Napkins

Yeah, so my bridezilla moment of madness was deciding to make all the napkins from scratch, in all different fabrics. I ordered eleventy billion Kaffe Fassett fabrics and set to. I did start out trying to manage some kind of colour scheme, but it got too hard, so I just chucked anything I fancied in the shopping basket and waited to see what would be delivered to my doorstep. Pretty, huh? Planning to roll them into rectangles, tied with a luggage label and a few brass bells, as place settings.

Urastarhouse is a star.

My little cake toppers have arrived! Man they are the coolest things ever! I've had them out on the mantlepiece to admire (next to my collection of plaster moulds of my teeth, if you're wondering what thing to the left is).

Cake Stands

Can't remember if I talked about this yet or not? Anyway, I was moderately horrified at the cost of Wedding Cake (that is, cake made by someone who professes to make wedding cakes). Not to mention it was important to me that only free range eggs, and actual real food (not the anhydrous doozamewhatsits of packet mix) be used. So we're running with three cakes from Sherbet Bake Shop instead. I asked Sherbet if they could stack their cakes, and they said (quite reasonably, with an explanation) 'no.' So I figured tiered cake stands would work well enough.

I initially enquired with local cake shops about buying a stand, only be quoted 'about $400' for what I wanted.... So then I bought a three-tier model off ebay. It was advertised with the image above. Just allow yourself a moment to fully appreciate the ghastliness of that image.

Add $40 worth of hobby store spray-lacquer in Pearlescent Red (thanks to the lovely guys at Stanbridges who not only helped me pick the right kind of paint, but kept a fairly straight face when I came back in red-handed, asking exactly what product would get the stray paint off my palms...).



Et voila. Not bad, hey? Imagine them laden with lusciously frosted white layer-cakes. Excuse any wobbliness in the stands - I couldn't be bothered to properly straighten them for their glamour-shot. So, $120 of cake, about $100 of cake stand and spraypaint. About half the price of the Wedding Cake quotes I got. I win.

It's been a while.

Image from EatDrinkChic.

Oops. Sorry. Life Got In The Way, as it is wont to do. Part of it involved a new little puppy called Lola, most of it didn't.

But I'm back to say: Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, look at this awesome blog. EatDrinkChic.

Amy Moss is a graphic designer/ stylist in Melbourne, who blogs about Nice Things (not wedding exclusive), but has put a whole lot of really cool, really free templates up on her site. Wicked stuff like origami flower instructions to give your bridesmaids, and vintage-style soda labels and favour boxes shaped like milk cartons. Tres, tres cool. Why did I not know about her before?

I'm totally trying to work out how to fit the Thankyou Flashcards into the wedding palaver. Just flat at the table settings? Write people's names and table number on the reverse? Enlarge and use as our thankyou cards?

Papel Picado

From one of my favourite 'stories' at Brides.com

I've been so tickled by pictures of American weddings that feature papel picado (something I'd not heard of until I entered the Wedding Arena). They're cute and fun and simple but they make you go "Oo! Skilled!" too.

I love the customised ones the best - the idea of having my and BCB's names surrounding kitschy sacred hearts and startled looking doves really, really does it for me. I've found a few places that will do customised papel picado, in differing quantities. Here, or here, say. Or here (an etsy site).

But if you don't need 'em customised, you can get them in Australia! The Lark is now selling papel picado. She has 'love' (red and white) and 'wedding' (all white) papel picado. I'm loving the red and white best... Since most venues in Perth forbid you in no uncertain terms from attaching anything to wall or ceiling (and few have beams that you could tie the string around) I'm thinking these could be strung in front of the bridal table in place of ruched tulle. So long as the tablecloth wasn't white. Pink, maybe?

Blooms

I love the idea of mint and basil - so fresh with cornflowers!

Okay, I clicked on this link by mistake, thinking it was something else. This florist (sorry, I can't get on board with the term 'floral designer') is the USA (SF & bay area). But oh. my. god. I thought I didn't care about flowers. I thought I'd just wholesale a whole bunch and stick them in op-shopped pint glasses (and hell, when I look at the budget I probably still will*). But for dreamy, dreamy inspiration, go check out Rose Now Floral.

(I'm dreaming of a rainbow bouquet now)

* But maybe I'll add some mint, and maybe some pansies or sweetpeas, to those glasses now.