Spiked or virgin?!?!

Signature cocktail that is!! Our wedding ceremony starts at 4:30pm, immediately followed by a cocktail hour on the deck of our lodge, leading right into dinner and dancing at 7:00pm. That leaves us a good hour to hour and a half of cocktailing (our ceremony will be no longer than an hour), and we want it to be as simple, fun, casual as possible... and one thing that makes me nervous in cocktail hours or house parties is punch bowls! I am THAT GIRL, that ALWAYS spills, dribbles, splashes red beverage over myself, a white tablecloth, or, in the worst case, white carpet! So, while these look amazing, they make me nervous... (pictures from oncewed!!)


We could have our service staff pre-pour our signature cocktail (just want to clear things up about this whole signature cocktail thing... as trendy as it is, we think 'punch' is a great way to cut costs during cocktail hour, and if we put a wedding-ish name to it, a punch becomes a signature cocktail!), which looks really great, but still seems a bit fussy for me... looks nice though! (picture also from oncewed)

So... the best solution, that I can tell, are these gorgeous drink dispensers (these pictures were found at snippet and ink, top one from here, and the second one from here)

Perfect right?? Well, I found some beauties on ebay... and while some were pretty prices (think $80-ish), I found this one for $20...

We bought two of these glass drink dispensers, one for a spiked version of the punch, and one for non-alcoholic!! Sooooo excited!! What are you doing for cocktail hour? Self service? Bar staff? Are you doing punch, or something special?

Smack it!!

I just found this awesome site via a comment thread over at Green Wedding Shoes (another one of my fav wedding blogs!), and boy am I glad I did. Her name is Donna, and her blog's name is Shiny Happy Weddings. A bride who loves old school innocent fun as much as I do... yup, I dig this girl!! Feast your eyes:

Can't you just imagine taking a blind smack at a pinata to get the party started?!?! LOVE IT!! This would be a great way to relieve any wedding day stresses that you weren't easily able to brush off... you know, like a drunken best-man speech, or hot soup served luke warm, or your mother in law greeting your guests like it was her own wedding... yup... smack that pinata and I bet the stresses would just melt away!!

Here's another great shot from Donna's blog... dontcha just love the whimsy in these colorful flags?

And speaking of Green Wedding Shoes, today Jen did an awesome post about one of my favorite topics... bridesmaid dresses of the non-matching varieties... My favorite pic from her post is shown below!

Movie Mixin for Novices

Alright, I think this could be a winning tip for all you brides out there that don't have the time, resources, or interest in learning moving mixing programs. This is the easiest, breeziest, coolest movie mixer I have seen, and it literally requires you to upload your pictures, then your song, then click GO!! I found it over at animoto.com, and tried it out myself...

The free movie mixer can only be 30 seconds long, but for a mere $3, you can produce a full length video, mixed to the beat of your song, with no joking, 3 steps. This sample took me about 2 minutes to create!! Done and Done!!

PS... scroll down to see the movie (sorry, I embedded it right from animoto... convenient, but wasn't exactly sure where it would show up!!)

What's for dessert?

Our reception menu has been a process, as one would expect... this is a party for 120 people after all! We knew we wanted it to be casual in feel, but downright tasty. It should be a meal people talk about afterwards, but one we can afford. We are stoked with the menu that has evolved, and while the cocktail hour menu still needs a bit of tweaking, the Cajun feast we have planned is gonna rock the socks off our guests!! But, when the meal has been served, the dishes passed, the bones sucked dry, and the wet-nap used, the end to the meal has to be similarly fun, interactive, and meaningful. Yup, the dessert has got to pack some punch ladies!!

We knew long before we had a menu planned, that we would not have a traditional wedding cake, and while cupcakes are cute and occasionally tasty, they really don't do it for either of us. Baking is a family treat, a pass-the-ice-cream-it's-nana's-pie experience, not simply a sweet treat you order at the end of the meal. Our families have got some ladies who can cook. I mean, eyes-roll-to-the-back-of-your-head gooooood cookin!! My aunt learned the art of fine chocolates from Bernard Callebaut himself (that's THE chocolate guy out here in Alberta), my grandma makes the best berry crumble I have ever eaten, and my nana, well, let's face it, cooking for 6 kids plus all of us 27+ grandkids has got her into the swing of things... pies are her trademark, but personally, I love her sex-in-a-pan the best!! My man's side is Danish, so the baking is a whole new world, and his favorites, by his grandma, are waffle cookies (they have this delicious icing in the middle of two waffle-like pastries... soooo good!!), and his aunt has been known to bake a traditional Danish wedding cake.

Danish wedding cake found here

So, it soon became clear that we a) wanted to represent the women in our lives who have baked their way into our culinary memories; b) wanted a variety of desserts for our guest to enjoy; and c) didn't want to be paying our caterer to mass produce a generic dessert as the fourth course in a pre-set meal! The DESSERT BUFFET became an obvious choice, and our moms, aunts, and grandmas became the chefs of choice... it is them, after all, that have the expertise, the recipes, and most importantly, the heart that they could pour into our dessert course, making for sweet treats that meant a lot to us, and hopefully to our guests!!

Some of my favorite dessert buffet shots were found over at Snippet and Ink:

from here

from here

from here

and a couple of my downright favorites:

from here and here

I love the fruit plate in the last picture... probably wouldn't have considered fruit, but hello, totally makes sense!!

Check back for a line-up of our confirmed dessert sponsors!! PS... what would be your favorite dessert item to snack on over a wedding slide show?? Light and juicy, or chocolaty and rich??