Fabulous Friday - Floral Blooms

Fresh flowers are a beautiful way to celebrate that spring has sprung! 

My absolute favorite flower is the peony: it is romantic, delicate, and luxurious!  Along with the peony,  here are a few of my favorite flowers!  -all of which will be incorporated in my wedding bouquet!

peony perfection

ranunculus. beautiful.

light pink garden roses

hydrangea

lovely lisianthus

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend! 

A Cake (almost) too Pretty to Eat... almost.

I may not have decided which cake company to go with, but I definitely have an idea of how I'd like our  wedding cake look.  My cake must-haves are:

• (White) Fondant
• Round cake tiers although I am amenable to a petal-shape tier 
• A white / silver color palate 

My cake "wanna-haves" are:

• sugar flowers (personally I don't like real flowers on a cake)
• sugar lace - I love how simple and delicate it looks 
• thin, neat, and even piping
• simple cake topper (if any)
• a little bit of bling or shimmer 

Here are a few cakes that are inspiring our wedding cake design:

cake by Sweet and Saucy Shop 

via The Caketress

cake by Sweet Cheeks Baking Company

cake by The Caketress

cake by My Wedding Concierge

cake by The Wow Factor Cakes

cake by Sweetopia

Wedding Wednesday! - Cake Tasting

Mmmm... CAKE!  Cake tasting is a wedding planning highlight.  I mean, how can you go wrong when you are treated to delicious samplings of (free) cake! The Mister doesn't really care for cake but thankfully, I haven't had to go to my tastings alone, Mother has stepped up and is a FABULOUS cake tasting buddy! 

At Paradise Pastries our cake tasting was driven by cake and filling flavors that I was interested in.  The combinations included the following:

Vanilla cake with Guava Cream 

Yellow cake with Strawberry Cream

Coconut cake with Ganache

Chocolate cake with Haupia (Coconut)

Red Velvet cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese

Yellow Cake with Pineapple 

The white chocolate cream cheese frosting was really good! The white chocolate was very subtle but it added a nice flavor boost.  

While I'm not a huge fan of pineapple the flavor was light and complemented the yellow cake well.  

At A Cake Life I was not able to choose the cake or fillings in the tasting; the tasting selections were based on their best sellers.  

The cake tasting included the following flavor combinations (left to right) as shown below:

Yellow cake with Strawberry Cream 

Yellow cake with Lilikoi (a tart fruit)

Chocolate cake with Oreo Cream Cheese

Chocolate with Chocolate Raspberry Cream

Guava Cake with Guava Cream 

Red Velvet cake with Cream Cheese

 I really liked the yellow cake with strawberry cream filling! 

Although I wouldn't choose the Oreo cake for my wedding, I think it would make a delicious birthday cake.

 Nom. Nom. Nom! 

Although I have narrowed down my cake search (from 4) to these two companies, I haven't confirmed with either yet.  Currently, I am leaning toward A Cake Life based on the overall consultation and design feedback.  But solely based on the tasting, I'd have to choose Paradise Pastry simply because I was able to taste (and liked) the flavor combination I plan to order (White cake with a Coconut filling) while I wasn't able to taste either flavor with A Cake Life.  Decisions, decisions, decisions.  

Do you think it's important to taste a wedding cake before you commit and put down your deposit?

Has anyone ordered their wedding cake without tasting it? 

it's (almost) TEA time!

The Mister and I haven't begun our wedding invitations just yet (I know, I know! We will be mailing our deposit and begin work this month) but I had some invitation fun working on my Tea Party invites!  I really enjoyed perusing through weddingpaperdivas.com as well as picking the actual invitation design and wording.  

Although the invitations have pink-ish hue, I used a reliable double sided tape to adhere a lavender card stock backing, which I felt complimented the colors nicely; the card stock was also a great way to add weight and substance to the invitation.

All invitations are in the mail.  Time to patiently wait for the responses!  

and . . . decide what to wear! 

Gimme my REFUND!

via

Today is Tax Day! 

Gah! It felt like such an ordeal to do my taxes (probably since I was such a procrastinator) but alas they are F I N I S H E D ! 

Thank you turbo tax!  

I'm happy to say that I have  a REFUND (Fed & State) coming my way! 

via

Here is my list of what I'd like to get with my tax refund:

Yves Saint Laurent sandals YSL Tribute 105 Patent

Le Creuset Red Cookware

a personal trainer to get me wedding ready

And what I actually did with my tax refund:

I added to my Roth IRA :)

Did anyone do anything fun with their refund? 

Have a great week! 

Fabulous Friday - Etsy.com

The more engrossed I become in wedding planning the more inspiration I am finding on etsy.com!  Here are a few of my favorite finds that may find their way into our wedding!!

via ourhobbytoyourhome

via myambercolouredworld

via lovegrowsbygiving

via luxedeluxe

via beachhouseliving

via tiers0fjoy

Does anyone have etsy finds/inspiration they want to share? :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

xo

Zaa Zaa Zoomba!

via

A couple of weeks ago I signed up to participate in a Zoomba-thon.  Whaat? I've never even been to a Zoomba class!  And now I'm going to a Zoomba-thon?!  Yup!  A few of my friends and co-workers who are Zoomba regulars (read: fanatics), convinced me to sign up by telling me I will have a lot of fun, but more importantly, it is a fundraiser with all proceeds going to earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear victims in Japan.

I didn't want to be a complete newbie when I showed up for the Z-thon so today I went to my first Zoomba class! To be honest, I was a lotta bit nervous about going to my first Zoomba class, but despite feeling slightly awkward and uncoordinated I had a great time!  I don't know if I will become a regular but I think I have few more classes in me!