Wednesday, August, 18, 2010 | Inspiration
Shauna Younge Dessert Tables
Happy Wednesday.....a few weeks ago I received the sweetest email from a very lovely and talented lady, the oh-so-beautiful and talented, Designer Shauna Younge of Shauna Younge Dessert Tables....I'm so glad that Shauna contacted me to say hello...her "Dessert Tables" are beyond beautiful....Shauna comes to us from Minneapolis and she is one busy lady....her dessert tables are always in demand.....Shauna took a little time out from her busy schedule to stop by the cafe and share a little bit of her world with us....Enjoy!!
"Hi everyone! Janie kindly invited me to guest blog today, and I'm happy to be here at The Bride's Cafe. Janie and I thought it would be fun for me to share a few tips to help you design a dessert table for your big day.
Get Inspired:
When I design a couple's dessert table, I first create an inspiration board to help us all visualize the mood of the table. Using pictures to express your idea will help you to solidify what you want, while also helping you convey your idea to your fiancé. Here's a board I designed for an event with a "preppy pretty" vibe. (image 1)
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Get Creative:
While planning your wedding, you've probably already pulled some pictures from different magazines and websites. When looking for dessert table inspiration, don't limit yourself to bridal images. Branch out to fashion, art, and food magazines. A home decor article inspired me to create a picture frame collage for a dessert table background. I framed a large version of the "XOXO" logo I designed for the favors, but creative backdrops can be made from almost anything. I love these two examples using wood slices and string. (images 2, 3, 4).
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Get Focused:
With so many wedding resources out there, you probably see great craft and decor ideas every time you turn around. Fight the urge to incorporate them all. If a great idea doesn't relate to the mood or color palette that you're working with, save it for another time and another design. Stick to your original concept.
Get Committed:
You probably already have a general idea of what you want your dessert table to look like. You may even know what desserts you want to include, but until you've committed your ideas to paper, you'll be tempted to keep making changes. To really solidify my designs, I like to sketch the table. That way, I can tell at a glance which desserts I want, where they'll go on the table, and how I want them displayed. If sketching isn't your thing use any method that helps you clearly visualize your design. Don't rely on the vague concepts and ideas from your inspiration board. (image 5)
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Get Personal:
Your inspiration images and sketch can only take you so far. The personal details you add to your design will make your dessert table truly special for you and your guests. If you and your fiancé met while building a Habitat for Humanity house or while playing with your dogs at the park, consider sweet ways to represent that on your table. A custom gingerbread house or some cute dog cookies would be meaningful additions to your design. (insert image #6 and #7)
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Get Moving:
Now that you have all of the details ironed out, it's time to start baking and making all the goodies to fill your table. Try to find a few recipes that you can make ahead of time. Several types of cookie dough can be frozen for months before baking, while peanut brittle and chocolate can be stored in the freezer until the big day.
I hope I've given you all of the tips you need to design your own dessert table and bring your vision to life. (images 8 & 9)
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Tuesday, August, 17, 2010 | Weddings
Real DIY Wedding: Jessica & John
| Say hello to Jessica & John....their wedding is simply beautiful....I love their purple and yellow color palette and the one detail that really made me smile was Jessica's beautiful dress and she looked AMAZING in it.....their wedding had a retro vibe to it and I'm so happy to share it with all of you....and I'm equally excited to introduce Suthi Picotte of Picotte Photography to the cafe....Suthi and her husband Sanjay captured Jessica & John's wedding story. If you haven't had the opportunity to check out Suthi's work, you are totally in for a treat.....I love her style of shooting and you can truly see how they capture the couple's stories in the images...always STUNNING......let's check out all the magic from Jessic & John's special day.....Enjoy!!
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Jessica shares a little info with us......."As John and I started to plan our wedding day we knew we wanted it to be simple, old-fashioned, and fun.
It started with picking the perfect site and we found it in Maravilla Gardens. A lush nursery turned garden in the heart of the Santa Rosa Valley. Surrounded by citrus groves, avocado groves, and strawberries fields, Maravilla was the perfect place to join our lives together and show our out of town guests the agricultural side to Southern California.
Since our site was located in citrus groves we decided to jump in and embrace it by incorporating lemons into the stationary, décor, and color scheme. We didn’t know it at the time, but Maravilla Gardens was once a lemon grove!
When it came to our clothes, John and I share a love for vintage clothing from the 50s and 60s so we searched local thrift and vintage stores to find just the perfect clothes. The moment I saw my dress online I knew it was the one. Even though I had to order it online (since the physical store was closed for remodel) I jumped in and purchased it right away. I’m so glad I did because I haven’t seen another dress like it and probably never will. I found Jake Vintage online as well and convince John it was the place to get a vintage suit for the wedding. As soon as we walked in the store we knew it was the right place to go. Jonathan was amazingly knowledgeable about men’s fashion and John instantly found his suit and they’ve be best friend since (John and his suit that is).
For everything else we tried to use as many local vendors as possible. It was very important to us to help local artisans where we could. We also tried to make as many items as we could fit into the planning time. My mother sewed lace table runners. I made my petticoat and the bouquets. John made our guest tree and tied all the little tags onto the bells. My best friend Kristin and I made pom-pom garlands and stenciled parasols. I found vintage cupcake toppers of a couple dancing and my sister painted them to match John and me. But the major project I allowed myself was to knit my veil. It took 6 months and more than 1600 yards of cobweb weight yarn, but the end result was worth it. I hope to keep it was an heirloom piece for our own children someday.
I can’t end this without mentioning my favorite part of the wedding…the bubbles. Instead of having a flower girl and ring bearer we had bubble kids. They took their job very seriously by blowing bubbles until the containers ran dry. I love looking back at Suthi’s gorgeous photos and seeing bubbles float through almost every frame. Pure magic.
John and I are so happy to be married and we we’re so lucky to be surrounded by our loving family and friends all evening. To us our wedding was exactly the old-fashioned family affair we hoped to achieve."
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Thanks so much Suthi for stopping by today...Jessica & John's wedding is so lovely and filled with so many wonderful details....guys, please check out Picotte Photography's blog site to see so much more of their gorgeous work.....and to Jessica & John, we wish you a lifetime filled with happiness and love!
Style Team:
Venue: Maravilla Gardens
Bride’s Dress: Timeless Vixen Vintage
Maid of Honor’s Dress & Bride’s Shoes: Ann Taylor
Groom’s Suit: Jake Vintage
Best Man’s Suit: Hid Dad’s suit from the 70′s
Invitations: Flora and Fauna Press
Umbrellas and Plastic Hearts: Oriental Trading Company
Candy: Custom M&Ms
Silver Bells: Little Things Favors
Save the Dates: Zazzle.com
Make-Up: Puff Beauty (Physical store closed, but Aimee Jakes the owner still does makeup for events)
Boutonnières and Corsages: Conroy’s Flowers
DIY Details: centerpieces, bouquets, veil, table runners, guest tree, cake topper, petticoat, and pom-pom garlands.
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Monday, August, 16, 2010 | Weddings
Real DIY Wedding - Raechel & Alex
Happy Monday Guys....hope you all had a lovely weekend......we're opening the cafe with Raechel & Alex's lovely DIY wedding....it's always so fun to be able to feature the wedding of the couple's engagement session that has been featured at the cafe....how exciting to receive an email from Raechel letting me know that she and Alex are hitched and she wanted to share the beautiful images with us.....you can check out their engagement session here!!
Capturing Raechel & Alex's wedding story is Josh and Ariel of Anika London Photography.....their work is ALWAYS beautiful and I'm so happy to have them back to share Raechel & Alex's special day with us...let's check out all the beauty and fun and all the awesome DIY projects....Enjoy!!
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Raechel shares a little info with us......"Like all couples, some of our main goals were for our party to be super fun, be a reflection of our personality, and last but not least, meet a tight budget for a guest count of 300 people! With so many guests, we had to think of creative ways to incorporate everything we wanted. One of the ways we accomplished this was by placing cupcakes in the middle of each table to act as the centerpiece. This way we killed two birds with one stone! We also didn't want our bridal party to spend a lot on their outfits. The groomsmen's suits were purchased at Kohl's and the bridesmaid's dresses were from Target. The vintage lace belts the bridesmaids wore was something I found at a swapmeet. Their accessories and my birdcage veil included flowers I got from Michaels which I reconstructed with vintage buttons and lace. To keep guests very involved at our reception and having fun, here are some of the things we had:
- Slambooks in the middle of each table for everyone to fill out and answer questions like "What's your favorite love song?" or "Favorite Date Spots"
- Raffle tickets where 4 people got cash prizes
- Hula hoop battles between tables to determine who gets to go in line at the buffet table first
- Kids had goodie bags with glow sticks, crayons, and paper to keep them busy"
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Friday, August, 13, 2010 | Weddings
Real Colorado Wedding - Laura & Jayme
Happy Friday Everyone....I hope you all are ready for the weekend...I'm starting my weekend off with a photo shoot for one of the top bridal magazines so I'll be away from the cafe....SO let's take a stroll down "Memory Lane" with a cafe wedding from the past.....I hope you will enjoy it and have a great weekend...xoxo!!
Let's revisit the beautiful wedding story of Laura & Jayme...this is the sweetest wedding...filled with charm and so much style...I love it! Laura & Jayme's wedding story was captured by Leo Patrone...Leo's work is ALWAYS incredibly beautiful and I love his style of shooting...Jayme, our groom...shares a little info about the wedding with us...let's check it all out.....Enjoy!!
"we had our wedding at gold lake in colorado, a rustic spot in the mountains with hand-hewn wooden cabins, a lodge, natural hot pools and hiking trails.
letterpress invitations were designed and by julie mader-meersman.
photos were taken by the amazing leo patrone.
laura's dress was made by lisa elstun, collaborator and designer extraordinaire
jayme's white shoes were made by rafi balouzian at cydwoq.
local flowers came from pastures of plenty.
we had two incredible bands make music throughout the day and night: VOCO and round mountain.
laura handmade all the garlands and decorations and we typed and sewed together notes to every guest."
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| Thanks SO much Leo for stopping by the cafe today...we always enjoy your visits...guys, make sure you check out Leo's site...so much gorgeous inspiration to see and to Laura & Jayme, we wish you a lifetime of happiness and joy...AND congrats to Jayme, he's a Juno award winning banjo player, hear his work here!
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Website • Email
Featured Vendor
Kate Osborne Photography
| Check out The Bride's Cafe featured vendor, Katie Osborne Photography! Katie's work is STUNNING!!...I love how she captures the couple's wedding story...Katie is located in NC and she travels the world capturing gorgeous wedding stories....Not only is Katie an AMAZING photographer, she is such a sweetheart, a joy to work with......you will totally love her.....make certain you add Kate Osborne Photography to your must see vendor list and let Katie tell your beautiful wedding story! MORE |
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