Cake is Good

So, we have a baker as well, and oddly, this is one of the first vendors we booked. I got to go to a wedding expo right after we got engaged, and as you can imagine, there were quite a few bakers there with towering fondant creations and sample after delicious sample of cake! One lady's cake stood out though, a rich moist chocolate cake from Callie's Confections here in Asheville. That has got to be some of the best chocolate cake I have ever tried! So, there will be a multi-tiered chocolate dream at our wedding. It will be covered in chocolate buttercream with chocolate fondant branches decorating it. Yum!

photo courtesy of www.calliesconfections.com

Fabulous Flowers

So, we have a florist, the very talented Alan from Blossoms at Biltmore Park. We met through StudioWed, a service I highly recommend to all brides-to-be! They set up a meeting for me with Alan and I loved his attitude and ideas. After our meeting, her e-mailed me a very detailed spreadsheet with everything we had talked about: My bouquet, bridesmaids bouquets, bouttoniers, centerpieces, etc., with two different options for all and prices. I was impressed. Organization like that is not a talent I possess, so I respect it when I see it! Our main flowers being used will be roses, anemones, ranunculus, fiddlehead ferns, and lots of bare branches.

DIY Bride?

I'll be the first to admit, the idea of doing some DIY projects for my wedding is exciting. So where did I look first for inspiration? Why, the mother of all crafters of course, Martha Stewart. Her magazines are like works of art, and her attention to detail is like no other, and her wedding magazine is no exception. So it goes without saying that her website, marthastewartweddings.com, would be packed with great projects.
The first thing I wanted to look for was a template for DIY ceremony programs. Oddly enough, one of my fiance's requests for the ceremony was for us to have programs, as he said he appreciated them at weddings he had been to. How could I say no to that? Looking through the sweet gallery of program ideas on the website, I think I found a winner:

Plus, they double as cute decorations for the chairs, instead of flowers, which are a lot pricier. Luckily for me, Martha provides detailed instructions on her website. She used cardstock to make the pockets, and decorated the bottom with a rubber stamp and ink. Maybe I could add a little bling to it? :)

Stationary!!!!!

Ok, there are about a million choices when it comes to stationary out there, from the classic ecru card with raised border and black script, to DIY kits, to custom-designed letterpress invitations from designers such as Vera Wang and Kate Spade. Originally, when we first started planning our wedding, I was leaning towards buying a Brides brand kit from Micheal's and printing them off at home. I looked at a lot of the designs they offered, and although pretty, they just didn't have "it". You know, reach the stratosphere of "perfect" that we want for our weddings. Trust me, we know it when we see it. Like when you saw that Monique Lhuillier gown on the runway for the first time.

I really wanted something different, imaginative, and whimsical. Not being a graphic designer, I was definitely not prepared to design my own. I searched dozens of sites. Catalogs. Local stationers. And then, while perusing one the many amazing wedding blogs I obsessively look at every day (namely theindiebride.com) I saw it. They featured an online design company called "A Printable Press", and just the few samples shown were enough to get me to click on the pic. I was taken to their website, www.printablepress.com, and started looking through their designs. Original? Check. Aesthetically pleasing? Big check. Customizable? Check. Winter themes? Check!

Now the difficult part is going to be choosing one of their amazing designs!  I love the mix of Victorian-style etchings with modern fonts, and the sweet whimsical feel of their designs. The best part is, you pay for the design and can print out as many as you need! Response cards and thank-you notes too! Oh, color and font customization here I come!



All images from their website, www.printablepress.com. All designs are copyright printablepress.com.