Bride's Pies and Groom's Cake

So as we begin thinking about the style elements of the wedding, it's definitely time to think about dessert! Of course cake is where we should begin, but let's cut to the chase. PIE! One of my lovely clients is Hoosier Mama Pie Company, a (now) Mom and Pop bakery in Chicago. With a cute 1930s, Depression Modern feel, working with their identity has been nothing but a blast, and after a few years, their amazing skills and flavors have taken them quite far. A quick visit to Paula and Craig's shop yesterday yielded what I have to say is the best apple pie I've ever had. Seriously. No nepotism here, completely amazing.



So, with the hook up of the century, we have to go with pie, pie and more pie. I think Paula called it "all the pie we can eat," which is a lot of pie. Nonetheless, I'm a semi-traditionalist at heart, and would love to have a small cake as well. My current fascination is with Lovin Sullivan Cakes. Their modern, clean and beautiful designs are my inspiration for where to begin my own hunt in the Midwest. Kudos!

The Traveling Photo Booth

Since we started dating, Mark and I have always taken advantage of the classic photo booths strewn throughout Chicago. Our house is littered with photo strips from the old Holiday Club, The Long Room, The Rainbo Club, Shubas and the rest of the city. Something about Chicago and photo booths I tell ya, Milwaukee is bone dry. I guess in a way, that makes them even more special. For our wedding, when stumbled upon some website for classic photo booth rental, I couldn't help but want to make that our one big splurge! After hunting the web, and a million sites for classic booths that were just way too shady and expensive, and a few more for new-fangled digital photo booths that spit out paper prints with fiesta borders, I had all but given up... until I found The Traveling Photo Booth out of Madison, Wi.

These guys really seem to have it down. They have well designed and tasteful booths with a cute as hell logo and blue velvet curtains. Their service so far has been excellent. The booth prints two sets of the same strip, one for you and one for your guests, and you can choose color or black and white. Also, and most important to me, they actually resemble classic photo booth prints. They're a little larger, but the same proportion. They even have the same effects with a vignetted edge. Each set of images are printed with a code, so our guests will be able to go online and take a look at their pics, remove anything that got a little rowdy, and order prints of their, or any images.
Photo: Mark and I Circa 2001

They will have an attendant working with our guests to make a guest book throughout the night. Not to mention, we get all of the 12 mb images on CD. I can't wait to share the booth with everyone, I think it might be the highlight of the night.

Flowers

I'm hoping to keep our flower budget to a minimum, the hotel is so well decorated that we don't have much to do, but I am definitely loving this look for the bouquet. I love how rich this bouquet is, and the berries. I am also in love with the idea of succulents. I've found some awesome images of them in bouquets, and in centerpieces. I'd love to grow a few batches this summer and see how we can incorporate them.


From InStyle Weddings, Winter 2007


These center pieces are affordable, and adorable. I can't remember where I found them, I discovered them before I started this blog, but mystery bride, MccKathy, I'm happy to give credit if you email me.


And these gorgeous DIY Succulent Centerpieces are from Kristina at Lovely Morning, you can see her post here. I love the idea of incorporating thrifted vases and pots like this.

Two other ideas I'm considering for cost conscious decorating are tall grasses, and believe it or not (it was a long, long week at the studio) brussel sprouts! I don't know, something about their geometric shape, and the tall stalks, they're pretty hip in my little eye. Also, Sarah, my bridesmaid Kimberly's sister has offered to help us with any grow-it-yourself projects we may want to tackle! I love her suggestion of growing tall grasses at varying heights all summer and using them at our altar. I can see it now, a little city scape of tall brown grass, leaning brussel sprouts and gangly succulents. Ha! Is there a patron saint for green thumb?

Image credit: Jervie, All About Gardening

On to the ideas.

So for the past few months I have been collecting ideas and samples from around the web. Time to share a few, so let's get started.

We've decided to go with varying colors of reds for the bridesmaid's dresses. Also, I really want the girls to love what they are wearing so they will all choose a dress.

This is where we are so far:

September 12, 2009: Our Wedding Day

A venue, at last. We've decided to go with The Iron Horse Hotel. So far they have been nothing short of awesome. Cheyne Chase is our contact there, and she's been the absolutely wonderful to work with. I'm not sure really sure how to start, the past few weeks have been a flurry of getting started with actual plans, quotes, ideas and stressing a bit.

I guess I'll start with how we imagine the night will go.

Our guests arrive at a boutique hotel in Milwaukee, a former bedding factory in the warehouse district. To the left of the hotel is a large patio, surrounded by a rock garden with three giant metal drum fire pits, and over looking the white 6th street bridge modeled after the Calatrava designed Milwaukee Art Museum.

We will have our ceremony on the patio, under a tent, something short and sweet, and somehow incorporating a candle light ceremony. As a kid, my favorite memories were of Christmas Eve candle light ceremonies. While neither of us are very religious, something about the feeling of holding my little candle, lit from being passed from one person to another, watching the entire church fill slowly with light, strikes a chord, and makes one really feel a part of something. I'm really hoping to harness that feeling again as part of our ceremony, we'll see!

After the ceremony, we will head inside for a cocktail hour to my favorite location in The Iron Horse. Our guests will mingle between the lobby and the library, sit amongst the worn leather chairs, warm fire places, and a great view of down town. Servers will pass gourmet hors d'oeuvres, and open bar will begin with our signature cocktail and beer and wine.

After some time, we'll head back out to the patio for a toast and dancing, under the tent. Afterwards, guest can stay and dance, or go and mingle inside and enjoy the photo booth (so excited!).

The rest of the night will be mostly a cocktail hour, some cake cutting, late night pizza from Pizza Shuttle, and dancing. One of the nice things about having our event at the Iron Horse, is that we can celebrate into the wee hours, as the lobby is open 24 hours, and the bar doesn't close until 2 am.

I'm sure there will be more details to come, but so far, so good. So far it's been an interesting ride, and, thankfully, we have over 7 months to go.






Photos: The Iron Horse Hotel