Inspiration

Let's face it, anyone who is planning a wedding out there (and even some who aren't ;D) needs to be using Pinterest to compile any and all ideas. It seriously is the best planning tool available! I have found so many ideas for my wedding on Pinterest, and I am positive that I would still be completely lost if I didn't have it!

So here are some of the things that are the inspiration for my wedding...think vintage, lace, rustic, all that good stuff!

 

From left to right: gold, ivory, mint, pink, silver, white 

This is a super basic color scheme that I whipped up on...handy dandy "Paint" of course!! Haha, The colors are not as vibrant as I want them to be but they give the basic idea :) I plan on doing lots of neutrals, so metallics, ivory, and cream mainly, with the mint and pink accents. The bridesmaid dresses will probably be the mint color (check out the Vintage Eyelet Dress from Delia's on my last post) and my dress is white and ivory lace with gold and silver accents! For the pink, think of soft peonies...I love that color :)

For my own sanity, I am going to post a couple of images from the internet and Pinterest so that I can get a basic idea of how this will look! I honestly am super happy with the color palette above, although I wish the gold and silver were more vibrant! It is really hard to create a metallic color on Paint, lol.

This wedding is going to be full of:

• Lace, Burlap, and Pearls:

http://socrafty.squidoo.com/crafting/embroidery-hoop-wall-art

http://www.eventstoatdc.com/2011/09/edgy-lace/

• Soft Flowers:
  
  
  
  Hydrangeas
  http://blog.fiftyflowers.com/save-10-on-hydrangeas/
  
  
  
  Peonies
   http://bouquetbridal.blogspot.com/2010/07/pale-pink-peonies-bouquet.html
   
  
  Ranunculus
  http://www.tulipworld.com/ranunculus-bulbs/white-ranunculus.html
   
  
  Dahlias
  http://shop1.actinicexpress.co.uk/shops/rosecottageplants/index.php?cat=Dahlias
   
  
  Baby's Breathe (this may be the bridesmaid bouquet!)
  http://emmalinebride.com/handmade-wedding/babys-breath-bouquet/
  
  
  
  And Roses :)
  http://www.desicomments.com/desi/flowers/rose/
   
• LOTS of lights, but the awesome thing is that the barn at the winery where our wedding will be is already decorated with tons of lights...it is seriously beautiful!!
• That means I just have to worry about draping lots of tulle...if anyone has any suggestions on how to do this, let me know!
  
  
  
  Mason Jars, Candles, and Lace?! So perfect :D
  http://www.stylemepretty.com/gallery/photo/163049
• Maybe even a lace wedding cake?! Seriously, go check out the website weddingsbylilly.com, they have this article about lace wedding cakes and the pictures are GORGEOUS!! Click here for the direct link to their article. Get ready to be inspired :)

There is so much more to think about, but this is a good start! I feel really good having it all together in one place. This just keeps getting more and more exciting!

Here's to living the Ganache Life :D

Let's Forget the "Bridesmaid Dress" Label

So I am officially one of those people who starts a blog and then leaves it for a while! Oh dear, I never wanted to do that! This past semester was full of studying, working, studying, reading, and yes...more studying. But now that it is over and it is officially summer, it is time to relax! And along with this relaxation...wedding planning, hooray!

I have spent the last 2 weeks running all over town and going into every establishment that I can think of, all with the hopes of finding a summer job. With an entire wedding to plan, any extra income is greatly appreciated! However, I have yet to be successful, as several places have been giving me the runaround. It is undeniably frustrating when a potential employer refuses to let you know either way about the position you are applying for, to say the least. But with a lack of employment comes free time for planning and blogging, which is always a bonus! So if I am looking at the bright side of life, I currently have lots of time to get necessary things done (although if I happened to find a job today I would be ECSTATIC!)

One thing that has been on my mind lately has been bridesmaid dresses. I have never been a fan of dresses that are actually labeled "bridesmaid dresses", because I feel that they are overpriced and usually look stiff and unflattering. In my opinion, a girl looks best in something that she feels beautiful in, and the typical bridesmaid dresses just don't do that for me! I want my best girlfriends to feel gorgeous and happy at my wedding, which is why I am thinking about letting them pick their own dresses (para the mismatched look) or at the very least finding something on the cheaper side that they can wear again.

I read this great article today on Apple Brides (click here for the original article) that was specifically listing bridesmaid dresses under $100. One of the sections mentioned floral prints, and I actually love this idea!

Isn't that #1 dress adorable! I love it :) It is from Mod Cloth, and if you are looking for a great dress I would definitely recommend looking at their online store!

This article got me thinking, and I realized that I could potentially find a super cute dress online that my girls could rewear, actually afford, and also love! I stumbled upon Delia's online catalog, and let me tell you that some of their dresses are absolutely adorable!

Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to upload any larger pictures of their dresses from their website, so I will just put up the thumbnails :) Seriously, I love these dresses!

 Isobel Lace Dress, in Jade

Item#: 159307

$39.50

Allover Lace Belted Dress, in Blue

Item#: 302561

$39.50

Allover Long-Sleeve Lace Dress, in Dusty Pink

Item#: 303926

$35.50

Vintage Eyelet Dress, in Wasabi

Item#: 300435

$44.50

I was originally all about neutrals for the wedding, but I love the two green dresses...I can just see them when paired with fluffy cream and pink flowers - peonies, roses, ranunculus :). I like the cut of the two in the middle, especially for a winter wedding...long sleeves would be awesome, and the belts are just too cute! However, I am not as sure about the color of the pink...is it cute pink or kind of dreary pink? I am not sure yet, but I am pretty positive that Delia's may be providing my bridesmaid dresses!!

I will definitely post more now that it is summer, so get excited!

Cake-a-licious, Part 2

Here is Part 2 of the wedding cake frenzy! Making wedding cakes can be very stressful, but it is so much fun! I absolutely love doing it, and hopefully will be able to continue as time goes on!

This cake was made for my fiance's father. It is all White Wedding Cake (I actually just used the recipe from Martha Stewart, click here for the recipe!), and the fillings were chocolate ganache (of course!), lemon, and raspberry. I also used a basic buttercream recipe that complimented the lemon and raspberry perfectly. Each layer was cut into four pieces, which meant that I alternated buttercream and the flavored filling within each layer. It turned out delicious, and the bride and groom both loved it!

And yes, those roses ARE edible :)

The only thing that wasn't edible on the cake was the pearls used to decorate it, I tried to find edible pearls but the ones that were available didn't live up to my expectations so I just used actual jewelry pearls instead! I wanted to do something really special for the bride (now my new future stepmother-in-law), so I found a pearl necklace tutorial through Pinterest and decided to take the wedding cake pearls and whip up a quick necklace. 

I absolutely loved how it turned out! If you're interested, click here for the original tutorial that I followed when making this necklace. It was super easy to make, the hardest part for me was finding the ribbon clampers at Michael's! Those things were hidden in a wrack covered in silver clamps, posts, and wire for jewelry making... so confusing! I added an extra strand of pearls because I thought it would make it a little more elegant. Not gonna lie, I may go back and make one of these for myself, maybe in pink...

Cake-a-licious

Ever since the show Cake Boss came on TV, I have been obsessed with cake making! It is unbelievable how realistic these cakes are, and the amazing works of art that people create out of edible materials!

Personally, I have always loved making desserts. Over the past couple years I have experimented around a little with making specialty cakes. Here are just a couple snapshots of the first wedding cake I ever created, enjoy!

Cake in process :)

Close up!

The finished product, with the happy couple!

Be on the lookout for more cake posts, they're definitely a-comin :)

Eunice Logan Cookies

My mama makes the best desserts. Now, I know that all good children say that about their mothers, but for me it really is true! My mom knows desserts, and hers are always the best! Growing up, I always loved my mother's cookies more than any others, and once I was old enough to start making them myself I realized her secret: Eunice Logan.

We have a super old church cookbook from 1995 that is falling apart at the seams, and within those crinkled pages lies my mother's secret to the most perfect, delicious, milk-dunking that you have ever tasted! The recipe is by a woman named Eunice Logan, and although I have never met her...I love her for her recipe! Over the years, this recipe has become infamous in our family, known simply as Eunice Logan Cookies. I have even shared this recipe with my fiance's family, and now it is a favorite with them as well! So here you are, get super excited, because today the secret is out! Here is my family's secret cookie recipe, I hope it blesses you as much as it has blessed me!

Eunice Logan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2/3 cup butter or margarine

2/3 cup butter-flavored shortening

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

1 (3 1/2 oz.) package instant vanilla pudding mix

1 (12 oz) package chocolate chips

Directions:

With mixer, beat shortenings together until fluffy. Add both sugars, beat until well blended. Beat
in eggs and vanilla. Set aside. In separate bowl, mix together flour, soda, salt, and pudding
mix. Gradually add to beaten mixture, stirring well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by heaping
tablespoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 14-18 minutes. (Longer
baking time yields crunchy cookie, less time a chewy one.) Makes 48 cookies. 

Here are my helpful little additions to this recipe: We always used semi-sweet chocolate chips, there is no other way! Also, we never dealt with that separate bowl business, we just added the soda, salt, and pudding mix straight to the mixer and then added all the flour, slowly and carefully so it doesn't pouf! Also, remember that the cookies continue to bake on the cookie sheet when you remove them from the oven, so take this into consideration when timing how long to bake them.

I am pretty sure that the difference here is the butter flavored shortening, and most importantly the vanilla pudding mix. The shortening gives the cookies a more crispy finish, which makes them perfect for dunking in milk. And the extra vanilla flavor in the pudding mix gives these cookies the best flavor ever! Seriously, the cookie dough is so delicious we would often eat most cookies in dough form simply because they never made it to the oven!

And there you have it! My family's favorite recipe, one that has got us through hard and happy times alike. I have a great fondness for these cookies, and I hope that whoever tries them finds them to be as delicious as I do!

Bridesmaids Invitations

So today I thought I would post about the bridesmaids invitations I made recently. They are really easy to make, and I love how they turned out! (and they were actually really cheap too!)

Although I don't have an official date for the wedding yet, I just couldn't wait to ask my best friends to be my bridesmaids! I have known who I would ask for a long time now, and really wanted to make it something special. I love making things myself, so instead of just buying a simple card, I decided to make some instead! I went to Michael's and started browsing, and found the materials that I used to create these cute, simple invitations that I hope all of my girls will love! (sorry for the bad pics, they're from my phone...I'll try to edit them later!)

Materials: rubber cement, scissors, an exacto knife, a pencil, a BIC Mark-It 

ultra fine point permanent marker, ivory ribbon, beige paper, lace projector paper

I have had a hard time trying to come up with a color scheme for our wedding, however I have found myself drawn to lots of ivory and beige tones...lots of white and ivory flowers and fabrics, with touches of color here and there. I find a lot of the colors in weddings to be tacky nowadays, and I really feel that less is more. Therefore, I am thinking that we will keep it simple and classy! I went along with this idea for the bridesmaids invitations, and found a huge pack of ivory paper for about $3, and then picked up some lacey printed paper in the scrapbook section (kind of projector material, remember that "projector paper" from middle school?) and some ivory ribbon as well. I actually thought that the projector paper was lace paper sandwiched between two pieces of projector paper for protection and didn't realize that it was one sheet of projector paper until I got home, but oh well! It worked out nicely!

First step, I took the solid ivory paper and cut it in half width-wise, and then folded it to make the base for the card, as shown below.

Second, I cut the lace paper into four pieces, because it came in a huge square and I just needed it to cover the front of the card. I originally wanted it to act as a cover for the entire card (as in over both the front and the back, like a second layer), but the sizes didn't really match up. So instead I took the quartered lace paper and then trimmed it so that it would look really nice when placed on the front of the card. 

I wanted to have a nice handwritten script inside the card, but I didn't want to use one that was super common and printed from Microsoft nor did I want it to be written in my own messy handwriting. To fix this, I went online and searched for "script font", and found one that I thought was perfect! It is called "Before The Rain" font, and is a font created by Mans Greback that is free for personal use (click here to see the original website). The author of this font is very talented, i would definitely recommend checking it out! I typed in all of the text that I needed and then sketched out a guideline for my invitations (because I did want them to be handwritten).

As you can see, I also tested out how to glue the projector paper here...this 

is where I discovered that rubber cement is amazing!

Ok, so the next step was to sketch all of the text onto the card in pencil first, to ensure that all of the sizing was correct and that it looked good! I also drew a simple dress form on the right side of the card, just to add a little pizzazz to the invite overall. After that was finished, I used a BIC Mark-It ultra fine point Permanent Marker to go over the pencil and make it look like I actually have naturally beautiful handwriting! I love this marker because it doesn't run like a normal permanent marker, and looks both flowy and professional. Here's how it looked in the middle of the process:

I then used the rubber cement to glue the lace paper onto the front of the card. After that dried, I took the exacto knife and cut two slits on the front of the card all the way through, about halfway down on each side. Then, I took the ivory ribbon and threaded it through. 

Finally, I tied the ribbon in a bow and the project was complete! 

I loved how this turned out, and it could definitely be recreated in other colors to match other wedding styles. It would look really cool to have a bright color underneath the lace paper, that would make the lace pattern pop a whole lot more than it did on mine! After finishing this project, I think it would have been nice to place a sheet of white paper inside the card to create a border and add another element to the card overall. I also found that my bridesmaids (who probably knew what it was right away) were really excited and didn't know to untie the bow and pull the ribbon through to open the card, leading to some tearing. So if you try this for yourself, be aware! We don't need any card casualties ;)

So What Exactly is "Ganache"?

While I was creating this blog, my older brother came up to me and asked, "what is ganache"? It made me laugh, because he pronounced it exactly the way it looks, which is exactly the wrong way to say it. It is actually pronounced "ga-nah-shhhh", and is (so far) my absolute favorite baking technique!

Ganache is a mixture of cream and chocolate that is extremely versatile. It can be made into a glaze, filling, or icing, and can used on everything from candies to cakes. Not only is it simple to make, but it is also super sweet, super delicious, and super impressive!

So, in honor of my new blog, here is the recipe that I have used several times when baking wedding cakes. I found this recipe in the book "Essential Guide to Cake Decorating" by Alex Barker, which I would highly recommend if you are interested in baking eye-catching cakes. 

Ganache (page 41):

• 8 squares bitter, milk, or white chocolate, broken into pieces
• *I once tried to make this using semi-sweet chocolate chips, but to me the result was way too bitter. My personal fav is using milk chocolate, but ultimately it is up to you!
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1/4 cup dairy butter, softened

1.     Put the chocolate in a bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it is almost boiling.

2.     Pour the hot cream into the chocolate, stirring until the chocolate has melted, and blended with the cream.

3.     While still warm, work in the butter, which should be almost runny but not translucent (aka room temp)

4.     Flavoring ganache (optional):

o    Add any of the following before the ganache becomes firm:

o    1-2 tsp. finely grated orange or lemon zest

o    1/2 - 1 tsp grated nutmeg or ground cinnamon

o    2-3 tbsp brandy, whisky, Cointreau or your favorite spirit

o    1-2 tbsp strong black coffee or fresh orange juice

o    Anything else you can think of, get creative! Let me know if you find something that works out deliciously

5.     Coating with ganache:

o    Allow the ganache to cool and thicken slightly. Pour it all over the top of the cake in one firm swift movement. Spread the ganache gently for an even covering, or if it is still very runny, tap the cake board gently on the surface so the coating runs evenly. Leave to cool and set.

o    *Although I have never tried it, I know that ganache can be used to coat candies as well. Typically, the ratio differs a little bit. In general, two parts chocolate to one part cream are used for filling cakes or for a truffle base (yields thicker results), while one to one is usually used as a glaze (yields runnier results). I would definitely recommend placing whatever you are coating on a wire rack and placing something underneath to catch the excess, because this can get messy really quickly (trust me, I know!). After coating the cake/truffles/what have you, it helps to put it in the fridge or some cool place to help the chocolate set up a little.

6.     Frosting or piping with ganache:

o    Leave until cool but not set. Beat the ganache well with a wooden spoon (I actually used a whisk, it incorporates air faster) and it will lighten into a fluffy frosting. Spread this evenly as a filling or over the tops or sides of a cake. For piping, spoon into a medium piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe rosettes or roping around the cake.

o    * To speed up this process, I usually place the bowl in the fridge to help it cool faster. I would then take it out and whip it, then place it back in the fridge, repeating until it was the desired consistency of frosting. 

And there you have it! The inspiration for this blog, and one of my absolute favorite fillings for cakes and candies alike! So now that you understand the title of this blog...

Go out and live your own "Ganache Life"!


Note: These pictures are not mine, click here to visit the original websites: Image1, Image2, Image3