Let them eat cake.

Sometimes you see delicious foods, and you get really excited to try their creamy or tart or rich deliciousness. But then after the first bite, you wonder if you accidentally ate something that was for display only. Prime example: chocolate extravaganza night on cruises.

photo cred to Grandpa Earnshaw

Those cakes with chocolate dragons coming out of them look amazing! But they taste horrible. It's a huge letdown. This is a legitimate concern when it comes to wedding cakes. I want my wedding cake to taste better than it looks.

Camille with some cupcakes she made for my graduation

Luckily, I have an extremely kind, beautiful, and intelligent, not to mention talented, sister who makes wedding cakes! She started with fancy cupcakes and has since expanded to wedding cakes, as is seen by the two weddings my family had last year that were graced by her remarkable baked confections:

Corinne and Mario, 30.3.2012

Audrey and Hernan, 19.6.2012

Photo cred to Miriam Hermansen

Not only do these look amazing, they tasted fantastic! I definitely remember eating more cake than anything else at Corinne's reception. Basically, Camille is a genius cake maker, and I love the idea of getting my family involved in my wedding. Camille is happy to help, and she's already been asking me for wedding cake ideas! I took about half an hour with my personal wedding planner (aka pinterest) and found some that I think will look classy, and knowing Camille, they'll also taste great (which is Brian's biggest concern). 

Camille is going to test run this one for her husband's
birthday this weekend :) Happy Birthday, Eric!

So I obviously don't have a really clear picture of what I want, but I really like all of these. I'm mostly just really grateful that I can cross "find cake maker" off my list since I know Camille will do something amazing. 

Can you think of any cake designs that would look particularly vintage?

Blue, of course.

Everyone knows I'm obsessed with blue. I just looked through my facebook profile pictures to prove my point ("Just look at my prof pics, I'm wearing blue in all of them!"), but I'm actually only wearing blue in like 25% of them. Just know I love blue things. Something about having blue eyes.

So when picking my wedding colors, I at least knew one of them: blue. But in case you didn't know, there's a freakin' million different blues. I didn't want a sailor theme--too cliche since I'm from Maine. I wasn't getting married in the winter, so I couldn't have it be too wintry or cold blues. Luckily there's a brilliant site for people who are color-matching impaired (and the non-impaired) called The Perfect Palette. I clicked on a blue I liked and scrolled through the options til I found one I liked. I'm a pretty conservative person, and Brian will look, admittedly, incredibly dashing in a gray suit (that he's purchasing in Portugal; so classy), so blue and gray it is. And I didn't want a white dress, so sure, how about ivory. These are the paint chips/color swatches I got from Walmart to sent to the bridal party:

The plan isn't to have matching dresses or suits. I just want everyone in our families and then my bridesmaids and his groomsmen to wear something that matches one of the colors I send them. So, blue shirt, gray skirt? Sure thing. Ivory dress and navy sweater? Perfect. Solid blue ties for sure. And suspenders. Some samples:

What should I do for shoes--just have them pick a color? Gray heels perhaps? 

Or accessories? I love pearls...

Cute random dating story: If you click on the Perfect Palette link, you'll come up to a palette that I originally picked out a long time ago... When Brian and I dated the first time, I thought we would get married, and one day at work (I was doing an internship in DC while Brian was PhD-ing it up in Pittsburgh) I didn't have a lot to do, so I compiled pictures of colors, rings, wedding dresses, and announcements I liked. Not only are we using the colors I picked out about 14 months ago, my ring is one off the doc, and I'm modeling the announcements after one that I found then. Life happens in cycles, I guess :)

You should see it on my finger :)

Engagement Story in Pictures.

 On December 23, 2012, Brian and I went for a walk at Fort Williams. The picture sequence that follows tells the story of what happened next.

Brian says we should stop and look out at the ocean while he waits to receive a picture message from "Andrew"

Brian jumps the fence and says I should, too. I take some convincing, but finally catch on. 

Brian leads me down the cliff. 

We get to a certain place where a bouquet of roses is waiting.  Brian gets down on one knee and asks me to marry him. I say yes (of course!!!!). 

"Don't kiss me too much, there's a photographer!"

He fits the gorgeous engagement ring onto my finger. I LOVE it.

We walk back up the cliff, beaming, to Caitlin and her mom who had been hiding out taking pictures the whole time!

so happy!

lighthouse :)

 I'm the luckiest girl in the world!

Wedding blog.

So I'm getting married in June. To this cutie:

I'm really excited. But I also occasionally get overwhelmed by the fact that I'm going to school full time, working 20 hours a week, volunteering for two organizations, and planning a wedding that's taking place 2500 miles away to a man that lives 5000 miles away from me. 

The part that overwhelms me is the wedding part. I'm not very artistic (the only activity I do that can be even close to creative is making cards out of cut outs from magazines) and the idea of planning a big formal event like a wedding for 100+ people intimidates me. There's the balance between cheap but not cheap looking, trendy but not tacky, classy but not stiff. I need a color scheme, announcements, engagements, a dress, a venue, decorations, food, flowers, a cake, and so much more that is all tied together by a single theme that I decide on. I've thought a lot and have some good ideas, but frankly, I can't see it coming together without some help.

 I went back and forth thinking about doing some wedding blog posts to get feedback from other people. Do I want/trust advice from strangers? Do I want to expose my wedding insecurities (about the planning, not the groom... no insecurities there) so publicly? And then I decided why not. At the end of the day, I can use all the help I can get, and it'll be useful for me to write out my thoughts coherently. I'll be posting about announcements, color scheme, my dress (that I just got today!!), reception venue, and pretty much anything else that comes to mind. I'm asking for feedback!

But just to get the wedding creativity juices/excitement flowing, here are some of our engagements. I love them! Photo credit to Lisa Ruth Photography!