Let them eat.....anything but cake

You know I love cake....really I love cake!  Sponge, red velvet, carrot (just to name a few) and oh the frosting MMM  But I know there are some of you out there don't share my gastrolove of cake but even so why should you be left out?

The first time I heard of anything other than a cake, or a cupcake cake, was when I worked on a wedding two years ago.  The bride loved pie (just as much as I love cake) and she figured why did she have to have a cake just because people thought she had....and you know what?  She was right!  She had cake plates of varying heights with individual blue berry and lemon meringue pies.

Magnolia Photographic

You love pie but want something that looks a little more like a traditional cake.....

Marburger Farm Events

I have no idea what these pies consist of but I would be willing to find out:)

My husband is French and a traditional cake for them is a croquembouche (translated to "crunch in the mouth")  They are little balls of pastry filled with cream and then, usually, spun sugar is draped all over it (really, it can't be wrong!)......this one from Martha Stewart is lovely!

Pretty sure your guests jaws would drop when they saw this!

Martha also featured this gorgeous ice cream cake (oh I love ice cream too! haha)  Now, it would have to make a sudden (and an elaborate entrance to match it's grandeur) but there is no way your guests wouldn't melt (come on you know I had to say it! LOL) when they saw it

Chef Florian Bellanger

Now, guess what...I love cheese cake too! (I know, hard to believe) so what about individual cheesecakes on a tower?

Lick the Spoon

NOW for the super adventurous, and those of us that can have a cheese plate for desert, there is a place just for you!  Norbiton Fine Cheese Co has some F-I-N-E lookin cheese!

Have you been to a wedding where they didn't have a traditional wedding cake?  What did you eat (or serve)?  Because "let them eat cake" is so last century!

Glorious Greens!

AHHH Glorious Greens.  You go with everything....I mean really! every colour of flower comes on a green stem and it works nature knew what she was doing when she came up with that idea.

Since stationery sets the tone of the wedding we'll start there AND look at this:

Creo Couture Cards

LOVING the satin box and invite and the gorgeous brown ribbon accent and who wouldn't <3 those buckle accents?
Too much for your wedding? what about this pretty little set?

WedVert

And these are eco friendly too!!  how fantastic is that?

Green brides maid's dresses can be fun and flirty....

 Or classic and soft...

and for the bride what about some GORGEOUS Christian Louboutin Shoes.....

and you can't get married without some Elsa Corsi customized jewels 

STUNNING!!

You need a bouquet....so here is some beautiful green:)

White roses, freesia (that add some green with the buds) green berries and a collar of white cymbidium orchids

Standard & mini-cymbidium orchids, dendrobium orchids, tuber roses and tropical leaves

Cascade style bouquet of white phalaenopsis orchids and green cymbidium orchids

And speaking of orchids.....and linens and BREATH TAKING!

Wildflower Linen

Designed by  Carissa Jones-Jowett of JL DESIGNS

I think this cake is fantastic with it's shades of green......

Riser by Raise the Cake

If a green cake is not your thing what about a gorgeous, you need to check this site, customized cake riser?  With the moss green riser and the beautiful orchids this cake is classic and eye catching!

It was fun searching out everything green just to prove wrong the notion that sometimes "it's not easy being green"~sorry Kermit the frog:)

Purple Passion

Purple and weddings will never go out of style.....with all the shades most everyone can find one they love!  The colour of royalty it can be elegant and sophisticated or fun and exciting...it can be anything you want!
You need to start with the perfect stationery and I'm loving the bold graphic of this large bloom!

Artist's Flower by Invitation Consultants

LOVE the fun and gorgeous elements of this invite

Simply Posh Design

You have to have a pair of fabulous purple shoes peeking out from under your dress so go ahead and splurge:)

Christian Louboutin

Manolo Blahnik

Yves Saint-Laurent

Dresses are important....ask any bridesmaid:)

Jennifer Purple Cocktail dress by Natasha Milani

or for the bride outside the box?.....

Not for everyone but for that special couple this could be cool!

You don't want a purple dress so maybe purple flowers are the way to go....

Roses, freesia, calla lilies & stephanotis

Mischa Bartkow Photography

"I do!" Wedding Photography

 Roses, freesia, mini-cybmidium orchids and dendrobium orchids

Decor flowers in purple is always a great way to incorporate your colour as well

white hydrangea with purple stock

There are STUNNING options for linens out there...here are just a few chair options

Wildflower Linens

Wildflower Linens

And you certainly cannot forget about the cake!

Cake by Ganache photo by "I do!" Wedding Photogography

Pink Cake Box

Dogwood Blossom Cake

There are, of course, millions of other pictures of purple wedding ideas-search them out and have some purplely delight:)

I SURVIVED a 12 year old's Birthday sleep over (PS there is a Guac recipe here too:))

Can I just say how proud of myself I am....I survived 6 x 12 year old boys (and two teenagers) for a birthday sleep over!   Here are some of the tricks, and vendors, I used to pull off this incredible feat:)

Well you can't have a party without some guests and you can't have guests if you don't have cards to invite them so I called my good friend Jessica Boffo of Kardz Kouture.  I told her a little about the party, basically pizza and video games-really what else can you do!  haha Oh and Antonio's, my son, favorite colour is sky blue and she designed these fun kardz for us to give out.....

Even the envelopes were customized with the same photo in the bottom left corner and a little taste of the info on the inside was written on the back flap~and I was the girl that said "OH boy's don't need envelopes"  she said I was wrong and, well, she was right:)

The next thing you kinda need, maybe just a thought, is food-and with all these boys you need F-O-O-D!

Kids and adults = chips so I had the old stand by's but for the grown ups I had some other options including multi-grain nachos, SO much tastier than the standard ones and I accompanied that with my home made salsa, good for you and YUMMY! and a home made guacamole which is always a big hit....here is the recipe:

2 ripe (firm but not squishy) avacodes
4-5 cloves of garlic
(do you love garlic?  add more!  can't go wrong here:))
1/3 cup of cilantro
1/4 cup of salsa
(I used some of my homemade stuff but this is a great way to use up some of the old stuff in your fridge)
1/4 cup of sour cream
1 lime juiced
salt, pepper, cumin powder to taste

I use a mini-food processor, you can mash everything together using a fork but I'm lazy:)  I start with the garlic and cilantro (so by the end it is well blended into everything) and chop it up some and then I add the avacodoes and blend a bit more add the salsa and the sour cream and lime juice as well as some of the seasoning and blend baby blend!  I then taste to make sure it doesn't need some more seasoning or lime juice or anything and blend it until it is rather smooth.  Keep it refridgerated until ready to serve and it's best to make it at least a few hours, not the day before though because avacodoes can brown, so the flavours can marry together.

Rice Krispies treat "pizza" (my home made raspberry jam is the "sauce" so it's not ALL bad! LOL)

Mom made me some jam filled maid of honour tarts-BIG hit!!

Peanut butter chocolate squares (didn't have oats so I crushed shreddies instead-mmm)

Cake was a big deal!  Antonio is a HUGE Cake Boss fan and I normally make family cakes (this year's request was a red velvet with cream cheese icing) so I decided to surprise him with a cake in the shape of a calzone (one of his favorite foods).  I contacted Jennifer, from Jennifer Stafford Events.  She made my husband's birthday cake for me last year and it was so great I had to call her again

Even had the tomato sauce dipping container and a fork!

Birthday boy was so excited!

I needed a "goodie bag" so I called my friend Kassie Doucet of Bliss Designs to make me some of yummy organic sugar cookies.  Jessica, Kardz Kouture, sent Kassie the file used on the invites with the word "thank you" typed in at the bottom and Kassie printed them out on edible paper with edible inks and the kids (and parents) just loved them!! 

SERIOUSLY how could you not love these!!

A lot of fun, some work, and a happy, happy boy makes it all worth it but now it's time to sleep........