Thursday, April 28, 2011

Easter Feasting... and cakes of cheese

Happy Belated Easter!!!
Sorry for my lack of blogging of late, I went away for Easter for a lovely break down at Robe, SA. We had a fantastic time with friends, lazing around in the sunshine, sipping on champagne and generally just stuffing ourselves with food!
While Easter normally revolves around chocolate, for us it was more about cheese. I love-love-love cheese. I don't think there was much of the trip when there wasn't a cheese platter in front of us. Divine, creamy, oozy french cheese, yummy (subtle) blue cheese with Maggie Beer's quince paste, Jarlsberg, Cheddar.. did I mention I love cheese?

Anyway, "what does cheese have to do with a wedding blog" I hear you ask. Lots.
When I started planning the Rustic Garden Party, I didn't want a wedding cake. I didn't see the point, actually. I never eat cake at weddings (i'm always off dancing and drinking!) And the whole cutting of the cake moment always seemed a little pointless to me at weddings.
(As an aside.. do you know where cake cutting originated from? I read somewhere that it started when grooms used to smash bread over the bride's head! This was to mark his dominance over her.. and I also once read something really gross about it being a symbol of him breaking her hymen. Gross. 
I've since heard it was about the couple's first "task" as a married couple. Meh - cake cutting = not much of a task really. Anyway... I'm getting off-topic).
What I did want was a "Cake of Cheese" - which had just started to pop up all over the web. I have no problem with cutting cheese:





YUM!! YUM YUM YUM! What could be better for a cheese loving couple like us???
Well, alas... my cheese cake dream never eventuated. It turned out that our venue serves cheese platters instead of dessert (apparently dessert gets thrown away). So the cheese was already taken care of. Bummer. We missed out on this little idea.
To anyone out there reading this: YOU should have a cake of cheese!

Oh -for the record, we had a Croquembouche at our wedding so that there'd be something sweet for people. And we didn't cut it. It wasn't cheese... but it was the best 'cake' I've ever eaten!!!

^If you are looking for one of these in Adelaide, try Heidelberg Cakes. You won't be disappointed!

I hope your Easter was great (and filled with cheese) too!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Treasure.. in the form of glassware

I adore the trend of mismatched vases, mason jars and random vessels as centrepieces and decorations. I adopted this trend early in my wedding planning process, and I fast set about building up a collection.

Hunting for these pieces became like a year long treasure hunt! Some were easy to find and were come across in supermarkets "oh that brand of pasta sauce / jam / juice has a great package.. looks like we're eating that for a year!" Some were harder, with much time spent trawling through op shops, markets and antique stores in search of the perfect colours, shapes, variation of heights, etc.

In the end, I got a great assortment of clear, crystal, greens, browns, ambers and blues:




So what was the result...?
I haven't shared many photos from my wedding yet. I'M NERVOUS!
Here's some to get things started:

Ceremony decoration
Tables

Thursday, April 7, 2011

SA Rustic Wedding Venues – Part FOUR

I promised to deliver more rustic and barn-like venues, so here are a few more that I discovered on my search.

Rustic venues in South Australia often come in the form of wineries - since that is what we are so famous for here. I already introduced: Longview and Golding wineries in Part One, followed by Penny's Hill and K1 Winery in Part Three.
But there are SO many more. We are lucky to have 4 wine regions right on the edge of our city: Adelaide Hills, Barossa Valley, Clare and McLaren Vale. Just browsing the regions' websites can uncover many great venues for a Winery Wedding.

Here is one more venue from each region that I think would suit a rustic wedding:

Saltram Wines (Barossa):
Located in Angaston, this venue features 5 separate indoor areas and 2 outdoor ones - plenty of choice for a rustic bride and groom!
The photos below look rather elegant don't they? But the exposed stone walls and wine barrels around the room definitely make it a rustic elegance.
I've heard the food is fantastic here too.

pics from Saltram website

Maxwell Wines (McLaren Vale):
This place is a winery that offers a function room, outdoor area etc.. the standard winery wedding thing. Lovely. But standard.


What caught my eye was their Lime Cave
It's a 95 year old, 40m long hand-carved limestone cave. What a superb place for an intimate wedding dinner?! Very unique, very romantic. Maybe a tiny bit spooky?!


David Sievers


Bridgewater Mill (Adelaide Hills):
Only a short drive from Adelaide lies Bridgewater Mill / Petaluma Winery. The 1860's Mill with it's waterwheel is a lovely old site- housing both a cellar door and restaurant. The lush green lawns would make a nice spot for ceremony or pre-dinner drinks. So would that deck!


Inside, the restaurant is really interesting featuring tiered seating over several levels. Look at the ledge where the piano is above the bar.. imagine your band playing up there!

photos courtesy of Australian Explorer

I've decided not to include a Clare winery. I don't actually know one that would be a good rustic wedding venue. Do you? If so, please comment and help me out.

I do have some other Clare venues in mind though... so Stay tuned for PART FIVE - which wont include any wineries at all. I've got 4 alternative wedding venues in mind..

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Etsy Rave: 'Me and Matilda' for fabulous ties

Since I'm on the subject of guy's outfits, I thought I'd show you our boy's ties and rave about the supplier!


I bought these hand-made ties from Me and Matilda on my all-time favourite shopping website Etsy.  Aren't they great!?

We got:
- 3 x orange gingham skinny ties
- 1 x orange gingham bow-tie (for the groomsman that chose this); and
- 1 x black gingham tie (for the hunky groom).

What I love about them:
  • The glorious patterns available in the shop.
  • The fact that they are handmade by a lovely lady.
  • The fabric is cotton, so they are not shiny. And they are machine washable.
  • She makes them in whatever width you like.. so we got a slightly "skinny" tie for our guys.
  • The ability to mix and match. Wouldn't it look great to choose a few different patterns within one palette? Like this:

Also available were things like ring cushions and pocket squares. And I noticed she is now selling braces too. Cute!

Service was great. The seller made sure we got them in time. And the ties were very well made and looked fabulous!  Consider this a recommendation to go and browse the shop, no matter what your colour scheme is!

Mismatched Bridal Parties (boys too!)

We've all heard about mismatched bridesmaids - and there are many examples on the net of how great this can look. For the record, my bridesmaids didn't match. I bought them fabric and they all went and got their own dresses made - whatever they liked. But more on that later.

What I think people are more unsure about is mismatched groomsmen. It's a question I see come up a bit on forums and I pondered over it myself too. So I thought I'd share some of the pics I saved while planning.

Different shades of grey can still match and work together:
Landlocked Bride
100 Layer Cake
Pinterest
The thing is,

  • Suit hire is expensive. Who wants to pay for something they don't keep? 
  • And suit purchase is even more expensive (though not always). And who wants to buy a suit in another shade of grey if they already have one?
  • And if your bridesmaids are mismatched, or your wedding is casual, then 5 matching dudes in schmick suits could really amp up the formality (which isn't necessarily a good thing).
So I am an advocate for letting boys wear their own suits (as in the pics above)

OR - letting them wear WHATEVER they like. Vests, Braces, Jacket (or No Jacket), Ties or Bow ties, and so on. See:
Offbeat Bride



Based on the pictures above, here are what i think are the key things that help make it 'work' in these cases:
  • It seems the more guys, the better this looks. Not sure how it would look with fewer than 3.
  • They need "something" to keep them tied together.. matching shoes OR matching ties OR matching greys. Something.
  • They need to all be comfortable with their own look. These guys all look cool! (not sure how you enforce coolness on your groomsmen. Hopefully you just have cool friends!)
Here's a couple more that are even more mismatched.. but somehow still look like a team to me:

Pinterest - I'd kinda like to tell #1 and #5 to change their pants though.

It all seems to have a way of working itself out so you can still tell who the groom is. (As if your guests don't already know who he is!)

I'll show you what we our groomsmen picked shortly.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Colour Schemes (and reactions to them)

I've just realised I haven't even shared the basic with you - our colour scheme!

I found picking a colour scheme for our wedding decidedly tricky! When I first started planning, I thought I would just go wild with colour and have bright orange, hot pink, turquoise, sunshine yellow - everything bright and colorful under the sun.
I've seen it pulled off, like over here where it looks amazing. But if I am honest, I didn't trust myself with it. I thought it could go either way.. marvellous - or just plain messy.

So I decided to pick one colour. Pink seemed too girly (since it's also my husband's wedding!), Blue had been done by a couple of my friends, yellow.. well actually i could have had yellow... But in the end I just decided on orange.

I soon discovered that people* don't really like orange. And they aren't afraid to tell you either! I saw screwed up faces. I got looks of horror. I had people tell me that I'd regret it. And I had people ask if I was trying to make my bridesmaids look bad (dont get me started on that.. I means seriously, who does that? It is the bride that has to keep the photos. It is the bride that people judge for any awful decisions/aesthetics. People know the BMs dont pick their dresses.. so if they look ugly, it is only a reflection on the bride. So why would anyone aim for ugliness??).
Anyway, I digress...

Here is around about what I picked.
Orange (real orange) + Coral (a prettier orange) + Creamy White + Light Grey.


But of course I couldn't totally abandon my love of colour. So there were accents. Many accents. 
- Greens, pinks and maroons in the flowers
- Browns in the form of wood and hessian
- Blues, Greens, Oranges and Browns in the form of bottles and vases
- Yellow in the Kombi Van

I'll get around to sharing it all soon.
FYI - I definitely don't regret it. And the bridesmaids looked beautiful.

*by 'people', i specifically mean jerks whose opinions you generally don't care about anyway!