pics tmmw of our finds. I have read that sweet pea and peonies are in season...my favorites!
I was reading my to do list on www.theknot.com and it said not to send out save the dates until 6-8 months before the wedding. Bummer. I guess it would be a little overzealous to send them out now. At least I have almost all the addresses together. Oh well, I guess I can wait.
I've been checking out cake decorating classes. I think I'll take the Wilton Cake I class, the buttercream class, and the gumpaste class. I think they might start up next week now that I think about it. The only thing I'm worried about is buttercream getting too hot but there is plenty of room at the reception site to keep it indoors. I'm just hoping that we don't have crazy rainy weather this next year like we've had the last two weeks!!