me, rachel
Wedding. Bride. Groom. White. Dress. Cake.

Those things just go together. It wouldn't be a wedding without a bride, and (many would argue) that it wouldn't be a proper reception without a cake. I am no great lover of cakes, but I do want a wedding cake (along with a delightful desert bar, of course!). It just provides so many wonderful decorating and photo opportunities. It is often the centerpiece of a reception hall. And the photos of the bride and groom cutting the cake--priceless! Of course, Dave and I will not be smashing cake in the others face; the tradition of feeding cake to each other shows trust, and how can you trust someone who grinds frosting into your meticulously applied makeup?

but thats a different story for a different time.

The dilemma facing us today is this: I can't figure out what sort of wedding cake I want! Not flavor-wise...honestly, except for that first bite I don't know that I'll eat any. I'd rather focus on the cheesecake and cookies. I just can't find a cake design that fits.

Now, this cake I fell in love with years ago. No joke. Mom brought home a wedding magazine one day just for us to read for fun. Boys, you probablly won't understand this, but girls like reading things like wedding magazines, even if they're in high school and aren't engaged.

Especially if they're in high school and aren't engaged.

Anyway, here's the cake:


LOVE IT!! It's designed by Elisa Strauss of Confetti Cakes, although I don't think she makes this particular cake any more. But this cake is just so, so...perfect! It's whimsical, fun, and very out of the ordinary. When I said I fell in love with it, I totally mean it. I just keep coming back to this cake.

Unfortunately, besides not being made anymore (I think), the bakery is in NYC, costs $20 per slice and couldn't be shipped even if I had that kind of dough. So, sadly, this dream cake is out of the question.

Now, since neither Dave nor I are great lovers of cake in general, my next thought was skip the cake all together!

I like pie.

Unfortunately, pie is messy. And I agree with my mother: for many people, it's not a wedding unless there's cake. The fact that I do not eat wedding cake obviously isn't important here. I still want a wedding cake.

So, since I want a cake and a desert bar, I'm aiming for a fairly small cake. Two, maybe three (small) tiers, to feed 50-80 people. I've been looking at cake pictures on every wedding website imaginable, and some of them are so ugly! So, I'm kind of striking out. I can't figure out what I want.

I found this one, which isn't very pretty, but looks so yummy! For a cake this simple, tho, I can't imagine hiring a baker. There's not even frosting on it. But it's peaked my interest, if only because Strawberry Shortcake is one of my favoritest deserts ever!

Yum.

Anyway, I am completely indecisive. I know where I'm going to order my cake from, but beyond that, I'm stumped. Suggestions? Adorable, whimsical, non-ugly cakes to send my way? Or perhaps totally ugly cakes to make me smile (this is almost completely unrelated, but this site is awesome). Whatever you've got, I'd love to hear about it!
me, rachel
So, one of the biggest wedding trends in the past several years is having a photo booth. The first ones to become popular were those sit-down booths that print out strips of pictures, like they have in the mall. While I thought it was a fun idea, it seemed like a waste of money to me because renting those things are not cheap! But then different kinds of photo booths started showing up on my wedding radar.

These were homemade, personalized to the wedding itself, and run by a friend with a digital camera. Some were as simple as a piece of colorful fabric draped over a dowel to make a backdrop, and some were as fancy as to reproduce a wall, complete with wallpaper and picture frames, with several of the frames cut out so guests can look through them! Some even went so far as to add a couch in front of the wall to create even more dimension. Here's one I love:

I think what I like best about this particular one is the old family photographs hanging alongside the open frames. I love the idea of incorporating wedding photos of our loved ones into our own special day to celebrate marriage.

My daddy has a woodshop at home. When I showed him this idea, he loved it and said we could work on making one for our reception. My future sister (in-law) has volunteered to shoot the pictures for us.

Beyond just having a photo booth set up, we're excited about the idea of using the precious pictures of the guests as our guest book. I must say, I'm not impressed with the idea of a "sign in sheet" for guests, especially because I already know who they are and where they live! I wanted a more creative guestbook anyway, and this would allow it to be so cute!

We've been tossing around the idea of how it would work to create the guest book in advance, and give each person/couple/group a place to sign with a blank on the page where their picture would go, then after the wedding, developing the pictures and pasting them in next to their respective comments.

What do you think? Lots of fun? Or too much work?
me, rachel
Our wedding is not going to be formal. Dave and I aren't formal people, for one thing, and so we liked the idea of a more fun, laid back wedding to really show our personalities. We knew we wanted every aspect of this wedding to make people go "Oh! That's so Dave and Rachel!" I'm still looking for some elements that fit us this well, but the invitations were easy!

Since we wanted a laid back feel, I knew we couldn't go with the standard calligraphy invitations printed in white and ecru; we needed something fun! So, I turned to my favorite source of inspiration, Google Images, and googled "wedding invitations." Naturally I got tons of pages of results, and as I looked through them, I saved the ones that looked kind of fun for my own future reference.

Then, I stumbled across these gems:Not only are they fun, they're whimsical, adorable, laid-back, and oh-so us! They are designed by a gal named Holly Hatum at Teardrop Weddings. I would totally encourage you to check them out, because the adorable designs will give you warm fuzzies inside.

One thing I did know about my invitations going in was that I wanted to design them. I am in the graphic design program, and how adorable would it be to be able to say that I designed my own wedding invites? So, using these, ideas about us, and tea as inspiration, I've begun designing my own!

And it's so much fun!
me, rachel
So, the idea of a day-after photo shoot (day after the wedding, or in our case, a week or two after) is totally appealing to me for several reasons.

One, it'd be way more relaxed than on the actual day (and knowing me, I'll be totally stressed out the day-of!), allowing for sillier, more relaxed, natural poses.

Two, it's another excuse to put on my awesome dress!

Three, because it's after the wedding, I won't have to worry about my dress, which will allow for more unconventional locations for photos (some people go as far as to "Trash the Dress," which usually turns out looking pretty cool, but I'm not so brave...or so fond of water).

Four, it's just so darn cute!

There are lots of pictures that I've seen that I love resulting from this type of shoot, but one in particular stands out to me:


This photo, taken by Jasmine Star, is amazing! It has set my mind racing as to all the fun things you could do with a "Playing House" themed photoshoot. We could do it in our new apartment, and just do fun photos of things married people do. I saw another photographer had pictures of a couple, she was knitting and he was doing something else (Dave and I already do this). Then there's the pictures jumping on the bed, or sitting on the porch or eating cookie dough without baking it. Wouldn't that be the cutest shoot ever??