Piece of Cake Part 4: Avoiding the "Cake Wreck"

I spent this past weekend in Savannah tying up the last few loose ends of our wedding in person. One of those loose ends was making sure my wedding cake is constructed as close to my vision as possible.

When I first visited Publix to discuss my cake, I was told there would be no problem recreating the Martha Stewart cake I found online. Remember this?

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Well, when I stopped back by to actually place the order and hand over my inspiration photo, our baker suddenly realized that the cake was an oval, not a circle. I thought she knew this the entire time! But apparently Publix doesn't do oval cakes and she said she'd have to make the cake round. I reluctantly placed the order anyways, bit my lip and walked out with my head hung low.

But then a couple weeks later I was browsing through a crafts store and saw oval cake pans. I had an idea! What if I supplied the cake pans? I mean, all they have to do is pour the batter in the forms, right? So I called up Publix to see if they would accept them, and they said yes! :D

And then it gets even better. While I was shopping online for the best deal on the oval cake pans, I ran across this:

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They're the EXACT same culinary stencils used to create the Martha Stewart cake! I. Was. Flipping. OUT! Up until that point, I was secretly worrying that I might suffer a cake wreck fiasco ala Mrs. Perfume (sorry to use you as an example P!) because the scroll pattern is so intricate. But now all the work has practically been done for them! If they screw this up, something is terribly wrong with that bakery. But I know they won't because I've seen their work which is already amazing PLUS they have all these tools to help them out!

So this weekend, I made a quick trip to the Publix handling my cake and dropped off my cake pans (which I got on sale at A.C. Moore for $27),..

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...stencils, big arse peony, and ribbon!


I'm sacrificing the monogram on the top of the cake now that they have the actual stencil, but it's a small price to pay for piece of mind. Now I can't wait to see the cake in all its glory! Here's to hoping I've avoided the cake wreck! :)

Did you supply tools to a vendor to make sure a vision of yours was carried out perfectly?


Revisit the entire Labrador cake saga:

Part 1: Plain and Simple, Yet Oh-So Lovely...
Part 2: There's Nothing Finer In The Land
Part 3: Breaking The Mold

DIY Bridal Bouquet Part 2: Changing My Mind

It's been awhile since I wrote about my bouquet-making adventures. In the first installment, I told you about my mock trial run. But a lot has happened since then. I've changed my mind about our wedding colors and opted to change my bouquet to reflect that. I sold the old, all-white peony bouquet and ordered some new, light pink peonies*! Aren't they fabulous?!? :D

I swear they're really pink. The flash seems to wash them out!

Along with the new bouquet, I switched up the bouquet handle. Instead of the simple champagne ribbon, I used a gorgeous (pictures don't show it) dusty pink ribbon. I also took some of your advice and beefed up the handle by using leftover stem parts!


To add some Southern charm, I added lace ribbon as an overlay. I love the look of the lace and pink ribbon together and it'll go perfectly with my dress.


And here's the nearly finished product!


I still have a little tweaking to do to it and some special handle additions, but it's about 90% done! Yay for another DIY project checked off the list! Best part? This bouquet cost about half the price of the other one, so I even saved money!

How are you making your bouquet handle unique or special?

*Flowers purchased at Afloral.com!

Double Duty Semi-DIY Programs

I knew early on that I wanted programs that doubled as fans. Although the historical weather for Savannah in November is usually in the high 60's to low 70's, you never really know how hot an outdoor wedding in the South can get. Better safe than sorry!

I originally planned to make my program fans from scratch. I set out to find inspiration and quickly ran across these adorable program fans on Etsy:

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I soon realized that finding a die cast or card stock in that shape would either be super exhausting or very expensive (or both!). I'm sure there are ways to get that shape that I never even thought of. But with time running out, I can't be too picky these days.

I finally settled on the fact that my program fans would have to be at least semi-homemade. I kept my inspiration photos and scoured the internet for the closest-looking template. And that's when I found these!

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Not only did they still have an interesting shape, they were hella cheap! $30 for 50 fans! Cha-ching! A few clicks later, these babies were on their way to my house.

Once they arrived, I downloaded the accompanying printing template and got to work on a custom design for the fans. Working off my inspiration photo (in Powerpoint), I first created a sort of "crest" with our monogram.

Scroll graphic from istockphoto

I then imported the crest into the Word template and began writing out the front (title) and back (ceremony program outline) sections of the fans. I used "Century Gothic" for the brown text and "Edwardian Script" for the pink text.

I would share the back of the fans with you but I was too lazy and didn't feel like blurring out all of the personal info. I can assure you that it looks very similar to the inspiration photo though. ;) Besides, here's a photo of the front!

I got a little camera happy too early because I ended up going with the brown outlined crest instead of the pink. I was just too darned excited at how great they were coming out! I'm also probably going to switch out this lace ribbon for some that is less stiff (I had this ribbon laying around for, oh, a couple of years). The fans will have a home in a basket just like the one I used for our flip flops next to our ceremony refreshments.

Did any of your semi-DIY projects turn out way better than expected? Better yet, did they save you time, money, and/or unnecessary stress?

DIY Bridal Bouquet Part 1: The Mock Trial

I received my Fiori Belli silk peony stems earlier this week and finally had a chance to play around with them today!

My first impression of them was slight disappointment. I made a trip to Michael's to scope their floral section before deciding on fakes. The ones at Michael's felt more "velvety", like a real flower. But they didn't have cream-colored peonies (neither did Hobby Lobby) so I decided to go ahead with the online order. After awhile, the stems began to grow on me. They look real but are just missing that velvet feel. But I knew I had to sacrifice something when going with fake flowers. Now that I've done the trial, I'm in LOVE. Here's the result of my first trial with my bridal bouquet:

But let's take a moment to rewind and start from the beginning. The process of assembling the bouquet was ridiculously easy. Here's how it all went down!

First, I made a quick trip over to Michael's (with my 40% off any item coupon in hand) and purchased my supplies for less than $10:

Don't forget the most important supply!

The first step was removing the leaves. This was simple because they slide right out of the stem (upside of fake florals!). If you're using real flowers, you'll have to trim the leaves and thorns off (if applicable).

Next up was the assembling. I followed this video tutorial and wrapped the floral tape tightly around 3 stems at a time starting with the fullest blooms. Keep repeating the process by filling in the holes with more stems until you reach your desired bouquet size.

Before I knew it, the assembling portion was finished! I then moved on to covering the floral tape with my champagne-colored satin ribbon. I inserted the pins at an upward angle. Thankfully, this is a trial DIY, so no need to worry about the pins not being perfectly lined up...or the fact that I forgot to tuck under the raw edge of the ribbon...or how I didn't pay attention to wrapping the ribbon evenly...or, well, I think you get the picture. Lessons learned. Btw, 1 yard of ribbon is probably all you'll need. I purchased 3 yards not knowing how much it would take but ended up almost double-wrapping my handle with just 1 yard.

I could have paid more attention to keeping the head of the bouquet more "round & balanced". Again, lesson learned on that one. Plus, I had to keep the stems long because I didn't think ahead about how I was going to deal with the thick wire inside of them (downfall of fake florals!). FMIL's beau is bringing some wire clippers over tomorrow for me! :)

Being proud of my creation, I took Myspace-like photos of me & my bouquet in the mirror. I think it's just the right size and combo of cupped and fully blossomed stems!

The only thing I'm longing for now is the scent of fresh flowers. But FMIL suggested just buying a peony-scented perfume to spray on them the day of the wedding so I wouldn't be missing out completely.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the DIY fake flower bouquet and am pretty much convinced that I will do the same for my bridesmaids' bouquets. Now that the trial is complete, I can focus on perfecting the bouquet by fixing my mistakes, finding a way to beef up the handle size, and adding details to the handle. So stay tuned! And since you've stayed with me up to this point, here's a sneak peek at my inspiration for the handle:

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Faux Florals: My Flower Details

It's finals week for me which means a week full of some major procrastination. Luckily, I exempted 2 finals and only have 1 left. The test isn't until Friday, so I've been getting lots of wedding planning done in the meantime. I wish studying for a test was as much fun as planning for a wedding! Ah, in a perfect world...

Anyways, I was out scouting the floral section at my local Michael's and Hobby Lobby when I made a very big decision. I am going to use as few real flowers in my wedding decor as possible. I know, I know! Some of you are thinking I've gone completely bonkers. But trust me, I've thought long and hard about this. I'm just not a flower person. Plain and simple. Because of this, I see no reason to spend tons of money on something I'm not into (and neither is Mr. Lab).

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My decision was aided by the fact that silk flowers have come a LONG way in recent years. I was able to check out some of the new "true touch" peonies I wrote about earlier. I honestly wouldn't be able to tell the difference between them and real peonies unless I was either told or smelled them (and I hope I'm not inviting any creepers to my wedding who would walk up and sniff my flowers!). I would have bought some right then and there had they been the right cream color. Instead, I ordered the flowers for my bouquet from Fiori Belli. My bouquet only cost $80 shipped and will last forever! Because the blooms are so big, I probably won't need all the flowers to make the bouquet (I'm ordering 1 set of 6 stems each of cupped and full blown blossoms). I will possibly use any extra stems to make a hairpiece or in other decor. Now I have to start thinking about the ribbon for the handle of the bouquet!

As for the other floral details of the wedding, I have a few ideas in mind. I'm using either Wedding Decor Online or Psalm117 on Etsy for my flower girl pomanders (that they'll get to keep!). I am making my BM's bouquets but haven't decided on the flower I want to use. And for the ceremony, I may go the same route as Mrs. Cherry Pie and line my aisle with mason jars filled with flowers. This may be one of the few places I use real flowers. If I do, I'll reuse them in the reception space. I don't know whether I'll use sheperd's hooks or just ribbon to hang the jars yet. Which one do you prefer?

Mrs. Cherry Pie's mason jars & dahlias
Photo by Piknik Studios



Using ribbon will be cheaper and easier.
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Is anyone else using fake flowers for the majority of their floral decor?