Funny and original cakes

Dear brides,

Here are a few more pictures of wedding cakes, but this time, I'm going for a different theme. These cakes are funny, original, and the idea here is just to push the boundaries of what you've imagined up til now. Why get a normal, traditional cake when you can have a funky one or include something that shows part of your personnalities?

Enjoy :)

 Nature theme? This beautiful piece mixes cake and cupcakes for a variety of sweets.

 This cake is very Tim Burton. If you're a fan, why not include part of his universe in your big day?

This one is for Scrabble fans. I thought it was quite cute! The big letter on top can be the first letter of the groom's last name.

Just a little heads up, if you are a man and would like to suggest a cake like this to your fiancée, try to avoid any formulation that may sound like you view your future wife as a cow.

This one is more about the cake topper than the cake itself, but I laughed really hard when I saw it. I've seen lots of "funny" cake toppers, where the groom runs away, which I don't find so funny, but this one I thought was very clever. Once again, be careful not to say it like she's so fat that she'll fall into the cake.

This one is for book lovers!

This one is for steampunk fans. I was impressed with the details and how real it looks, especially the wood. I wonder what that tasted like!! Can anyone guess the flavour?

This one is quite excellent. Everyone knows that some things are bound to go wrong or not as planned on a wedding day. Avoid surprises by making your cake a Disaster cake!

This one is just too cute! Very kiddish, but just adorable.

Rice-crispies squares lovers, here's the cake for you!!

And finally, for ski enthusiasts...

Pictures of beautiful wedding cakes

Dear brides, 

Here are some pictures of beautiful wedding cakes for inspiration!

Enjoy xx

Wedding invitations

Hello brides!

When the time comes to do your wedding invitations (or have them done), there are many decisions to make. First, think of the appropriate amount of time you need to make or receive them, in accordance with the time you want your guests to receive them. Usually, wedding invitations should be sent about 2 to 3 months in advance. It gives your guests time to clear their schedules, answer you and shop for your gift.

Think about including your wedding colours, to create a continuity for your guests. For example, if your bouquet is hot pink and your bridesmaids or flowergirls have pink and blue, you can use those two colours also for wedding décor, invitations, favors, cake, wedding website, etc. Have fun with it!

If you work with a designer, the possibilities are endless. You can choose from their selection of templates, or choose to have special, custom-made invitations in which you decide what papers, colours, ribbons and fonts you want.
Here are two wonderful websites of wedding invitations designers:
http://www.idoweddingcards.com/
http://preciousinvitations.com/

If you do the invitations yourselves, my recommendations are similar to making your wedding favors on your own. Do not underestimate the time necessary!! I spent many, many hours making my invitations. I don't regret it, and I enjoyed making them on my own, but it was a big time investment.

My husband is a part-time photographer and had lots of opinions on the design of the invitations we created. Personnally, I would've just taken a sheet of paper and drawn a simple example of my ideas before I started making them. However, with my man, there had to be a photoshop document with carefully calculated details and designs. We took hours just deciding on the font.
So basically, he was more on the concept and design team, whereas I was on the execution team. He's very creative, but not too manual, and I wanted invitations that looked nice even though they were home-made.

Here are pictures of the invitation and enveloppes I made myself! (note: there were blue ribbons for the invitations sent out to boys only)

Alright, that's all for now, see you next time when we discuss wedding CAKES! Mmmmm...
xoxo

Place cards and wedding favors

Hey there, 

I hope you all had a nice Christmas and a good celebration of the New Year! As for myself, I've been very busy with family gatherings and catching up with friends. But let that not pull our focus from wedding planning!

At this point, I'd like to talk about place settings. By place settings, I mean the little card that indicates each guest's name and the table they will be seated at for the meal. You may choose to work with a designer, possibly with the person who made your invitations, to print out the seating cards. 

Here is the website of a great designer who will work with you to create the perfect look, from wedding invitations to place cards: http://www.idoweddingcards.com/

I personally had a small wedding and chose to make my own invitations, place cards and wedding favors. If this idea sounds fun to you, you may consider DIY. Of course, be aware that this will take up a lot of time. So if you're only doing it to save money, cursing all the while, you may as well spend a little bit more and get it done professionally, in my opinion.  

The fun things about doing it yourself is that you can really personalize everything, and work with your husband on the look you're going for. For instance, I talked about designs with my fiancé, and then went to an art supplies store. I bought thick (cardboard like) paper, materials such as ribbons and also an assortment of thin papers with designs and colours. We used the same designer paper for our invitations, place cards and wedding favors, to establish unity. 

For the place cards, I cut out little rectangles (3 inches by 7 or 8 inches) and wrote each guest's name in nice lettering. After folding each card in half so that it would stand, I proceeded to decorate it with corners of the designer paper. 

Here are a few links, for some inspiration:  

http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/228642/place-and-seating-card-templates/@center/272429/diy-weddings

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2009/06/10/diy-project-custom-place-cards/

http://www.intimateweddings.com/blog/16-diy-wedding-place-cards/

Now, when it comes to wedding favors, I spent MONTHS trying to figure out what to give my guests. I shopped and shopped online, and then decided to make my own wedding favors. There are lots of great online stores for buying wedding favors, such as the following: 

http://weddingshop.theknot.com/wedding-favors.aspx

http://www.weddingfavors.org/

http://www.topweddingfavors.com/

I hesitated for a long time, because I wanted to give people something useful, which rules out food and a lot of decorative items traditionally used as favors. In addition to that, I wanted something that all guests would appreciate equally, from my childhood friends to my husband's crazy college friends, including my 7 year old nephew and 95 year old grandma. In the end, I think I found a way to make it work. I made bookmarks!

I had lots of fun designing them. Every single bookmark was unique, and people could choose their favourite. I cut out thick, cardboard-like white paper in a rectangular shape. Then, I cut out the designer paper in sections of varying sizes, but always the width of the bookmark. For instance, I had a large square of green paper at the bottom of the bookmark, then a thin rectangle of pink with flowers, then a thicker rectangle of blue with dots, and so on, creating unique bookmarks for each guest. I also added our first names and the date of the wedding, as a souvenir. Here is a picture of the result!

Alright, have a good week, enjoy winter, and see you next week when we duscuss wedding invites!

xoxo