Guest Post, More Musings by Nashville Bride-to-be Marci

Flavor of a Favor

When we set out on this great wedding adventure, guest favors were the last thing on my mind. At first I thought, “Candy bar? Perfect. Check it off the list and move on!” And then I started poking around on the ol’ interwebz and got jealous when I saw how many people chose or made personal or local favors. I wondered what I could possibly make that I loved and would be meaningful for my guests. And then it hit me.

Cheesecake! I’m semi-famous around the office for bringing in homemade strawberry cheesecakes every now and then and suddenly I was crazy about wanting to share my favorite dessert with all my favorite people at our celebration.

So I said, let the experimenting begin!

Typically I make full pies—I follow this basic Kraft recipe and pour it into three regular-sized graham cracker crusts (the crust tastes the same as the homemade version and saves time and energy), heat up the jam, and swirl it around to look nice with a butter knife. But even the full-pan version wasn’t going to do for favors—without lining, they were too messy package. Batch #1 went to the office so I couldn’t eat it!

Then lo and behold, I saw a recipe for cheesecake cupcakes that even had the cutest little hearts on them in a Martha Stewart bridal magazine. Win! I combined my favorite recipe with her prep techniques and the batter yielded about 40 cupcakes. That seemed doable. I’d need to make about four batches to cover everyone on our 125-person guest list. Feeling clever, I bought Nilla Wafers as a substitute for the crust. I even bought cute little Chinese to-go boxes and everything. I was prepared for success.

The hearts turned out okay (the jam kind of sunk in some of them, making strawberry surprises rather than hearts), but the Nilla Wafers were a wee bit small and soggy, and when I went to see if they fit in the boxes I bought, they were too big! D’oh! Batch #2 of cheesecake cupcakes went straight to work, too.

On the verge of giving back in to the candy table, I wandered around the grocery store and came across those convenient mini cupcake tins and immediately scooped a couple up and some fresh ingredients for my last cheesecake hurrah.

Finally, success! They cook MUCH faster than cupcakes, the size was perfect (about the size of a small Reese’s Cup—each to go box fit two each), and the batter makes 96 of these joyous bites of wonderfulness. That means I only need to make 2 ½ batches for everyone to have two each, cutting my baking time in half. Bonus! The only drawback is that the Nilla Wafers are too large for the mini cupcake tin, but the graham cracker crust really doesn’t take long to do in small doses (a melon baller or small measuring spoon does wonders to mash the crust down). And they’re so cute!

I’ll only need to spend a couple of hours a couple of days before the wedding baking to my heart’s content (geddit?) and my guests will love knowing I made something from the heart (eh? hearts?) just for them.

Guest Post, Musings of Marci, a Nashville Bride-to-Be

The Work-Life-Wedding Balance

Well it’s been a long time since I wrote a blog about the wedding planning process, so a LOT (I’m relieved to report) has happened over the last couple of months that I’m excited to write about over the coming weeks. We’ve picked out plates and goblets and cake (yay cake!!) and linens and save the dates and dresses and favors and our honeymoon destination (woohoo!) and on and on and on. Whew!

Going to all of those meetings, doing research, and coordinating all of these details can turn into a full-time job on its own, even when you have a full year to plan like we’ve had. Balancing all that with working sometimes 50+ hours in a week and still finding time to just be a couple can be difficult.

Fortunately, we’ve managed to find a few things to help keep us grounded.

One: Wedding- and work-free weekends! It sounds crazy because the knee-jerk reaction is to cram as much planning and meetings into the weekend as possible so you don’t have to worry about it during the week, but let’s be honest—you’re planning all week, too. It’s important to save some nights and weekends to just be yourselves, whether it’s just the two of you or a weekend with your buds. Go play! You’re allowed. Your family and friends will appreciate the topic relief, and you’ll feel incredibly refreshed when Monday comes back around.

Two: Wedding planning “dates.” Scheduling an hour to do wedding house-keeping here and there outside the house at Starbucks or someplace cozy will keep you on task and, possibly, well-fed. Planning can drag out all night if you plop down on the couch with your guest list. Your sweetie will not be able to finish the task at hand and come out happy on the other side if it takes too long…and neither will you.

Three: Pre-marital counseling. We’re about halfway through our sessions with Marie McKinney-Oates (stay tuned for a whole blog post on how awesome she is!), and I have to say—I wouldn’t trade that time in for the world. These meetings give us the gift of remembering why we’re doing what we’re doing in the first place…because we want to be married, not because we want to have a wedding. Every once in awhile, the details can get overwhelming and it’s easy to forget why you’re picking out those plates and goblets and cake (yay cake!).

There are a lot of other ways to stay sane and still have fun while throwing your celebration, but these are my three favorites so far: a little escapism, a dash of dating, and a lot of love!

Vendor Spotlight, A Magical Affair

A Magical Affair is a Nashville based Wedding and Events planning company. I think the best way to describe Courtney and her team is well said in the first sentence on their About page:

“Extensive experience, vision, enthusiasm, integrity, energy, and a bit of Disney magic are Courtney Hammon’s keys to making your dreams of that special day…reality!”

Courtney spent over nine years planning events with the Walt Disney Company. She has learned from the best and is able to capture the magic that only Disney is known for and they are a member of The Association of Bridal Consultants. A Magical Affair offers services from day of  all the way to full planning packages. They can provide all the assistance you need for your wedding or any special event.

A Magical Affair
Nashville, TN
Call: 615.564.0467
Email:courtney@amagicalaffair.com
Website

Photos by Camryn Holt Photography

5 Reasons Why You Want to be at Couples’ Game Night

Some couples flourish during the whole wedding planning process. He genuinely cares about the exquisite engineering of a tissue pom pom, she has no problem staying in the budget, and they can actually go longer than an hour without talking about something wedding related. Some couples make wedding planning look like a piece of cake. A piece of wedding cake, to be exact.

Then there’s the rest of us.

Wedding planning is stressful. There are millions of decisions to make, thousands of dollars to spend, and one promise to make for forever. That’s a lot of stress, and it’s natural for ANY relationship to crack under that kind of pressure. However, just because it’s natural doesn’t mean we should let it be an excuse to let our relationship’s health slide.

Now let me invite you to the Couples’ Game Night on July 22nd hosted by Nashville Marriage Studio & Wedding 101 – the perfect way to save your relationship from wedding planning disaster!
Don’t believe me? Here are 5 reasons you should show up for Couple’s Game Night:
1) It’s a date night. A free date night. A free date night that you didn’t have to plan. I shouldn’t even have to give you 4 more reasons. Just email me now at marie.mckinney@gmail.com and let me know you’ll be there (space is limited!).2) Ok. I guess you want all 5 reasons. Fine. You’ll meet other engaged couples. More than likely you’re at that age when making friends is starting to get really hard. The only people you see are co-workers and they’re usually boring or old. And now you’re getting married so you’ll need married couple friends which you will find at the Couple’s Game Night!3) Meet a premarital counselor (that’s me!). You probably didn’t even know there were counselors devoted to helping couples get ready for marriage. Well, now you get to meet one! If you were at all curious about premarital counseling this is a great, low key way to meet me and ask any questions you have about how to make your marriage last.4) Kick other couple’s butts and prove you’re the most awesome couple around. Have you played Apples to Apples yet? It’s awesome, and a great way to find out if you two really get each other. We’ll also play our own version of The Newlywed Game and find out which couples REALLY know each other.5) Win prizes! There aren’t going to be many other opportunities in your life when you can win actual prizes for being in love. Seriously.

Email me (marie.mckinney@gmail.com) and reserve a spot now.
The details one more time:
Couples’ Game Night
6:30-8:30pm, July 22nd
Wedding 101 @ The Factory in Franklin
email marie.mckinney@gmail.com.

See you there!
Marie McKinney Oates with Nashville Marriage Studio

Wine Tasting w/ Joe Hendricks Photography

Thanks to Nashville wedding vendor Joe Hendricks and his lovely wife Rhonda of Joe Hendricks Photography and Cool Springs Wine and Spirits, Wedding 101 hosted a fun-filled and quite educational evening of white wine tasting.  Not only did I laugh a lot, but I gathered a few wine tasting tips which you might find helpful as you select your choices of wine for your rehearsal dinner and/or reception (or just for you!).

1. Swirl your wine before you taste to let the bouquet (the flavor) out.

2. Have bites of French bread in between wines to cleanse the palette, not cheese.

3. You want your wine and food in a boxing match with each other.  Example: Acidic whites work well with chicken, light fish, or Asian dishes.

4. Serve 1 white and 1 red to avoid guests fighting over favorites.

5.  Favorite tip: Wine Calculation for Wedding Receptions:  1-750ml bottle of wine for every 3 guests.

6.  If you are serving beer as well, you can get away with 1 bottle of wine for every 4 guests.  But More is Always Better!

We got to taste and rate 6 bottles of wine.  You won’t believe which one was everyone’s favorite… watch the video below and just think “inside” the box. 🙂

Thanks for providing the wine Cool Springs Wine and Spirits and for the tasting Joe.

If you missed the fun, look for more events coming to Wedding 101. www.wedding101.net/events

Guest Post, Kristen Steele Photography

I seriously wish that Wedding101 was around when I was getting married,
because it would have made my whole planning process so much easier! This is a one-stop Bridal shop, where there’s no stress involved. It’s the most
light, bright, colorful and happy space. You might think I’m exaggerating,
but I’m not… it’s really what you think of when you think of the whole
being a Bride experience.

There are comfy white couches with frilly pink pillows, great meeting
spaces for you to meet with your vendors and two wonderful ladies, Amy and
Ashley, who will help you organize it all! You can come in, walk around and
see the displays and then sit on the couches to look through all the
vendors brochures and materials. They’ll even offer you coffee or a Coke if
you want one!

OK, so I’ll stop gushing and show you the pictures but you’ll see what I
mean…. Introducing my new booth at Wedding 101 at the Factory in
Franklin, TN!

Isn’t this the best, most warm feeling?? Those tables are where we’ll meet
to discuss your big day!

You can pickup the latest wedding magazines and wedding planning resources
here.

Isn’t this setup amazing from H 3 Events?

Prim & Paper‘s
colorful paper products, don’t you just want them all?? If I had to go back
and plan my wedding again, I know I’d never be able to choose! Covered with
Icing‘s cakes are also so pretty!

Olia Zavozina‘s custom made
gown is spectacular!

Designs in Paper also makes
fabulous custom stationary, and they even offer custom vinyl products. How
cool is that?!

I hope you enjoyed your mini tour of Wedding 101 and some of the great
vendors there. You’ll have to go to the Factory for yourself to experience
it for yourself!

Wed For Less

This weeks Wed for Less post was inspired by this lovely hot weather we have been having lately. It really makes me want to lounge the day away on a boat, at the beach, or really just near any large body of water. Enjoy! Bride:  Dress $188.00, Shoes $39.99, Bracelet $24.00

Bridesmaids: Dress $59.99, Shoes $39.99

Groom/Groomsmen: Suit $169.99, Tie $32.00, Shoes $47.99

Vendor Spotlight, Designs in Paper

Designs in Paper is an amazing company that creates unique custom paper goods that include save the dates, invitations, programs, custom confetti, cake toppers, vinyl decals and much more. All of their products are handmade and designed just for your event. Donette and Steve believe that you have your own personality so why shouldn’t your event? With your ideas and their design capabilities you can create amazing paper goods that are uniquely your own. Don’t take our word for it, check out the images below:

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Designs in Paper
Nashville, TN
Call: 615.403.7268
Email:info@designsinpaper.com
Website

Wed For Less

As many of you brides may know, weddings can be quite expensive. Wedding budgets can range from a couple of thousand dollars on up into the hundreds of thousands. We are launching this series to help those small budgets find Wedding attire at budget friendly prices. We hope you enjoy them!

Bride: Dress $268, Shoes $22.80
Bridesmaid: Dress $70, This little number can REALLY be worn again. Think outside the box. Any dress can be a bridesmaid dress. Shoes $22.80
Groom: Suit $149.99, Chances are that your groomsmen will end up paying about $150 for a rental tux anyway, so why not pick out a suit that they can keep and use again? Any dressy black shoe will do, your groomsmen may already have a pair or get a little funky and do some Black Converse like these from Target $29.99.  Tie $15.99

The Wedding 101 Experience on YouTube

Wedding 101 is a pretty place for Nashville area brides to plan.  Don’t take my word for it; watch this! (and it’s F*R*E*E to all of you!)

Told ya!  Come see us and let us help you plan the wedding of your dreams within reality!

Happy Planning,

Ashley