Wedding Planning Wednesday: Wedding Cake Sugar Cookies and Bridal Shower Gifts

I had my first wedding shower!  It was so fun.  I was super nervous beforehand and it was a great time.  I feel awesome now!

My mom's girlfriends threw the shower and they did an amazing job.  The food was great, there was a yummy and gorgeous cake, and it was wine party themed.  They had 6 wines that spelled out JODIE B.  How awesome is that?  I got some great gifts and it was just wonderful.

To thank my lovely hostesses, I made some gifts!  I got coffee mugs from bed bath and beyond, and then put a Starbucks gift card and a homemade sugar cookie inside.  Then, I printed off a "Thank you a Latte" card and wrapped everything up.  They loved the mugs and the cookies were a huge hit!

Wedding Cake Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
Cookie:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp almond extract
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour (or gluten free flour)
Frosting:
3 cups powdered sugar
2 egg whites
2 tsp lemon juice
optional: food coloring
optional: sprinkles

Directions: 
1. Preheat the oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with a silpat mat or parchment paper.
2. Beat the butter with the powdered sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the almond extract, vanilla, egg, and salt.  Place in fridge for 20-30 minutes.
3. On a clean surface, sprinkle some powdered sugar.  take the chilled cookie dough and roll it out until it is about 1/2 inch thick.  Cut with the cookie cutter and re-roll as needed.  Place cookies on the prepared cooking sheet.
4. Bake for 8-10 minutes and then let cool completely before frosting.
5. For the frosting, beat everything together.  Then, dye the frosting as needed and frost your cookies!  I used the pearl sprinkles to decorate mine.

Enjoy :)

Wedding Planning Wednesday

So we are really winding down to the last few things!

The invitations are printed, we are ordering stamps, and they will be ready to be sent out by the end of the week! My friend Alyson designed them and she did an unbelievable job!  I am so impressed with her crazy skills and I just feel that the invites are so special because she did them.  They are truly beautiful and I can't wait for people to see them!

My first shower is this Sunday!  I can't wait!  I am working on some finishing touches for a little hostess gift and then I will be ready!

The biggest project I am working on right now is getting my gifts together for my bridesmaids.  I decided that I really wanted to wear converse sneakers for the reception and so I had some adorable Bride and Groom sneakers custom made for the big day.  Then, I thought it would be so fun to have all the bridesmaids and groomsmen in converse as well!  So, I bought my girls (and guy) their converse shoes!  Then, I also got them a little bling to wear on the big day!  To put all of this together, I found some tote bags and then I saw this great DIY project over at Design Sponge and I decided that it would be perfect!  I am going to decorate and personalize the totes for my bridal party and then put the shoes and jewelry in the bag.

These tote bags can be found through amazon or other suppliers and are about 60 dollars for 25-30 bags.  Then, I am going to get to work on making them look adorable :) 

Two Tone Swirled Frosting: Graduation Cupcakes!

Today I am off to Champaign, Illinois for my little brother's graduation!

1. What? How is he already graduating?

2. OMG I think that means I am like officially done with college....I don't even have a sibling in it anymore!

3. Champaign is sort of the worst, but at least I get to go to college for the weekend :)

We have a ton of stuff planned because he has two different graduation ceremonies and a luncheon.  On top of that, we are going to some of his favorite places and I made these amazing cupcakes to enjoy after our dinner on Saturday.  These cupcakes are the perfect treat and a great idea for graduations! You can use the school's colors to make a festive treat and, I promise, it is really easy! 

Zack (the little brother) said his favorite cupcake flavor is chocolate.  So, I made some super simple chocolate cupcakes but then I frosted them like this:

How to do Two-Tone Frosting:

1. Make the frosting: I beat 1 1/2 cups of unsalted butter with 3 cups of powdered sugar and 1 tbsp of vanilla.  

2.  Divide the frosting into two bowls.

3. Color the frosting

4. Using two frosting bags, put the frosting into each bag (keep the colors seperate!).  Cut the ends off of each bag. 

5. Put the two bags into a third bag.  This third bag should have the end cut off and your frosting tip inside already. 

6. FROST!  Because the colors come through the frosting decorating tip at the same time they swirl as you frost the cupcakes!  Pretty cool right?

Enjoy :)  

Wedding Planning Wednesday: Tux Shopping and Updates

He said yes to the tux!  Last weekend, we went to Men's Wearhouse and picked out the tuxes for the groomsmen as well as my groom.  Bri, 3 groomsmen, one bridesman, and me all went together and they all got fitted while I picked out the colors of everything.  It was tons of fun.  I brought a swatch of my bridesmaids color so that we could be confident about matching the color and making sure everything looked nice together.

That same weekend, I also had my makeup trial!  I absolutely loved the way I looked and I am excited to announce that I have found my make-up person!  I highly recommend Jaycie.  She was super nice, I looked amazing, and as someone who hardly wears a lot of makeup, I was excited by how natural I looked and how comfortable I felt.  We had a fancy party to go to that evening the makeup held up perfectly.  I am so excited for the actual day to come around so I can look that amazing again!

And finally, I finished up all 300 of the mini mason jar candles that I started awhile back.  So, now I just have to decorate them!  I am going to go with a thin purple ribbon around the lid of the jar and then I am getting our logo made into a stamp so that we can stamp the lids.  It is going to be super cute!

Now, we have to finish up invitations (we have the designs all complete, but we need to get them printed) and then it's just small details until the big day!

Wedding Planning Wednesday: I decided to make my own weddingfavors...am I crazy?

The title pretty much says it all, but here's the deal:

I decided that since Bri and I like candles and our theme has turned into a sort of rustic/classic loft style, it would be cute to have miniature mason jar candles as our wedding favors.

I wanted something that guests could enjoy after the wedding was over and I didn't want it to be edible.  I felt like a cute candle would be perfect!  So, I got to shopping and as I was browsing the internet, I found that the cheapest mini mason jar candle I could find was about $4 per candle.  We are expecting about 250 for this bonanza and that was just too steep.

Then, I started thinking: I can be crafty when I really put my mind to it...

So I decided that I would make my own.  People make candles all the time.  I priced it out and buying mason jars in bulk, 20 lb packages of soy wax, and 50 piece packages of wicks, ended up being about $1.50 per candle.  Isn't that great???  Then, I decided to use vanilla fragrance oil to make them scented and I was in business.  My mother thought I was crazy, but I already started and I am up to 72 candles!  At this rate (about 24 each weekend), I will be done with all my candles in March and still have plenty of time to decorate them (tie a ribbon around them and stamp our monogram on the lid)!

Here is how they are made:

1. Scoop some soy wax flakes into a large pot and heat over medium on the stove.  Soy is all natural, so don't worry about this messing with your kitchen supplies!  Once the wax is completely liquid, stir in some fragrance oil if you are using it.  Then, using a glass measuring glass, scoop some wax out and get ready to pour into your mini mason jars.
2. Pour a thin layer of wax into each jar and place the pre-tabbed wick into the middle of the bottom as the wax hardens.  This helps hold the wick in place.

3. Once your wicks are in hardened wax, pour more melted wax into the mason jars until they are full.  Let this harden.

4.  Once your wax is hardened, trim the wicks down so that about 1 inch is still above the wax.  Place the lids on and decorate if you want!

The moral of this story is: If you want to make your own wedding favors, I say go for it, just plan it out carefully and give yourself a ton of time to get it done.  When it comes to decorating these cuties, I am planning on getting my "team bride" together so that I have help!  We'll make an event of it and it will be fantastic.

Here is the finished product:

Great Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

These sugar cookies came out great!  I used them to ask my bridesmaids/bridesman to be in our wedding.  Besides looking amazing, they also taste amazing.  So, here is how these came to be:

When I was in college, I met this girl in one of my dance groups who also had a food blog.  At the time, her specialty was making amazing looking cookies.  Now, she also blogs about clean eating and being gluten free.  Please go check her out at: A Dash Of Megnut.  

Of course, I looked to her when I decided that I wanted to bake these cookies.  I adapted her sugar cookie recipe a bit and then I used a different recipe for the royal icing based on the ingredients that I had at home.  Everything turned out amazing!  I mean, look how pretty those dresses are :)

Bridesmaid/Bridesman Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

Cookies:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp almond extract

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

1 egg

2 1/2 cups flour

Royal Icing:

2 egg whites

2 tsp lemon juice

3 cups powdered sugar

food coloring and sprinkles (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, beat the butter with the powdered sugar until well combined.  Beat in the almond, vanilla, egg, and salt until well combined.  Mix in the flour gradually until just combined.  Place bowl in the fridge for about 20 minutes to chill.

2. Once chilled, preheat oven to 375 and grease or parchment paper a cookie sheet.  

3. Take the dough out of the fridge and on a clean workspace, sprinkle some powdered sugar.  Place the dough on the powdered space and using a rolling pin, roll the dough out until it is about 1/4 inch in thickness.  Use more powdered sugar as needed so that the dough doesn't stick.  Cut cookies out using cookie cutters and place on prepared baking pan.  

4. Bake for about 8-10 minutes or until the cookies just start to turn light brown on the edges.  Remove from oven and cool.  

5.  For the icing, beat the egg whites with the lemon juice until they are light in color and then bean in the powdered sugar until well combined and the mixture looks smooth.  Divide the icing into however many bowls you need based on how many colors you are using to decorate.  I just did purple, black, and white.  Then frost and decorate as you want!

Enjoy :)

Wedding Planning Wednesday Part 3

Well, I'm a little bummed out today.  I didn't get selected for the lottery for the Chicago Marathon.  Now, I have to decide if I should just run a different marathon or if I want to raise $1000 for a charity and get a guaranteed entry into the Chicago Marathon.  What should I do????

On the other side of things, I have this really cool DIY project to share!  Wedding planning is going pretty well.  Last week, I shared our engagement party and how fantastic that all was.  This week, I am sharing a cool project that I made for our engagement party: Instagram Coasters!  There are tons of great sites that have instructions for this, but here is what I did and it worked out great!  This is such a cool project and I am totally not an artsy person, but I was able to do this!  These coasters take some time to dry, but otherwise the process is really quick and easy.  Plus, you get adorable coasters when you are done!  This was a great addition to the engagement party and people got to look at cute photos while enjoying their drinks! 

DIY Instagram Coasters

What you will need:

4 by 4 inch tiles (I found mine at Lowe's)

3.5 by 3.5 inch pictures printed out on regular paper

Delta Creative Gloss Ceramcoat Varnish
Acrylic spray

Wide paint brushes

Small, circular foam pads (4 per coaster)

Directions:

1. Clean your tiles and make sure they are completely dry.  

2. Brush a layer of Delta Creative Gloss Ceramcoat Varnish on the back of a picture and place in the middle of the tile.  

3.  Use a credit card or something similar to slide along the picture and make sure that the picture is completely flat and sticking to the tile.  This will get all the bubbles out and make sure that your picture stays put.  

4. Brush a thin layer of Delta Creative Gloss Ceramcoat Varnish over the picture so that it covers the picture and the edges of the tile.  At this point, let your tiles dry for about an hour.  Then, repeat this process with another layer of modge podge over the picture and tile.  You can repeat this step 2-3 times more to ensure your pictures stay stuck to the tile.

5.  Spray acrylic spray over the tiles.  This will give them a little shine.  You can repeat this as many times as you like to get the desired effect.  

6.  Once the coasters are totally dry, place the foam sticky circles on the backs so that your coasters won't scratch anything!

Enjoy :)