The flowers and the trees (and, I guess, the birds and the bees)

It seems safe to assume that when there's a bridal shower, a wedding is not far behind, followed by the wedding night (hence the birds and the bees part, which I'll spare you in this post - you'll need to find some teenage mother's blog for more info on that). One of the most important elements of a wedding and the events leading up to it is the flower arrangements, which, let's face it, you have to be pretty visually adept to create. As a Type A organizer kind of person, my visual skills are basically less than zero ... and that, thank goodness, is where fantastic event designers and florists come in.

If you're a fan of Events Laureate on Facebook (and if you're not, you should be! www.facebook.com/eventslaureate), you probably saw that I have an amazing new floral designer who will be our go-to gal for in-house arrangements: the lovely and talented Jenni Hohensee. Jenni's first gig with Events Laureate was Lindsay's bridal shower last Saturday, and boy did she start out with a bang! For her wedding in late May, Lindsay wants big, full flowers in champagne, pink, and bronze, so Jenni did some genius shopping and found beautiful early spring versions: stargazer lilies, gerber daisies, sweetheart roses, and ranunculus. We were also lucky enough to have a generous friend whose budding maple tree broke in a snowstorm last week, and who gave us an incredible bunch of the maple branches for the arrangements! TIP: Champagne + maple sprig + ranunculus = hilarious Harry Potter impressions. 

Being a non-visually creative person, I have absolutely no idea what Jenni actually did to make beautiful arrangements; I only know that it involved tape, wire cutters, pruning shears, and a crowbar. Okay, maybe not that last item.

Suffice to say that I looked at cookbooks for a few hours to create a menu for another upcoming event (stay tuned, readers ...), and when I looked back up there were 6 incredible flower arrangements waiting to amaze Lindsay's bridal shower guests. Everyone at the shower commented on the beautiful flowers the next morning, including the happy bride-to-be. Keep your eye on the blog to see more pics of Jenni's beautiful work!

 

A picture from this guy is worth more like a million

I recently had the very great fortune to meet (and enjoy a thoroughly fabulous long lunch with) the internationally-adored photographer Andrew Clark. I was able to meet most of his team (whose incredible work is not even remotely undermined by the fact that they are all too cute for words), and learn more than I ever expected to about Andrew's photography career and the high-end event market. Andrew has shot weddings and events for some seriously big names, but his photographs will make you look like ten million bucks even if no one other than your neighbors know you.

Check out examples of his beautiful work at andrewclarkphotography.com, and also see his incredible detail photographs I got to use to update the Events Laureate website (!!!) gallery and homepage slideshow. Thanks, Andrew! I'm excited to work with Andrew on some upcoming events, so stay tuned for more incredible pictures!

Everything you ever wanted to know about cake but were afraid to ask

Cake is pretty much everyone's favorite part of a wedding (or frankly, of life), so it's important that you have a good one. Unfortunately, many bakeries know how important it is and charge you accordingly. One reader needs help navigating the wilds of deliciousness vs. priciness, so listen in!

Dear Party People,
Do you have any suggestions for a cake shop in Denver that is good quality, but affordable? We want to have a very simple cake, but still elegant and tasty!! We don't have a huge budget for it so any help would be great!
Sincerely hoping to melt in frosting,
Eagerly Excited Fiancée


Dear Eagerly Excited,
Don't worry, it's possible! The primary thing to keep in mind is that most of your guests won't remember what your cake looks like, and they'll also probably forget what it tasted like the morning after the wedding - it's only important that YOU love how it looks in your pictures, and that you think it's tasty enough to eat another piece on your first anniversary. Cakes can get expensive quickly, especially if you want lots of intricate decoration, but it sounds like you're already on the right track by wanting a simple but elegant design.

My biggest money-saving TIP: (it gets its own paragraph because it's such a big one): get just one or two tiers of the decorated cake that you want to display during the wedding and cut for pictures, and then serve your guests equally-as-delicious but undecorated and much less expensive sheet cake that the caterer will keep in the back. No one will ever know.

Now for the cake itself. Most bakeries price bridal cakes by the serving, and the more cake you get the more the per serving price goes down (although, of course, the total cost will go up). In the Denver area it's possible to find prices anywhere from $3.50 per serving to $9.50 or more per serving. Usually the less expensive servings will cover a tier that has a basic buttercream or chocolate frosting, one filling, and little or no design. Once the design starts getting complicated or includes fondant, the price goes up fast. A few delicious and reasonably-priced Denver recommendations:

Mermaids (mermaidsbakery.com): $3.50 for vanilla/chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and filling. Their website has a great, clear explanation of how the prices go up for fillings and decoration. Their half sheet cakes feed 35-40 people and are $69.

Cake Crumbs (cake-crumbs.com): $3.50 for cake with filling, frosting, and basic decoration. This is one of the few bakeries that includes fondant dots on the cakes for no extra charge (per Greg). Their half sheet cakes serve approximately 30 people and are $60.

Mulberries (mulberriescakeshop.com): $4.25 for cake with filling, frosting, and decoration including some piping. The extra-awesome news about this bakery is that their full sheet cake serves 100 and is $69.95!

One last thing to remember: some bakeries will include delivery and set-up within a certain mileage from their shop, but some charge for it. TIP: Don't forget to ask about this when calling bakeries, because a delivery fee will add to your overall total. Hopefully this helps give you a few ideas. Congratulations on your wedding and best of luck finding a delicious, elegant, and affordable cake. Now go out and do the fun part ... tastings!

Happy partying,
Party People

We gave away a wedding!!!

If you are an avid reader of this blog (and even if you're not, this is only my 8th post so scroll down a little bit and catch up), you'll remember hearing about the incredibly cool Hitched in the Highlands event I was a part of: several Denver vendors donated wedding services and goods, and a fantastic bakery (Happy Cakes) organized a scavenger hunt for 10 couples competing to win the wedding ... which was worth over $20,000! Well, the race was on Sunday, and we not only had a fabulous time, but we have winners: the fabulous and well-deserving Tami and Greg!

The ladies at Happy Cakes did a great job of keeping the race course and challenges a secret until the very last second, so I still don't even know everything that went on during the race, but I DO know that these 20 intrepid challengers had to begin their Sunday morning at 9am by eating a jumbo (and I seriously mean L-A-R-G-E) Happy Cakes cupcake (http://www.happycakesdenver.com/menu.html) with no hands ... and then running 5 miles! I'm quite sure I couldn't ambulate myself 5 miles if I was wearing roller skates and holding onto the back of a truck.

Photos courtesy of www.davidlynnphoto.com

They also had to do field day-style challenges like wheelbarrow and piggy back races in a park covered in goose droppings (which I'm pretty sure was not actually part of the challenge), play Name that Tune, make and toss a bouquet, and do a blindfolded obstacle course while holding an avocado on a spoon among other challenges. These ladies and gents worked seriously hard for the money (or rather, the donated stuff). After almost three hours of racing, Tami and Greg completed all 9 challenges and made it back to race headquarters at Happy Cakes first ...

... and ran off with a $20,000 wedding!!

As the wedding coordinator, my job is both easier and harder for this wedding because most of the services have already been donated ... and, oh yeah, because the wedding is in less than 8 weeks. I met with Tami and Greg last night to go over their incredible prize and start planning, and Greg (you know it's true, sir) is a little freaked out about the timeline! I tried to reassure him that I've done weddings in less time than this and that we'll actually save a lot of time because they don't have to select many of their vendors, and hopefully he and Tami will feel like they're in good hands as we start meeting (soon!) with the generous companies and business owners who donated the pieces of the wedding (Anna Bé, Wordshop, Biscuits & Berries, and Mile High Station, we'll see you this week!).

So what else? A bit about Tami and Greg, of course! They met the way most professional people meet in the 21st century: at the circus. Greg is the strongman and Tami is the lion tamer, and they are excited to get married soon and start having kids to make a tumbling troupe. Okay ... that's not really true, but they DID submit a picture of themselves with their application dressed as the strong man and the lion tamer, so that's close enough, right? In real life Tami is in construction management and Greg does some smart guy computer thing that involves designing databases and which I can't hope to understand. They have a beloved weimaraner, Keiser, whom you will likely see featured in the wedding and whom Greg adoringly calls "the guy." As you might guess just from these few tidbits, these are people with serious personality. They are obviously very much in love without being sappy about it, and they are so sincerely grateful for this opportunity from Hitched in the Highlands. We had a great and productive meeting last night, although the poor kids were so exhausted and sore from the race the morning before that they were practically falling asleep at the table.

Stay tuned for updates here (and hopefully from local news stations, who covered the race: http://cbs4denver.com/entertainment/wedding.scavanger.hunt.2.1526948.html) as we race Tami and Greg to the altar! Congrats, you two!