Wedding Bliss

Babies! We were babies!This year Jason and I will be married 10 years. That means that it's been about 10 years since I've obsessed over weddings... well, with a reason to. I am the woman that IF I have 10 minutes to myself will sit alone at Barnes and Nobel, sipping a coffee and thumbing through Martha Stewart Weddings and if I *happen* upon a wedding website, just may stop and take a look around. 

*SIGH*

I loved my wedding. The only thing that I slightly regret was that I was a little too young to really get into the WHOLE WEDDING THING. I didn't truly love paper yet, and I was 100% thrilled with my $60 Nina shoes and no name dress and didn't have the slightest clue about flowers. Luckily my mom worked for an event planning company and I ended up with a positively perfect day. These days, I would probably be the snootiest bridezilla ever. 

So, for the past few years I've been content to glance in from the sidelines and wonder.. wonder how my day would be different if I was getting married August 5, 2010 rather than August 5, 2000. But who are we kidding.. I would be walking down the aisle in Christian Louboutin's at this age.. 

But then a few months ago something wonderful happened - wonderful in SO MANY WAYS - one of my dearest friends got engaged.. and.. and.. she's letting me help! I don't think Carrie understands how excited I am about her allowing me to send her daily emails with flower ideas and pretty dresses. I'm not taking over her wedding - or trying to relive mine through hers - but I'm loving having a reason to look. And I swear that I am one of the only people in the world that can sit and talk weddings for hours upon hours.

But it has been awhile, and I am a bit out of the loop of wedding websites. As I hate to even admit, back when I got married the web was still pretty new. We had AOL dial-up and the only real site was the Wedding Channel.com. That being said, scouring the web for wedding ideas is a new thing for me.

One of the ones that one Carrie's other friends stumbled upon is 100 Layer Cake. A site who's pictures of real weddings make the photographer wanna-be in me squeal. And of course there is the blog from the QUEEN of the dessert tables, Amy Atlas, and my go-to party inspiration mama Hostess With The Mostess. But who else?

When you need ideas, or inspiration, where do you look?

Party Hangover

First let me say that everyone should throw themselves a birthday party every few years. I'm an Aries and ramming my birthday into other people's lives is something that I do very, very well. I love celebrating birthdays - mine, the kids, Jason's.. but the problem with organizing a going out night these days is getting groups on the same page. Some people like nice dinners and early nights, others like to meet at a bar. There always seems to be that point in the evening where you lose people in the transition and you feel bad because you are forcing others to pay money to do something that they may really not want to do. I wanted to celebrate, have a good time, have good music, good food and good drinks and a general good time with my friends. Plus it doesn't hurt that I totally like to throw parties. A Win-Win situation. 

A few months ago when I was working with It's a Luv Thing on the Leucadia Sends Luv event, I met Marsha. SUPER Sweet and well connected "jane of all trades" that lives just down the street from me. She's an amazing coordinator and bartender all in one. Being that I wanted to also ENJOY my own party, I hired her for the evening. She had the DJ connection, so there we were. Marsha made the party - literally. She made everyone there a martini or a lemon drop - she helped me set up and she helped me clean up. At one point I mentioned that I wish I had the Bliss Lights that they had at the Leucadia Sends Luv event, and she was on the phone arranging them for me in minutes. She rocked. Especially because I ended up a bit crunched for time and jumping in the shower at 6:45!

The night before the party I had my list of things that I needed to get done - Trader Joe's, BevMo, Cake Ball Prep, cleaning and organizing (I'm usually very meticulous, pulling out linens placing things where I know I want them set up) but thanks to a certain 2.5 year old's meltdown and margaritas that were a wensie-bit too strong at dinner, all I managed to do is plop some chocolate on the cake balls and crawl into bed. I also had a slow start on Saturday morning (damn, margaritas) so needless to say I was a little behind schedule. 

But as always, things came together beautifully, ifIdosaysomyself..

 While the cake balls were not the object of perfection like I was envisioning them to be, I saved them by putting them in black and white Zebra striped cupcake wrappers. And let me tell you, they were the HIT of the party. Yes, Pete Schweddy was quoted multiple times throughout the night, because "No one could resist my moist, delicious balls."

While really not photogenic, the Bliss Lights lit up the back like Pandora. And the vodka bar made everything, well, fuzzy and delightful!

A few things didn't go as planned.. the chandelier sticker is actually from Target - the Etsy one had more problems than I care to discuss - and I totally forgot about the pink and black paper poms, which I didn't even think about until I saw them sitting on my desk the next day. LaLaLa!

Bakerella #FAIL

I read at Bakerella regularly, lusting after her perfect macaroons, delicious cookies and being super jealous of her amazing creativity and skills. For Lucas' party I attempted, and was pretty successful with, the brain cake, chocolate lollipops and also chocolate covered marshmallows.. so I will admit, I was feeling a little cocky. Can I actually be the girl that decorates AND bakes with Pizzazz?! Can I lose myself in the joy of perfectly decorating a cupcake and the table to go along with it? A girl has to have goals. 

I have this vision for the dessert table at my party and in effort to go with the trends and impress my friends with my SKILLZ, I decided I was going to make Bakerella's signature "Cake Pops"...

*photo from Bakerella's site.. and will click you to her cake pops..yes, everything she does is perfect and wonderful

Take a look at those, so perfect on the stick.. just beautiful and delicious. And PINK, the exact color I want. The recipe doesn't look too hard - and it involves cake from a box! That's SO how I roll. When things call for a "sifter" I immediately glaze over. 

Making My Cake And Eating It Too

Luckily, and because I'm smart, I decided to do a test batch.

I thought it would be a fun birthday dessert for the family on my actual birthday. And don't think that I didn't have this vision in my head of me serving these beautiful cake creations to my happy, smiling, recently bathed and cozy in their PJ's kids, while Jason and I, 20 lbs lighter (me) looking perfectly causal in the perfect jeans and a simple t-shirt with long flowing blond hair (also me) sip champagne and toast my birthday in a perfect remodeled kitchen... Oh, these visions of grandeur!! They will kill me in the end I swear. 

So I make a cake (and almost under cooked it - then forgot about it in the oven. Thanks to Jason for paying attention when I bake. ;0) ), let it cool, add the frosting and mushed up cake in a bowl, squish it all together, make beautiful little balls placed perfectly on wax paper, chill, add sicks... chill... all is going so well! I DO have talent! I rock.. let's dip these babies in the chocolate... Oh, what???

Okay, so that one didn't work.. hmm.. neither did that one..maybe if I try this? maybe.. Oh, crap*

(*not really the actual word used)

After a while, and way after bedtime, I did get a few of them to work... then I remembered the black edible glitter that I bought (remember: visions of grandeur! beautiful round pops of delight decorated perfectly!) and decided to add those to a couple of the non-deformed balls. While I was thinking BLACK GLITTER = FUN! The result was a little, um.. well, not really intended.

Hey! Who ashed on my cake pop?!

I did manage to rescue a few lone cake pops (16 of the original 54!), and after talking to a friend who made these before, I am thinking of attempting another batch.. 

because, you know, I'm insane!