Three Sweet Wedding or Bridal Shower Trends to Try

When planning a wedding, the biggest challenge is usually how how to make your wedding more you and less typical.  What are some ideas you can try to make your wedding a little more personal and unique?

Here are some things you can do at your wedding to make it a little  more personal, fun and unique:

1) Dessert Table

Cupcakes are huge trend at weddings, but don’t just stop there!  Consider hiring a designer to make adorable signs for the dessert items, or scour Etsy for affordable printable card designs to label your desserts.  For dessert items, you can have cupcake pops, cupcakes, macarons (my fave) and others sweet items to make the table unique.  If you’re a Pakistani/Indian bride, consider having South Asian dessert like Kulfi, jalebi and ladoo.

Photo from lover.ly, vendor details: http://lover.ly/image/details/91271

2) Candy Bar

These can be done by professional companies, or if you’re really crafty and have great friends who are willing to setup, it can be done by yourself.  Just remember, the last thing you need is for you to be running around the day of the wedding setting up your candy bar instead of getting ready.  It’s a really cute idea that my guests truly enjoyed.  Candy can be bought in bulk on various websites, or, you can stock up at your local grocer when they have sales.   When placed in gorgeous apocathery jars (bought from Crate & Barrel, Michaels, or HomeGoods) the candy can look quite appealing and gorgeous.  You can create your own backdrop to give it a little edge (I bought paper lanterns from Martha Stewart and hung them behind my table).

Candy bar photo via lover.ly vendors here: http://lover.ly/image/details/85353

3) Cupcakes in lieu of a cake
Tiered cakes … but they can be expensive!  Not only that, but cupcakes can be far more exciting and delicious for your guests.  We did this at our wedding and instead just placed a 2-tiered cake that we cut and had served.  In addition to that, we ordered around 200 cupcakes.  Our guests really enjoyed this.  A word of caution: If you’re a baker, DO NOT try to bake cupcakes yourself, that’s just silly and a poor use of your time.  There was a rumor that I had baked the 200 cupcakes for my wedding… and I’m not that crazy!  Our baker was kind enough to make gorgeous cupcakes and a great cake in addition to putting on the display for us.  I’m glad I paid her to do that!  Cupcakes are a great way to play with different flavors and just have fun with the cupcakes at your wedding.

What are some sweet ideas you have for a wedding or bridal shower?  Feel free to share them in the comments section!

Bridal Shower: Sex and the City Style!

Bridal Showers are soo much fun! My sister is getting married at the end of December, so naturally I get to return the favor and plan an amazing bridal shower for her!  We initially were thinking of doing a Mediterranean/Moroccan Theme (for which we scoured Raj Tents for inspiration!) but we had to change the theme to Sex and the City. There’s a lot we can do with SATC!

I was inspired by the New York Skyline at sunset–the beautiful colors really spoke to me: blue, orange, pink, and the blackened buildings against the skyline.  I was careful not to think “too pink” because she’s not as in love with pink as I am.  Here’s a quick inspiration board I came up with using StyleMePretty‘s incredible service:

I like the idea of periwinkle blue table covers (probably cocktail height), orange, pink and white paper lanterns stringed along with lights, pink cocktails a-la Samantha, Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda’s favorite Cosmos, Hors D’Oerves and mini-foods as the main course (because really, how else do New York girls stay skinny?), and of course a fabulous assortment of desserts. I’m thinking cupcakes with little Martini glasses and High Heel cutouts atop them, macarons (yum!) and cute desserts in shot glasses (Pier 1 has super cute ones!).

My cousins and I haven’t discussed the menu yet, but I’m imagining sliders with a side of fries in a cute cone cup as our main courses. Maybe even truffled mac-n-cheese (delicious!) in cute single serving cups…. hmmm the ideas are endless!

Do you have any ideas for main dishes?