kitchen tea recaps - the decor

First of all, let me say that my Kitchen Tea on the 05/08/2012 was AMAZING. So amazing in fact, that I've decided to dedicate 3 recap posts to it - Decor, Games and Random Fun - so as not to bombard you all with a million photos all at once...and mostly because I just can't help myself! I feel so incredibly blessed to have such amazing friends and family around me who threw me such a great day filled with such love and laughter! I could not have asked for a better day!

Today's post focuses on the decor and set up, and let me tell you - I was blown away by how gorgeous the day was! My SIL most *definitely* had fun stalking my Pinterest boards (I'm sure you might recognise some variations of this, this, this, this and this!)

My mum, SIL and sister spent the morning setting up, with my MOH coming over to help. After doing my hair and make-up I headed out in my track pants (hot!) to help set up and make some dips as well. I just loved seeing everything as it was set up! Without further ado, I'll let the gorgeous pictures (taken by my little brother and my MOH mostly) speak for themselves!

The Overall Look

My mum and dad own a white marquee which comes in handy for events such as these!! We had our pink and white paper lanterns saved from our engagement party, that you can see along the roof of the marquee. I loved how they looked! The decor around the marquee was kept simple, but my mum was very excited when she and I stumbled upon these Kitchen Tea balloons in pink and green on a shopping trip one day!

The Game Prize Table!
Pink and Green Prizes...of course!

The Table Details
This is by far my favourite part. As you can see from the early pictures, there was a long line of tables along the back wall of the marque, filled with goodies! Here are a few close ups of the details that were included in our "Garden Tea Party" (as I found out my Nan was later describing it to her neighbours!)

The Food
My SIL made delicious cake pops for all of our guests as their party favour, to take home. They were either vanilla or chocolate and let me tell you, they were delicious! They either had pink or green sprinkles on top, with a matching ribbon. They looked fantastic! She also made a gorgeous vanilla cake.

My Nan (paternal grandmother) made her FAMOUS chocolate and caramel slice (trust me, this slice is famous amongst my family AND my friends!) and my Mum made her amazing (and just as famous!) scones and fruit punch (both a "kid-friendly" (ie. non-alcoholic) and a "spiked" version)

Amongst the other delicious options available to guests were - mini pancakes with strawberries and banana, various mini sandwiches, cob dip (a favourite of mine!), vegetable rice wraps, marshmallow pops (BIG hit with the kiddies!), pink lemonade and cloudy lemonade, jam tarts, pink and white marshmallows, mini muffins and various dips and biscuits! We definitely had our share of yummy food that day!

The Pretty Details!
As you can tell from the above posts, each item of food had their own little paper doily description tag. I love how these turned out - they looked amazing! This was one detail I was aware of before the day, as I helped my Mum and SIL cut them out one night. But the flowers and all of the little "tea party" details blew me away. I knew that they had been hunting for some tiered cake stands...but the way everything came together was just amazing! There's a mix of fantastic thrifted finds by my SIL, borrowed items from her mother's awesome collection and some new purchases mixed among there (including some amazing cake stands that my SIL found - they have Eiffel Towers and hydrangeas on them (two of my favourite things!) AND they were pink and green...talk about perfect!). The little glassware vases and spotted pots were borrowed from a recent family friend's wedding...but a post on that soon!

For now, some pictures of the amazing details...I love that they included lavender in the decor - one of our wedding colours/flavours! (PS. My Nan has an amazing green thumb and snuck some roses/lavender home to try and strike them. If she is successful, guess what I'll be growing at our new home!)

So that wraps up the decor for the moment! I think that is likely to be the longest post so thanks for sticking through it for the end. I promise you a reward for it in the next few days - and you can vote for it in the comments! I'm going to post my first recipe post here on the blog! Which would you prefer to see - My Mum's Amazing Punch or Yummy Scones? Vote below and I promise a recipe post with the winning entry by the end of the week!

In the meantime, a Games recap is coming up next! I hope you can all bear with me through reliving my Kitchen Tea - I just loved the day so much that I couldn't squeeze it all into one post!

trial dinner recap

On Wednesday, 1st of August, the future hubby and I had our trial dinner at the Sebel! We took along my parents, my brother and his wife, and my MOH, Annie.

The night started with canapes and house drinks at 6:30pm, in the bar area where our guests will spend their time between the ceremony and the reception. There's a lot of couches and coffee tables in the bar area, as well as a pool table room (which I also believe has a dart board?) and a couple of TVs. Silly me, I didn't take any pictures in this area at all, including of the canapes [bad blogger]. I was too busy enjoying the atmosphere and chatting. Mind you, I was already getting stares from the other families at dinner so maybe it's a good thing...

The canapes we tried were wonderful. While we didn't get to select the canapes to try on the night, it was Chef's choice, he had ended up picking 2 (out of the 4 we tried) that we had chosen for our wedding day. And one of those 2 was everyone's favourite of the night, so that was fantastic! The other 2 that we tried were very yummy, but we've decided to stick with our original selections. Based on our experience of the night, no matter what we choose - they will all be delicious!

After trying our canapes and house drinks, we moved into the restaurant where they had sectioned off a room just for those involved in the trial dinners. Here, we had gorgeous little menu plaques (as displayed above) showing what we had ordered for the night, and we got to sample wine and beer from our specific packages.

During the dinner I managed to get photos of what myself and future mister ate, but I thought it would be strange if I went around taking photos of my families meals. Since we decided on my Mum's entree though, I kind of wish I'd snapped hers! But my SIL is like me, and took photos of her food so I "borrowed" her pictures and have included them for your viewing pleasure as well!

First up, Entrees!

Cajun Spiced Chicken Tenderloins - the entree
myself and my father tried. Very yummy spin
on the traditional Caesar Salad!

Future Mister and MOH tried the Roasted Pumpkin
Soup with seared scallops and chive cream

SIL Justyna tried the Spinach Ricotta and Pine Nut
Ravioli

My! Those entrees were big! I would have had mine as a main. I think my brother's was the smallest, the Rare Roasted Beef. Justyna's entree was the vegetarian option, which any of our guests who are vegetarian will receive. My Mum's was the Caramelised Onion and Beef Ravioli, which we have settled on as our second entree (with the Cajun Spiced Chicken Tenderloins as our first) and is also a large serving!

Second Course, Mains!

Slow Cooked Lamp Rump with crushed garlic
and rosemary potato and ratatouille

I didn't get to get a picture of the future hubs meal here because he already started to inhale it! He had the Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken Supreme with cream cheese and spinach risotto, buttered green beans and thyme jus

SIL's meal - Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb

Wow. Mains are HARD. There are so many options on the menu that the future hubs and I would love to enjoy, but we know won't be terrible popular with guests. Both my Dad and brother had the Pan Fried Barramundi as mains, and to be honest both the future mister and I love Salmon, but we vetoed fish options as we know way too many people who won't eat it. And there were a lot of seafood options on the menu. We decided a traditional "meat and chicken" option was safest but there were only 2 chicken options available, one being Tandoori Chicken - which we thought was too specific for tastebuds for a wedding choice. So the future hub's option it is! He really enjoyed the Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken, but wasn't too keen on the risotto that came with it. Given it's our only chicken option however, I think we are going to stick with it. I had some and didn't mind it, I think the future hubs isn't used to such subtle flavour though - he likes his food full of flavour!

We also quickly vetoed Juz's lamb racks, as delicious as they seemed - too messy for wedding guests in pretty dresses. Mum had the Char Grilled Veal Cutlet, which she said was delicious, and MOH has the Char Grilled Scotch Fillet with shiraz jus, which she said was nice as well. I thoroughly enjoyed my lamb rump and the crushed potato was to DIE for. As in, I've been craving it since we had it. The ratatouille was nice, I could take it or leave it, but give that the lamb and potato were so delicious and filling, the ratatouille is more of a side thing that people can eat if they like it or choose to leave if they don't. So we're still tossing up on the mains but overall, the quality of food was delicious - it's more a matter of deciding what is more likely to be popular with our guests.

Last but not least, Dessert!

The Future Mister's Dessert - Chocolate and
Walnut Brownie with white Belgian chocolate
ganache

SIL's Dessert - Tiramisu with kahlua anglaise and
almond biscotti

Mum and the Brother's Dessert - White and Dark
Chocolate Teardrop Mousse...how gorgeous is this
plating?!?!

So, Dad and I had originally ordered Creme Brulee for dessert, however the Chef apparently wasn't happy with the quality of the creme brulee that night so didn't send it out. Instead, he came out and apologised and sent out two more orders of the teardrop mousse. As disappointed as we were not to get to try to creme brulee, we were both impressed that a) he refused to send out subpar food that he wasn't happy with and b) with the impressive presentation of the dessert we did receive! How pretty is it?? If I wasn't SUCH a creme brulee lover (see this post) I would be tempted to have this dessert just for it's pretty factor. In fact, I'm still tempted. Hehe. All of the desserts were AMAZING. The only one not pictured was MOH Annie's Sticky Date Pudding, which came served with the most MOUTHWATERING cinnamon ice cream. Nom nom nom...They should do a serving platter of all of them!

All in all it was a great night. We enjoyed good food, good company...

My SIL and Brother...Bridesmaid and Groomsman!

We got to see how pretty the fountains on the lake look at night... (although my iPhone takes bad pictures...)

And we got to get excited about the fact that we are getting married NEXT MONTH!

ps. that is the GORGEOUS chandelier hanging in the
entrance to the Sebel. *swoon*

I would love to hear - How did everyone else's experiences with trial dinners go?

i spy

A while back, I posted about our table numbers, using Ikea frames. Well today I'm posting about a little DIY I did for the flipside of our table numbers, the cute little "I Spy" game!

Please ignore the little black parts on the front - I'm not
removing the protective coating until closer to the
wedding!

Those of you who have been around Wedding Blogworld for a while would recognise this little game, but for those who don't - basically, it's a photography-based wedding version of the popular game we all grew up with! A cute little poem encouraging guests to capture moments throughout the reception that you can later collect and add to your wedding day memories (and in this day and age, guests can share with each other on social media!)

I created 3 pages of "I Spy", with 2 different versions per page, so there will be 6 different versions in total. At the moment we are planning approx. 10 tables plus a head table, so there will be some repeats however it will be interesting to see how differently everyone captures the same suggestions!

I used a lot of "I Spy" cards I had sighted on the internet for inspiration in creating mine, however I don't appear to have sources for them so I haven't shared the pictures. If I locate the sources, I will definitely share them so you can see the other designs people have used with their cards! I'm sure a search of "Wedding I Spy" would bring up loads in Pinterest, and I'm sure I've seen a number or two on places like Style Me Pretty. I added quite a few of my own ideas into the cards above, please feel free to use them for your own inspiration if you are looking to make something similar yourself! These were simply created in Photoshop, printed onto card stock and slipped into the frames. A very easy DIY for your reception tables and fun for your guests!

During my etsy shopping, I stumbled on this great idea for photo cards, which I think compliments this game really well - setting up an account somewhere like flickr or the like, and using a little card at each place setting with the information on the account to encourage guests to upload their photos, so that everyone can access the photos they have taken! It's a great way for the Bride and Groom to collect all the photos from the "I Spy" games, as well as any other great photos of the day they may otherwise miss.

[source] Is anyone else planning to use the "I Spy" game at their wedding? Has anyone used photo cards before?

upcoming kitchen tea!

This Sunday is my Kitchen Tea with my family and my closest friends. I can't wait to see a number of my aunts, cousins and besties in one place. I've seen a few snippets of what's to come and it's got me very excited...

My sister-in-law and sister are technically throwing this shower for me, at my Mum's house and with my Mum's help. Given that I have such a big bridal party, the girls decided to have my sisters organise the Kitchen Tea (which is mostly for my extended family to be able to come and join in some pre-wedding festivities, leaving the Hen's Night for the younger crowd) and my besties organise the Hen's Night. A good idea in my opinion - they don't all have to worry about everything and can each relax at one event! Also, my sisters were the obvious choice in terms of already knowing details for all of my family members.

When my sister-in-law, Juz, started working on invites for the Kitchen Tea, I was asked to pick a colour scheme for the girls to work with. I ended up picking Pink and Green. I'm excited to see how it will all come together, particularly after seeing the cute invitation that was sent out to everyone! (This is a photo of my Mum's, since mine is at my SIL's, whoops!)

A couple of weeks ago I also helped Mum and my sister purchase a whole bunch of pink and green kitchen-themed game prizes, which was LOADS of fun. Other then that and a help little cutting out name tags the other night, that has been my only involvement in the event! It does feel strange to have a party thrown for me and not doing anything...

Like I mentioned, I have seen a few of the preparations (it's hard to hide everything from me when I live with my sister and Mum!) and it looks like it's going to be a gorgeous set up. Fairly certain my SIL has been stalking my Pinterest... I've spied paper doilies, tiered cake trays and striped paper straws... And that's not even the half of it, or so I'm told!

In my lack of needing to plan for this event, all I've really needed to do us get ready to turn up! So, after my birthday in early July, I purchased this gorgeous little retro style dress with some birthday money. I LOVE the pastels that are out at the moment, and this little number just screamed "Kitchen Tea Dress" from the moment I saw it! It's still Winter here in Oz and while the days have been sunny, if there is wind about it can definitely still be chilly. So the plan is for tights, heels and a cardigan over the top. I'm debating whether to go with a green or a pastel pink cardigan - what do you guys think?!

[source] I promise a recap will follow next week with all the Kitchen Tea shenanigans in all their glory. Til then, 59 days to go til our big day! (the countdown is starting to take it's toll..freaking out just a little!!)

page boy bag

Following up from the flower girl bags, is a quick post on the bag for our page boy, Aiden!

Similar to the girls' bags, the page boy page has a colouring in book and some coloured pencils, and a packet of stickers. For our littlest male member, we choose some "Cars" stickers - he's *really* into cars, planes and dinosaurs at the moment!

Waiting to be added to the bag are the following items that should be coming in the post any day now!

A black limousine - to add to all his cars collection, "wedding style".

[source]
And, in case you were wondering what the male equivalent to a flower girl bracelet could possibly be!, Master Aiden gets an awesome badge to declare that he is in fact, the Official Ring Bearer.

So! That ends the official wrap up on the children's gifts! We are also paying for their outfits. The girls' dresses were ordered the other day and Master Aiden, his Mummy and I will be going shopping in the next couple of weeks to purchase his little suit. I wish I could show you the grown ups gifts, but they will have to be a post-wedding reveal! For now, I leave you with a picture of the dress we decided on for the flower girls, after looking a number of other options (we decided against the skirts!). What do you guys think?