Update!

SORRY for being such a slacker!

We flew back to PA for Christmas and I have been running around like a crazy person trying to get everything settled and finalized.

My girls and I went dress shopping for them and decided on the navy blue Jim Hjelm dress I had talked about in the blog out brides maid dresses (sorry for being lazy and not reposting a pic). The girls that were about to try it on all look gorgeous and I have no doubt so with the others girls. It's just such a great dress for everyone. They did say I should pick one color though so I don't know what to do :(. I feel bad making everyone where a color they don't necessarily love. But I guess thats life lol.

Tuesday I met with our florist and am very excited out that but did not realized all the flowers you have to have for people! Goodness it is a little silly.

Yesterday we had our cake tasting which was SOOO yummy! We decided on the 3 flavors for the 3 tiers; chocolate cake with peanut butter filling, vanilla cake with buttercream filling and chocolate chip cake with chocolate buttercream filling!!! Yeh no carrot cake. Patrick did not like it at all and honestly it wasn't anywhere as good as Main Street Bistros. I'm really happy with our selection and think it's a good variety. The cake was so moist dense which is how i LOVE my cake :)

Right now I am waiting for the tent rental lady to get to the house to discuss and nail that down. So far compared to the place we were going through we could potentially save $2-3,000! Yeh crazy right?! Patrick's best friend's soon to be in-laws own a rental company so they are really helping us out and giving us good prices on everything which is saving my sanity lol seriously this entire rental things is the most stressful part. So wish me luck.

I will be back in Tx on the first so expect my blogs to be more regular starting sunday :)

Hope y'all had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!!!

Wedding Dress Nostalgia

So I was deleting pictures from my camera last night when I came across pictures of me trying on wedding dresses. Specifically MY wedding dress and it got me all chocked up again.

I don’t know if every bride has that moment but I knew before I even saw myself in it, before it was even zipped, I had a feeling this dress was special. As soon as I saw myself in the mirror, my breath caught and I just bust into tears. There was no if and or buts about it. This was MY dress, the dress I would wear as I married then man I loved.

God that sound so damn cheesy, and honestly I never thought I would ever cry. I mean how silly to cry over a piece of clothing. I have this fantastic sweater but I surely did not cry when I first tried it on and said “dear GOD this is the most fantastic sweater EVER”, LOL no because that would be CRAZY. It’s not like I cried when I found my senior prom dress either. It’s a damn dress WTF! But lots of girls find themselves crying over this white dress (or in my case ivory). Maybe it’s because it’s something you have wanted for so long and dreamed about and finally it’s REAL.

OR maybe I’m just a crier. Which is quite possible, I do cry during every Disney movie and sad scene. Either way it took ONE day, 2 shops and MAYBE 20 dresses to find THE dress. It always baffles me when I watch ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ and these girls find the dress of their dreams and they walk away or let people talk them out of it. Um It’s YOUR wedding dress right? My mom asked me if I wanted to keep looking and I said “Why? This is the dress.” I mean what else is there? Did you have the same reaction to your wedding dress?

5 MONTHS!!!!!

So since I live in Texas and the wedding is in PA I have a ton of stuff I have to cram into 6 days!!! Some of this stuff I can get done online but there is a ton of stuff I need to do in person while I am in PA for the Holiday. Talk about overwhelming!

• Select and purchase invitations: I fell in love with these invitations by DesignsbyAdj on Etsy. She will custom make them to whatever you want. I used her for my save-the-dates which I sent 9 months out since our wedding is the weekend before Memorial Day. She does a great job and I love that the response card is a post card and saves on paper! Always trying to be earth friendly!
  
• Start planning a honeymoon: Living in TX but getting married in PA makes thing a little complicated with travel so we have to meet with a travel agent and see if we can get a better deal than I have been trying to online.
  
• Shop for bridesmaids’ dresses & order: We are scheduled at Bijou in Ardmore, PA to go try on those beautiful dresses the day after Christmas. Super excited!
  
• Meet with the officiant: My FI and I decided that we wanted someone close to us to Marry us rather than some stranger. Also it is like $250 to hire someone and I want a short ceremony so I just thought that was ridiculous! So my very dear friend Chad will be marrying us. I was a bridesmaid in his wedding in August of 2009 so it is really nice to have him be a part of our day. We are paying for him to get ordained online which is only $30. That is a sweet deal my friends!
  
• Schedule hair and makeup artists: I had been getting my hair done by the same girl for the past 8 years and she is AMAZING and offered to do my hair for free. I also made an appointment with her to cut my hair while I am in PA because I have yet to get a good cut and color here. I haven't decided yet if I will do my own make-up or hire someone but I guess I should do that next week while I'm home.
  
• Choose your music: I actually gave this job to Patrick but who knows. I don’t find this necessary to do anyways until like 2 months out. Plus we are including on our response cards a place for our guest to suggest a song to be played. So ultimately I would love to incorporate everyone’s song into the day as best as possible.
  
• Select and order the cake: Our cake is included by our caterer and we have an appointment to do the cake tasting December 27th. Very excited because it will be the first thing Patrick and I have done for the wedding TOGETHER!
  
• Finalize the menu: Our caterer, Emily is fantastic! I’m really hoping we will be able to do our final tasting this trip because it’s the only trip I have Patrick with me.
  
• Book a florist: Our florist meeting is the next day (Tuesday) at Carousel Florist in Doylestown, PA and I could not be more excited to see what my bouquets will look like and what ideas she has.
  
• Reserve a block of hotel rooms for out-of-town guests: So here’s the dealiyo on this. I emailed the closest hotel (The Hampton Inn) to our house to reserve a block of rooms and they came back to me with a price that was HIGHER than then one I can get anytime online. This can not be right can it? So I am going to go there personally and talk to someone face to face because I find this absurd. Has anyone else had that happen to them?
  
• Look for the groom’s tux and decide what groomsmen will wear: I would love to Patrick to do this on this trip because he probably won’t be back until the wedding and I just think it’s something to do WITH your groomsmen … but maybe that’s just me.
  
• Have your mother and future mother-in-law coordinate and select their dresses: I actually am totally lost about this and don’t know if I go shopping with my mom or just let her do her thing. I probably should talk to her about the color because she has choice of color over Patrick’s mom. We don’t want any animosity on the day of do we?
  
• Reserve rental equipment such as chairs, tables, linens, tents, etc: This is a must do for this trip and right now I am waiting to hear back from this woman who is the mother-in-law of one of Patrick’s groomsmen because they are “hopefully” hook us up with a discount on everything we are renting. (Keeping my fingers crossed since our rentals are bringing us $2,000 over budget and it is KILLING me.)
  
• Research and book your rehearsal dinner location: I came up with the fun idea of having our rehearsal dinner at my favorite sushi/hibachi restaurant. Ooka in Doylestown, PA is so delicious and Hibachi is just such a fun thing to do with a big group. I also use to waitress, bartend and hostess there so I’m hoping they hook me up with a sweet deal ;-)

Dec 2010 Lunar Eclips

Did anyone stay up to watch the lunar eclipse?

I have a wonderful FI who told me about it and then called me to wake me up at 2:15am so I could see it. Definitely a once in a lifetime sight to see. Yes I know Lunar eclipses happen every couple years but this one fell on the Winter Solstice and that hasn't happen since 1638! It was only 2nd time a lunar eclipse fell on a Solstice in the common Era. The Common Era is the time after Christ so that is pretty amazing if you ask me :-) My wonderful FI had told me that it was the 2nd one since the dawn of time lol not quite and my gullible butt believed him and said this to people ... I need to go

The next one will not be so far in the future but I doubt I will live to be 112 so I had to see this one. I love wikipedia and rely completely on them for all my facts lol I use to use them to study for history tests in College and it was awesome.

The Bridesmaid Dress Dilemma

Before I got engaged, I had always wanted a Autumn wedding. I still wanted to have it outdoors and at my parent’s house where I grew up but I just envisioned us surrounded by all the beautiful colors of fall, all the bright reds, yellows and oranges and the deep greens of the not yet turned leaves. I wanted each of my bridesmaids in a different color dress; one bright Red, another gold, dark green, burnt orange, yellow. Whatever color best suited each girl. I thought it would look so beautiful and organic.

But when I got proposed to on Christmas I knew a fall wedding was out. Patrick said he wanted at least a year engagement and I knew I didn’t want an almost 2 year engagement. So we decided on Spring because of the mild weather, but what were my wedding colors going to be now? I just couldn’t picture different color dresses now that it was a different season. I am not a fan of pastels and super girly colors like pink and oranges. I thought of doing my favorite color yellow but that was a bad idea considering both of my sisters HATE yellow. So finally I decided on green and purple.

So the question was do I want solids or a pattern? When I was looking online I kind of fell in love with patterned dresses at first.
I kind of love the pattern groomsmen tie as well :-)I mean they are kind of darling, but again not everyone loves a patterned dress. I mean I could always go the mismatch route and give the girls basic colors and let them pick whatever they want like this ….But I really just do not like the look of that. I really wanted the girls in the same style dress. I just really believe that one thing should be the same so you can distinguish your bridesmaids from the guests. So either they all were going to have a different color or they were going to wear the same style dress, so the style won. I wanted green to be more of the accent color since we are going to be outside surrounded by green; grass, trees, plants. Also it’s bad luck if you are Irish and your bridesmaids wear green, so done, they will wear purple. Some of my BM’s freaked a little with the purple but they hated green more and you can’t please everyone. Plus I’m not going to make them all wear the same shade. Not everyone looks good in lavender. So I decided to have a couple different shades that will work with different skin tons and the girls can pick. I told the girls to look for styles they love and I would do the same and we would make a list and vote of the favorite. Well lucky me, all my girls love the same dress I love! I of course didn’t tell them my favorite until after they had all voted because I didn’t want them to think they had to pick that one. I seriously have the best BM’s ever! And I adore the dress we picked! A couple of the girls had picked 2 dresses so we are going to try them on as well because if the one we all love doesn’t look good on then we need back ups.
God those are some good looking dresses! They are all from the fabulous Jim Hjelm! I beyond love this designer! All of his dresses are amazing and it really is hard to pick just one but the prices of the dresses sure helped narrow that down because some of them are upwards of $500 so yeh not about to make my girls pay for something like that lol THAT is rude. So unless I was going to dish out $300 per girl to help them pay I just chose dresses that were in a more modest range. Also I did a lot of searching online and found some great discount websites that offers some at $100 off or more, fabulous right? J. Honestly what did brides do before there was the internet?

Now I am thinking I don’t really care if they have the same style because I know the shades of purple will be the same because the dresses are from the same designer.
I think which ever dress style they feel beautiful in will be fine with me because in the end I really want my girls to feel beautiful and I think together they will look really great :-) PLUS look who else decided to do 3 different shades of purple AND different dress styles… On a side note when I was trying to find a Bridal shop that carried the dresses we like (which was so hard) , I found this dress which I LOVE because it is basically my wedding in a dress haha but would never make my girls wear it, but i DO secretly want to wear it myself lol

Here are the links to those sites that offer designer dresses at discounted rates :-)

Brides of California
Victoria's Bridal Couture
Modern Bridal Shop

Black Swan

If you haven’t seen it, GO!
If you haven’t heard of it let me tell you this movie was awesome!

Black Swan is a psychological thriller starring Natalie Portman and in my opinion this is her best roll by far.
It’s about a ballet dancer who gets the part of Swan Queen in the ballet company’s new rendition of Swan Lake. Portman’s character is the perfect white swan, innocent, quite, graceful, but she must also dance the part of the black swan and the pressures and stress of it starts driving her mad. She But in all honesty I’m pretty sure she was a little crazy before. Her character is so childlike, her mother wakes her every morning, helps dress her and puts her to bed. It is very unnerving.

I love the movie because this role she has to dance becomes her reality and each person is a personified version of a part from Swan Lake. It was just very well done with the character development and cinematography; very beautiful yet extremely disturbing to watching.

Also if you have any nail or skin phobias, be warned that it is pretty hard to watch at times. I don’t want to give anything in the plot away … I always hate reviews that do that so I will just leave it at that.

Boys n' Toys

Why is buying for men so DIFFICULT!?!?

When I get a present for someone, especially family, I want it to mean something but I also want them to need or want it. So unless my dad asks for tools I prefer not to get them because my thinking is why would I get him something to make him work?

This year is unusually hard for me. Maybe it’s cause I know he is doing so very much and HAS done so very much for me that I really want this to be special. I thought maybe I would get him some cool grilling tools because he loves to grill and cook for the family but again I thought well then maybe he will feel like “Oh great something I have to work to use”.

This year I asked my mom what she thought my father would like and her response; “I don’t know honey”.
I became so desperate I even asked my father and do you know what he says? “I want my daughter home for Christmas”. GAHHH!!! Yes that was sweet but completely useless considering I am flying back to PA for Christmas. Not even my other siblings know what they are getting him, so I am on my own.

MEN! I will tell you exactly why they are so difficult to buy for; because they always just buy what they want or need when they want or need it. They never think “oh I’ll have to ask for that on my birthday or Christmas.” No they just buy it willy-nilly.

My fiancé is like that too. For instance he has wanted a new watch for almost 2 years now and I thought for Christmas I would get him a really nice watch. I can’t afford the watch he wants but I can still get a nice watch for a couple hundred. I mean he has waited this long already so you would think that would be a safe bet. Nope, he went and bought the watch 2 weeks ago, Bastard. I thought about buying him a poker set but he bought one … or so I thought he did until I found out it was a friends and by that time it was too late to order the one I wanted. I’ve tried movies, which after getting about 3 of those he said he hates getting movies for presents because he won’t watch them more than once. He is not a big music person he just goes on iTunes and downloads random songs he likes. Basically the only thing I have found that I can get him and he loves every time is clothes from Express. I just get bored buying the same thing for him every Birthday and Christmas. I finally did figure out a great gift I know he really wants and won’t be expecting but I can’t tell you because he reads my blog and is always trying to find out what I get him. So it’s not like I can’t tell him not to read it because he will do it anyways, but I promise to let you know after he gets itJ.

For my dad I FINALLY decided I’m getting him cufflinks. I thought about getting these cute ones from Cheeky Frills on Etsy .
But I thought maybe they were too boring or cliché if you know what I mean. So then I found these cute Superman cufflinks from Cool Cufflinks on Etsy as well (I have an Etsy addiction if you haven’t been able to tell already).
When my oldest sister was really littler her friend had told my dad he looked like superman and ever since then my dad has been our Superman. We use to get him Superman everything and he loved it. So I thought these would be a cute tribute to that. But I kept going back to the round ones. But I liked the Superman idea. I felt like the Superman cufflinks were to childish I guess. So I was torn because I wanted to do something to kind of say that he is my Superman. Then BAM it hit me. A lot of these Etsy sellers do custom work and are super great about it. So I asked if I could get one cufflink that said “Father of the Bride 5.21.11” and the other will say “Forever My Superman”. I love it, I almost cried when I thought of it … I could just be over emotional but still I really am in love with my idea. So I ordered them, the seller said it was no problems and best of all she is going to make them today and send them tomorrow so I get them before Christmas next week!

I know people usually give gifts like this at the rehearsal dinner but I really didn’t want to give them to him then because we are getting one big joint present for each of our parents. I’m really excited to see how they turn out because I already have ideas for the groomsmen … or at least my brother :-)

A Christmas Engagement

I have ALWAYS loved Christmas and love it even more this year because my FI proposed to me on Christmas day! And since I'm in such a Christmassy mood I thought I'd tell you our story :)

Patrick and I have been together 4 years this past May! We knew we wanted to get married in the first 6 months together and always talked about it. But for the last year we had been seriously talking about marriage, well me mostly because I had moved across the country for him and I'm not going to lie and say I'm the most impatient person on the planet ... because I’m not. But his oldest brother was getting married that Thanksgiving weekend so Patrick really wanted to wait. We were also looking to buy a house in the spring and he just kept saying that he “doesn’t want to get married until we are financially secure”. Bah-humbug!

In the months leading up to Christmas he had been telling me I wasn't getting anything for Christmas because we were getting a puppy in January that was costing him a pretty Penny (which happens to be her name). This was fine with me being as we just spent a lot to come home to PA for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.Christmas morning at my parents’ house we all open presents together after a big fabulous breakfast feast! It has honestly not changed except we are a little more civilized and don't go at the presents like rabid dogs.

Now on this particular Christmas I had decided to go first giving everyone their present from me. While everyone was opening their presents from me Patrick hands me this big huge gift. Curious, I opened it to find a huge wooden jewelry box, one of those armourer ones which he had kept telling me to get cause my jewelry is in this really old beat up one I’ve had forever. When I opened the top lid, there sitting in the ring holder was.... a shinny DOG TAG! Yes I kid you not and it said "Penny Murphy" on it. You can just imagine the look I gave him… NOT a nice trick. He just smiled “keep going”. So I open the first drawer and there was a cross necklace in it.

Now at this point my brother was yelling at Patrick to give him "2 inches" because Patrick had pushed back his chair for some extra room while my brother was trying to get his presents to give to people, one of which he then started shoving in my face until I took it from him.

I opened the second drawer to find an envelope. Inside was one of my old shell rings I had "jokingly" thrown at him 6 months prior as a size reference. The card read ...

"MeggyLou I love you with all my heart and always will. Now open the next drawer".

So I open the next and last drawer and there, sitting in a little black velvet box was this amazing single stone, radiant cut diamond ring!!!!!
My sister Amanda (33 keep in mind) had started screaming "its happening! It’s happening!" So Patrick takes the ring from my hand (which I am just staring at with disbelief), kneels on one knee and simply asks "Will you?" and I look up and just stare at him in shock, so he says a little worry sneaking into the question "Marry me?" and I just burst into tears, nod my head and said "Uh-huh”.

After I hugged and kissed him (my dad snapping pictures the entire time!) I said "I have to call Nellie!" and proceeded to call my best friend (since we were 4) while still crying to tell her the news!It was the best present I have ever gotten and I still look down at my ring and can't believe this is finally happening! I’d love to hear you’re story if you have one :-)

Decor Obsession!

Is any one obsessed with reception décor like I am?
I look at pictures online all day long and can not get enough. There are a billion great ideas out there and I want to use them all!. Or at least afford someone to do all the hard work. I have always planned on DIY’ing as much of the décor that I can. My mom is a sculptor and works with clay and bronze so I knew we could make a lot of the stuff our selves since she is really crafty.

To give you a little background our wedding is being held at my parents’ house which is located in the country on 10 acres and bordered by woods. My mom and dad have worked really hard on the landscaping around the house and all the garden boxes to give it a really gorgeous natural look.

This is the front in the spring. I wish I had a picture of the back where everything will be but this sucky drawing I made the layout will have to do… hahah oh man this is sad ….

In all honestly it’s the most beautiful during the summer but with the humidity in PA I was just not about it because I really did want an outdoor reception. So I am hoping that being on May 21st it won’t rain (please please please PLEASE don’t rain!). We are getting a tent so if it does we will be fine. I plan of having lots of lighting. Lights everywhere! In an outdoor evening wedding I feel you can never have to many lights. I’m really hoping that the fireflies will be out that night too though I fear it will be too early.

My parents have a brick patio off the middle of the house which then leads onto a deck on the back of the house, both bordered by flower boxes. On the very end of the wood deck is a huge maple tree. I love this tree and use to climb it all the time as a kid and a little circle garden with birch trees in it and want to either string lights in it or hang lanterns in both these areas. (This isn’t our tree but it works) This Picture is a little more dramatic but I’m sure getting lights like that would be outrageous! SO pretty though.
Covering more than half the patio we have a pergola that is covered in purple wisteria. Sadly the flowers won’t be in bloom but there should be some budding. I really want to hang some small lanterns from there as well.
We are also setting up the cocktail area on the patio and deck and will have tall cocktail rounds and then on the deck we have this huge table with a fire pit in it and seating all around. I want it to be a sort of lounge away from the dancing and music in the tent where people can relax and talk.

This is not at all what it will look like but you get the idea. I think we will probably have the bar set up either on the patio or deck as well … unless it rains (fingers crossed!).

As for the tent I really wanted a more intimate setting so I decided to go with long tables, family style I guess. Anyways I love this because it allows for me and my FI to sit with our bridal party and also no one is segregated. I also wanted something that allowed for the type of centerpieces that I wanted and knew I didn’t want something tall and grand and I feel like with rounds you have to go big. Big is not in the budget and really not my style.

We are getting bee-lighting through our rental company and was also thinking about stringing paper lanterns up inside the tent as well but we shall see with the budget.
For the Centerpieces I wanted earthy and simple. Nothing high and in the way cause we have long tables and I want everyone to be able to see everyone else. I really want to do table runners and had thought about alternating dark purple and green runners and then alternating the flower colors to be opposite. So if a table had a green runner it would have purple flowers. BUT I found this picture and fell in love!

Moss table runners! OMG I know how fantastic are these!!! BUT I don’t think it will be doable because to make them isn’t so cheap. But then I found centerpieces using wheatgrass and I’m hooked.

I love the colored flowers popping out and found a great blog that showed me how to do it at 1-800Flowers.com! So simple and adorable! I want long rectangle center pieces and then have votive candles all around in random jars. The jars I am either going to purchase used on weddingbee.com or I found this fantastic wholesale site called Jar Supplier that has them SO cheap and I can get a bunch of different one and mismatch them! I am hoping my mom will be able to make the rectangular pots for the centerpieces. I think it would look gorgeous to have clay handmade pots and would just tie everything together!

I can’t wait to fly to PA and start piecing all of this together into a solid plan! I know it’s going to be hard but in the end it is going to be more than worth it!

2 Parts Wedding 1 Part Drinking

We had our first party in our first home this Saturday, hence the no posts for 2 days. It was a great success and a ton of fun but it got me thinking, about drinking and weddings.
I’m not going to lie and say I was the sober hostess. I definitely had a LOT of fun but I also drank more than I should have. I let the occasion get the best of my good sense. It was a BYOB so I had actually only bought myself a 6 pack of amber cider (beer that tastes like cider and my fav thing to drink) planning on just chilling on those the entire night. That was silly of me because our friends are shot maniacs and I am a sucker for shots. It’s really the only liquor I drink, I’m just not a huge fan of mixed drinks, I much prefer my beer and wine. For me shots are like potato chips; you can’t just have one. HA! That makes me sounds like such a drunk but in reality I rarely drink … maybe twice a month if that.

So anyways when I woke up the next morning with a surprisingly very mild hangover, which was gone in 30mins after the magical wonder of Excedrin, I got to thinking about our wedding and how I do not want it turn out. I watch a lot of wedding shows and some of these brides and grooms just get wasted and pass out or get sick even. I definitely do not want to be that bride, I want to remember every moment and not not look back and be like “oh geez I said/did what?”. I want people to have fun but there is such thing as too much fun. I want everyone to remember the night as much as I want to remember it and not have it turn into a ride on the hot mess express.

A couple if years ago I went to one of my friends weddings and she chose not to have a full bar instead they served beer, wine and had a signature drink. So when we were looking into caterers, parents and I had decided that we were going to go that route as well. I thought this was a great idea and could really keep the party going while not allowing people to go buck wild, which is a definite with our friends if we have a full bar. And best of all it’s super budget friendly. But in the last couple months I had been tossing around the idea of maybe having vodka and tequila as well but after Saturday I know this is not a good idea because there is no reason for those unless I want shots. Now yes of course I know people can still get just as drunk with wine and beer but they won’t have the option of shots with a limited bar. But I do worry about people not liking my signature drink. I know some people don’t like wine or beer so then the real task is to find a signature drink that will please the people.

Which bring me to my signature drink. When I moved to Texas I was introduced to Firefly Vodka. Now if you have never heard of it, it’s a sweet tea vodka, basically vodka that looks and tastes exactly like iced tea. YUM! I think it goes perfectly with our outdoor garden wedding in the Spring. All you do is mix it with lemonade and wah-la! That is something we could even pre-make so the bartender doesn’t have as much to do. I also thought it would be nice if we could offer different flavors so thought about getting raspberry and peach juices. This way there is a variety to one signature drink. I have also found out that it is gluten free which is important because my very good friend’s wife is allergic to gluten. I know both wine and beer has gluten so I wanted to have a something she could drink as well and this fits the bill.

As for out wine, well that was the easiest part. There is a wine from California call Charles Shaw or better known as Two Buck Chuck. It is $3 on the east coast and only can be purchased at Trader Joe store. It is really GOOD wine and if you have access to Trader Joe’s in your area I suggest picking up a case.

The beer is going to be the most expensive alcohol since my family like good beer. We will serve the all around crowd pleaser of Miller Light which I actually thoroughly enjoy but will also have Leffe Blonde and a dark beer of my brothers choosing. I thought about maybe serving Woodchuck Amber Cider as well but I doubt it seeing as I’m the only one who would drink it.

In the end I want everyone to be happy but I also have to work with our budget. I think this option gives us a good variety to make everyone happy … or so I hope ;-)

A Gravy State of Mind

This is for all the people requesting a non-wedding related post :-)

The Lone Star State, I don’t think so. Since moving to Texas from PA I have come to the realization that Texans LOVE gravy. I mean honestly I have never seen such an obsession, besides the obsession Texas has with it’s self but that is an entirely different topic.

Now fried food is BIG down here, yes you can find it any where in the US of A but not to the degree it is here. Back in PA if you order chicken fingers most people get honey mustard….. or the occasional BBQ sauce, but gravy? No sir. In my opinion gravy is strictly for baked/roasted variety of meats. Why on earth would I bread something, FRY it and then smother it in gravy? And not just any gravy mind you, but a white cream gravy that is the consistency of paste …. I mean YUCK!

And the processes of making this gravy, Dear Lord save us all. Now coming from a pretty good cooking family I know how to make gravy, and so I just assumed that to make cream gravy it would be butter, flour and cream …. How wrong I was my friends. If you are a vegetarian do NOT eat the white gravy!!! So what they first do is fry the food, than they take that grease the food was just fried in and add flour and cream. SO for breakfast cream gravy they will cook up that bacon and sausage and use that fat and grease to make the gravy. Are you kidding me?! So basically you are pouring the grease you just cooked your food in ALL over the food. I think I will pass and save my insurance from paying for the triple bypass.

Food in which gravy is served with/on:

• Biscuits
  


• Mashed Potatoes
  
• Chicken Fingers
  
• Steak Fingers (exactly what is sounds like people)
  


• French Fries
  
• Pork Chops
  
• Fried Chicken Livers
  
• Shit on a Shingle (which is Texas talk for Creamed Chipped Beef which is the ONLY thing in PA that I know is served with cream gravy and if you don’t know what it is, it’s a piece of toast smothered in cream gravy that has corn beef in it … also my fiancé's favorite dish and something I find repulsive lol)
  
• Fried Chicken Steak
  
• Chicken Fried Steak (not to be confused with the above, this is a thin almost ground steak that it flattened, breaded like chicken and fried ... hence the name)

Bare in mind that some of these things I didn't even know existed until I decided to write this. I am actually more disturbed now than I was before. The people at my work in which I got a lot of my information from, looked at me in shock and awe when I said I had no idea what the heck Steak Fingers were. I have been in Texas for 16 months and never heard of it till today, but then again I'm sure now that I know about it I will start seeing it on every fast food menu. In fact I'm sure most of the time when I thought I saw someone eating french toast sticks that they were in fact steak fingers. Baffles the mind.

A Cake of a Different Flavor

Oh cake how I love thee, but let’s NOT count thy ways. There are infinite combinations of cake flavors. I mean how is someone able to pick just ONE flavor for one of the most important days of their lives?! I mean this could just be a personal dilemma I found myself in, because I do know some people who don’t like cake. Insanity I know, but a fact none the less.

I remember everything about the first wedding I ever went to. I was young, like 12 I think. The food is still the best I remember and the Wedding cake was a chocolate chip cake with white frosting. I honestly don’t remember the icing flavor at all just the cake. Chocolate chip!?! I didn’t even know it was possible! Ever since then I have always wanted to have a chocolate chip wedding cake.
The dress, the wedding colors, I never knew any of that, but the cake …. That’s was easy, or so I thought.

But than last year I worked in a French Bakery and it opened my eyes to the wonderful world of Carrot Cake. I never knew that Carrot Cake could be so moist and flavorful! Oh and the cream cheese icing… I could have made a cake-less cake with this icing, I kid you not. I mean look at it!
I mean this cake even has nuts in it and I really dislike nuts in my dessert. It is the best cake I have ever eaten and I had to stare at it all day at work. I never knew I had such will power!

But wait, who wants carrot cake at their wedding, and what about my chocolate chip dream cake? Besides it not being traditional (I am all about untraditional btw) not many people like carrot cake. Let’s face it; it’s just not a popular cake. So my question is; what do you do when you’re favorite cake is not a crowd pleaser?

For me, it is simple. You get both! I know this might sound a little crazy but why not get both. Where is it written that you cannot have 2 different cakes in one wedding cake? I mean the tiers are basically separate sections of the cake. I could even go as far as to have a chocolate filling in the chocolate chip cake part. I could even go buck wild and have THREE flavors and maybe do the third as a chocolate cake with raspberry filling or maybe a peanut butter filling! Or maybe I just go the traditional route and have the third flavor be a yellow cake with vanilla or even butter cream filling.

Now you would have to have the over all icing of the cake be the same, so in the end if you do decide one just isn’t enough, then you have to pick cake flavors that go well with one common icing. For me it’s got to be the cream cheese icing, hands down. It is pure blissful deliciousness.

To Top or Not to Top

That is the question I have been debating for the last week since I read this bog on weddingbee.com and fell in LOVE with one of the toppers she had posted about.
Ta-Da!
How adorable right! It’s from the shop MilkTea by bthanari on Etsy.Before I got engaged and was in serious “wish I was getting engaged” obsession mode I thought I wanted a funny cake topper. In fact I thought I wanted this wedding topper I found on TheKnot.
I thought this was the best thing ever and SO “us”.
I imagined people at the wedding looking at it on our wedding cake saying:“Oh look how funny and cute they are! They have a cake topper of a bride dragging the groom to the alter! That is SO Patrick and Megan.”I have since decided this is not cute … or rather this is not “us”. I mean let’s be honest do I really want people to get the idea that I had to drag Patrick to the alter? Alright I’m not going to lie and saythat I came to this conclusion on my own. I watch a lot of David Tutera and he always freaks when the bride wants one and says they are tacky. Now up until right now I just assumed he only meant funny ones, but looking back I think he says ALL cake toppers are tacky.But I can’t help loving that topper from MilkTea. She will custom make each one from creating the little dress to match your own, to the grooms tux to the flowers and wedding colors and even the grooms facial hair! I mean really, how adorable is that?

What is the problem you may ask? Well the problem is that this topper is $160! As a budget bride, can I really, I mean REALLY justify spending almost $200 on something that goes on top of a cake?

Well I really want to. I keep going back to it multiple times a day. I feel like this is something that is not just an object that is plopped on a cake and then tossed or forgotten about. This is something that I would proudly save and display in my house. It embodies everything that is that day for us. I feel it is something my future daughter(s) would love to have and maybe use for their own wedding(s). Yes it wouldn’t be custom to their individual day but maybe that isn’t what is important to them. Now can you really put a price on something like that?

Cinnabun Rising

So I have been doing a lot of thinking about the wedding. I can't believe it's less than 6 months away. It is unreal to me that something that I have wanted, with every fiber of my being since I was 5 is going to come true. I know it seems silly and corny to say that, but it's really true for me. My parents even use to say I should have been born in the 1800's because I could have been married at 16.I think it's a little ironic that I am now 28 and getting married a couple months before my 29th birthday. Well as I have had to learn time and again ... I might have a time line of when I want things but that does not mean time agrees or cooperates for that matter.Married at 24, first baby at 25 .... HA! Yeah that worked out. I may have to wait to have my first child until I'm 30 and I may have had to wait until i was 24 to actually meet the love of my life, but I can definitely look at my life and say it was well worth the wait.

Life will work out the way you want it ... for the most part anyways. It is a lot like making cinnabuns (if you've ever made them from scratch) It takes almost 2 hours to make, first mixing the dough, then you have to let it rise in a nice warm temperature and wait .... waiting is the worst part but once it's risen into soft yummy dough you get to knead it! Kneading is the hardest part but it's really where all the love goes because, you really have to work hard but you never want to over knead ... the dough lets you know as silly as that sounds. THAN you get to the fun part of rolling it out and slathering it with melty butter and gooey cinnamon, sugar! Oh man if i was to dub any part of this process the wedding, that would be it! (and the honeymoon ;-) Then you get to roll it up and cut it into perfect little pieces and bake. That is my life baking and yummifying and once done i get to sit back and just look and smell the deliciousness of it. I can only imagine retirement as being like when you finally get to spread that yummy frosting on and take your first bite. You get to sit back and just enjoy the fruits of your labor! Yeah it took like 2 hours but look what you made! Delish!

CINNABUNS!

Servings: 12
Ingredients:

DOUGH
1 (1/4 ounce) package dry yeast
1 cup warm milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup margarine
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
4 cups flourFILLING
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/3 cup margarine, softened

ICING
8 tablespoons margarine
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Prep Time: 1 hr
Total Time: 1 1/4 hr

*For the rolls, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl and add sugar, margarine salt, eggs, and flour, mix well.
*Knead the dough into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly with flour.
*Now if you have a bread maker it will take care of all the dough making and rising. If not heat your oven to 200 and place your covered bowl ON the open oven door. Do NOT place it in the oven, it is to hot for the dough :)
*Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface, until it is approx 21 inches long by 16 inches wide. It should be approx 1/4 thick.*Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
*To make filling, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
*Spread the softened margarine over the surface of the dough, then sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon evenly over the surface.
*Working carefully, from the long edge, roll the dough down to the bottom edge.
*Cut the dough into 1 3/4 inch slices, and place in a lightly greased baking pan. The 2 end pieces should be placed funny side up. They always come out mini so it's nice to have and just as yummy :)

*Bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown.

*While the rolls are baking combine the icing ingredients.
*Beat well with an electric mixer until fluffy.

*When the rolls are done let cool 10 mins and then lightly ice all of the cinnabuns. I don't like to ice them heavily because all that icing will melt, especially when reheating. Save the icing for when you do eat it you have fresh icing to spread on and eat with it :) ENJOY!