Take the Cake Thursday: Romano's Bakery

Since I'm in Dallas visiting my awesome fiance, I thought I would spotlight a local Dallas bakery.

Romano's Bakery was named Best Wedding Cake in Texas by People Magazine and was also features on Whose Wedding is it Anyway? Romano's Bakery has been making delicious cakes and cheesecakes in the Dallas area since 1990. Their cakes are made the European way; using fresh ingredients and the personal touch that they are known for. All of Romano's cakes are custom designed for you, whether it is for your child's first birthday or your wedding, they want the cake to be a beautiful focal point to your event.

 

 

20 Fun Bridal Shower Games

While I'm not yet at the point of thinking of bridal showers, I found this great link to games for a bridal shower. I found it today on From "I will"...to "I Do" which has moved back to its blogger home. Anne Chertoff, author of From "I will" to "I Do", is now Senior Editor for Brides.com.

Games include "Read His Mind", "Bangle Shakedown", "Take Yarn, Tell a Yarn", and "Memory Lane Mysteries".

The full list of names can be found here.

Love this bio!

I found this awesome Knottie bio thanks to WeddingBee! WB is my resource for almost everything! Knottie TDiddy2 has a very helpful, thorough, and totally stylish bio. She has reviews of her vendors and commentary throughout, including FAQs which I'm sure she received via the Knot and email. She has so many great ideas and wonderful style. She also set up a married bio to show everyone how it all turned out! You can check it out here.

Here's a sneak peek!

Cocktail table pieces (Photo from TDiddy2)

Jewelry made by MrsTDiddy2 (photo from TDiddy2)

Thank you MrsTDiddy2 for a very helpful and inspirational bio! Thanks to Mrs. Bird of Paradise on WeddingBee for sharing!

A great new way to collect addresses!

I've been trying to figure out the most efficient and convenient way to collect the addresses and information of our family and friends. Sending around an Excel spreadsheet seems cumbersome and even with Google Documents, not everyone is signed up for Google (as prolific as it is). I thought about just collecting addresses from my mom's address book, but that would take forever to type. Data entry? No thanks! Plus into today's digital world, everyone (almost) is at a computer/blackberry/iPhone/etc at all times.



Then I came upon Mrs. Eggplant's suggestion and the lovely form building website Wufoo.com. Wufoo is the answer to my quandary. It allows to to build a custom form and deliver it to your audience. And even embed it in your website or blog. Talk about a simple solution!

3 basic forms and 3 basic reports are free, and even with what seems "basic" should be more than enough to fit a bride's needs. You can customize the look of the form to a degree and add color. You can definitely add your personality into the form. In addition, you can get reports of information that has been submitted. So great! And of course, if that's not enough, Wufoo has some affordable options if more space is needed.

Try it out if you're looking for a convenient and efficient way of collecting information!

Mission: Finding a Photographer Part II

To me wedding photography was all about style. I wasn't really feeling the super traditional posed portrait that make you think "look here and smile at the camera". I do appreciate nicely composed portraits, but I didn't want my photos to be "just" that.

Even before the proposal, I've been blog-stalking photographers. I'm just in such awe at the wonderful images they are able to capture. I always think, "how did they see that?!" when they capture the finest detail or slightest nuance. It takes real talent and an eye to do that. It's not all about the point and shoot.

Another quality I wanted in a photographer? Youthful fun. I want my photographer to be able to identify with me and be able to understand my wants. Someone who would listen and understand and work with what I want and the style I want. Someone who is perhaps recently married and understands all that goes into a wedding.

A few photographers who embody this in my mind:

Jasmine Star





Trista Lerit




Sarah K. Chen





I love their youthful and fun style as well as all the little details that they capture! So wonderful! And they are a testament to why blogs are so useful and necessary in the photography world. My advice is to choose a photographer who's style you like as well as who's personality you click with. Now, I didn't end up booking any of these talented ladies, but I certainly would!

Next, how I found my photographer and what led me to book him!

New Fabulous-ness!

I'm so excited about one of my favorite blog's new resource for brides and for anyone interested in wedding stuff! It's an amazing collection of photographers, beauty, planning, floral, venues, and stationery, all in one central place called the Elizabeth Anne Designs Library. I haven't yet scoured all the links, but I will!  

Congrats on this fabulous new and incredibly helpful resource! Find it here.

How to keep your budget in check

I've been using a great online tool to keep track of my expenses wedding and non-wedding related. Back before we were engaged, I was really focused on beefing up my understanding of personal finances. I borrowed books from the library written by Suze Orman, Jean Chatzsky, and I read David Bach's Smart Women Finish Rich book cover-to-cover. I was almost hyper-vigilant about my finances after that. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't spending more than I had and saving all that I could.

Then one day, I was reading an issue of Money Magazine that had featured a new resource for tracking expenses and then analyzing your habits. It's called Mint. It's a free tool and still technically in it's beta phase, but so far, it has proven to be an amazing thing, to me at least. You can track all your accounts, even investment accounts and it will summarize your spending habits and suggest better alternatives for credit cards if applicable.

Later on, after we were engaged, I found this article about using Mint to track wedding expenses. Within Mint, you can tag your expenses (similar to blog tagging) and then sort to see where you are at with spending. It's great! Try it out!

1 year and counting!

365 days until the big day! When we join our lives together and promise to love and respect each other forever. The celebration will be remembered, but the marriage is the most important part. I've met the love of my life and I can't wait until we're not long-distance relationship-ing anymore!

This is one of our designs of our Save the Date magnets. I also have created an insert card for our out of town family and friends.

Take the Cake Thursday: Sugar Butter Flour

Sugar Butter Flour is a bakery based out of Sunnyvale, CA. Their mission is to provide the finest desserts, pastries, and chocolates at reasonable prices. Their products are baked fresh daily and only use the finest ingredients without preservatives or artificial flavoring. They are dedicated to delivering the highest level of customer service, and will do their best to make their customers happy.

 

Turquoise with Ribbon 

  

Fondant with Bees

  

Henna Cake

 

Purple Blossom on White

Details!

I love details at weddings. I love it even more when photographers capture each and every little aspect that goes into the wedding. It's the personal touches that the bride and groom have put into the wedding that not everyone may notice, but the newlyweds will certainly remember, most especially if it's DIY!

Lyndsy & Elon via Elizabeth Anne Designs

Antonio & Heather via Trista Lerit

Jennifer+ Michael via Boutwell Studio

 Jill + Harry via Michael Norwood Photography

Click on photos to enlarge.

Check out these photog blogs for more eye candy!

Inspiration Boards

The lovely and wonderful blog-read Snippet & Ink provides great inspiration for color palettes and detail ideas. Thank goodness for labels on blog posts! I found the inspiring palettes that include blue, one of the basic colors I will be including in my wedding. Thank you Kathryn for pulling these together everyday for your readers' inspiration and enjoyment!

Floral Opulence 

Japanese Magnolia

Cinco de Mayo

Early Spring Sweetness

Blue and Orange

Amanda's Blue and Yellow Wedding

A Maine Coast Wedding

A Little Bird Told Me...

Check out Snippet & Ink!



All inspiration boards created by Kathryn of Snippet and Ink.

Foto Friday: Becker Photographer

This Friday's feature is the uber-talented and incredibly amazing photographer, Becker. I think I discovered Becker's work when someone blogged one of his images on WeddingBee. The details, the lighting, the relaxed portraits, everything caught my eye. Along with [b]ecker's blog, I also uncovered his forthcoming project that he has been promoting for the past several months, the [b] school, found on the [b] school blog. It's a fantastic resource for seasoned and newbie photographers alike. I've checked out some of the Photoshop features for my own use. There's an abundance of information in there and it keeps getting better every day! I've told my friends who are aspiring photographers to check it out. And, because Becker posts videos giving tips and his own insights, you get a snapshot (yes, pun intended again) of his personality. He truly lives up to what he's set out to do, make his brides happy with fantastic images and service as well as spread the love throughout the photography community. Thanks Becker!

Check out his latest engagement session here! I love his work, it was so hard to just choose a few photos!

Creative Must-Have... or at least I think so

My new love on the creative front has been the Xyron family of products. I own a Xyron 510 that I bought at 50% off at Joann's. It's become my new best friend. I love the adhesive feature and most recently the magnet/laminator feature. All this, without any electricity! It's green goodness.

Now I'm totally coveting the Xyron 900 (which now, come to think of it, I should have jumped on with that 50% off coupon, but oh well), and have been scouring Michaels, Joann's, and eBay for a good deal. I'm pretty thrifty so at 50% off or more deal would be sweet!

For those of you who have not yet been introduced, meet the Xyron 900 or 9" Creative Station (it's official name), featured on Martha Stewart as well:

Click here for instructions on how to make the Copper-Edged Magnet shown on the Martha Stewart show on March 22.

I'm definitely using this baby to create my magnet Save the Dates! (Coming Soon!) I wasn't digging the plain magnet paper and I didn't like the texture once printed on. I did however love the laminated feel of magnets run through the Xyron. It's a little pricey, but when you get 50% or more off on the cartridges, plus all the other uses that will come of this fabulous contraption, who could say no?

Check out these other projects made with the Xyron a la Weddingbee:

Mrs. Lovebug's Bridal Backstage Passes
Miss Pomegranate's Save the Date labels
Miss Hydrangea's Table Cards and Water Labels
Mrs. Jasmine's Address Labels
Mrs. Penguin's Invitations
Miss Coconut's Save the Date project

And this is only to name a few...