Vote for my favorite Cupcake Maker!

 

Image from cakesbysharalunn.blogspot.com

Spice Cake with Dulce De Leche Filling
and Vanilla Bean Mascarpone Cheese frosting

Even thougn I’m slacking on the wedding blog “writing” lately, I’m not slacking on the reading! Still keeping up with all my fave sites (which you can find over there on the right side of the page!) and checking out what my favorite wedding planners and vendors have going on!

Just came across a contest that Cakes by Shara has entered (if you been reading my blog for any length at all, no explanation needed! If you need to know how great she is, just check out my cupcake entries!) Better yet, if you’ve tried her yummy goodness, or just feeling being kind today- go VOTE for her in an “Iron Cupcake” contest! You can even get the recipe by visiting her blog! As I have been completely obsessed with everything “fall” flavored lately, these sound absolutely scrumptious! I’ve been making apple butter, apple crisp, caramel dip, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin pancakes, and anything else I can get my hands on- enjoying this season of lots of yummy goodies! I even made my own apple cinnamom potporri! Maybe I should start blogging about that instead! Haha!

At any rate, check out her cupcakes and many other talents and click on the link in the cupcake post to vote for Shara!!

Beach cupcakes!

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you already know how in love I am with these!

If you haven’t seen this before, this is one of the cupcakes from Cakes by Shara, which won a Martha Stewart cupcake contest!!

Anyways, I’ve tasted her cupcakes at a few wedding events and parties (including one DIVINE chocolate cupcake from the SATC party!), but still wanted to set up a tasting to choose the three flavors for my cupcakes at my dinner reception. I already knew for SURE that chocolate would be one guaranteed! )

These are the cuties that she made up for me!

And a close up of the big one so you can see the details of the adorable (and yummy!) shells!

All of the shells and the blue “waves” are made from fondant, and there is icing below the waves too. I’ve never been a huge fan of fondant, but apparently that was because I’d never tasted fondant done right. This…was amazing…and sparkly! Very yummy!!

The big one is chocolate, the white one front/left is strawberry, white one back/left is orange, and the back blue one is vanilla cake with amaretto icing….YUM!!!

I decided on the chocolate, strawberry and amaretto. I was going to do them all medium size and all with the blue, but after seeing how cute the other ones were (and maybe not everyone would like fondant), I decided to do some of the white too!

And we thought since all the little ones at the wedding might be snagging cupcakes left and right, we’d make minis like these she made for the Relish party. They’ll have blue icing with a smaller version of the shell on them.

I’m also getting a cupcake tree similar to this one! But with the center columns in navy!

So we’ll have about 60 mini’s and 60 medium cupcakes!! I can’t wait to see how cute they will look all together!!

If you are at ALL interested in getting cupcakes for your wedding in place of or even along with a cake (I’m having a cake too earlier in the day at a larger cake reception- made by Cake by Dake.)

Here’s some other adorable/beautiful cupcakes that Shara has made- all pics from her blog Cakes by Shara Lunn…

These monkeys are too super cute!!

 

Beautiful flowers and pearls!

Valentine’s Day!

 

 

And my fave, other than the one I’m getting! (hmmm, I wonder why I like it??!) If I’d done pink and aqua….guaranteed I’d want this beauty!!!

And a more close-up pic of the custom cupcake stands she makes!

Visit Cakes by Shara now and check out all her amazing cakes too!!

Weekend of fun and gettin stuff done!!

I’ll be writing more later this week about the details of my fabulous weekend, but here’s the highlights!

Trying on wedding gear with my handsome men! (of course, I’ll be wearing something a little different on that day!!)

SATC party with Ashley and Kelley! (best party ever!!)

 

Checkin out my beautiful Jr. Bridesmaid, Olivia, in the dress her mom whipped up that morning! (Also gettin my BM’s fitted in their dresses- the one you saw me in above with the guys!)

My first bridal shower- with my lovely ladies in red! The world’s greatest “bosses” and friends!

I also shopped for and ordered more flowers, ordered my wedding band, found someone to do my wedding programs, and not to mention- got to try out some of the new dresses I bought last week! )

I’m off to open up all the boxes my presents came in and set them up in my fiance’s (and our!) new place!

Tonight, I have a cake tasting for these beautiful babies with Cakes by Shara!!! (I’m quickly becoming addicted to her yummy goodies!!) More on all of the above later this week!!

 

 

Relish Party Recap!

Ok, so I’m not as fast as other ladies at posting my recap of the party…..but here goes!!

This past Sunday, I attended the launch party for the new, Nashville based, online and interactive invitation company- Relish! It was a blast! The girls of Relish- Stephanie and Rebecca- pictured above are just too cute! They gave out adorable goodie bags, which matched their cute aprons and adorable yellow wedge shoes!

 

The party was held at the Green Hills Hampton Inn in the Atrium. It was a great location at the top of the hotel overlooking Green Hills! It was attended by lots of wedding coordinators and others in the biz, but it was really nice to be able to be a bride attending something like this as well! It was much more informal than walking around booth to booth making forced small talk with lots of different people- not that those formats aren’t helpful too– this was just more fun!!

I was thrilled that Shara of Cakes by Shara was there sharing her yummy goodies!! My mom has been talking to her lately about these yummy cupcakes I’m getting for my reception! If you didn’t read my post about them before, Shara entered these in a Martha Stewart contest and won as one of the top 10 cupcakes!! Soooo cute!!

These were the adorable little ones she had at the Relish party!

I was super happy about her fondant actually being yummy!! And the icing too!! I’d tasted her stuff at a show before, but had so much cake that day that I couldn’t remember anything but the sugar high afterwards!! ) So I was quite pleased that the only one there was one I’ll be using!! It also gave us a great chance to discuss details in person!

I’m having my cake for my cake reception made by my close friend Jeniffer of Cake by Dake, but when I saw Shara’s cupcakes, had to have them too! They’ll be at my family/wedding party reception, and not everyone there will be at the cake reception so will still have a chance for yummy cake!

But back to the party……it was super fun to get to hang out with Ashley and talk about upcoming party plans!! And back to the point of the party…..the Relish girls are fantastic! So sweet, fun and innovative! They’ve come up with a great product! Their line of invitations is so cute and has so many possibilities! I’ve played around with their website some already, and it is SOOO easy to use! You pick out all the details online for your invitations and you can create all kinds of combinations, even adding punch-outs, ribbons, and rhinestones.

Their motto-”Enjoy the journey” really encompasses who they are! You can totally tell how much they love what they do and how they are helping brides to enjoy it as well! I couldn’t believe when Rebecca told me their turn-around is 7-10 business days after you turn in your order!! What?? Is there any other invitation company that does it that quickly??  And the prices aren’t bad at all either!

They gave away great prizes (which seemed to keep going to guys??!!), and it was fun even though I didn’t win a thing! I was just happy to be there!! Thanks, Relish gals for a fun time, and Ashley thanks for the invite and letting me “borrow” some of your pics!! And Kelley, thanks for letting me drag you to another wedding event!! Can’t wait for more fun times!! )

Yummy goodness!!! :o)

I love cupcakes….they make me think happy childhood thoughts, of birthday parties, and less stressful times!! One of the great things about being a teacher (great for the spirit, not for the waistline), is that almost any time a kid has a birthday- they bring cupcakes or other goodies for their class AND the teachers! ) Even ones other than their homeroom teachers. I’m ever so happy to get a yummy homemade goodie- like the one I got on Wednesday- that had some of the best homemade chocolate icing I’ve ever had!!

For some reason, this has been the week of the cupcake for me!

Last week was my maid of honor, Bridget’s birthday. We went out to lunch on Saturday along with Kelley, and I made our fave cupcakes from when B and I used to live together….I had a bit of a Martha Stewart moment and got creative with an icing tip and a Ziploc baggie! The strawberry cake with cream cheese icing was quite yummy!

These were ones I finished up after lunch, and I was running low on icing- hence the gaps! The others were better looking- except of course I smushed the one for the b-day girl on the way there. I also branded them with our initials….BSK, which stands for the name of our “band”- the Bull S*** Kittens! Hehe!

When I brought these leftover ones to my parents later that night….my mom said I should’ve been the one to make the cupcakes for my sis-in-law’s baby shower the next day!! Oh well, they’d been ordered before I ever had a chance to try my hand at it myself! )

The one’s for Lindsey’s shower were quite cute too with the lifesaver/jelley belly pacifier’s that my mom made on top! These were from Publix and were really good, we just wished we could’ve gotten a wrapper color other than yellow!

I’d wanted to get one of my friends to make the cupcakes, but she was out of town and we were too down to the last minute to special order them…..too bad I didn’t read these next ideas from Ashley’s Bride Guide until later in the week!!

I’d seen this cupcake place last Monday (also after the shower! gr!) and thought it looked really cute and was very tempted to stop….however at the beginning of the week I was keeping my diet- not so the rest of the week! I’ll get back on track this coming week! A girl needs a break…oh about once a month!! Haha!

Ashley always finds the best stuff, and I wasn’t surprised to see she’d found Gigi’s!!

This kicks my cupcakes’ rear ends! And those from Publix!! ) Anyone up for heading to Gigi’s Cupcakes with me?? )

As I’m finishing reading Ashley’s post on Gigi’s, I noticed the most beeeaaauuuttttiiiifffuuuulll cupcake I’ve ever seen to the side of the page (right under the blurb about myself- The Fabuless Bride, and Anna- Belle Bride)

Ok….my heart is fluttering with how in love I am with this cupcake as I’m about to post it!!
It’s from Cake’s by Shara- a local, whose stuff I’ve seen and tasted at a bridal show! Super yummy and cute!! This cupcake def should’ve been on display! It was one of the winner’s of a Martha Stewart cupcake contest! And it’s a beach themed cupcake!! I didn’t know you could DO beach themed cupcakes!! How many more things that I love can you get into one small cupcake…..ta da!!!
(ok…thank GOODNESS for WordPress having such a great auto save!! I’m not kidding….the moment I typed “ta da!!” my computer screen went dark…I thought the lights went out, turns out my laptop cord fell out- and of course my battery hasn’t worked for months!! WHOOPS! But it was ALL here when I turned it back on!)
Sooooo…ta da here’s my all time fave cupcake!!! (oh please don’t turn off again!!)

I will be contacting Shara soon to get these babies! Not sure what for….I already have my cake, but somehow I HAVE to have them!!! )