Ericka's Bridal Shower...March 3, 2013

Believe it or not my little sister just got married too! Just one month after my older sister's wedding my sweet little "Hoola-Hata-Yata" tied the knot. My older sister, Tiffany, and I flew up to Pennsylvania in March for Ericka's bridal shower. We helped her maid of honor and other bridesmaids throw a beautiful shower for her and it was a great day. With all the craziness of flying in and trying to prepare food and decorations I didn't make any cakes for this one. But her maid of honor knew someone who does cakes in the area and came up with these beauties...

They were a perfect match! We kept the coral and teal theme that Ericka is using in the wedding. We had it at Ericka and Dan's church. It was a great turnout and it was great to meet Dan's family and friends and see our family as well. I think everyone enjoyed themselves with the food, games, fellowship and fun. Ericka got a lot of great gifts that are essential when you're first starting out in your own home.
One of my favorite things was the recipe cards. We sent recipe cards in each of the invitations and when the guests arrived at the shower they all had their favorite recipes to put into a cookbook for Ericka. The other thing we did kind of as a "guest book" was we put out a jar with popsicle sticks and had people write down different date ideas so during their first year of marriage on nights when they want to go do something they can pick a date from the date jar. It was fun reading everyone's date night ideas, especially Grandma's, which was...go to bed! :) Overall, it was a beautiful day, quite chilly, but at least we were warm and cozy inside. Her wedding was May 25th! Be on the look out a cake blog for that one too!

 I love my sister!!!

The now Mr. and Mrs. Dan Newman!!!! :)

T+M=LOVE

L.O.V.E.

My beautiful sister, Tiffany, got married almost 2 weekends ago on April 27th, 2013. She and her husband Mark had an outdoor wedding at Bird Island Lake Ranch in Dade City, Florida. It was a beautiful, rustic,  shabby-chic themed wedding and it was a gorgeous day for it. The landscape was absolutely breathtaking. The trees and lighting was just perfect. It was an overall beautiful day, from the ceremony under the trees, to s'mores by the fire, dancing and a sparkling exit. Perfect, just perfect!


Now to the cakes...

My sweet sister entrusted the honor of making her wedding cake to me, which I was quite nervous about as I've never done a wedding cake. We came up with the idea to do mini-cakes for each guest then I would make a two-tier cake for them to cut. I hit a few rough patches in the actual making of the cakes. Each mini-cake had to be individually iced and decorated. I had baked the cakes all ahead of time and froze them, but the decorating was the major part. So, I iced and added ridges to the sides with an edging tool made by Wilton. Then I was going to have fondant circles cut out to decorate the outside, however after I realized I'd need about 1,400 circles I started to panic. But I remembered seeing grey pearl sprinkles at the cake supply store in Tampa. So, I rushed to Tampa and bought all the sprinkles they had. Luckily it was enough.

 I recruited my sweet Momma Bear to help me and by 3 am on Friday morning we were finally finished. After doing all the mini-cakes the tiered cake seemed easy. It was an 8" base and 6" top covered in grey fondant with white pearl sprinkles around the sides. Although it cost me some sleep it was totally worth it to give my sister exactly what she wanted for her wedding day. I'm so happy that I was able to share this special day with Tiffany and her HUSBAND Mark! 

 

Here's a few  more pictures of some fun from the evening...

Me and my sweetheart!

 Me, Stephen and Ericka...Love my siblings!

 Daddy and his 3 girls! Best Dad EVER!!!

Hope everyone has a sweet week!

Stephanie

Tiffany's Bridal Shower

Well, after a long break from cake making I'm finally back in the saddle! 

Last July (2012), Jason and I moved from our home in Franklin, Tennessee back to our hometown of Saint Petersburg, Florida. Jason got a job at Saint Petersburg Christian School, where we first met back in Kindergarten, as the IT Manager. So we packed it all up and headed south. We moved in with Jason's parents while searching for a new home and a job for me! The search for our house is a story in and of itself. But, that's another blog for another time.

Back to the cakes... back in February, along with the help of my fellow bridesmaids, I threw a bridal shower for my older sister Tiffany. 

We just had family and close friends over to my home for some homemade lasagna (courtesy of my momma) and some other Italian dishes. Here's some of us getting ready to eat!

 I didn't do a whole lot as far as cakes go for the shower, just some vanilla and marble cupcakes with purple and grey, butter cream icing and little cake toppers. 

We decorated in some of the same themes Tiffany was planning to use for the wedding. I used Mason jars wrapped with burlap and twine for the glasses, had burlap runners on the tables, hung some tissue paper flower puffs from the ceiling and even added a "LOVE" bunting made out of burlap.


 It was a great time getting to know some of Mark's family and spend time together. Tiffany got a lot of goodies to start their new lives together. Here's a few more pictures of all the family, friends and festivities from the evening. 

~The future Mr. and Mrs. Mark Raley~

Myself, Tiffany, Ericka, Mom and Mamaw

 My favorites...the Mason jar glasses

Alicia hosting one the games we played. Both of the moms won the games. It was a fun time and we all learned a little more about Tiffany and Mark.

Alicia made this adorable sign saying "Welcome to Tiffany's Bridal Shower" to put outside of my house so everyone would know where to go. So cute!

She got lots of fun goodies!!!

It was a wonderful time we were able to spend together to celebrate Tiffany and this exciting time in her life. More will be on it's way soon with another shower and two weddings to blog about! It's been a pretty busy spring already. But I love being able to be a part of this special time. 

Have a sweet week!

~Stephanie~