Desserts: Wedding Pies and Red Velvet Armidillos...

Let's go back to the sweet things once again.  Now for me, as I'm struggling to beat the numbers on the scale down, I fluctuate between cravings for salty (Cedar and Sour Cream Ruffles) and sweet (ANYTHING from the Big Top Candy Shop-HELLO Chocolate Covered S'mores!).  Well in guilty pleasure trip, where I was introduced to CCSs (they are AWESOME btw) Rob and I started talking about wedding sweets (I know, stop beating a dead horse...)

That's when Rob came up with the idea of Wedding PIE. Yes, dear readers (people are reading right? hopefully?) Pie.  To rehash: Rob is not a cake fan, he barely finishes the top of Hey Cupcake! cupcakes, which are pretty good.  Though he will help me with ridiculously large pieces of Carrot cake if I chose to indulge.  Pie, especially Key Lime, he will DEVOUR, and eat what's left of my piece. No questions ask, no arms twisted.  So there will be pie. 
Rob will be choosing this pie, so if he finds a baker that can make Key Lime pie that is not neon green (apparently the real Key Lime pies look more like yellow tinted custard, who knew?), and makes a good-as-grandma-Lois's-on-par-with-New-Orleans Pecan Pie, we'll be in business.

Now on to my mother's input.
My mother is not a girly girl.  She doesn't see the need to start planning a year ahead of time AT ALL, which make my heart stop.  On the other hand she has some ideas that will happen because, well, she's kinda bank rolling the thing.  One of these ideas is the red velvet Armadillo, a la Steel Magnolias. I kid you not.  She wants to have one for Rob as a groom's cake, because, well, that's her sense of humor.  Rob's great excuse? "I don't like Steel Magnolias."  Not "I don't like red velvet cake" or "eating armadillo shaped cake just seems wrong." Leave it to Rob to go with the movie and not the practical excuse. 
My take: it's red velvet cake, and we can put cream cheese icing under the fondant? Sign me up.  It doesn't have to be big, just big enough to look good in photos.  Plus that means that the bridal cake can be ALL carrot cake-y goodness.

You don't suppose we're supposed to freeze the Armadillo head for the first anniversary do you?   

Dessert and Cake

I've been thinking with my sweet tooth. 
Rob doesn't LOVE cake.  He barely eats it to be honest. He likes rum cake and tres leches, but neither of those really work well in a cake (maybe Rum will).  So, in light of that, I have had a great idea.  This will hopefully also cut down on cost in the long run (I hope).

Welcome to LutterCon 2012!

This is what happens when you let your nerd-boy fiance start looking and suggesting invitations:
*these are all from other websites-they are all linked to their original websites.  I do not claim they are my own at all.  Just snippets from an AIM conversation Rob and I shared a few evenings ago.

Invitations

So, having fallen in LOVE with a wonderful stationary store, Paper Source, I have been looking at invitations, and thought I would share a few.  (Rob even chose one!)  Since we would really like to have the reception at a museum, I think that a really structural or art deco type of vibe. 
The following are all from Paper Source-plus we would do most of the script in a darker blue with lighter blue accents.

Freak Out

Okay, we hit the 19months away mark assuming that the date and year we've talked about sticks this time! 
In hitting this mark, I realized that the most practical time for my mother and I to go dress shopping is December!  I want to be significantly smaller than I am currently before I drape my pasty ass in yards of white fabric, which means that I have about 10 months to do it.  That means that between now and December I need to loose at least 7.5lbs a month to be under 200, 10lbs a month to be within 10-20lbs of goal weight.  I know I can do it!  There's lots of life style changes happening around here, but only time and the scale will tell me if they're working. 
Now we know why I'm freaking out!

Time to hit the gym!!!

Oh and there's a THEME!!

Alright, so "the talk" (i.e. the possibly traumatic, I end up accepting that we'll be at city hall in flip flops with twisty ties for rings out come conversation with my parents) happened with my mom in dad.  Not in a lets sit down and put numbers together kind of way, but in a what did you talk about at Grandma's kind of way.
This is how it came about: I went over to Grandma Lois's to give her a check for the loan she gave me and my Aunt asked about when the wedding would be, because they were planning out their travel for the year.(Something I have problems with, but that's neither here nor there) I told her (thinking she's crazy) it's not till next year, and not to worry about it yet. Well, then Grandma wanted to know more details and was asking questions, so I was answering.  The questions were basics like where, what colors, venue, etc., and nothing to set in stone.  At some point my Aunt puts in that she and Dana (the woman who works in the office with me and has been my mom's friend since elementary school or before) had talked and want to trow me a shower.  That little detail is where the conversation with my mother started.
I had to tell my mother about this factoid, I just had to.

Speaking of Cake

It's my Birthday!


I know what the groom's cake will not be: Red Velvet nor Carrot Cake. Rob apparently doesn't like either.  I know I'm acting like this is news to me, and really he's probably told me a million times that he doesn't like these, I just didn't listen.  I really think they are the best cake flavors ever and the fact that they are ALWAYS paired with cream cheese icing, make them my go to flavors.  Besides carrot cake counts as a serving of veggies right???
So we'll probably go with some flavor that comes out in a white color for the bridal cake.  Something along the lines of butter, pound, or maybe white chocolate (how yummy would that be!).  For Rob's cake it will probably be something a little more daring that just your run of the mill Chocolate (hence the white chocolate for mine...).  I'm thinking along the lines of Rum, Dulce de Leche, or something completely off the wall like pumpkin chocolate chip.  In the end I'll leave that decision to him.  All I know for sure is that it will not be an ice cream cake.  They always seem to melt on us.

Boutonnieres

So yesterday I was trolling around the Internet, as you do, and I came across this post from Offbeat Bride: Bad-ass Boutonnieres.
I had never really given them any thought, but now I'm intrigued...what to do? Give them a broach as in the first picture, a traditional single flower, a flower with something fun...I kinda like the lego idea...or feathers even?

I have just stumbled upon Fritts Rosenow (the link send you to the sci-fi slide show) that have possibly the BEST Boutonnieres EVER! Some of the others are gems like this:

                        

 Aren't those great? I think dad would be tickled to wear either one of those, and there was a C3P0 that Rob would love to wear I'm sure...

The website didn't say anything about cost, and I know that they're probably expensive because they're custom, but they truly are A-MAZE-Balls! The other thought I had, in keeping with the modern/romantic/touch of Mickey idea is something like this:

He's just so cute! The flower isn't the right color, but the idea is there. It's a Disney Pin, as in a pin trading pin. I thought it would be kind of neat to have the groom's men wear these because they'd be a little bit of Disney. The problem is: I doubt they'll be big enough. To top it off, as much fun as it would be to have each of the boys wearing princess pins, I don't think these guys would do that, even for little 'ol me.

I think what may end up happening is that this will be a DIY project. As in, do something that is like the really neat Fritts Rosenow examples, but probably look like they were done by Moi. Who knows I might just safety pin bottle caps to their lapels and call it a day.

Confession

Well Crap.
I've been looking at 2 of the wedding blogs I follow:
The Disney Wedding Blog and Austin Wedding Blog, and this crappy feeling comes over me. The feeling that it's never going to happen. The feeling that when it comes right down to it, it doesn't matter what I want , what I've dreamed of, or have in my head, IT ISN'T GOING TO HAPPEN. I don't mean that certain things will be cut out because of budget, or instead of an awesome venue the reception will be in a church fellowship hall. This feeling switches between: we're going to end up in front of a justice of a peace in jeans and tee-shirts and exchange twisty-ties because we spent have no money at all, and we're not going to get married at all. Ever.
I know that neither of these things are going to happen. I know that I love Rob with all my hear and that Rob loves me and, like me, wants to get married (hell, he's started talking about the wedding out of the blue a few times...) it's just this nagging thing in the back of my mind. There are several reasons for this, including (but not limited to): he hasn't told his parents that this is the plan, I haven't told my parents that it's back on, we don't have the money that this thing will cost us, and my mother wasn't all that interested in the planning for her own wedding, so she's going either have this blase attitude about it, or debate me on EVERY decision.
Now the parents thing, that scares me because both of those conversations include a talk about funding. Are they going to give us money? Are they only going to show up with gifts? Will they pay for certain things and not others? I don't know. I do know that I don't want to be with Rob when he has that discussion with his parents and I don't want him there when I have that discussion with mine. Money is a very personal thing in families, and I don't want either of our presences interpreted as us being money grubbing or as pressure to give as much as or more than the other's parents. Also I honestly don't want it to be a pissing contest of who has more than whom. I've seen adds for wedding loans, but honestly going into MORE debt for a one night event is CRAZY. I guess when he gets a better job, and we're both focusing less on paying off credit cards we'll be able to set more money aside because right now cupcakes and the JD look like about all we can afford.
Now my mother is a WHOLE other story. She got married in 1979, right before Christmas, right after college finals. She's a tomboy in every since of the word, and honestly the only other times she's worn a dress, is less than 10. She let her mother and sister take the reigns and only specified that she wanted yellow. So she got yellow in her dress and carried yellow roses. The church was already decorated with poinsettias because it was the day before Christmas Eve, and the reception was in the fellowship hall. She didn't care about the cake, the food, the flowers, anything. So that's who I'm working with. She knows that I'm the total opposite of her and totally girly. She's aware that my ideas and designs are much more thought out and extravagant than hers. I just have this nagging feeling that she's going to second guess everything. (Do you really want it to be there? I don't think you really need that. etc. etc.) Also, I'm pretty damn sure that her reactions to things that I think are great are going to be underwhelming for me to say the least. A lot of the time I'll get a response along the lines of: "Do you like it?" "If you like it." "If that's what you think." When I really want: "It looks great on you!" "I think that'll be great with..." "Great idea!" I'm not saying she doesn't give me those responses, it's just the former group comes out of her mouth much more than the latter group, not what you want when you're in the Wedding Daze...
Oh well. Honestly this is probably a combination of the season and the fact that I miss Rob my apartment, my cat, and Austin.

12 Months out is August...oh jeez