The day after the three year anniversary of hurricane Katrina, this is what I'm staring at. . .

Yep, that's right. . . it's the projected path of Hurricane Gustav. Looking at it makes it feel like gremlins are tying knots in my stomach, but I can't make myself stop.
And right between the line labeled "Mon AM" and the one labeled "Mon PM" are all the people Jakob and I love (other than each other, of course). Hopefully, at this hour they are far away from Mon AM & Mon PM, or at least on their way to being there. My niece, her husband & my godchild are on their way to Alabama. Jakob's sister, mother and nephew should be leaving for Memphis in an hour. Some are staying, many are leaving. Here's to hoping for the best while preparing for the worst - the unofficial motto of Louisiana between the months of June & November.
It goes without saying this isn't typical of my entries, but in case you were wondering how this relates to my wedding. Simple. Our entire wedding party lives in southeast Louisiana. Almost our entire guest list lives there. But at the end of the day, it's not about the wedding or how another hurricane could possibly impact it. It's about the people in New Orleans.
The city hasn't fully recovered from Katrina - the last thing it needs is another major storm to undo the work that it's taken three years to get done.

To Bling or Not To Bling

It's been a few days since my last post (I think). Sorry for the delay, but in my defense, I've been feeling like, well...a co-worker of mine described it as "my head feels like a water balloon" - like there's stuff sloshing around in there. I hate being sick - I know no one likes being sick, but I REALLY hate it. Unfortunately, my job really doesn't allow me the luxury of curling up in my bed and just sleeping it off so I've been going to work, coming home again, taking care of my zoo, and passing out. Rinse and repeat.

Today, while at the Cherry Creek Mall on a job-related errand, FI and I passed by Papyrus. We decided to stop by just to comparison shop. Naturally, I fell in love with an invitation suite that is completely out of our price range. Meet my new love, Bijou:

I love the design on the bottom right of the invitation and how it's carried over onto the reception & reply cards, as well as the note cards. It's exactly what I was looking for - elegant but not boring, timeless but fun, grown-up but still me. The custom print specialist at Papyrus told us you can even further customize the invitation by adding a genuine Swarovski™ crystal to the center the design. Personally, I don't think my guests would mind if we left that particular detail out. Especially since adding the little sparkly thing would cost $1 per invitation. Although we're only ordering 50 or so, that $50 could be better spent elsewhere. And just think about what you could do with the money you'd save by being bling-free if you had 150 or more invites to pay for!

I also adored this Checkerboard invitation suite:

Her name is Braquette - not quite as stylish a name as Bijou, but alluring none the less. My favorite thing about Braquette is the beautiful plum ink - it would fit right in with the colors we've chosen - lavender & platinum. Plum would be a great accent color.
In my dream world, I would be able to combine the two invitations into one super-invite. Said super-invite would be extremely economical in addition to being beautiful and of course functional (since it is, after all, communicating all the important information about my wedding).
Do you have an aspect of your wedding planning - invitation, cake, caterer, venue, band, photographer, dress - that's completely out of your price range but you still love to day dream of?

Virgin Wedding??

Okay, so our second cake tasting was at Tee & Cakes in Boulder, Colorado. The cake artist there is named Kim - super nice, super cool chick! The shop itself appears to be a converted mechanic's shop in the Pearl Street Mall, and it's really what I think of when I think "Boulder"...kind of a combination of green, hippie, college chic.
Here are our (cup)cakes:


(clockwise from top left) Summer Picnic, Bunnies Delight, Capri Kiss, Virgin Wedding

First up was Bunnies Delight, a fresh carrot cake with grated orange zest topped with white chocolate cream cheese buttercream. Although a delicious carrot cake, it just wasn't the "bridal" cake we were looking for. I LOVED the icing!
Summer Picnic was a sweet cream butter pound cake with mascarpone cream and seasonal fresh berries. It was interesting - I'm used to strawberry shortcake, but this had all kinds of berries - it really is like a summer picnic, but still not what we were looking for.
Virgin Wedding is a pure white cake laced with almond, filled with Tahitian vanilla bean flecked buttercream. There were two things I didn't like about this cake - first, the cake was very dense - I personally prefer my cake to be light and fluffy. And then there was the icing. I've shared with you my love of cakes and even some photos of cakes I've made. What I didn't mention is that I make my own buttercream icing. I won't tell you what the base of the icing is because you may never look at cake the same way again, but it's NOT butter. This icing was butter. Of course I took a big ole bite and felt like I'd just put a spoonful of country crock in my mouth. Some people love the mouth-feel of butter, but I'm definitely not one of them.
Capri Kiss was by far my favorite. It's a lemon cake, infused with Limoncello liqueur, filled with alternating layers of lemon curd & sweet cream. Kim makes the lemon curd from scratch, and that cake is divine!
I left the shop torn. I loved the capri kiss, but I really want a two flavor cake, and I wasn't at all crazy about the French BUTTERcream icing either. On top of that, Kim's decorating style and mine weren't really in sync. At the end of the day, I reluctantly had to scratch Tee & Cakes from my ever dwindling list of possible bakers for our wedding cake.

Did you get any unexpected surprises during your wedding vendor research?

It's Finally Here

It's cake tasting day! It's cake tasting day!
Yes, I'm actually doing a silly dance to go with my very silly song.

Second only to photography, the cake is my single most important wedding expense. You see, I make cakes myself. I made my niece's baby shower cake.


I also made her wedding cake.


I even made the groom's cake. In my defense, I'd been making cakes for three days straight and I was exhausted by the time I got to this one. Besides, I maintain that we were going for the rustic look to go with the whole hunter's fleur-de-lis motif.


Both Jakob's family and mine are a little crazy about cake. Scheduling cake tastings has definitely been one of the highlights of my wedding planning journey. So without further ado, our first (two) cake tastings:

The first bakery we went to is Kim & Company in Estes Park. Bonus, she also does floral design so we were able to get a quote for both cake & flowers while we were there. Like a lot of bakers, she gave us a cupcake tasting. And yes, I took photos, even though Jakob made fun of me.


(clockwise from top left) white cake with white icing, Italian cream cake with almond butter cream icing, carrot cake with cream cheese icing, and chocolate with chocolate icing (I think that one's obvious). We also got to taste the strawberry & raspberry fillings.

We weren't allowed to choose the flavors we tasted - those were the standard ones.
The carrot cake was great, but just not "us". We had already agreed we didn't want chocolate cake or chocolate icing - it just doesn't make me think wedding cake. Besides, I'm really not that fond of chocolate cake (sorry, all you chocaholics out there). I went into the tasting thinking I'd like the traditional white cake with white buttercream the best, and it was fantastic! I loved the cake, loved the icing. I was thinking this is the one. Then we tried the italian cream. It's white cake with almond and coconut, and it was topped with the almond buttercream icing I so wanted to try. I LOVE this cake! I didn't expect Jakob to be crazy about it because he really doesn't like the texture of coconut. Guess what - he loved it too. Kim even said she could throw the coconut in a food processor so the texture wouldn't be noticeable.
We looked through her photo albums of work, and I loved the diversity of designs she's able to do. Perhaps even more important to me is that she has a steady hand when icing designs onto cakes. This was important because I want some elegant little scrollwork. Fondant is easier to deal with but I HATE the taste of fondant!

Next up, cake tasting #2.

Exciting & Overwhelming

I just found out my former coworker, Liz, is engaged! It's so exciting to have someone else who's also planning a wedding. She made the comment that it's exciting & overwhelming at the same time. That's the perfect way to describe wedding planning.
There are days when it seems like the whole planning process can be a bit much. I have papers with floral ideas and lists of photographers, a wedding planner that is half filled out, business cards and bridal magazines all over my dining room table. Bridal books are taking over my bookcase, and I have well over 100 wedding-related bookmarks on my computer. Most nights, I come home from work and spend 90% of my time researching various aspects of the planning process. However, I'm sure the day of the wedding, when I see everything come together, it will all be worth it.

And the Winner is . . .

Okay, so I promised to reveal the venue where we decided to have our wedding, and here it is.

This is the view from one of the balconies at Marys Lake Lodge, the place where we have decided to have our beautiful mountain wedding! It meets all of the requirements I talked. It's in Estes Park with views of the mountains (see? Mountains!) and nearby lodging, and catering is onsite. I cannot tell you how relived I am that we've finally made a decision and we're dealing with someone who acts like they want our business.
At this point in the planning process, I felt like we should have been sure about where our ceremony & reception would be held. And I almost gave myself an ulcer worrying about it not having one.

I'm a Bonehead

As promised, today I will tell you the story of what is perhaps the most embarrassing thing I've done thus far while planning my wedding. I posted a crappy photo of my engagement ring that I took myself a while back. It's a white gold euro band with four channel set princess cut diamonds on each side of a princess cut diamond, flanked by four round diamonds on each side - in a square pattern. The princess diamond is set on an angle, which I love because it's so unique.

A few weeks after Jakob proposed, I was at work and looked down at my ring and realized one of the round diamonds was no longer there. Of course my first reaction was to freak out, then I remembered he got the extended protection plan (smart cookie, I say) so I called the jeweler and they told me bring it in and they'd fix it no problem. Apparently one of the prongs had just broken right off. I got it back in a day or two, and it was good as new - better than new I guess.

A few weeks after I got it back, I had this crazy dream that ALL of the stones fell out of my ring. The next day, I stopped at the jeweler and made them check all of the settings. Yeah, they probably thought I was crazy, and Jakob laughed at me. He even made me tell his friends the story and they laughed at me.

What A Dream

Last night, I had a horrible dream - I suppose you could call it a "wedding nightmare". In this dream, it was my wedding day, and I was wearing my beautiful dress, but when I looked down at the skirt, I realized there was something seriously wrong with it. The entire front half of my dress was black. Apparently the wrong color had been ordered, and somehow this detail escaped my attention until I was about to walk down the aisle.
I did not wake up screaming, and no cold sweat was involved, but the memory of the dream laid heavily on me all day. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and picked up the phone. Although I knew there was a very good chance the person on the other end of the line would think me completely neurotic, I had to call the shop where I ordered my dress just to make sure they ordered the ivory & silver one that I wanted. It also gave me the opportunity to inquire when it was expected to me in, and I found out it should be there no later than October!
This isn't the first time I had some crazy off-the-wall dream and ended up risking my reputation as a sane person to ease my mind. Tomorrow I'll tell you about the time I did something so bizarre that Jakob teased me for a solid week. In the meantime, tell me - am I the only one who has random wedding dreams and then is compelled to make sure it was really just a dream?

The Venue Pageant

In our search for a venue, Jakob & I found some really unique places that were incredible in their own right - just not the right fit for our wedding. I thought I'd share some of them with you before revealing The One.
These are our requirements:
1. Located in or near Estes Park, Colorado
2. Views of the mountains
3. Nearby lodging for our out of town guests
4. On-site catering

The first runner up is Taharaa Mountain Lodge, a quiet bed & breakfast with a completely unique vibe. From the moment we walked through the door, we knew it was someplace special. It has nine lodge rooms and nine suites, each with its own fireplace and deck with stunning panoramic vistas. Each has its own unique motif that reflects the beauty & history of the Rocky Mountain region.

Taharaa is a chic venue which combines Native American with American West, from the Arapahoe Room to Columbine Room to Cattle Baron Suite. It also boasts a Great Hall, where our reception would be. It met all of our requirements and then some - except for the last one. Catering is done by a pre-approved outside vendor.
Next time, we'll reveal the lucky winner!
Black Canyon Inn came in second runner up. It is located in Estes Park, but its views, while beautiful, are not of the mountains. Futhermore, catering is done by Twin Owls Steakhouse, which is next door.
Our reception would be in the Steakhouse, which has three rooms. The loft was far too small to accommodate a dance floor. The garden room had a strange view and was too dark for our tastes. The main room was much too large for our small reception, even with a dance floor.
The people there were very nice and helpful. They seemed like they would have been great to work with had the venue been a good fit for us.

Finally, our third runner up was Lionscrest Manor in Lyons, Colorado. Lioncrest boasts unobstructed views of Steamboat Mountain, Hatrock, Mount Meeker and Longs Peak, so it definitely met our mountain view requirement. It's only 20 miles from Estes Park, but catering is done by an outside company of your choosing although they urge you to use an approved vendor from their list. However, the largest drawback to this venue is its distance to accommodations for our guests. In the end, we knew it would be selfish to ask our families to fly from New Orleans to Denver, rent a car and drive an hour and a half to Estes Park to their lodging, then turn around a drive 30 minutes back down to Lyons for our ceremony. It's really too bad - this staircase totally made me swoon!

A Bit of the Past in Our Future

Yesterday, my fiance called me with an idea for his wedding band. He has a lot of jewelry left to him by his uncle, who he was named after. Most of this jewelry is in the form of cuff links. He has never used them, and recognized that he probably never really will. I suggested to him a while back that he choose a pair to wear for our wedding, but he came up with a way to incorporate them into his day to day life.
His idea was to have the cufflinks reincarnated - melted down and cast into his wedding band. Since I'm a bit sentimental (okay, I'm a lot sentimental when it comes to family history), I loved this idea. Although Jakob barely remembers his uncle Jakey, from what his mother tells me, the two of them spent a lot of time together when Jakob was small. I've been trying to figure out a creative way to honor his memory, and I think this is the perfect way to do just that.
What about you? Is there a loved one who is unable to be at your wedding who you will honor in some special way?

I'm in Love

With my fiance? Yes, this is true. But I'm also in love with my wedding dress.

Jakob, if you're reading this, STOP NOW!

Way back in May, not long after Jakob asked me to marry him, I decided to stop by a couple of wedding dress shops just to figure out what style of dresses flattered my figure. The first shop I went to was Pearls Place in Metairie, LA where I was helped by Lisa. I had a short list of requirements: I wanted a train but wasn't sure what length. I didn't want anything too flashy. No lace, and I thought anything strapless was out of the question since let's say I'm blessed upstairs. I told Lisa I was open to suggestions, so she grabbed a variety of styles for me to try. I tried on off-the-shoulder styles and halter styles. The halter style made me look too busty. The off-the-shoulder style I just wasn't too crazy about. Next was a strapless gown with detachable train, but the train was cathedral length which I quickly decided was longer than I wanted. I was getting a bit discouraged, then she came along.

(Yes, I'm referring to my dress as female - I'm going to be spending a lot of time with her on my wedding day, but Jakob's the only guy for me.)
She is sparkly but not over the top. Her train is chapel length and exactly what I wanted. I love the organza overlay and the ribbon detail at the hem. Even the back is pretty, and since that's what our guests will be looking at for the majority of ceremony, I wanted something that had some visual interest.

Best of all, the price was right. Pearls Place has a reputation for not inflating their prices in outrageous manner. In fact, some sources tout the shop as being a great place to get a deal on wedding and bridesmaids dresses. In addition to their already modest prices, my dress was on sale. I half expected the "hard sell" to begin, but it didn't. Lisa encouraged me to think it over. She told me if I decided that really was the dress for me, I had a full week to stop by again and lock in the sale price. I didn't even have to put half as a down payment - I could choose how much to pay. Once my payments reached the halfway mark, I would be measured and my dress would be ordered. This gave me the added luxury of not having to worry about the dress style being discontinued before I ordered it. If the manufacturer informed Pearls my dress would soon no longer be available, they'd give me a call so I'd have the option of completing my payments & ordering my dress.

Of course, I did go back a week later to put down $50 and lock in my price. First, I went to two other shops just to be sure. I'll write more about those shopping excursions next time. Honestly, it all just seemed too easy - I found "the one" at the first shop I stopped by, on sale, and the sales staff was super nice... I can't even buy shoes that easily, and I love shoes.

Has anyone else had this kind of experience? Was finding your wedding dress a walk in the park or did you search high and low for it?

Let Them Eat Cake

Today I scheduled my first (two) cake tastings! I can't tell you how freaking excited I am. I am a total cake fanatic. I even took a Wilton class at my local Michael's so I could make birthday cakes for the kids in my life. When my niece got married a few weeks ago, I made her three tiered wedding cake AND the grooms cake. I even got upset last spring when she called to tell me that the girl who was co-hosting her baby shower with me was going to buy a cake for the event - I was that dead-set on making the cake for her shower.
Since Jakob and I are planning a trip to Estes Park on the 26th, we decided we'd check out a couple of bakeries that are on the way. I made a couple of phone calls today to schedule our consultations. One place lets you taste from whatever they have baked, but the other one (Haute Cakes in Boulder, CO) has an online menu that we got to choose from. We were told to pick three options, so I perused their selections. The first two were easy to pick, but I was having trouble deciding between numbers 3 and 4 on my list. When I called the owner, Kim to ask a few question before giving them our final selections, she told me not to worry about choosing - we could taste all 4! I felt like the luckiest girl in the world.
Don't worry - LOTS of photos will be taken and I'll be writing about our favorites from our first round of cake tasting.

Mind Meld

There are so many great traditions and design elements from growing up in Louisiana that I'd love to incorporate into our wedding plans. Since most of our guests are coming to Colorado from there, I'd also like to give them a taste of Colorado. In many ways, my overall vision for our wedding is very much like Jakob and myself. It combines our love for the beauty of the mountains with our strong ties to our roots in Louisiana.
One New Orleans tradition I definitely plan to keep alive is that of the wedding cake pulls.
The fleur de lis is very popular in Louisiana, especially New Orleans. If it's not the official symbol of NOLA, it may as well be. The beauty and elegance the fleur de lis has always appealed to me, and I'd like to incorporate it somehow.

I heart these fleur de lis toasting flutes from Mignon Faget!

For both ethical and financial reasons, we're incorporating local floral and culinary elements. I love azaleas, but they don't grow in Colorado and are not in bloom even in Louisiana at the end of April. Instead, I'm working with our florist to incorporate flowers that are readily available locally. And although I'm sure by the time our wedding rolls around, Jakob and I will both be jones'ing for some boiled crawfish, instead our caterer will be serving fare that is more typically Colorado. It will be a treat to our guests and minimize the overall carbon footprint of the celebration.

Designer Crush

I've been thinking a lot about what kind of veil I'll wear for my wedding, and there's just something about birdcage veils that really appeals to me. Now, I don't know anyone personally who wore a birdcage and had never seen one up close so I called a few bridal boutiques today to make sure they had a nice collection so I could go in and get a better idea of what they're all about.
You know what I found out? That the overwhelming majority of bridal professionals I spoke to today didn't even know what a birdcage was. In case you're among those who have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a photo of one.

So after several frustrating & disappointing phone calls, I spoke to a boutique whose owner referred me to Sara Gabriel Veiling & Headpieces. And things just kept getting better. . . I found out the flagship location is right here in Denver and only 15 minutes from my condo. I called the boutique before heading that way and the person I spoke to was incredibly nice. When I arrived at Anna Be' which houses Sara Gabriel in addition to bridal & bridesmaid dresses, I was directed upstairs. Imagine my surprise when the "salesperson" introduced herself as Sara. It took me a moment for it to sink in that I was meeting the designer of all these beautiful veils. I'll admit, I was a little star-struck. I don't know about you, but it isn't every day that I meet a real, honest-to-goodness designer. All of her pieces are custom made, so after choosing your favorite from her extensive collection, you can customize it to your heart's content.
I wish I'd thought to bring my camera so I could post some photos of her beautiful and glamorous veils, but I left it at home. You can check out her website. There are no photos of Collette or Astyn (the veils I tried on) but you can find a sketch of Collette.
My original plan was to have a traditional fingertip length veil for the ceremony and switch to the birdcage veil for the reception. I hadn't really thought out the whole scenario, and Sara pointed out that if I wear the birdcage for the reception, my guests may feel a bit ill-at-ease trying to have a conversation with me through a veil. She showed me an alternative to the regular birdcage veil. It's similar to the one worn by the oh-so-fabulous Mrs. Gingerbread for her wedding to Mrs. GB 2.0 last month. Check out her wedding recap post with photos on Weddingbee.
Now I'm rethinking my game plan, but I'm so in love with Sara Gabriel's designs. I like that she is not about the hard sell. She was helpful and friendly, immediately putting me at ease. She answered all of my questions and even made suggestions for alternatives. Even if you're not in the market for the oh-so-classy but elusive birdcage veil, definitely check out Sara's designs. The way I look at it, if I'm going to spend some cash on a veil, I may as well be giving that money to someone who's super-nice and cool to boot.
What kind of veil or headpiece will you wear on you wedding day? Are there any other birdcage brides out there?

Why Cakes in NOLA Have Ribbons

There's a tradition in New Orleans weddings that make our cakes look a little odd. Silver charms, attached to a piece of ribbon, are placed under the bottom layer of the cake so the end of the ribbon is visible. It's a tradition that seems to be unique to New Orleans, brought over from France and adopted by the Creoles.
Here's a beautiful set of cake pulls from Mignon Faget.

Before the cake is cut by the bride & groom, the bride chooses a number of single ladies, and each chooses a piece of ribbon which they pull out from beneath the cake. Each charm has a meaning. Here are the meanings of some typical wedding cake pulls:
WEDDING RING.....Next To Marry
HEART.....Love Will Come
FLEUR-DE-LIS.....Love Will Flower
RED BEAN.....Luck
ANCHOR.....Hope
CLOVER.....Good Luck
WISHBONE.....Good Luck
HORSE SHOE.....Good Luck
DIME.....Riches
PENNY.....Poverty
BUTTON.....Old Maid
THIMBLE.....Old Maid

What local traditions will you incorporate into your wedding celebration?