Oh and that first picture…well, that is the picture that made me get down on my hands and knees and BEG for more pictures of this wedding. It’s bliss.

all photographs by the lovely and talented Lauren Brooks

From Nicole, the gorgeous bride…

Our tight budget encouraged out of the box thinking when it came to catering. A few years ago an acquaintance had attended a wedding that served pizza. We love gourmet pizza so I began researching some options. Living two hours from our venue made this difficult, but I ended up finding a Pizzicato owner who was willing to work with me. It was a big risk – he had never catered an event of our size (100ppl), but the price was right. Being detail oriented helped me in getting every little thing into a contract. And the food turned out perfectly – it was all delicious and hot. Our guests thought it was a great idea (we are a pretty casual bunch).

A wedding cake was never something I dreamed of so I ignored everyone who told me it would be too much to do it ourselves and did it. I made a 10-inch lemon poppyseed with raspberry cake for us to cut and brownies, lemon bars, and cupcakes for our guests. Our cake topper consisted of a $3 thrifted bride and groom and crepe paper flowers I made using a Martha Stewart kit (I had used these as my bouquet at the rehearsal). I had seen the mini bride and groom picks in a featured wedding on Style Me Pretty and couldn’t resist – we hand painted the hair and flowers on all 100. We placed our desserts on trays we made using thrifted plates, glasses, and candlesticks.

For our bar, I rented two cocktail tables and we had family friends pour wine. We had barrels of ice and bottled local microbrews (and corona – a nod to our honeymoon) for guests to serve themselves.

The whole reception was fantastic – I don’t think I left the dance floor. I have had many guests tell me it was the most fun they had had in years. All the work and effort is worth it because of that and the fact that we ended up married.

A few more fun details are on their way!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2008. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cake Toppers, DIY Wedding Cake, Martha Stewart, Pizza, Pizzicato
Post categories: Budget Beautiful, Casual Elegance, Do-It-Yourself Inspired

Ummm, hello gorgeous. Perfect, perfect, perfect for a simple, chic affair. For full instructions, click right here.

I am also loving these DIY cake toppers, inspired by Ann Wood’s gorgeous designs and crafted by a couple of her readers…

So cute, so charming on top of a simple, modern cake! Check out the full instructions, right here.

More to come!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cake Toppers, Centerpieces, Design Sponge, Design*Sponge, Do-It-Yourself Inspired
Post categories: DIY Projects

These toppers are all charm. But I have to say, this next one is my new favorite…

If you don’t already know about Chapeau de Gateau, you HAVE to check out their newly launched etsy shop. What owner and designer, Alison, can do with ribbon is, well…brilliant! All toppers are handcrafted using Mokuba ribbons and can be customized to compliment you colors.

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2008. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cake Toppers, Chapeau de Gateau
Post categories: Wedding Cakes

I love how simple and pretty this wedding is…almost delicate. From the sweet little cake toppers, to the bottles of root beer, there is just a hint of whimsy in an otherwise lovely style. Thanks so much, Tiffany, for sending!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2008. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Breast Cancer Awareness, Cake Toppers, Whimsical Wedding Details
Post categories: Real Weddings

all photos by Miguel Irias Photography

I wish that we had a picture of the guest bags that Deb crafted. They were little, silly felt bags with various animal cut-outs on them and a tiny custom button attached to the corner. It was the simple, but fun touches like this that made the whole affair seem so fun and approachable!

I have pictures of Debra’s gorgeous stationery suite coming up!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2008. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Busy Beaver, Cake Toppers, DIY Inspired, Miguel Irias Photography, Palm Beach
Post categories: Do-It-Yourself Inspired, Real Weddings, Traditional Elegance

The birds are handmade using the most beautiful vintage and recycled fabrics and accents, and are adorned with tiny wire feet that would sit perfectly atop your cake. How sweet are these? Don’t you love them? You can check out her complete line on Etsy or right here on her Angela’s website!

More Etsy finds coming throughout the day!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2008. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cake Toppers, Cotton Bird Designs, Etsy
Post categories: Wedding Cakes, Wedding Details

To Make These Invitations…

Supplies bought at Archiver’s, The Photo Memory Store, Donahue Paper Emporium, Michael’s

Supplies Used:
Curious Metallic Paper in Galvanized
Neenah Paper in Red Linen, White Linen, Black Linen
Wonder Tape
Tombo Mono Adhesive
Epson Stylus Photo 1400
Fiskars Paper Trimmer
Marvy Circle Punch
EK Success Circle Cutter
Fonts: Goudy Old Style and Porcelain

Choose a size that is cost effective and will allow you to get the most cuts out of a sheet of paper without a lot of paper waste.

Print the pieces of the invitations at home on a nice color printer which will allow you to add color to the invitations without having to pay a lot for color prints from a professional printer.

Take stacks of paper to a place like Kinko’s or Office Depot that can cut through a whole stack of paper at once.

My invites were made by using two sheets of red paper per invitation. One sheet was scored like a gatefold. The other was scored in half with a triangle cut out from one side. This piece was then glued to the right side flap of the first piece to create a pocket.

I designed the pieces in the pocket so the were each 1/2 inch wider so they would stack and the titles on each card could be read.

I created a band with a circle that had the wedding date on it which slid over the invitation to keep it shut and flat.

***

I’m not sure that I have seen anything quite this cute in a long time…this DIY Cake Topper was created by the groom, inspired by the couple themselves…the first pictures shows the couple so that you can see the likeness in the cartoon cake topper…

Instructions on Making the Cake Topper…

This cake topper is based on a sketch my husband does of us when we sign christmas cards, or send out notes to people. All of our friends and family know of the sketch, and so we thought it would be a lot of fun to transform it into a “3-D” version!

The materials used were polymer clay (sculpey & fimo brand), a wood base, wooden skewers, and a miniature veil. Everything was purchased at a local craft store, with the exception of the skewers which we had in the kitchen drawer. The veil was a scrapbooking accessory that happen to be sized perfectly for my miniature self.

My husband modeled each figure by hand in seperate pieces… head, bouquet, body, etc… and then used a wooden skewer to hold us together. The assembled brid and groom were baked in our home oven according to the directions on the clay package. We then used tacky glue to secure them to the wooden base.

I would suggest to anyone that models their own topper to start early! We procrastinated big time, and it was a bit stressful for us the weeks before the wedding. Also, communicate with your bakery before you start. You will want the topper to fit on the top tier of your cake! Our’s didn’t, oops. You should also inform them that the topper is much heavier than a standard topper so they can prepare the cake structurally!

***

These Origami Bouquets and Boutonnieres are so insanely creative, I am 100% convinced that the bride should be doing this professionally. I wouldn’t have thought to extend the origami into the bouquets, but she has pulled it off so beautifully, you don’t even miss the real flowers!

To Make the Origami Bouquets…

To make each bridesmaid bouquet, I made 6 origami lilies in 3 different shades of 150mm blue origami paper. I made 3 buds, and 14 leaves using instructions from a book of origami flowers. I also made 7 “bead sticks” per bouquet which were pieces of silver wire, threaded with beads in different shades of blue, clear and white. I attached each flower and bud, along with their leaves to a green floral wire stem with craft glue and brown floral tape.

I held the bouquet in front of a mirror to arrange the flowers, and then wrapped the entire arrangement in wire which was then covered with glue to hold them in place. The glue and wire were covered with bows of brown and blue ribbon which hung down.

More to come later today!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2007. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bouquets, Cake Toppers, Origami, Wedding Invitations & Stationery
Post categories: DIY Projects