This weekend kicked off Saturday with Brad making me a delicious breakfast of grits, scrambled eggs, and hashbrowns.  He doesn't cook for me often, but I so appreciate it when he does.  He let me have a lazy kind of morning, complete with watching House and fretting about wedding-related activities.  After a bit, we headed out to run some errands.  We went to Michael's and Hobby Lobby, where Brad waited in the car.  We went to Men's Wearhouse, where Brad picked up some new shoes, socks, and shoe trees.  Since he bought all the guys' suits here, on his credit card, he had $150 in rewards and spent about $20 for all his new purchases.  Not too bad!  We also stopped by the mall so I could pick out a gift for my dad.  While there, I noticed that the Gap was running 50% off all women's clothes and Brad let. me. shop.  Now, for those that we don't know in real life, this is a huge deal.  Brad is the saver and I am the spender of the relationship.  I took this as a sign that the weekend and short bit of time left until the wedding would be wonderful.  :)

Saturday night found us at a wedding for Tracy, a girl I went to grad school with and work with currently.  She and her now-husband got engaged a week or two after Brad and I did and we have been thrilled to have someone to talk weddings with. 

Isn't she a beautiful bride?

Delicous candy buffet.  Brad was a huge fan of the gummies.

This isn't the highest quality photo, I know.  I took it hurriedly

with my iphone as I was trying to enjoy the wedding.

Their gorgeous (and delicious!) cake. 

On Sunday, Brad and I woke up early to go to church with his grandma.  She lives two hours away from us, so it was an all-day affair.  We went to church, lunch, and then she had cake and ice cream for us!  It was a sweet day and we capped it off with a visit to his parents, since I haven't seen them in weeks.  His dad wanted to show me how the flowers were doing and talk with me about some other DIY projects I have him signed up for.

Tiny church.

More flowers from Brad's parents' flower garden. 

I am thrilled that we'll have home-grown flowers at the wedding.



Kids, we are at 17 days until the wedding.  I finalized cake yesterday and picked up our guest book.  I finalize flowers on Wednesday (for the bouquets).  The to-do list is seeing some progress, but I will be so happy when Brad and I can just sit at home, as husband and wife, and watch TV.

--Melanie

Cake, Etsy, & Flowers, too!

Hello, out there! My job has kept me pretty busy as of late, so I apologize that I haven't been posting more frequently. Next week is Spring Break and I'm hoping to recharge and relax and plan some wedding stuff!

Brad and I went to the BonBonerie on March 8 and ate so much delicious cake and had a wonderful time! Well, I had a wonderful time. Brad figured out that wedding cakes cost money and was displeased at the prospect. :) Our consultant welcomed us and offered any drink we could see. I chose a Crush because, well, that sounded yummy. We were shown the available list of cake flavors and invited to choose five for tasting. While we were tasting, she discussed different ideas of how the cake could look and paid special attention for my request of a non-table-scratching cake stand. She recommended that we keep the cake strictly on the silver platter and decorate with flowers in order to protect the table the cake will sit on.

When we were preparing to leave, she took the time to put our leftovers in a box along with a sixth cake flavor and two cupcakes. She made sure that we had--in writing--the prices of each option we were considering. Such a switch from the last cake tasting! After munching on cake for the next three days, Brad and I decided to go with the BonBonerie and paid a deposit.

Another great thing that happened recently is that I made my first etsy purchase! That site is amazing and I've bookmarked so many things that I love. I might be dangerous... Anyway, here is a picture of our personalized silverware that I am beyond excited about. Anyone who knows me knows that every piece of silverware I own has been acquired from some restaurant. Every piece. It seems fitting then to have strange silverware at the wedding.

Finally, I have started looking at flowers. I've gotten quotes and ideas from two florists and I think I know what I want the bouquets to look like. I just need to find the best price now so I can tell Brad that we kept at least one thing within budget. I want the bouquet to be tied, so it'll be a round shape with lots of texture, height, and color. I'm pretty stoked about this, but I want to remind everyone with allergies that this will be an outdoor shingdig. Please, take your allergy meds.

Please feel free to comment if you have ideas of flowers that may look wonderful in this bouquet and/or recommend a florist to me!

--Melanie

Awkward Cake Tasting

I guess I thought that when we booked a cake tasting it would go something like this...

Baker presents cakes and talks about the different flavors, options, frostings. Bride and groom are asked which cake looks they prefer, how many people, what flavor is yummy. Baker then works with them on initial design so accurate idea of cake and cost is given.

Brad and I had our first cake tasting last night and it did not go like that at all. We were given yummy cake to try. Chocolate-raspberry, yellow with strawberry filling, and marble. She brought out the carrot a few minutes after the initial three because I had specifically asked about that flavor when booking the tasting.

(Photo credit: Brad or Me with the iPhone. Also, Blogger hates me and will not orient this picture correctly.)

We were left alone for most of the time, not really knowing what to discuss. The baker finally returned and asked us which ones we liked and if we had a cake style in mind. I told her that I liked the look of buttercream, as seen on a picture in a cake lookbook we were given to peruse. She said that the outside would be made of the icing on our sample cakes, but gave no hints as to what that was or how we could get the look of buttercream that we expressed interest in. She brought Brad a take-home box for the remaining bits of cake and gave me a price list. That was it.

I guess we should have asked more questions, but she didn't seem very outgoing or interested in answering questions. Also, we don't really know what questions to ask. Ideas?

On our way home, I was feeling pretty yuck about the whole thing and wondering if this was going to be as ridiculous a process as finding the venue. We checked mail and headed upstairs and that is when my mood began to lift.

This beauty was just waiting for me and knew I would need to be re-energized when it came to cakes. Thank you, Martha. I haven't made it through the entire issue yet (I like to savor the first time through), but I am already feeling like we can find a cake at a suitable price. We will get better about figuring out which questions to ask and we will get to eat more free cake. Also, Brad and I are laughing about the awkward cake tasting, which helps a lot.

--Melanie

P.S. In case you're not already counting down, we are at 199 days until the wedding. Get stoked.