even though i struck out on my attempt to procure a cupcake from starbucks [seriously, there are 3 starbucks within walking distance of my office - though admittedly i didn't have time to walk to the third one...i bet you five dollars they had cupcakes. the jerks] i figured i’d passively and temporarily appease myself by looking at pictures of pretty, pretty cakes.
shall we?
charm city cakes
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just cake
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courtesy of martha stewart weddings
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ron ben-israel wedding cakes
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sugar creations
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the cake girls
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oh how i wish i could have any of these cakes right now. now that would be a fabulous way to celebrate a friday, don’t you think?
for something that few people pay a second thought to, let alone keep for posterity, people spend a lot of time and money fussing over invitations. while i would love to drop down the coinage needed to have my hands on some of the wonderful and amazing letterpress eye candy, i know there’s no way i’d be able to squeeze those into the budget. not if i want a photographer and a cake.
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of course, there are those people who swear they don’t have a creative bone in their body [or extra money to put into buying all the supplies to make their own fabulous invitations on the cheap] but thankfully there are fantastic options for those who shiver at the thought of gluing paper. let’s just say we’ve come a long way from the days of at home printing with a choice between the interlocking hearts and swirls.
the new generation of diy invitations are both beautiful and wallet friendly. and the best part? available at the local target and/or michael’s. and if it’s at michael’s then you can get them even cheaper with those ubiquitous 40% off coupons that float around every week. i know there’s a similar line at wal-mart done by martha stewart but honestly, i haven’t seen much that i’ve been impressed with.
one thing that’s always caught my eyes was the chuppahs and canopies and such at weddings. i understand the symbolism behind chuppah and know that it’s not just for decoration but there are some simply wonderful and beautiful chuppahs out there!
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christina aguilera’s extreme chuppah!
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sometimes when i’m at church i like to dress it up in my mind. i know i should be paying attention to the pastor but it’s kind of hard when i’m trying to visually measure just how much space is up on the podium. or counting how many pew decorations i’ll need and if i should put something on the pillars on the sides of the sanctuary.
i mean, its hard trying to pay attention while looking for the book and verse he just quoted. because i was too busy wondering if i wanted to make an aisle runner.
i think i should ask for forgiveness and repent.
with the house properly decorated and the guest sufficiently stuffed, we moved on to the party games. depending on the shower, the games can add to the fun or just add to the misery. i was determined to make sure this event was the former.
first off, we created a small book of newlywed advice for jacki. i printed up a set of 3×5 cards with designs i borrowed from paper source and mounted them on 4×6 sheets of scrapbook paper i bought at michael’s [cut from 12x12 sheets]. we asked people to write out a note of wisdom/advice as they arrived and at the end of the shower, we presented jacki the album filled with the notes.
i covered the front and back of the album because i didn’t think florescent kitties quite fit the theme.
our first game was “decorate a cake.” jacki’s mom very kindly supplied the sheet cake [to make the mini wedding cakes] and all the icing for us. we had twelve cakes and intended to have the group break into teams of 2 – 3 people except no one paid too much attention to us over the excitement that they’d be decorating the cakes. teachers…they’re the worst at following directions. the group turned out to be super competitive and creative. it was hard for jacki to pick just one cake so she picked 3 winners.
the second game was the classic “what would [insert groom’s name] say?” earlier in the week i had recorded ed’s answers to a few questions and burned it onto a dvd. we upped the hilarity factor by stuffing bubble gum in jacki’s mouth for every wrong answer. people were laughing out loud at the video and jacki was none too pleased…especially after getting 13 questions wrong.