YUM.

In a naive attempt to buy macarons from the Bouchon Bakery half an hour before closing time (seriously, Mo, what were you THINKING?), I instead stumbled upon a wonderful chocolate delight. All those brown pebbles are dots of delicious chocolate frosting, and the little specks are what feels like dippin dots without that melting sensation. And INSIDE, I got another magnificent surprise:


Wow, can someone say [drool] with me? Sometimes I wonder if it might be simpler and oh so sweeter to just get married and celebrate with the boy with a giant chocolate cupcake in one hand and a few servings of milk in a classic Disneyland cup in the other.

Faux Flowers

I know there are some who may accuse me of blasphemy, but I have actually been heavily researching and considering using silk flowers for many of my centerpieces and decorations.

GASP.

Yes, yes, call me crazy but I'm simply not sure if having real flowers would be worth the work and effort of maintaining them and keeping them fresh as the day goes on. Using all fresh flowers would mean that I would either have to purchase them from a florist (with an average cost of $100-300 per bouquet and $750 per large piece... yikes!), or seriously abuse my friendships the night before the wedding.

Apparently for my sister's wedding, there was just SO MUCH labor involved with the flowers (beautiful as they were), that my parents feel like a DIY endeavor and attitude would just not be worth it. As far as discussion with them goes, they seem to be more a fan of hiring help for this. However, I still can not mentally relax my tight fist and let so much money just slide across the table for flowers that will be wilting within the week, provided they even last the entire summer day.

So my perfect compromise? Silk flowers. Not only can my creative minds (namely, Beth harhar) and I complete the centerpieces and larger creations a few weeks or even a month before the wedding, well before the typical "pre-wedding stress" kicks in, I can also have a number of masterpieces that I can either save or take apart and keep for the years to come for my own home-decorating endeavors. In addition, since I have had close to zero experience working with flowers, I can also take my time in experimenting with them beforehand.

One thing that I had been worried about was the fact that they would be FAKE. Sure, it's silk, but it's still FAKE. Nothing can really compare to the soft, delicate feel of a petal personally hand-crafted by God, can it? Well, I suppose not, but in pictures I've been looking at of weddings with faux flower centerpieces (such as the one above), it's fairly difficult to decipher whether the flower's birthplace was in a factory or in a garden.

And, don't worry. The bouquets and boutinierres will still be as real as ever :)

Christmas?

You know that song, Do You Hear What I Hear from Christmastime?

Well the only verse currently playing in my head is "do you see what I see."

(hint, look to the right)

The First...

of many disappointments that I am sure are to come in this wedding planning. I was browsing through some photos and ideas about weddings, and I stumbled across this cake stand that I, for some really odd, unknown reason, just about FELL IN LOVE WITH. I've really been getting attached to the idea of having home-baked cupcakes with the help of friends, and I wanted to have a nice way of displaying them that wasn't as cluttered and squishy as some of the other images that I've seen. The cupcakes in those cases were cute, yes, but they were also kind of... busy. I can't quite explain what I mean.

And the worst part of it was that I was okay with that busy-ness because I hadn't really seen anything that made it look better. And then I saw THAT picture over there on the right. Immediately, my mind yelled [GASP]. It was my cupcake stand. LOOK AT IT. It's all tight and cute and together, and it's definitely still got a lively fun to its flair, but the air and space just in between the three layers, and the little satellite dishes over on the side let it have more of a classy touch to it all, it was SO PERFECT.

But when I searched online, I COULDN'T FIND IT. I had just this photo to go off of, and it took me a good hour and a half of avid searching online to finally discover its beautiful name: the Wilton Garden Cake Stand. So now, I pop this into google search, and it leads me to Bed, Bath and Beyond. Hooray! I think. Unbenownst to me at that moment, in 5 minutes I would be utterly frustrated and depressed because they DO NOT manufacture that cake stand anymore.

At this point in time, I have scoured every single possible place I can think of, from ebay to craigslist to google shopping to simply typing in a "used" at the end of the name, all in an effort to find my cupcakes their home. But alas, I have come to this blog empty handed. Le sigh. And to add insult to injury, I find out that, because it's made of all iron (look, quality!), it also has a horrifying price tag: $169.99. Makes that thirty dollar giant cupcake pan seem like something you'd get at a thrift store.

So that is the end of that adventure. I figure I'll still be able to find something that can replicate its classy touch without shelling out a heart attack. However! If any of you somehow stumble across it used and at a more reasonable price (say, preferably under 100 freaking dollars), I'd be glad to know about it. And again.. le sigh.