Maybe it's not too late for bon-favs?

I just stumbled across an American site called Beau-Coup which stocks all kinds of little party favour bits (wedding and otherwise). Unique ones (no, like actually stuff I haven't seen elsewhere, not 'unique' in the way it gets thrown about these days). Classy ones. That picture above? That's herbal cocktail infusers (add your own liquor and fruit juice). Yum!


And, most importantly, they actually ship to Australia! Well, everything except those gorgeous custom fortune cookies. Which is probably just as well. Because I don't think I could help myself. My other favourite is the personalised biscuit mix.

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?

Reception Venues with Decent Chairs and Wooden Floors

While I've heard many a person claim that they will not have their reception at a venue where the chairs need covering, my needs are more pedestrian (in the walking-on-the-ground sense). I completely and utterly refuse to celebrate my wedding at a place with carpet on the floor. Hate the stuff. Tiles are also out. It's just an easy way to quickly vet venues - if the place has carpet or tiles, it just isn't going to have the feel I want. While floorboards are the ideal, the venue we're ultimately going with is part floorboards, part concrete, part pavers (yes, inside). I don't mean to be mysterious, but I'll reveal our too-awesome venue when we actually make a deposit on it.

In the meantime, here is another non-80s, be-boarded place to party: Maria's on the Terrace. The food is pretty simple, and I can't vouch for it, but I can point out that the place is in Freo and owned by Italians. And I can't think of an Italian place in Freo where I haven't had a good - albeit not nouvelle cuisine - meal.

The place looks awesome, and they do some nice packages that mean you don't need to worry your pretty head about centrepieces and linen. It's on the first floor of a place on South Terrace, so your guests can hang out on the balcony and watch the crowd at Gino's and the Saturday night boglappers (I say this with all affection for Freo and my own wasted youth). An excellent choice if your guests are likely to party on once the official festivities are over.

Tsunami Sushi

Images from Tsunami Sushi

One of the nicest looking restaurant venues I've found in Perth is Tsunami Sushi. No dated '80s interiors - it's all sleek and magical. Their food is pretty awesome too (expert tip: squid ink risotto makes your lips black. Use napkin often). The wedding packages are kind of French-Japanese fusion (as is much of their menu), so it shouldn't be too weird for Aunt Beryl and her strictly anglo taste buds. An ex-wedding photographer acquaintance rated it as one of the best metro reception locations she'd been to.

They're in Mosman Park, in a small strip of shops, so plenty of free parking about and not too far for your guests to travel from a ceremony in Freo or King's Park.

Cakes with wild flowers

Both cakes are made and photographed by the amazing QuintanaRoo.

I mean wild in the 'awesome' sense, as well as the not-formally-arranged and not-formally-cultivated sense too. Aren't these (vegan) cakes just the most beautiful things you've ever seen? I think I'll be showing these to the Caker.


There's some other nice, bright fresh flower numbers here and here, and a rocking sugared fruit cake (and rocking groom) here.

More on cake

You know how I was talking about cake that looks like food? I think this cake, covered in toasted coconut thread, achieves that. I like to think that the top of the cake is dead flat white icing though. It'd be even better in tiers, mind.


And I'm liking the almost-smooth-but-not-quite-perfect icing on this poppyseed number. And those cute little blobbets. Meringues? Biscotti kind of thingies?

These both come from the Sweetness website, which is under construction. If you live in NSW, however, the sweets themselves are available already. I'd be looking into them as my caker, if I were not on the isolated side of Australia.

The Awesome Caker

I'm not sure where this is from now... possibly Martha Stewart?

I realised I nearly forgot to blog about The Awesome Caker* I met at the Bridal Lair. Kaylee was dressed in a polka dot New Look dress, with lace gloves and a bouffant. She had tasty, tasty cakey samples. Nothing was too hard (not even choc-mint flavoured red velvet cake).** She was friendly and bubbly and enthusiastic. Without being pushy. When I admitted that I found it hard to get excited about cake she looked at me agape and said "But cake is the best part of a wedding!"

Kaylee is the Wedding Cake Lady at the Cake Box, and she has her own blog here.

Neither I nor BCB are sure what we want in a cake yet, but my growing thought is that I want it to look like food. Seriously, most wedding cakes don't really look like something that could or should be eaten. So I'm thinking maybe something a little bit home-made and organic by way of icing, and fresh fruit... or else embrace the fake and just have loads and loads of huge icing flowers.

* I've decided Caker is the verb for someone that makes/ decorates wedding cakes.
** "Well, Red Velvet is really more a colour than a flavour. It's just a whole lotta food colouring. So if you really want choc mint red velvet it can be done." I loved the honesty.