Enough about me, my crazy schedule, and excuses for shirking my blog responsibilities. I have something to post about! It’s geeky, wedding related, AND pretty – that’s pretty much the trifecta of awesomeness around these parts, right? Oh, also reasonably priced and FUN – a quintrifecta? I dunno.

Either way, it’s Twitter that’s responsible for the subject matter of this blog. FSM, how I love Twitter! Always hear about the coolest stuff there, probably because I follow – and am followed by – some of the coolest people ever. Love it!

This is Surly Amy… who is a geektacular artist located in Hollywood, California. You see what she’s about to pack in that gift box? Custom jewelry! Not any of that boring, fairly nondescript beaded jewelry that you see pretty much everywhere these days (which, I admit, can be fun to make… I do it myself from time to time!)… NO! It’s custom sculpted/cut/carved/painted ceramic jewelry! Awesome! Unique is ALWAYS cool in my books.. but when it’s technically well done, artistic, AND with a nerdy bent? Just awesome. Amy’s business, Surly-ramics, is a purveyor of all of that.

I’ve always enjoyed seeing friends post pics of Amy’s work – she’s obviously a gifted artist – but I REALLY fell in love when someone linked to her Trilobite pendant. Seriously. Is this not the coolest thing a girl could ever wear around her neck, or what? Well, I certainly think so, anyway!

“Wedding related?”, you may ask… well, yes. I totally would have worn this at my own wedding (We got married at the Science Museum!), and it would have been the perfect accessory. Knowing my bridesmaids, I know that they would have flipped out if I’d given Surlies as bridesmaid gifts.

Because the jewelry is all highly customized, Surly Amy can do any design, in any color/colors (wedding colors!), even add a wedding date etched into the back of each piece! Seriously.Amy, consider yourself added to my “If my husband ever agrees to do the WHOLE THING over again” file!

Here are some more photos of a wedding set that Amy designed – the wedding theme was “Black Eyed Susans”. I love that not only did this design fit SO well with the wedding look (and photography style!), but they could be worn with formal (wedding!) or casual outfits.. and SO freaking cute!

Aside from wedding party gifts / accessories, or even bridal jewelry (again, I would have been ALL over that, had I known about her at the time!).. I think these would make great shower gifts, be a neat favor for bachelorette parties… and apparently Amy’s even done a wedding where ALL of the guests got Surlies as favors! Take THAT, Jordan Almonds! Wanna get some Surlies of your own? Here’s how to get ahold of Amy: Main website: http://surlyramics.com Etsy website: http://www.etsy.com/shop/surly Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1653711616 Surly Amy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SurlyAmy

From time to time, I blog about stuff that I find cool. It may be what someone did for their Save the Date, it may be a cool product, or an awesomely talented artist. I don’t get asked for those blog entries, I don’t get paid for them. I just blog it because I find it cool, and – assuming you find *me* interesting enough to read my blog – I figure you’ll find it cool too! “Birds of a Feather” and all…

Alex, the ridiculously gifted artist behind The Pumpkin Geek is one of those insanely talented people I tend to “meet” on Twitter. I can’t remember how I came to follow him, but once I saw his work, I was an immediate fan! If you haven’t seen what he does, be sure to peruse his site – he carves the most intricate, geeky Jack o’Lanterns ever! They’re all from fake pumpkins, so you can treasure the art indefinitely!

Where I’m usually lucky to receive a “hey, thanks!” email (which I totally appreciate!), Alex shocked the SHIT out of me by mailing me a custom carved mini pumpkin – featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine – to thank me for the blog!

If you know me at all, you know that I shrieked like a little girl when I found out. I have a big crazy thing for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Not so much a crush as.. hrm. I don’t know. I find the character oddly relatable in some ways, and inspiring in other ways. That, and seriously.. I’d kill for Hugh Jackman’s delts. I have a BIG poster of him downstairs in my gym for exactly that reason!

Alex asked for my mailing address, to send me postcards and business cards. Given how much I fangirlled out about his work, I didn’t think anything of it. He wasn’t able to keep up the ruse for long, though, and ended up spilling the beans – he’d carved me a mini, 5″ pumpkin, and needed my mailing address for THAT reason.

Well, I don’t think I’ve been so excited to go to the post office in my life.

I make my morning mail runs about an hour before the “we will have all of the mail sorted to the boxes” time. When there was nothing in my box the day I THOUGHT it would be in, I went ahead and took my parcels to the counter to ship, feeling a bit disappointed. Asked if I could bug them to check if there were any parcels back there for me. Here’s how that went down:

USPS Guy: “Oh, are you expecting for something in the mail?”
Me: “YES!!”
USPS guy smiles, goes to the back, comes out with a box
Me: Shrieked, clasped my hands over my mouth, literally did a happy dance, and generally looked like a goof.
USPS guy, looking at the box as he hands it to me
“WHO is “The Pumpkin Geek”?”
Me: “OMG LET ME SHOW YOU!!”

So he got out a box cutter and was nice enough to open the box for me, while I was giddy as a kid on Christmas morning. He passed the box to me, and I gingerly dug out the packing peanuts, etc, fishing out my cute little mini pumpkin.

USPS Guy: “What is THAT?”
Me: “OMG it’s Hugh Jackman!!! As WOLVERINE!!!! AWESOME!!!”

To be fair, looking at the unlit pumpkin, you really can’t tell WHAT it is. I knew exactly what the picture had looked like, and even I was having a hard time seeing it. Alex carves the pumpkins at multiple levels of depth, so while I was seeing “uncut” solid color (textured), and space.. it didn’t look like much.

So, we had to plug it in. I love my USPS guys, they’re always so nice and accommodating. This one offered to find an outlet to check this out.

There was one on the wall behind the counter, so he plugged it in, and OMG. It was awesome. We all – the USPS guys, me, and a few other customers – had to stand back and ooh and ahh over it a bit. The lighting (supplied with the pumpkin), REALLY brought the whole thing to life. Here is my carve, lit up:

Isn’t that the coolest thing ever?

The thing that gets me… and this is coming from someone completely incapable of carving a decent looking Halloween pumpkin (triangle eyes and crooked zig zag smiles all the way!)… is HOW does he do it? I mean, when you’re carving a normal pumpkin, carving all the way through, you see what’s happening as you go. Just look at a close up of the detail in this:

I mean, seeing the lit up pumpkin is awe inspiring enough as it is… but then you realize he’s got to be pretty much flying blind as he carves it! I know my ability to visualize things is more developed than most, but this just blows me away. Completely. Absolutely sick amount of talent, this guy has!

The other day, he put out a request for pics of fans with their carves. As you may know, I *hate* getting my pic taken. I’ve turned down interview requests over it, I pretty much only trust my husband and Katrina from Studio Laguna Photography with it, and even then, I pretty much only allow a camera in my face.. maybe 3-4x per year. Yeah.

Well, I’m so thrilled with the unexpected gift, I did the honorable thing, sucked up my pride, and let my husband photograph my ugly mug with the pumpkin. Least I could do, this was awesome. Completely awesome. Never seen anything like this in my life, and I have it prominently displayed in my office now.

But I couldn’t resist photoshopping in some claws.

If you’re looking for a custom carved Pumpkin, Alex can do *anything*, and offers them at a much lower price than I would have imagined possible – they start at $100! I know he has a special going for the next couple weeks, be sure to get ahold of him if you’re interested!

You know, I try to keep these blogs at least tangentially related to weddings, so…

These would make AWESOME wedding gifts for your favorite geeky couple. If they’re not as camera phobic as I am, maybe have their engagement portrait carved for them? Otherwise, an “Enterprise” pumpkin, their favorite sci fi characters – he’s even done a carve of House! – would definitely be a stand out gift. I’d almost guarantee that a custom pumpkin carve would pretty much be re-gift proof!

A few months ago, I started a collaboration with one of my twitter buds, @RBKCreations, who makes the most amazing bouquets out of felt, fabric, and buttons! I’m a huge fan of incorporating fun, unique touches in weddings, really personalizing them – and these bouquets really speak to me. Well, more like scream “WANT!!!” to me . Absolutely adore her work.

The fruits of that venture will be blogged about in the next month or two. Her bouquets are such a unique art, I can’t resist giving you guys a sneak peek!

Of course, as we haven’t had our photo shoot yet, that means using someone else’s photos. What a happy coincidence – one of my favorite industry friends, @awesomebrandi, is a Texas based photographer that has worked with RBKCreations! All of the photos on this blog entry are courtesy of Brandi Thompson Photography.

Ariela (the bouquet art goddess!) and Brandi are both hilarious, intelligent, and wickedly talented. They’re definitely a couple of my tweeps that have made me curse distance, I’d love the chance to work with them in person! This will have to do for now, though.

Aren’t they amazing? I’ve never seen anything like them, and LOVE it! For the right bride / wedding, I think they’d make an amazing statement! Also love the permanence of them, always great to be able to cherish your wedding bouquet forever!

Ariela ships her bouquets pretty much anywhere. I’ve received two, and they arrived beautifully! In addition to following her on Twitter, you can also check out her site, Here, and shop online at her Etsy store, Here.

Brandi is based in Plano Texas. In addition to her Twitter feed, you can follow her work on her blog, Here, or check out her website Here. Be forewarned: One of her most recent blog entries was about a photo shoot at a kitten rescue, and it’ll almost certainly give you “baby” fever! So freaking adorable!

SO much talent, the both of them!

]]> http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2010/05/04/far-flung-awesomeness-of-the-floral-photography-varieties/feed/ 2 http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2010/02/21/minnesota-monthly-food-wine-show-day-1/ http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2010/02/21/minnesota-monthly-food-wine-show-day-1/#comments Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:01:27 +0000 admin http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/?p=245 So, we survived day 1 of the Food & Wine Experience at the Minneapolis Convention Center. We didn’t win the Czar of Cakes Challenge, but it was an honorable loss – as predicted, Gateaux won, hands down, no contest!

I’ll post more about the cake end of things tonight or tomorrow, but I wanted to post some “head’s up” type messages on products that *really* stood out to us from yesterday’s show. If you’re going, make *sure* to stop by these booths. If you’re not, by all means, check out their websites, because they’re truly fabulous!

Driving Force Energy Co. is based in Woodbury, and makes really amazing energy bars. Almost like a granola bar, but soft and SO ridiculously good. Particularly loved the PB & J flavor. Nom! Also, they had some interesting caramel popcorn – including peanut butter caramel, and sweet jalapeno caramel popcorn. Wow! Both truly amazing. Hubby asked if they sell it by the garbage bag, and I honestly don’t think they realized that he was serious.

Kayak Kitchens in Stillwater was showcasing their “Haute Habanero Paste”. I’m looking at the sheet of recipes they provided for their paste, and already thinking of the ways I’d love to use and abuse it. It’s a gorgeous orange paste with a flavor and fruityness that is *not* overpowered by heat. Really good!

Annona Gourmet was a booth that Robin from Gateaux kinda strongarmed us into visiting. Not that we hadn’t planned to check everything out, but in her opinion, we were NOT to leave without checking them out. They were hawking olive oils and balsamic vinegars. While Robin was completely sold on the traditional 18 year aged balsamic (which really was terrific!), my husband and I both immediately fell in love with their “sweet peach” balsamic. Completely over the top fabulous.

Passport Beverage was on hand to sample their Dry Soda & Q Tonic waters. I am NOT a huge fan of carbonated waters, and really, truly hate tonic water – it always tastes like baking soda to me. It blew me away that not only did I tolerate their Q Tonic, but fell in love with it. None of that horrible baking soda taste, it was light and refreshing and had a really nice flavor to it. I could see drinking it straight. Additionally, their Dry Soda was really nice. We did not get a chance to try the lavender flavor (which sounded really interesting!), but the Rhubarb, Kumquat, and Cucumber flavors were all winners with us.

Uncle Pete’s Mustard was a big surprise to us. I’m a mustard nerd, and 90% of what’s out there is really bland, boring, and/or unbalanced tasting to me. They only offer 1 flavor, a sweet & hot mustard… god was it ever good. BIG thumbs up from me!

Thousand Hills Cattle Company featured some of the most delicious grass fed ground beef I’ve ever had (and I’m a big carnivore!). Also of note was their summer sausage, which was amazing.

I should probably get ready to head out, but definitely wanted to post these not only for all you guys, but for my own scatterbrainedness. Good to have the favs all in one place! More to come!

Woke up this morning after a truly bizarre dream involving a couple local cake buddies, a local food writer I’ve never met, and a (non-cake) baker from some far off state (dunno which) that I’ve never even talked to.. to be told that my husband actually did make me something for Valentine’s Day.

We had decided weeks ago that we wouldn’t be bothering with gifts. LOL. After my blog entry the other day, I had to come back with “Is it a custom carved Hugh Jackman/Wolverine Pumpkin?”

He laughed and gave me a playful fake pout. Said it would make me smile, though. This is what he presented me with:

I just about fell out of bed laughing! What an awesome gift – I love that my husband is creative and weird, with the same sort of bizarre sense of humor that I have.

If you didn’t read my Last blog entry, it was a selection of my favorite gift ideas for Valentine’s Day, openly admitting that it was far too late in the game to actually act on any of the suggestions.

One of the products/companies mentioned was The Pumpkin Geek, one of my twitter pals. His site is Here. My little excerpt about it included the following:

“K, everything I said about no guilt Vday? 1 exception: Oh wonderful husband of mine, I know you’re reading this.. you know, if you *really* love me, you’ll totally order me a custom carved pumpkin, featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Claws out, preferably featuring him in a tank top. Thanks! *mwah* ”

Aw yeah. This morning I was reminded that I have a husband who not only has a great sense of humor, but actually kinda listens to me every once in awhile

Awesome.

Don’t get me wrong.. I have nothing against love, affection, showing appreciation for those you care about, romance, or whatever. I’m just not big on feeling forced to do anything, or ads that seem to.. well, encourage romance by way of guilt. Jewelry ads that seem to tell guys that they don’t really love their girl if they aren’t willing to express it by buying a “REAL stone” are particularly great for getting some eye-rolling time in!

Nope, I’ve always preferred the “Do something nice for my hubby, cause he deserves it / he had a rough week / *I* had a rough week / I feel like it / Saw something or had an idea that made me think to / etc way of romancing my hubby.

That said, the market really does get hit with an awful lot more “romantic” gift items this time of year, and I’m REALLY impressed with some of the ideas I’ve read about on Twitter, come across online, etc. Of course, I procrastinated WAY too much to actually order any of these for this weekend, but they’re all too cool NOT to share! Consider this partially my “fantasy Valentine’s Day wish list”, and partially me spreading some love to people/companies that I like!

First off, ThinkGeek.com is an amazing one stop shop for Valentine’s Day, IMHO. They have cool products year round, of course.. but major kudos to them for their VDay lineup! My Favorites:

Valentine’s Day Box of Mini Plush Microbes!
This was actually my #1 gift wish (to give OR receive!) this year, and actually would have been able to order in time, but they were sold out till this morning. Bah. Cutest thing ever! Admittedly, probably best for someone with a certain sense of humor – I’m sure some people would take offense at getting a heart box full of plush venereal diseases*. I, however, think it’s awesome! Click here for all of the details.

Plush Beating Heart – It’s adorable! What else is there to say? Click here for all those details

They have a ton of cool items.. check out their Valentine’s Day Gift list Here.

Next up, gotta give some love to my Twitter buddy, Geeky Clean. Sure, there are a million and one soap companies out there, and I’m sure many, many are just fabulous.. but she’s got a unique, awesome product. You know how it is. Nerd solidarity!

“Sexterity” soap
I’m not even into RPG, and I think this is awesome. “peach, cherry blossom and white jasmine” sounds amazing, and come on – super cute idea. My hubby is a reformed gamer, this would be perfect for him. You know, if I didn’t steal it for the scent! Also FTW: “Swine Flew” bacon scented soap and pretty much everything else they make.

I think their soaps would make amazing guest favors for any nerdy or geeky wedding, party, shower, or whatever – and she will do custom packaging! Mental note: Blog more about this later!

Now here is a company I recently found on Twitter, and I am COMPLETELY blown away by the talent here. I mean really, disgustingly talented. He carves fake pumpkins like this:

K, everything I said about no guilt Vday? 1 exception: Oh wonderful husband of mine, I know you’re reading this.. you know, if you *really* love me, you’ll totally order me a custom carved pumpkin, featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Claws out, preferably featuring him in a tank top. Thanks! *mwah*

You can follow this ridiculous artist on Twitter HERE, btw.

Pumpkins a stretch for Valentine’s Day? Not in my mind.. and hey, it’s my blog! So… there.

Ah, the love continues! My favorite radio station just played Nek’s “La Vida Es”, which I think is the most romantic song ever. Maybe I’m mentally ready to celebrate this weekend afterall, feeling warm and gushy after the song.

How are the Mr and I spending Valentine’s Day, you may wonder? This year, we decided to have fun with it: White Castle, Boone’s Farm, and B movies. Cause that’s just how we roll every once in awhile

* I get a kick outta the way people talk about “VD” on Twitter, much in the same way I snicker when brides discuss their STDs. (”Save the Dates”, for my non-wedding readers!) Mature, I know Gotta take your entertainment where ya can, right?

This vendor spotlight is going to be a bit difficult to write without sounding like a total dork. Ideally, I’d like to give completely unbiased reviews on excellent vendors – but this spotlight is not only on a great vendor, it’s about one of my favorite people in the world.

Ladies and Gentleman, it’s my honor to introduce you to the work of Jean Cowles, from Violet’s Flowers!

Violet’s tagline is “Sassy Flowers for Weddings and Events”, which fails to mention the sassy chick who does the flowers! LOVE her!

Jean is a special event floral designer. She has a sassy little studio where she works on her art, prefering to focus on the aspects of event design that she loves, rather than running a full scale florist shop. It was in this studio that we recently worked on our 8 page article in Flowers & Magazine(!!!!). We had such a blast, it almost feels like the old “What happens in Vegas..” rule should apply. Well, “What happens in Prior Lake..”, anyway.

Check out these two photos from a recent wedding she designed:

(Those beautiful photos are from Kelly Brown Weddings.. very talented photographer.)

I think that Jean’s portfolio of work – on her website, above, and from the Flowers & article really speaks for itself, so I’d like to address something that is – in my books – is as important as talent – personality. Jean is a very talented floral artist, with a great sense of style and eye for design.. but she is also just a really amazing person.

Jean seems to be completely immune from bad moods! She’s perpetually happy and perky, but manages to be that way without making you want to slap her. Just a genuinely nice, funny, and sweet person. A 5 minute chat with Jean could brighten anyone’s day, and I should know – she’s personally pulled me out of the “wedding industry blues” on more than one occasion.

As a fellow vendor, I can tell you that Jean is super easy to work with – an absolute joy. She’s one of those vendors that us other vendors do a little happy dance over, when told who we’ll be working with.

So, if you’re involved with the wedding of a ridiculously fun couple (and you must be, you’re on my site after all!), you should definitely arrange a meeting with Jean. Quick and easy way to guarantee that at least the florals part of planning your wedding will not only be stress free, but be a lot of fun!

Violet’s Flowers
Web: Violet’s Flowers
Phone: 651 307 7882
]]> http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/22/vendor-spotlight-violets-flowers/feed/ 0 http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/14/exciting-new-media-coverage/ http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/14/exciting-new-media-coverage/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:05:48 +0000 admin http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/?p=109 Exciting New Media Coverage!

So, I’m a little late in blogging about this.. so you may have read about it on our Facebook albums already. If you’re a fan, anyway. If you’re not, what are you waiting for?

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On Facebook:

Celebration Generation’s Page

Celebration Generation Owner, Marie, on Facebook

Celebration Generation Gifts app

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I digress…

Anyway, a few months ago I got together with one of my favorite people, Jean from Violet’s Flowers to work on a project. We were both involved in putting together an article for an industry magazine, Flowers &. Flowers & Magazine is put out by Teleflora.

I wrote the magazine article, which was all about how to incorporate fresh flowers with high end fondant cake design. Written, of course, from the point of view of a caker.

I had an absolute blast designing and creating 4 cakes with Jean, which were then photographed by my husband, Michael from Happenstance Photography. Each cake was loosely themed around a season:

Winter: White cake with snowflakes and LED lights all over it, separated by lush blooms in shades of pink and white

Spring: Hot pink cake with flame colored tulips, kumquats, and split leaf philodendron.

Summer: Waves of white fondant wrapped around round tiers, hand painted green leaf accents, with fresh purple Vanda orchids “glued” on with frosting.

Autumn: Pale cocoa fondant, handpainted with orange-tinted cocoa. It was surrounded by a “cage” mad eof curly willow, and accented with chocolate colored fresh cymbidium orchids.

Anyway, the article came out at the beginning of October, and I’m THRILLED with it. 8 full pages, large gorgeous photos, and everything!

Check out our Facebook page for the full article!
]]> http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/14/exciting-new-media-coverage/feed/ 1 http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/12/a-little-r-r-at-a-b-b-the-outing-lodge/ http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/12/a-little-r-r-at-a-b-b-the-outing-lodge/#comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:36:10 +0000 admin http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/?p=103 Whew! Just got back from out first vacation in a very long time.

My husband and I booked last week off to take a few days off, and boy, was it overdue! In fact, right before we left for our little recovery period, we had put in some long, crazy, and LATE hours at the kitchen, producing mixes for a large order. That was a LOT of hauling! More on that in a coming entry!

We had stayed in The Outing Lodge in Stillwater before (The “Albert Einstein” room.. couldn’t resist!), and were definitely looking forward to this. The lodge property itself is huge, with beautiful garden spaces and a lot of interesting views. Unfortunately, it was raining, cold, and miserable as we arrived, so we ran inside without too much opportunity to admire the view this time.

Inside, the lodge is gorgeous! Large open spaces, a lot of wood work, and an AMAZING library upstairs… just beautiful.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that our room reservation had been upgraded, and we were now staying in the “Eva Peron” room. It is a beautiful suite, featuring a King sized bed, fireplace at the foot of it… LARGE bathroom with a jacuzzi, and a porch – all decorated in a quaint old-fashioned style, themed around the late First Lady of Argentina.

We spent the majority of our vacation sleeping (passed out from sheer exhaustion?), but managed to drag ourselves out of bed to enjoy the Outing Lodge breakfasts every morning – what a treat! I’ve stayed at a lot of B & Bs at hotels in my life, and the breakfast at Outing Lodge just blows everything else away! Fresh fruits, pastries fresh out of the oven, and more.

At the breakfasts, we were usually joined by the owner, Carlota – always a treat to chat with. She is SUCH a sweetheart, and always has something interesting to turn us on to. This time, that included the movie “Babette’s Feast”, and Yerba Mate – an Argentinian tea. (Carlota being Argentinian herself). The movie was cool, but the Yerba Mate didn’t do anything for me.. very, very bitter. Hubby LOVED it though, so I’ll probably buy him some (ThinkGeek carries a set, here, if you’re interested!)

The trip ended far too soon… but by that time, the bad weather had lifted. We took a bit of time to stroll through Stillwater and take some photos of the bright autumn colors.

It was all very relaxing.. then I got back to the office to a HUGE pile of emails, snail mail, and voicemails..as well as a huge to-do list to attend to. Sigh! Looking forward to our next trip to The Outing Lodge!

FYI: The Outing Lodge is a GREAT reception venue! Beautiful, has a great owner, and the food is amazing. What else could anyone ask for? Their website is http://www.outinglodge.com. While you’re there, be sure to check out the information on their culinary dinners. These are special events that they host every once in awhile, and always a great way to have a unique date night!

NB: This is not a paid ad – we were not compensated in any way for this post! Just have to rave about a great thing!
]]> http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/12/a-little-r-r-at-a-b-b-the-outing-lodge/feed/ 1 http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/04/23/the-amazing-glowing-cake/ http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/04/23/the-amazing-glowing-cake/#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:55:33 +0000 admin http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/04/23/the-amazing-glowing-cake/ A big highlight of this past week was getting together with Jean Cowles of Violet’s Flowers for some design fun. Her motto starts with “Sassy Flowers”.. sassy is right! She’s one of the most ridiculously fun people in the local wedding industry, and I had very much been looking forward to this.

I’ll be blogging about the outcome of this design collaboration in a few months, but wanted to give you guys a sneak peak at something we came up with – the Amazing Glowing Wedding Cake!

In addition to the lush beauty of the Tulips, peonies, astilbe, sweet peas, freesia, and more that burst out from between each layer (and form a beautiful topper), the cake itself was designed in such a way as to accommodate many small LED lights, which gave the whole thing an ethereal glow. Teaser pic below!

Wouldn’t this look amazing at any reception hall.. after the lights are dimmed slightly for dinner and dancing, the cake would still be a gorgeous, attention grabbing centerpiece! Love it!

Thanks again to Jean for working with me on this project. I had a blast, and it was great to work with such talent! I love her eye for design and color, and would highly recommend her to anyone looking for unique and fun wedding flowers!