Yummy Decisions

Maui Wedding Cakes Flavor Choices:
Cake Body: Our basic choices for cake body are White Sponge Cake, Dark Chocolate Cake, or Marble. We can also make Carrot Cake or other special orders.

Fillings: Our choices for fillings included in the basic prices shown are: Vanilla Whip Cream Custard; Vanilla Whip Cream Custard with a layer of Raspberry; Vanilla Whip Cream Custard with a layer of Lilikoi (Passionfruit - a big favorite); Chocolate Mousse; Chocolate Mousse with a layer of Raspberry, Raspberry Mousse, Whip Cream or Mocha.

Other fillings available that carry an extra charge are: Banana Cream, Pineapple, Coconut, Macadamia Nuts, Guava, Lemon, Strawberry Mousse, White Chocolate Mousse, Tahitian Vanilla, Fresh Strawberries, Raspberries or other fresh fruits. Cream Cheese filling is available for carrot cakes.

Wedding stuff update

The only thing I ever want to write about now is our wedding since I'm in the middle of so many FUN projects right now!

I ordered vintage wedding signs from a lady on Etsy. A set of 3 signs that say "Wedding," "Cocktails" and "Dancing," and one that says "Welcome to our Wedding, Andrea and Ryan, 6-10-10, and two little ones that say "Bride" and "Groom" that we can hang in our bridal suites/on our chairs at the wedding. I think they are going to be so cute!!

I ordered parasols last week and I'm soooo impatient waiting for them to get here. I got 5 fuschia ones and 5 orange ones. I will wait to see them before I decide which ones the girls will be holding....then the moms and grandmas get the other color. I also ordered two dozen plain white ones for the guests.

I ordered white finger starfish that I'm going to tie the escort cards to using ribbon in our colors. And finally, I ordered raffia palm fans and I'm going to wrap the handles in ribbon, then attach our monogram. Those are for the ceremony.

I will be running to the door every day this week to see if anything has arrived!!!

I still haven't decided on centerpieces, but the florist I'm working with has some good ideas on how to re-use flowers from the ceremony (I think we're decorating the bamboo arch with some) by transfering them to vases or using for the cake, etc. She's really good at working with my tiny budget! I'm only going to do a medium scattering of rose petals down the aisle, because it still looks really pretty and it's a couple hundred dollars less than full coverage.

I had a great conversation with Rhiannon about our invitation and paper projects. She's going to be helping me create these gorgeous invites I found on Prim & Pixie, and then we're going to coordinate everything...like monogram, menus, place cards, etc. I can't wait to see what she comes up with!

My weekend has already flown by...we went to Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday to register and it was a blast! We registered for everything- china to bath towels to kitchen gadgets. Even Ryan admitted he was having fun, I let him work the scanner while I took notes, haha! Then we took his mom out for lunch at a new Mexican restaurant and I brought her cupcakes from Sara Sara, which we stuck a candle in! Today I'm going to try and get some cleaning done and hang out with a friend who just bought a new house with her boyfriend.

I don't want it to be Monday tomorrow!!!!!

Centerpieces

Another big and fun decision....peonies vs. tropical centerpieces!!!

The square vase lined with limes would be oranges instead, with fuschia peonies. The really bright one would be fuschia roses, orange mokara orchids and dendrobium orchids. The pineapples could be alternated with floral arrangements, or I could just do pineapples with white votives and pink petals.

I'm leaning towards the roses/orchids, just because I'm not sure if the peonies and oranges would look pretty together. The pineapples would obviously be the cheapest route.

Pomander Balls

I have become more and more in love with all of the ideas I have for our wedding flowers, and now I need to really figure out what we can and can't afford. Sigh. I wish we could have it all!! I think that it's a crime, charging as much as they do for flowers.

Pomander balls have become my obsession for aisle decorations...I dream about them. I want 6 hanging from Sheperd's hooks just like in this picture. I want to go to Michael's and see if I can buy some DIY materials and make one myself. I just don't want them to look cheap and they would be a pain to take on the plane. What to do.

Engagement Pictures

On Sunday, September 27 Ryan and I headed to Tulsa after lunch to take our engagement pictures with the talented Jenny Collier. She just started her photography business and offered us a free session to build her portfolio- which was the nicest thing EVER since I don't think we could have afforded to do them otherwise.

A lot of preparation went into this photo shoot...I have been collecting cute inspiration pictures forever, so I sent some of them to Jen. I knew I wanted to have some really stand out pictures. Hair accessories. A giant red balloon. The cutest pink heels ever. Lots of outfit changes! So I began collecting things right after we got engaged.

I found "the shoes" at Zappos! One of the Hawaii knotties gave me a discount code since she works there, and when they came in they were perfect. I found an Etsy seller who made hair accessories and ordered a peacock feather, flower headband and two butterfly clips. I searched party stores and found a giant red balloon. Also, an empty picture frame and playing cards were among our props. I went shopping too, and got some fall clothes and some new dressy clothes (I returned half of them after the shoot, shhh, don't tell.) Ryan went shopping too, and I got to pick stuff out and borrowed a blue and pink tie from my coworker for him to wear.

The day of the shoot, I was super stressed out in the morning. I couldn't find my black dress. I couldn't decide on curly or straight hair. I was running around trying to get everything (the balloon ended up being at the Party Galaxy far away down the interstate.) Then Ryan was making us late and we got into a small argument because I was trying to hurry him along.

Finally we got to Tulsa and headed to the mall. I wanted my makeup professionally done, so I had booked an appt. at the MAC counter in Dillards. It's free, you just have to buy some of their makeup and I was out of foundation anyway. The girl who did my makeup suggested purple eyeshadow and I was kind of scared, but I let her do it anyway. She put fake eyelashes on me too, which felt so weird but I loved the way they looked. When she was done, I was worried because the foundation was so thick and my eyes and lips were really dark. When I got to the car, I wiped the lipstick off and tried to blend everything in a little more.

We met Jen on Cherry Street, this cute little street with shops and bars. Ryan was in a terrible mood and it was HOT! We had packed mostly warm clothes, so the shoot was miserable, weather-wise. We were both red-faced and dripping sweat. I felt so gross!!! Jen was great to work with, she had a list of shots that she knew I wanted, and she suggested some really cool poses. I loved working with her, it was nice not to feel uptight because I already knew her. She put Ryan at ease a little, too...I couldn't even tell he was in a bad mood by the end of the shoot.

At one point, we were in an alley with our big red balloon, trying to take shots against this wall of graffitti and all these people were hanging around. It was really awkward, they were outright staring while we kissed and posed, and one drunk guy asked if he could buy my balloon.

The light faded from the sky and we wrapped up the shoot. I felt really excited about the different shots we had, and we said goodbye to Jen and headed into a cute restaurant for a beer and dinner.

Jen posted some of our pictures a few days later on her blog and facebook and they were AMAZING!!!! Everyone absolutely loved them, especially me :)

Grand Prize Winner

The story of how I won a free reception at Remington Park shall be told by dear friend and blog author Rhiannon Leach:

"on sunday i made a trip to okc to remington park for a bridal show. andrea had invited me to go and we had a lot of fun. we visited 60 vendors in about 3 hours. our feet were killing us! luckily i had stowed flats in my bag ... but i felt guilty putting them on since andy didn't have any. poor girl. she was walking so funny by the time we headed out to the car.

about 2/3 of the way through the show, we grabbed a glass of wine, and continued our trek to see the rest of the vendors. it was very important that we had our cards signed by every vendor so that we could be entered to win a $4000 reception at remington park. some vendors had left and we were worried that we had put in all of the effort for nothing. when we got to the room to hand in our cards, a very sweet woman signed the rest of our slots for us saying that she understood several of the vendors were gone. we relaxed on some very comfy couches for a few minutes nibbling some sweets before heading down to the winner's circle for the drawing.

you had to be present to win the drawing and while there were over 2,000 entrants, many had already left, improving our odds. we watched the funniest obstacle course race with 10 brides and their grooms competing for a honeymoon in the caribbean, and then the drawing for the reception.

andy won!!!

she was the first name they drew out of the hopper!!! she jumped up and down and started yelling! i was super excited for her. she's getting married in hawaii and wanted to have an at-home reception, but wasn't sure if she would be able to ... now she can! ryan {her fiance} couldn't believe it when she called to tell him the good news. after celebrating on the phone a little more, we headed out to the parking lot and decided to grab dinner.

we wanted p.f. chang's {i've been craving it} but we never made it because of a ton of construction. instead we stopped for on the border in edmond. i think we were both starving from the activities of the day. we enjoyed dinner and caught up a little more. then it was time for me to head back home.

andrea gave me the wedding presents she had purchased for me and travis saying that we had to open them on what would have been our wedding day. i told her that we wouldn't {because i love surprises and they're supposed to be for our wedding} ... but she insisted, so we shall see."

I found it.

On Saturday, September 12th I went to Bella Rose bridal boutique in Edmond with one of my college friends, Jana. We got there at 9am and I was immediately so excited because their racks of dresses were gorgeous!! I wanted to try them all on.

I picked about 7 or 8 and started trying them on. I fell in love with every single dress, I didn't want to take any of them off and each one was prettier than the next! I had no idea what to do. Jana took lots of pictures and we got it narrowed down to about 2 or 3. Then I went back to the main room and checked out the sale dresses.

I found an incredible Pronovias gown that was half off the original price, and just happened to be about my size! I tried it on...it was a little snug but the owner came in to my dressing room and fought with the zipper and it finally zipped up! When I came out of the dressing room we all knew. Everyone in the store was making comments about it, and I stood in front of the mirror just staring at it forever. I tried it on with a big white hair flower and a long cathedral length veil and I was so happy...I finally found "the dress!"

I paid for it the next week and they are going to store it at the boutique for me!