Wedding colour schemes

When I started to research and plan for our wedding, there was soooo many resources out there and I just didn't know where to start. In marketing, we know that a personal recommendation is worth piles more than an online ad or a positive review from a stranger, so I thought I'd just record a few of the things I found most useful. "Getting Married" and reviewing all the products and services we used for what was probably the biggest personal "project" I'll ever manage... (ok, don't start about your big projects, renovations, kids, oh geez I only just got married ok!) ..will probably take a few blog posts. But to start with the fun part: the crafty bits!



Christina Re cherry blossom paper, Stampin' Up Eastern Blooms stamp set


We picked our colours right at the beginning at the time of our engagement party... my friends know I'm a pink kinda gal but it was now hubby's idea to use pink, cream and gold as our colour palette. A friend hosted a Stampin' Up party around the time we were starting to organise this stuff, and I'm a sucker for party-plan products so I happily went along not realising that it would open to me a whole new world of places to spend my pocket money. Stamping demonstrater Deanne (website) took us through all the awesome products and months of experimentation and a new printer later, this was the wedding invitation result:

Stampin' Up Eastern Blooms stamps, gold brads and gold card,
transparent paper - printed at home on my Canon Pixma M640,
cut using a cheap old paper trimmer from Officeworks!

So, the paper was organised but what about, err, the entire rest of the whole wedding shebang. Bridesmaid Sandra and I walked into Diana Ferrari on our way to a pampering session (so our minds were totally not on dress shopping, and it was the first store we had checked out) and saw these ones - and within 10 minutes we had our bridesmaid outfits sorted.

"I have a friend who..."  Awesome! Done! Some things are just easier when you make a snap decision. If a friend recommends a friend who does that, then all the better - I trust my friends' judgement! Bridesmaid Susan recommended florist Wendy who is just breaking into the floristry market. Many, many emailed pictures later and we had a perfect match for both the girls' dresses and mine - and the nice thing is we got to give our business to someone we knew.

Now to bring the look all together...will everything match?!
The boys' ties were a shiny purple which "tied" in great with the ladies' outfits

The bomboniere: homemade strawberry jam by hubby's parents, in jars from
wholesale cookware shop Chef and the Cook in Camperdown;
fabric from Spotlight; twine from Eckersleys; tags from Officeworks;
custom stamps from Imprint Rubber Stamps; ink and copperplate nib from Will's Quills

Plums and Roses tower of vanilla cupcakes
with a butterscotch filling and
vanilla buttercream icing
topped with a caramel mud cutting cake
with chocolate ganache

And finally, our showpiece, the party stopper... the cupcake masterpiece from Susan of Plums and Roses cakes and cookies - sadly for me, based in the UK but she visits often ;)

A quick google images search for "pink tower of cupcakes" gave us a gazillion ideas but Susan worked to bring to life the pink and gold theme adding just exactly the right amount of bright pinks, subtle pastels, and ever so delicious buttercream frosting... so so so delicious.... Some people have regrets about their wedding day. People say they didn't savour the moment enough, or they became agitated about photos or music or rowdy guests. My absolutely only regret about the entire wedding experience is that I did not eat enough cake. Oh, I got cake, a lot of it - the bride can do whatever she wants and I did eat more than my quota of cupcakes that night (hope no one else missed out, woops) - but a lot of this cakey goodness is still NEVER ENOUGH!

Sneaky Sydney spot #2 - Little Beach

Yep, it's another beach. Little Beach, in Bouddi National Park. This sneaky Sydney spot is the perfect place to set up camp for a weekend of relaxing and literally watching the world go by. While we were there one seemingly dreary weekend, we saw a group of ocean kayakers pull up on the beach and proceed to unpack an entire campsite's worth of gear from their vessels, a pod (group? family?) of probably humpback whales, a group of what seemed to be maybe a youth group with totally bizarre pre-cooked food (...pre cooked pancakes and a sauce they just had to warm up on the hotplate...). And you thought you were getting away from it all!

There are six allocated campsites here which you pre-book through National Parks, a loo and a BBQ.  The walk from the car is short (1km) but steep - we brought one of those hand trolleys that you can get at Bunnings for $20. Part of the adventure is arriving in the small carpark at the top of the hill in the pitch black of the night - no streetlights around here - and grappling your way down the firetrail to pop out at the beautiful moonlit beach.

As for daytime activities, you can head up the headland on either side and walk along the trail to Macmasters Beach or Killcare but to be honest once you're down here with some cheese n crackers and a book, it's pretty hard to get up and do anything!