Wedding Archives - A Side of Sweet

Host a Galentine’s Day Fête – Inspiration

Details and decorations from a girly Galentine’s Day Fête I hosted with some of my favorite San Francisco bloggers and Anthropologie!

February holds one of my very favorite holidays. A holiday that celebrates relationships. And the color pink. And dessert.

Wait, did you think I was talking about Valentine’s day?

Nope. I’m all about celebrating the amazing ladies in my life on Galentine’s Day. And seriously, what better excuse is there to host a brunch?

To celebrate, I invited some of my favorite San Francisco bloggers over for a Galentine’s Day brunch. You can see it all today on the Anthropologie blog!

Here are a few more details and tips for hosting your own Galentine’s day celebration…

Pretty Holiday Party Inspiration Shoot

Gorgeous rustic holiday party design with plenty of food, decor & fashion inspiration! Love the soft neutrals & elegant vibes – great for a winter wedding.

So exciting! As I mentioned in my last post, I have all sorts of pretty photos to share with you today for a holiday photoshoot I recently participated in. It’s probably a little late for inspiration for a Christmas party, but many of the ideas and decor would be great for a New Year’s party or even a winter wedding!

The full shoot is being shared in two parts on The Everygirl this week – how fun is that? When I was planning our wedding, I got tons of inspiration from their site. Now my cakes are featured there to inspire other people! You can find the first post here, and the second post here. You can see more about how I made the ‘naked’ thyme-wrapped cake and also get my recipe for cardamom espresso buttercream here.

Big props to Amanda and Andrea for organizing this shoot and inviting me to participate!… Read More »

Rustic Winter Cake Design + Espresso Cardamom Buttercream

This lovely rustic cake design wrapped with fresh thyme is the perfect wedding or holiday cake. Also includes a recipe for espresso cardamom buttercream.

I recently had the chance to participate in a holiday concept photoshoot that was organized by Amanda of Advice from a Twenty Something. It was an amazing day of holiday cheer, with beautiful food, great drinks and so much party inspiration!

In addition to being a ‘model’ for the shoot (aka party guest), Amanda also asked me to provide a holiday cake for the shoot. As if I needed an excuse to make a cake!

Given the rustic vibes of the shoot and the neutral tones, I thought a rustic ‘naked’ cake design would be perfect. I’ve been craving cardamom everything lately and I thought the spice would be the perfect addition to a simple buttercream frosting. In order to balance out the intensely aromatic taste of the cardamom, I added some espresso. The result is heavenly.

Drought-Resistant Succulent Centerpieces

Succulent centerpieces are perfect for your wedding or party. They are easy to make & you can give them away for party favors (or keep them for yourself!).

In case you’re living under a rock, you’ve heard that there’s a drought here in California. We’re talking lack of water of crisis-level proportions. On a daily basis, Pat and I do everything we can to save water. It’s mostly little things, like letting it mellow, taking shorter showers, and turning off the water when brushing our teeth. Those little things add up though!

Because of the drought, I’ve been thinking of other ways to save water. Fresh flowers take a ton of water to grow, so even though I love them, we’ve been buying less and less. Same with adding new houseplants to our collection.

I’ve really been drawn to succulents – #1, they are amazing to look at. #2, they are hearty and take almost no water to thrive. The internet is absolutely blowing up with succulent DIYs and arrangements.

Even so, I really wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do. The place I found the best inspiration was actually my local hardware store. I checked out Orchard Supply Hardware, which has locations all over the Bay Area and now in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. They had a huge selection of succulents and even more important, the staff was super friendly and full of ideas for how to make the perfect succulent centerpiece for my upcoming dinner party…. Read More »

Wedding :: The Reception

Our reception venue was the pavilion at Olin Park in Madison, WI. The pavilion is available for special event rental from the City of Madison. In order to secure it, we had to enter a lottery in the fall before. With the help of some family and friends who stood in line with us, we were able to secure it as our first choice! The pavilion is an old barn with beautiful wood floors and high ceilings. It was absolutely spectacular.

The main focus of the reception was the food, provided by Blue Plate Catering. They were absolutely fantastic and incorporated our requests for local and seasonal food without raising an eyebrow. They also worked very well within our tight budget.

During the reception, we had toasts from both of our dad’s. Pat also gave a toast. I have never laughed and cried so hard ever! Looking at our photos, it’s good to see the happiness on all of our guests’ faces as well.

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We also hammered nails into a wooden box containing a bottle of our wedding wine. The purpose is to put aside a bottle to enjoy at our 10 year wedding anniversary! Of course I messed up the nailing and Pat had to fix it for me. This is pretty standard.

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We also signed our marriage license and made this marriage legal!

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It was so nice to share our first dance to Sweet Pea, by Amos Lee. It was a little quiet time with just Pat and I. I just smiled and smiled. Pat-+-Kelly-2013-428

Because I spent so much time on the dessert table, I really wanted Pat and I to serve dessert to our guests instead of the hired servers. I was momentarily furious with Pat because instead of the typical dab of frosting, he attempted to shove a whole plate of cake in my face! Luckily I squirmed away – can you imagine my wedding makeup mixed with a plate of buttercream!? Pat-+-Kelly-2013-431 Pat-+-Kelly-2013-432 Pat-+-Kelly-2013-433 Pat-+-Kelly-2013-434 Pat-+-Kelly-2013-436 Pat-+-Kelly-2013-438 Pat-+-Kelly-2013-440

I danced with my dad to My Girl, by the Temptations. Pat-+-Kelly-2013-444 Pat-+-Kelly-2013-445 Pat-+-Kelly-2013-446 Pat-+-Kelly-2013-449 Reception Reception1

Vendors:

Hair: Anna Lutzke, Be Inspired Salon
Make up: Erin Helley
Dress: Custom
Shoes: Kate Spade
Jewelry: Kate Spade
Flowers: Fontaine
Photography: Kinsey Mhire Photography
Food: Blue Plate Catering

Our DIY Wedding Alter

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One of the most special details of our wedding was the altar that we got married under. It was made for us by Pat and was made out of tree branches that he “reclaimed” from a part that was just a few hundred feet from our apartment in madison.

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It was such a great feeling to stand under that homemade arch and say our vows in front of all of our loved ones. In addition, the cost to make it was literally just the nails that held it together. It was a great budget wedding DIY. Ceremony2

DIY Wedding Alter from Reclaimed Wood

You will need:

Tree branches and stumps to form your arch. The two sides of our arch were *** feet and the top branch was *** feet. We also had smaller branches to prop up the main branches.

Nails –

Knife

All wedding photos by Kinsey Mhire Photography