(photo by my sister, ashley merrill, while frosting cakes in a kitchen that reminded her of the shining)

Things didn’t go according to plan with our wedding. I feel/felt like it was a huge fail on my part, not dealing with stress well and not delegating or getting things done ahead of time. I’m a huge procrastinator and I also was so stressed about the other people involved in the wedding that I didn’t get focused. I’ve gotten over it for the most part, but I’m sure at least someone could learn from my mistakes.

(photos by Kristen M Stewart Photography unless otherwise noted.)

I wanted a cake buffet instead of just having one big cake, and I liked the idea of having homemade cakes instead of bakery cakes, because then they would mean something personal to us. The main problem with that is that it required work from people other than me. I wish I’d made them all myself two days before, taken them to our venue for them to have in their cooler, and been done with it. My sister makes an amazing cheesecake though and my mom and sister were willing to make cakes, freeze them, transport them from NC to AL, and frost them here.

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I love the idea of multiple wedding cakes… add multiple vintage cake toppers and you have one amazing setup!

{via Project Wedding}

How lovely would it be to incorporate your families history by gathering everyone’s cake toppers and displaying it proudly on the beautiful cakes.

We haven’t decided if we will be having a wedding cake yet but I do know we will be displaying the cake topper that my mom, aunt and grandmother all used on their wedding cake.  It is incredibly beautiful!

Anyone else incorporating a vintage flair and a bit of family history?

Ah food. One of my favorite subjects! Planning the menu was so much fun.

{Our dessert table - more on this later… Image via Jenna}

Starting out, I knew a few things regarding the food that we would serve. First of all, because I was holding people hostage for over six hours, I knew we needed a lot of it! Secondly, my husband and I both wanted simple, well-made items that reflect quality, not creativity. Third, this was not a wedding, and I wanted no part of wedding cake. Fourth, I needed the caterer to understand my vision for the event and potentially contribute to it. And lastly, there would be nothing at my event that I personally would not eat.

We met with four caterers in Atlanta and quickly narrowed the choice down to two. One choice violated criteria 2-it was a bit frou-frou for our tastes. Another choice was nixed due to criteria 4-they were too mainstream. After tastings with our final two choices, I had a clear winner - Bold American Catering. William Neal at Bold was the epitome of criteria 4. He not only took our choices and ran with them but he also suggested several ideas on how to present and pair the menu, as well as contributing his knowledge to the overall direction of the cocktail hour and reception, even advising on the lighting.

So what did we end up with, you ask? A veritable smorgasbord of our favorites!

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Normally I take my camera to every vendor appointment so I can document everything for you lovely readers, but I remember being frazzled the day of the tasting, so unfortunately I have no pictures of the food! But I’m happy to report that the tasting went well, not only because the food was tasty, but because one of the first questions they asked when I first contacted them was “Do you have any allergies?”

Why yes I do, thank you for asking.

Allergies and I are like best friends. I have so many minor allergies to food that when we have tasting menus at fancy restaurants I don’t even bother telling the waiter what they all are because it’s just kinda embarrassing to list off ten items. It’s nothing life threatening, more annoying than anything. My tongue and throat get really itchy for about 20 minutes and I have to gulp water to help make it go away. And it’s mostly fruit. Apples, peaches, nectarines, plums, pears, Asian pears, honeydew, cherries, lychee, kiwi, cucumbers, almonds (fun fact: almonds are a part of the peach family. It’s the only nut I’m allergic to) and probably a lot more I can’t think of right now.

Ordering at Jamba Juice is not fun. (”Could I get the Peach Pleasure without the peach?”)

So when they asked me before the tasting if I had allergies, it was a huge plus in my book. The menu was edited to include mostly berries instead of apples and pears–sweet.

I’m excited about our menu, which is Italian-themed! It includes a pasta bar (yum!), prosciutto wrapped shrimp, bruschetta, beef crostini, grilled veggies, salmon skewers, sea bass and scallop skewers, and a walnut and berry salad. Add a glass of wine and some sweets and we’ve got ourselves a par-taaay. Minus the cucumbers or pears. :D

Oh Martha you have done it again! This little gem of a cupcake is adorable!

I would absolutely love to make these for a family BBQ, or for a shower or even at the wedding! I love sprinkles that come in all different colors. I wish I had a huge kitchen where I could keep sprinkles in all different colors at all times- don’t sprinkles just make everything better?

We had to change a small piece of the plan this week. A while ago DJ asked our caterer if she could put together an iced tea and lemonade table to have out before the ceremony. We were thinking that in September (even late September) you never know what you’ll get for weather, so a cold beverage might be nice. She’s fantastic, always quick on the yes. So, yes. We can have a table of drinks, and she’d be happy to coordinate the rentals.

This is what I was thinking:

(shoestring home)

Or possibly this:

(style me pretty)

But! This is the type of container available for rent:

Full bride stop. Oh no, I said to DJ. That will never do. I’m such a snob lately. But really, I wouldn’t want these for a party at my house either. Does that make it any better? Probably not. At any rate, we’re working on a new, less insulated plan.

I was out shopping for the house when I wandered into the Pottery Barn store I used to work at. I didn’t intend on buying anything but after looking around the store for quite some time, I saw this:

{ cake stand from Pottery Barn, photo by me }

Now, before blogging entered my life, I didn’t feel like I had any need for a cake stand. Until, that is, I saw the beautiful variety of cake stands that exist and how they can be so beautifully displayed at a wedding reception. So, while I’m not 100% sure that this cake stand will be used for our wedding, I can absolutely envision myself making a cake like the one below and have it setting out on the table for Mr. after school one day.

{ Orange Layer Cake from Blue Orchid Designs }

Wow, when did I become Suzy Homemaker?

On the topic of cakes…Our friend Matt went to the Culinary Institute of America and is now busy rocking his culinary talent in NYC. He has agreed to do our wedding cake! [insert excited girly laugh] I just couldn’t imagine a perfectly fondant-ed, tirelessly decorated cake for my wedding, so when I saw the cake below, it was love at first sight:

{ photos by Union Photography via snippet & ink, cake by Fleur de Lisa }

And then the inspiration just started flowing in. Check out all these beautiful cakes and their beautiful decorations.

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Pie on a stick? Yes please!

{Tutorial from Luxirare found via CRAFTzine and WritheM of the Night}

(author’s collection)

I didn’t have to cook Tuesday night, because we had loads of hors d’oeuvres at our venue, The Summit Club in downtown Birmingham. We decided against a seated dinner (Garrett likes buffet style, I would’ve been fine either way really, but seated dinners are more expensive anyway), so for our taste testing we tried some of the heavy hors d’oeuvres available. Mini BLTs, roast beef on sourdough with horseradish sauce & baby arugula salad, phyllo baskets with balsamic glazed vegetables, andouille sausage on puff pastry with stone ground mustard, bacon wrapped scallops, and twice baked new potatoes.

(author’s collection)

Before we were even engaged, Garrett joked that the only thing he cared about for the wedding was that we have bacon wrapped scallops. When he found out that it was an option, and that they weren’t any more expensive than the other options we were considering, he was sold. We loved everything, but the phyllo baskets were too flaky and crunchy, which made them messy and difficult to eat. Too much basket in one bite. So we decided against those. And the andouille sausage was tasty, but a little too normal. We’re also thinking of having a station with pepper crusted pork loin with apple bourbon sauce and rolls and a shrimp and grits station. We didn’t get to taste those, and I especially want to make sure Garrett approves of the shrimp & grits since he’s more picky about his Southern food than I am. And, I’ve already tried it and know I like it (one of the weddings I was assisting with photography was at our venue!).

It was really nice to get to try the foods but I have to make the tough decision about how much to order (they are priced by piece, and I know some people will eat more than one of some of them and other people will have none of others. I think we’ll also have some fruit and salad, what do you think? Which of our picks for hors d’oeuvres are you immediately drawn to, and are there any you wouldn’t touch? (I feel like scallops would be like that for a fair number of people.)

I’ve been pretty busy, we have a DJ now (one of Garrett’s friends volunteered, and I’m sure to be asking y’all for suggestions to submit to him soon), I have a ton of makeup (and I debate against using it all on my face everyday and saving every precious, expensive drop), we’ve had to reconfigure our guestlist (to accommodate a bunch of extended family members we weren’t planning on inviting, but it looks like to keep peace we’ll be doing it), and I’ve met with a letterpress that will be designing our invites (only about a month till they go out, eek!). So, full steam ahead, and I can’t wait to get married!

Remember when I was pretty convinced I wouldn’t have a cake…and then ordered a cake? Well, I wasn’t planning on having a cake topper, either. I know, the gall of going sans topper to my cake! (Our baker basically thinks I’m crazy for this one, let me tell ya!) As it turns out, there will be a cake topper after all, because I stumbled upon Quitesparkly on Etsy and fell in love with these paper roses she crafts by hand from the pages of old romance novels. Romance novel roses for the book-loving bride and her English teacher groom? It’s absolute perfection at a price that could not be beat. I think they will be absolutely divine stuck in a cluster atop our delicious cake - a little bit vintage, a little bit unexpected, a little bit sensational. Now, everyone cross your fingers that they get here in time from Australia! Are you using a cake topper or another element you found in an unexpected place?

[Paper roses by Quitesparkly]

Thayer Allyson Gowdy via snippet & ink

I feel the need to say “I love you like a fat kid loves cake,” and since I don’t think I can have a placard with that on our dessert table…I’m getting it out of my system now. Garrett and I had talked a little bit about cakes and we’d both decided that we didn’t want anything super fancy. Garrett’s a minimalist (unless you see our bookshelves) and I prefer simple to really ornate. I like the look of fondant but not the taste. I love buttercream. I like clean, simple, but not perfect. And finding a vintage cake topper with a blonde bride and brunette groom that I liked was just not going to happen. I have little patience for ebay. So, we talked about doing a really simple cake. Something 3 tier or thereabouts, simple white frosting, bam.

But I’m sure some of you other brides can relate… Garrett’s not crazy about making decisions wedding things. I was trying to find a fabric in our color scheme at a fabric store that was going out of business and I drove Garrett crazy. I couldn’t make up my mind at all and wandered around like I do in grocery stores, aisle after aisle. I ended up going home with nothing. And the store wasn’t really close by. Oops! Even though Garrett loves cake, the idea of going to taste testings and talking price and picking something out…it’s exhausting. I’d considered making my own cake before, like some other bride bloggers I’ve seen, decided I had lost my mind, and moved on. But the more I see the whole “cake buffet” idea, the more I think it could work for us. My sister loves baking. One of Garrett’s cousins used to run a bakery and has lots of supplies (plus, her daughter Megan, who reads my blog and is now a good friend of mine, has offered to maybe come down early to help me with things like flowers or cakes). Linden, one of my bridesmaids, has offered up some delicious recipe of her grandma’s… We might be in business. I’ve made a few mean pound cakes in my day and if nothing else I think I could manage that.

Plus, we’re looking at our reception as a party at this point. We’re not going to be stressing out the day of and I don’t think we’ll be heading off for a honeymoon the next day or anything, so I just want to have fun!

this one is from a navy & yellow wedding (our colors!) that I love! It was featured in Southern Weddings’ blog and the photographer is Sarah Maren. I like that they had a candy buffet on the ends of the cake buffet.

So from you, what are your favorite kinds of cake, do you have any favorite recipes (for frosting too!), what would you be most excited to see at a cake buffet? Oh, and any tips on petit fours? Garrett loves them.

Some thoughts of mine: strawberry cake, a butter cake, some kind of chocolate (maybe mousse-ish?), lemon?, pound cake, linden’s sour cream cake with raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting…

image source

I know a candy buffet would be completely unnecessary, but my new favorite color is yellow and I have in my head this vision of candy filled jars (large and medium sized mason jars, maybe, even?) that I’m not sure I can shake. Although, my budget is waning, so I’m not sure I should be taking on any extra expenses. We haven’t lined up a cake yet (though, we want really really simple, white, plain, 3 tiered, so we should easily get one for $500 or less, right?) I love candy and I think that’s what makes this such a hard decision. Chocolate and candy are very reflective of me (and by adding in Garrett’s favorites despite his usual lacking in the sweets-craving it can reflect him too!). Maybe I can add in some home baked goods?

image source

So, should I stick with all yellow, which limits my flavor options (lemon, banana, butterscotch, and a few jelly belly flavors, like buttered popcorn which I love!) or do I just pick candies I like, and decorate the jars? (sour patch kids, chocolate covered almonds, reeses pieces, truffles, meltaway mints, etc). Or alternate the yellows with the mixes? Your call.