Wedding Recap: Our Cake!

Chicago had it's first snow of the season today, and this event is making me nostalgic for my winter wedding! It's hard to believe that our 2 year anniversary is quickly approaching! I have yet to share pictures of our lovely wedding cake, and decided it was high time to do so, in case any other winter brides are looking for inspiration.

My husband and I knew we wanted a traditional round cake, though square was our second choice, and even that minor detail was a tough decision! We met with Dottie Lovely, aka "The Cake Lady," and she helped turn my vision of a winter-themed cake into reality. I loved that she used snowflakes and pearls, while combining the gorgeous silver, blue, and white flowers we had in our wedding.

I could not have been happier with the final result, but the best part was that the cake tasted amazing! We chose buttercream because it tastes far superior to fondant, and had layers of red velvet, marble, and carrot cake, so there was something to please everyone.

And on to the best part: Cutting the cake!

All photos by Seth Kammueller

New Color Combo: Charcoal & Emerald

I'm going to be a bridesmaid in a September wedding in which one of the wedding colors is charcoal. While the bride is doing a lovely combination of charcoal against soft pastels, I also love when this dark neutral is expressed with bright pops of color, such as canary yellow, featured in the image below.

However, lately I prefer unexpected color combinations. So I came up with an emerald green and charcoal palette, offset by the cool crispness of white.

What are your favorite unexpected color combinations for a wedding?

A Winter Bouquet

In my search for the perfect winter bouquet to compliment my white and silver color palette (also including touches of navy), I recently stumbled across a couple of examples that I adore.

This first picture is my absolute favorite. Including metallic pine cones in the mix is just brilliant. I've always loved peonies and know I want to include them in my bouquet, and I love how they are mixed here with ivory roses.  I was never sure about mixing ivory and white flowers before, but I have to say, this has assuaged by fears. Lastly, in case you're wondering what those little grey/silver balls are, they are called silver brunia, and I am now obsessed with them as well. Who would of thought that you could actually find silver flowers to include in your bouquet?

Another lovely winter bouquet below also features silver brunia.  I think the green is very pretty as well, and love the little pieces of crystal bling scattered throughout! It's not really my style, but I do think this would go well with a snowflake themed wedding.

For the Love of Peonies

Planning a destination wedding is a lot of work. Given that I live in Chicago and am getting married on Cape Cod, I haven't visited a florist yet to choose my flowers.  I'll be making my only trip home before the wedding to work out all these essentials at the end of the month, and one of my most important appointments will be with my florist.  This is because before getting engaged, I never gave much thought to flowers, other than to think they're pretty and they smell good.  I spoke to my florist over the phone, and she suggested I find pictures of bouquets that I like to bring to our appointment.  I took her advice, and ended up in a totally different direction that I had planned.  In fact, I always knew I liked peonies, but thought they were magnolias until looked them up on the Internet (I know, I'm terrible).  I love how full these flowers are, and my florist said that although they are more expensive than other flowers, that because of their size you do not need as many.  Alas, I'm really hoping a peony bouquet will fit into my budget.  I would like to combine them with hydrangeas, as in the bottom left picture, since hydrangeas are the native flower of the Cape.  I'll just have to find some way to make it work :-)