Jennifer and Justin

Congratulations to my dear friends Jennifer and Justin on their beautiful wedding!!  I've been waiting a whole year for this beautiful occasion and it has finally arrived!  It was a beautiful, simple ceremony outside near the bay in beautiful, sunny San Diego.  This wedding has been a year in the making...same as the cupcakes!  Jennifer had asked (and I had volunteered...perhaps even forced my way in) to do the sweets for her wedding.  She decided that instead of a cake, she would like to have cupcakes for her simple, intimate affair.  Throughout the year, I presented her with lots of tastings to develop the right recipe for her tastes.  In the end, she decided on three different flavors: vanilla with vanilla frosting, chocolate with vanilla frosting, and peanut butter with peanut butter frosting.  Since I had a whole year to figure out the kinks, by the time the wedding came by, I was beyond prepared and barely broke a sweat!  Last minute, I decided to hoist my sugar cookies upon Jennifer and she decided to use them as her wedding favors.  For events, I usually plan a very strict schedule to make sure that I have everything ready.  I started off with the wedding favors.  Of course there's the cookie itself, but I also had to figure out how to package it.

I decided that stamping the "thank you" purveyed a simple charm.  I had also finally gotten a Cricut cutter and really wanted to try it out...although I think it took waaay longer to peel the tags from the Cricut mat than just cutting the circles from a traditional cutter!  Ahh well, it was bonding time with my pink Cricut cutter!

I really love the simple, but elegant look of these wedding favors.  What made me even happier was the approval from the bride and to see that on the wedding day, everyone was munching on these cookies!  It totally made all the hard work worth it!

But wait, don't forget about the cupcakes!!  So, on top of the cookies, I also had 150 cupcakes to bake, transport, decorate, and set up!  I decided to frost the cupcakes on site, as it I didn't want any ruined cupcakes once I'm at the venue!  It was a great decision, although, I kind of forgot the distance between the parking lot and the hall.  I think I made a good couple trips back and forth to the car and up and down the stairs (the reception was held on the second floor!).  I certainly burned off enough calories to enjoy the yummy food later!  It wasn't until my last trip to the car that I saw a caterer catering another party, roll by with a cart, carrying a cupcake tower, that I realized that was what I needed!!  It certainly would've made my life a lot easier...that plus the fact that I should've yanked my cousin Christina out with me to be my little helper!  No worries though...I've put that on my list for the next gig of what not to forget!

I couldn't even start to describe what I was feeling that afternoon!  On top of it all, anxiety was a top contender!  I was concerned that it wasn't perfect enough, that the frosting might melt off by the time the guests arrive, that Jennifer and Justin won't like it, that I won't finish in time, that a cupcake will face plant onto the crisp, white linen, that I will get green frosting all over....and the list was endless.  Seriously.  I'm very happy to report that everything turned out ok!  Even the bride and groom cupcakes.  The couple had decided to forgo the traditional cake and went with cupcakes for their first taste.

I think I did a pretty good job at capturing how Jennifer and Justin looked!  Everything was hand-made: the cupcake wrapper, the veil, the top hat and the bow tie.  You can't see if from this view, but on the bride's veil, I also stuck a splatter of pearls all over.  It's all a labor of love for the ones I love!

It was perfect!  The whole day was perfect!  But even more so because the groom was enjoying two cupcakes at the same time!

Congrats again my dear friends!! May your marriage be as loving and beautiful as the two of you are!!