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While Nick and I were taking photos, our guests headed to the reception tent for the cocktail hour. They were supposed to gather around the rectangular pool — amidst round high top tables and mason jars of candles tied with red and orange ribbon — but the wet weather prevented that from happening. However, I heard they still had a pretty excellent time.

The space was decorated with red and orange Chinese lanterns, strings of white lights, baskets of greens, and fichus trees (all expertly arranged by our day of coordinator, Betsy, I must add).

Susan Savia provided the entertainment, and drinks were served alongside a European cheese spread with fresh bread, fruits, dips, and mustards (provided by The Festive Board of York).

We offered two signature drinks: Arnold Palmers from the groom and Peach Sangria from the bride. The Arnold Palmer is a blend of iced tea, lemonade, and vodka. And we mixed the Sangria the morning before the wedding. (Get the recipe.)

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This entry is subtitled: Why I’m Freaking Out About Our Food at the Reception

Sorry it’s somewhat long and picture-less, but I think it’s a good story :)

Let me set the scene: It was the end of June this past summer and Mr. and I had just bought our first house. We decided that it would be fun and a good idea to have an open house for the 4th of July for our families. That way, no one could say, “You haven’t even invited us over to your new house yet!” or no one would just stop by unannounced (a HUGE fear of mine with his family), OR no one would just come over and snoop and peek in the windows (which they ended up doing anyway) because they were all invited to stop by and check it out. Nothing fancy, maybe we’d make some lemonade and have some chips and pretzels, but because we would have only been in the house a week and wouldn’t even have anything to sit on (seriously, we were sleeping on the floor) it wouldn’t be a full out party.

Well. I’ll bet you can figure out that’s not how it went down. This whole thing evolved into a huge barbecue for his family. Now, granted, my family is much much smaller than his, just my mom, aunt, uncle, and cousin who live close by (everyone else is at least 7 hours away), so it’s understandable that none of my family came (except for my mom after all of his family had cleared out…and a jumbo sized bottle of gin to help us recover from the afternoon). His parents did generously offer to bring all the food, but when I heard how much they were bringing I got a little nervous. 40 hamburgers and 40 hot dogs? THIS is when I realized that our little “open house” was much much more than that. At least with all the money we were spending on the house, we wouldn’t be out even more money to host the party. For which I was VERY grateful.

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Dessert. I LOVE dessert. I grew up in a sweets loving family, and to this day my sisters and Mom will scout out the best baked goods, ice cream, and candy. If it has sugar, we love it. Growing up, my Mom would bake chocolate chunk cookies, banana bread, peanut butter sandwich cookies, brownies, cheesecake, raspberry crumble bars…and for my going away party when I moved with the boy to San Diego, she baked my favorite: banana cream pie.

This might be why I am having such a hard time finding a bakery to supply goods for a dessert table. Something always managed to be wrong, because of course, no one can live up to my Mother’s baking. The service was bad, the cupcakes tasted like muffins, the tasting was $100, the cake melted after 20 minutes, the baker(s) never replied after two email convos (this is a tangent, but I’ve had maybe 10 vendors just never reply to me after the first initial chit-chat. Sure, our wedding isn’t going to be millions of dollars in some Italian villa, and I am not some fantabulous movie star willing to plunk down $10 for each chocolate chip cookie, but please, reply to my email! It’s courtesy! It also solidifies that I will never recommend you to anyone getting married in the future!)

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(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!