Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Wedding Craft #9: Bow Napkins

While I was preparing sparkly meringues, my best friend Junko, was on my living room floor folding 200+ napkins into adorable bows.
Bow Napkins
Junko folded the napkins, then wrapped a piece of fabric ribbon around the middle and taped the ribbon in the back, to make these sweet little bows (below image by Our Labor of Love).
Bow Napkins and Jam.
They looked perfect with our homemade jam favors!

Up next: Wedding Craft #10: Quilt Guestbook

Monday, October 11, 2010

Wedding Craft #8: Sparkly Meringues

The dessert table at our wedding was my pet project. Forget the dress, forget the venue, I was all about the dessert table. I wanted something whimsical, fluffy, and a little ooey gooey. We were lucky enough to have Sweet & Saucy Shop make our cake, caramel apples, and strawberry shortcakes and our friend Jill made us hundreds of French macarons. We also had a fun array of candies, fluffy pink donuts from Colorado Donuts, powdered donuts, cotton candy (thanks to our friend Maegan), and my sparkly meringues!
Sparkling Meringues
Everyone said I'd be totally stressed days before the wedding, but I was surprisingly calm. Brian, my friend Junko, and I all hung out, preparing last minute details, but we were all pretty mellow. Mellow enough to drive down to Trader Joes and buy a few cases of meringues, some white chocolate, and some pink and blue shimmery sprinkles. First, I melted the chocolate.
Melting white choclate
Then, I dipped each meringue lightly into the chocolate.
Dipping the meringues
Before the chocolate dried, I dipped the meringue into a plate of sprinkles. Either blue or pink.
Sparkling Meringues
I had quite a little assembly line going on.
Sparkling Meringues
I was so excited about how they were coming out, they looked like little jewels.
Sparkling Meringues
Or, exotic underwater sea creatures! They looked so lovely at the wedding, here they are, photographed by Our Labor of Love:
Sparkling Meringues

Up next: Wedding Craft #9: Bow Napkins

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Wedding Craft #7: Wedding Cake Topper

I realize I've been missing on the blog scene for a while. Let me tell you friends, lots has happened. I got a new job and it's been pretty great. I love what I do. Being a librarian is really fun! Really! It's been an intense few months settling in, but I think I'm finally ready to throw myself back into blogging and crafting again. And now the long awaited wedding craft #7! It's a really funny story actually. I was really touched when my mom gave me her own wedding topper to use for my wedding. She had been saving it in a box with her wedding dress, her veil, and other wedding memories.
Cake Topper, in progress
This is what it looked like when my mom gave it to me. I loved it, but I have to admit, the fabric around the bride's dress and the dingy white base wasn't ideal - but it was my mother's, so I couldn't change it. I mean, this is the same exact wedding cake topper that my parents used on their own wedding cake! Right? Wrong! Yes, wrong! So, for 1 year, I held onto my mom's cake topper, as-is. Then, only weeks before the wedding, I was looking through my parent's wedding album and discovered that their cake had a completely different topper! I'm not sure why my mom held onto this cake topper or for that matter, what happened to her actual cake topper? Either way, this was my green light to make some guilt-free changes.
Cake Topper, in progress
I wanted to work on the base of the cake first, so I wrapped the rest of the topper in foil and some tape.
Cake Topper, in progress
I then applied lots of glue and lots of sparkles.
Cake Topper, in progress
Gold sparkles cover the entire base of the new topper, which helped inspire the design of the wedding cake.
Cake Topper, in progress
Here the topper is, almost done, but not quite yet.
Finished Cake Topper
I added a small veil and removed the fabric on the bottom of the dress and it was all ready! Below are a few photos by our photographers, Our Labor of Love, from the wedding day.
Our wedding cake
The gold glitter from the base inspired the gold glitter sprinkles around our big pink cake.
Our wedding cake
And just in case anyone was wondering, our cake (made by Sweet & Saucy Shop) was delicious!
Our wedding cake
In fact, our entire dessert table was pretty grand.
Our dessert table

Up next: Wedding Craft #8: Sparkly Meringues