Manolo for the Brides

If I had to pick the meaty thing I miss the most since going veg, I’d have to choose sushi and sashimi. Many of my friends would be surprised to read that I didn’t say bacon, but to tell you the truth, I never much cared for the stuff. Nope, raw fish was my bag, so you’ll forgive me if I spend just a tad too long looking at this masterpiece of a wedding “cake.”

It was created with love for Jef and Jin Yoon by friends of theirs who couldn’t attend their wedding. One of said friends, a certain Christina, decided to do a little something different when Jef asked that their post-nuptial celebration include sushi. Thus, the sushi cake was born!

Should you feel driven to make your own sushi cake, you are indeed in luck, for Christina posted a DIY tutorial explaining exactly how to layer the fish, the rice, and everything else that went into this unique piece of edible art.

The lovely Laura posed this query:

I’d like to do cupcakes for my wedding in September — I didn’t realize it was so trendy, I just wanted a variety of flavors and the convenience — and I’m appalled by how much people want to charge for them! I’m seriously considering breaking out the mixer and just making them myself. Of course, everybody thinks I’m nuts. But if cupcakes will last for a while in the freezer, it’s entirely possible I could make a couple of batches every weekend and then just have an icing party the night before. What do you think?

Creating your own wedding cupcakes is easy because they’re simple to bake (single serving sizes and no worrying about tiers), plus the frosting doesn’t have to look as polished as it typically does on a big wedding cake. In fact, the most charming cupcakes are usually those that look like they came out of a real kitchen, not some high-tech baker’s mecca.

Speaking of frosting, cupcakes freeze best when they’re frosting-free because frosting is the most perishable part of any confection. (Hint: You can freeze frosting, too — buttercreams and fudge freeze well, while custards and egg white frostings do not.) Cook’s Illustrated has this to say about the best way to preserve taste and texture in a frozen cupcake:

“In terms of taste, there was little to differentiate [between cupcakes stored in a plastic zipper-lock bag with most of the air removed, in plastic wrap, in foil, and in plastic wrap and foil]. For longer periods of storage, where the likelihood of freezer burn increases, we recommend double-wrapping cupcakes in plastic wrap and foil (in groups or individually) before placing them in the freezer.”

They note that when you do thaw them, unwrap them first to prevent the buildup of condensation that can turn a cupcake gummy and gross.

As to how long you can freeze your cupcakes, it depends on the kind of cake. Cakes with a butter base (like yellow cake) can be frozen up to six months, but I’d recommend keeping them frozen for no more than two months. Angel food cakes can be frozen for up to two months, but should probably be eaten before then. Natural essences will freeze better than artificial ones, and the flavor may grow stronger over time.

I should note that I have a lot of personal experience with this because when I bake, I BAKE. My freezer is currently full of frozen cakes and sweet breads that are wrapped in nothing more than a layer of foil, and I have never once had a cake suffer ill effects from being kept on ice for weeks or months.

But I will say this — fresher is usually better. Within the two month window, decide how much time you’ll need to make a great cupcake without stressing yourself out, and bake them as close to the wedding as possible to ensure great taste and texture.

I’ve seen autumn leaves on table displays and scattered around plates, and I’ve even seen them incorporated into floral arrangements, but I’ve never seen them used quite like this! This maple leaf bouquet was created by a certain Natalie, who posted her masterpiece on a site called LOBZIK.

She posted a a tutorial that makes the mechanics of these “flowers” pretty clear. Luckily, her tutorial is picture heavy, seeing as that I don’t read Cyrillic. If you do, please translate a bit of the how-to for us.

It looks fairly simple, though you may want to incorporate some floral tape or florists’ pins. I’m not saying you’ll make perfect maple leaf roses right away, but you should be whipping them out fairly competently with a little practice. Too bad it’s only July!

One: Remember how I made soap using a soap kit from Bramble Berry? If you read the whole post, you may recall that I used regular old food coloring (the sort in the teardrop shaped bottles) so I could enjoy a little more sudsy variety. Because I didn’t want anyone who tried the kit getting mad at me, I wrote: “I don’t recommend you do the same because I’m not yet sure the resultant soaps won’t turn you blue or green.”

However, I am now happy to state that I’ve been using one of my dyed-with-food-coloring soaps for a while not and have not yet turned green.

Two: Check me out over at iVillage! In honor of iDo’s official release, they asked me to create a list of five web sites I think every bride-to-be should visit while planning her wedding. The result is up on the iVillage wedding blog From “I Will” to “I Do”.

Unless the point of the show is to instruct prospective brides in the finer points of carrying out DIY doings, such projects are usually presented on television as a silly idea doomed to failure from the outset because you should leave that sort of thing to the professionals, you silly, incompetent bride-person, you. If they work out, someone carefully points out that if it had gone wrong, clearly the wedding would have been ruined. If the bride, her mother, or her friend is unsuccessful, droll or doleful music is played and the scenes are cut to make it clear that there was never any chance of anything short of disaster.

But is disaster so inevitable? Not necessarily. In fact, if approached thoughtfully and planned intelligently, DIY projects can add tremendously to the intimacy and charm of a wedding without causing undo fuss behind the scenes. Let’s deconstruct a DIY disaster on a recent episode of Bridezillas and see how it might have been done more successfully.

(more…)

(Preamble: I’m happy to announce that as of today, The Beard and I have been married for one whole year! He reads this at work, so here’s me saying, “I love ya, loverboy!”)

In case you’ve ever wondered whether I actually read and play with and make all of the books, stuff, and recipes I’ve reviewed here, let me just say I don’t mess around. Yesterday, in my never-ending quest to acquaint myself with all things bridal, I made soap.

Let me rephrase that…I didn’t start with lye and fat and whatever other nasty things are in soap, but I did melt down blocks of colorless unscented soap, mix up different colored batches, add a fragrance, and pour it into molds. So to address any lingering doubts, when companies are nice enough to send me free swag, I test run it, whatever IT is.

In this case, it was a soap-making kit from Bramble Berry, makers of a ton of DIY soap and candle supplies. The soap kit was presented to me as a potential bridal shower or wedding favor–the catch being that you have to have the patience to work with a medium that needs to sit around and dry for hours before you can unmold it.

The directions call for a microwave…something we don’t have. So I just stuck the whole works into a pan and popped it into the oven at about 275. This worked like a charm after I remembered to cut the soap base into chunks. When I did that, it actually melted!

(more…)

In a recent article, I talked about how to decide whether to use a professional planner to help create your wedding dreams. It seemed only fair that I also talk about how to decide whether to create most of your wedding from scratch or not.

I’m going to come right out and say that I was a total DIY diva for my wedding. I love to make things by hand, and I hate to spend money on paying someone to do something I’m more than capable of doing for myself. Further, I felt that putting my handwork into the day was part of putting my heart into the event. On top of all that, we had pretty much two shiny nickles to spend on making a day that our friends and families would remember fondly. We just plain didn’t have the bucks to spend on a lot of pros…but even if the budget had been more flexible, I think I would have done the DIY thing pretty much to the level I did. See above in re: putting my heart into the day.

I’ve known brides who have made their own gowns, grown the flowers, deisgned and printed invitations, baked their own cakes, made the wedding feasts in their own kitchens, designed and made all the decorations…I think about the only thing I haven’t seen yet is a bride who cobbled her own wedding shoes. I’m equally sure that somewhere out there is a lady who has done just that.

Still, it’s not for everyone. And that’s why you should ask yourself the following questions when deciding whether or not to DIY and to what extent:

(more…)

One piece of advice brides hear over and over again is that choosing flowers that are local and in season is a great way to save money on your florist’s bill. That’s very true. Having orchids flown in from halfway across the globe or insisting on the most delicate of summer blooms in the middle of a stormy winter is going to cost you extra.

But what to do if you don’t know what’s in season in your area? Well, a good place to start is right here. This interactive tool allows you to give a very general idea of time of year, region of the US (sorry, non-USian readers, but I’ll be on the lookout for something that covers other parts of the world, too, because it’s fun) where your wedding will be held, or even what color the bridesmaid’s dresses are. It then spits out a list of flowers that match your criteria, with links to pictures of said flowers. As I said, it’s not the be-all and end-all, but it’s a good place to start if you can’t tell a hyacinth from a hydrangea or aren’t certain if iris grows in your area near your wedding date.

Another fabulous way of saving cash on flowers is to do very simple arrangements yourself with a bit of help from handy friends and family members. Real Simple has a great feature showing you how to make beautiful bouquets from grocery store flowers. The one piece of advice I would add to their ideas is that if there’s an open-to-the-public florist’s supply within a reasonable distance, you can get a greater variety of higher-quality flowers without having to pay the middle men. If you need a lot of a particular flower, it also means you’re far more likely to be able to get precisely what you want in the amounts you need.

Still, the tying instructions are clear and simple to follow. Besides, who would ever have thought baby’s breath could look this spectacular?

I admit it. I’ve never liked wedding veils. I just generally don’t. I never even considered wearing one at my own wedding. They aren’t my style.

On the other hand, I’ve known many a bride who wouldn’t have felt she was getting married without one. It’s traditional, after all, and many women consider them romantic. Who am I to say they’re not?

One thing I think a lot of us will agree on, though, is that wedding veils are darn expensive. I wouldn’t argue the price tag on one trimmed with antique, hand made lace and held in place with a tiara richly bejeweled with sapphires and rubies…but it’s easy to plonk down upwards of $150 on a square of tulle with a bit of ribbon trim and a couple plastic combs to hold it in place. That makes my thrify heart wheeze.

(more…)