Making the actual cake part of the cake pop is always the same, so follow this post on how to get started. The only things you’ll need to change from my original post are the shapes of the pops (you need rectangles), the decoration part (the 4th bullet under ingredients), and then the customization of the candy melts (color), the cake, and frosting. As for the cake and frosting – there are no rules – use whatever flavors your heart desires!  Helpful Hint: I used to struggle with getting a consistent size, and the right size – too big or too small are both problematic.  Too big usually means you have cake pops falling off of the stick, and too small looks funny.  I started using a cookie dough scoop, which is the perfect size – also, it saves a ton of time!

Additional Directions:

1. While your cake pops are chilling, start preparing the marshmallows.  I used herb scissors since as they’re pretty sharp, but I imagine any sharp scissor would work fine.  Just take your mini marshmallow and make two cuts that intersect (like a “+”); I did this with the marshmallow lying on the longer side, but you can cut either way.  Make as many as you think you’ll need in advance, since you need to move fast when dipping the cake pops – I think I put about 8-10 on each cake pop.
2. Once your marshmallows are all cut to look like popcorn, group them together and lightly spray the food coloring spray on top.  I used the Wilton’s brand and found it at Michael’s Arts and Crafts.
3. Making your cake pops!  Apply the marshmallows right after you are done letting the excess candy coat drip off, and the pop is still wet.  Put them in your styrofoam block to dry.
4. Once fully dry (I like to give it a few hours, but 15 minutes is probably fine), you can start drawing on your cake pops.  I used the Wilton’s brand food writers, which are the best I have come across so far.  Start with the “pop” in black, then draw your red lines around the box.
5. Last, but not least, I always wrap up my cake pops with a treat bag and matching ribbon.  You don’t have to do this, I just think it is a bit more sanitary, and makes transporting easier.

Pretty easy, right?  I hope you give these a try – they are a lot easier than they look.  Also, since I had a red carpet theme (which I associate with movie theatres), I bought some cute retro popcorn boxes to display the cake pops.  I just put a plastic solo cup in the base, then cut some styrofoam to go on top.  Easy peasy.

Enjoy!

I recently threw a Red Carpet-themed birthday party and these cuties were part of the dessert table.  Making the “popcorn” is a hair time consuming, but it is also something you can do while you’re zoning out in front of some quality Lifetime television, so don’t let it be a deterrent.  I’ll keep this post really simple as it is a really simple (but creative!) dessert.

Directions:

1. Mix your cake mix according to the directions on the box (homemade is obviously fine too though).
2. Fill your cupcake liners; I used black and white striped Paper Eskimo liners from Sur La Table (they were out of red stripes, but the black ones were super cute too).  Mine had some issues with overflowing, so I only filled them about 60% full.
3. Bake your cupcakes according to the instructions on the box.
4. While the cupcakes are baking, start preparing the marshmallows.  I used herb scissors since as they’re pretty sharp, but I imagine any sharp scissor would work fine.  Just take your mini marshmallow and make two cuts that intersect (like a “+”); I did this with the marshmallow lying on the longer side, but you can cut either way.  Make a REALLY big pile of sliced marshmallows – I think I put about 20-25 on each cupcake.
5. Let your cupcakes cool, then apply your frosting.  I recently got an icing spatula which proved to be a godsend – I highly recommend it.
6. Immediately apply your marshmallows to the freshly applied frosting (you don’t want it to harden).  Have fun with the placement to add a little dimension.
7. Once all of your cupcakes have marshmallows on them, group the cupcakes closely together to lightly spray the food coloring; I found the Wilton’s brand I used at Michael’s Arts and Crafts.  Don’t go too crazy, as butter is a lighter color (obviously).

Voila!  You’re done!  The marshmallow part is obviously the only step where effort is involved – these were a big hit overall.  One observation was that they were a much bigger hit with kids than adults – I think kids just like marshmallows more as it turns out.

Enjoy!

Anyway, I get to Colorado Humane and it was pretty depressing – the first cage I noticed in the Green Mile-esque hallway had 9 small dogs crammed in, and every one of them was barking like crazy….except a little Lab-mix puppy.  This little guy had his paws perched up high in the chain-link fence with his tongue sticking out, a HUGE smile, and he was staring right at me.  I leaned down to pet him, and he just kept smiling and staring. I quickly reminded myself that I wasn’t looking for a puppy and kept on walking.  As I walked down the long hallway to peruse the other dogs, I occasionally peeked back only to see the little Lab still staring. Still smiling. There were other potential adopters walking the halls, but he only had eyes for me.  I made my rounds, but came up short – there weren’t any dogs that fit my list of criteria. I stopped to see the little Lab again before I headed out – the shelter was closing in 10 minutes, and I figured I should get out of their hair. But there was something about him – he was literally the only dog in the shelter not barking, and he was so happy. Genuinely happy. Just then I saw a shelter employee approaching me and asked if he knew anything about the puppy – he shrugged his shoulders and said, “we think he’s a Labrador and Beagle mix”.  ”Interesting combination”, I said, “how big might he get?” With no hesitation the employee said, “not too big, about 50 pounds”. So he’s presumably a puppy, going to be pretty big by my standards, and not likely to maintain his puppy good looks – that is, the exact opposite of what I wanted. Naturally, I had to take him to the “puppy interview” area.

After about 5 minutes and a quick call to my Mom for reinforcement, I decided to take him home. As I was signing the adoption paperwork I casually asked if they knew his ‘story’. The woman behind the counter dug around in a file cabinet for a few minutes and eventually found a file that said he was rescued from euthanization in New Mexico a few days earlier, he was between 3-5 years old, and his name was Houdini. It’s funny how things work out – I fell in love with him thinking he was the opposite of what I wanted, only to find out that he was exactly what I had envisioned….I just didn’t know it.  I have since referred to his adoption day as his 3rd birthday, and celebrate it every year.  So on the 5th anniversary of his adoption, I decided to throw my little guy a not-so-little party.

I went with a red carpet theme for this year’s bash (his last big party was a Dog Prom theme), the focal point being the Paparazzi pictures with a custom-made step and repeat backdrop. I also hired a professional photographer to document everything – before you judge, because I know I would, a friend of mine provided this logic after suggesting that I hire one, “you put so much effort in these events, so you naturally want pictures of it all – wouldn’t you rather spend a few dollars and let someone else do it so you can enjoy the party?”  She was right. Next year I’ll be applying the same logic and hiring out the catering for most of the food.  :)

Below is the basic gist of the event – I’ll provide follow up posts in the coming weeks with tutorials though.  Enjoy!

The Set-Up

Highlights:

• We had a very well stocked bar that included a mimosa bar – four different juices and plenty of champagne.
• For food, we had a slider bar that included beef patties, buffalo chicken sliders, and black bean veggie burgers.
• And for dessert (my favorite!) I made puppy dog and popcorn cake pops, popcorn cupcakes (the popcorn is actually marshmallows with yellow food coloring), and cake batter chocolate chip cookies.
• Last, but not least, I made adorable party favor bags for the dogs and kids with personalized Hollywood Walk of Fame Stars on the bags.  The puppy bags were filled with rawhide dog bones, a birthday cake dog toy, and a mason jar filled with dog bones made by yours truly.  The kid bags were filled with noise makers, bubbles, coloring books, crayons, Hollywood jewelry, and more.

The Party!

With that said, I think it is safe to start posting some tasty spring favorites! A few weeks ago my new mother and father-in-law came over for dinner and specifically requested strawberry shortcake for dessert – I haven’t had it since I was a kid!  While I LOVE my own mother with all of my heart, she wasn’t really the type to cook much from scratch when I was growing up – this could be where I get my lack of prowess in the kitchen from (although she is a really good cook).  So, the only strawberry shortcake I ever had (and I thought it was the only kind anyone ever had) were made with those pre-packaged little cake disks, and were topped with strawberries and ice cream.  Since it isn’t really spring-like weather here yet, I couldn’t find those cake things anywhere! And I also had no idea what they were made of (apparently Angel Food cake if you were wondering).  Anyway, I resorted to Googling some homemade options and good old Martha Stewart pulled through with a tasty and easy-to-make treat.  I will definitely be making this again – so easy, so good, and I assume not too bad for the waistline.  Assuming, of course, you don’t overdo it on the ice cream. I did, so I won’t judge if you do.

Directions:

• First, sweeten your strawberries! Hull and quarter the strawberries; throw them into a medium bowl with 1/4 cup sugar. Let them stand until syrupy, tossing occasionally, for at least 20 minutes (and up to one day, covered and refrigerated).
• Next, make the shortcake! In a food processor, combine flour, butter, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt; process until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add milk; pulse just until moistened. Do not over-process.

• Remove the dough and place on a lightly floured surface (I used a large baking sheet to control the mess).  With floured hands, gently pat dough into a 4-by-8-inch rectangle.
• Dust a large knife with flour; cut dough into 8 squares. If not already on one, transfer the dough to a baking sheet; sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar. Bake until golden, 18 to 20 minutes; cool on baking sheet. To serve, split biscuits with a serrated knife; layer with berries and Whipped Cream.

• Want to make your whipped cream from scratch?  Put 1 cup heavy whipping cream in a mixing bowl;
  beat until soft peaks form.  Add sugar, then continue beating until soft peaks return.  Do not over-process; makes approximately 2 cups.

Printer Friendly PDF: Strawberry Shortcake

As previously mentioned, I found this recipe on the Martha Stewart website.

So enough complaining, let me tell you all about my big Easter plans! My friend Elaine has the most amazing party every Easter called Beerster. Beerster is very clearly an adult Easter party, but has all the fun of Easter from when you were a kid. The primary focus of the day being the beer hunt – dozens of adults go running into a field searching for beer to put in their baskets. It’s epic. And Elaine spares no detail – she might very well be the Queen of Crafting. Her motto is, “ABC – Always Be Crafting” and she doesn’t disappoint. I’ve included some links to various posts on her blog about Beerster that you really need to check out. No, really – start clicking now, my pettily blog post will still be here later.

Beerster Blog Post  |  Royal Brunch Punch Blog Post  |  Rainbow Easter Decorations Blog Post  |  Hydrangeas & Ranunculus Blog Post

So, with all that said, Elaine asked me to make some Easter Egg cake pops for Beerster. Knowing how much effort Elaine puts into the event, I didn’t want to disappoint her and took my assignment very, very seriously. I can’t really tell if a new cake pop design will work out just by looking at it, so I bought enough cake pop supplies for three different kinds (the Easter eggs she asked for, bunnies, and baby chicks) and just hoped at least one would come out looking cute. 2 out of 3 were pretty good – ironically it was the eggs that she actually wanted that were pretty unfortunate looking.

Now that you’re intrigued, I bet you’re wondering “how on earth can I make such cuteness that tastes good?”. I can help friends. I can help. Making the actual cake part of the cake pop is always the same, so follow this post on how to get started. The only things you’ll need to change from my original post are the decoration part (the 4th bullet under ingredients), and then the customization of the candy melts (color), the cake, and frosting. As for the cake and frosting – there are no rules – use whatever flavors your heart desires!

Easter Egg Cake Pops

Since these are the guys that didn’t turn out so well, I’ll keep my commentary to a minimum. Bakerella is the go-to Pro for all things Cake Pops, so I will refer you to her post for Easter Egg Cake Pop-Making.  :)

Easter Bunny Cake Pops

The Bakerella post above also shows how to make bunny cake pops, but I often have a hard time find the supplies she lists, so I have to improvise here and there. In this case, pastel candy corns, and the sprinkles for the noses and eyes kind of eluded me so I changed it up with pipe cleaners for the ears, pink M&Ms for the noses, and sugar pearls for the eyes. I always wrap my cake pops in little cello bags, so instead of tying them with a ribbon, I tie it up with the pipe cleaner and loop the ears up.  Keep in mind that you need to create your face upside down for these guys. For the eyes and the nose, you need to affix them just after the candy melt excess has dripped off, but is still wet. You can draw the eye balls and the whiskers later on since you need to move fast with the candy melt.  After you’re done with all of your candy melt, you can start painting your faces. Just draw a little eye ball with your food writer pen, then some whiskers with frosting or gel. The gel probably looks nicer originally (that is actually what I used), but it never really dries so it smears all over the plastic bags when I wrap them up, regardless of how long I wait. That is why I recommended white frosting for this – I think it will look nicer in the end. After your faces are on, I wait a few hours then start wrapping them up! These guys are super easy, but definitely have a bit of a WOW factor.

Baby Chick Cake Pops

I saw these on the cover of a cake pop kit at Target and thought, “how hard could that be?”. It wasn’t hard, and not worth the $10 or whatever they were charging to make 12 cake pops. These are probably even easier than the bunnies for a beginner, because you only need to worry about dipping, not decorating, when applying the candy melt. Once all of your chicks are done and your candy melt is starting to harden, just take an extra stick or a knife and dip it in your candy melt to apply the top feather swish and the two little side wings. Once everything is dry (which takes maybe 10 minutes total), draw on your eyes with the food writer, and your beak and feet with the frosting. I usually put my frosting into a ZipLock bag, then cut off a tiny bit of the corner for a make-shift piping bag. Cheap, easy, and fast. And that is it! I think the baby chicks were my favorite….specifically, roly poly baby chicks. Soooo cute!

For presentation, I found an old basket and filled it with the green Easter Basket filling that I only associate with making my jelly beans get lost (my Mom would sprinkle the basket with loose jelly beans and I could never find them through the grass!), then added a Beerster sign for the front. The first two pictures below are from Beerster, courtesy of Elaine’s blog - I was so excited upon my arrival to find a real, live miniature pony!  And an actual bunny rabbit!  So, so fun.

So, what are my favorites so far, you ask?  Let me show you!

1) Kitschy Salt and Pepper Shakers

Salt and Pepper shakers are generally a boring part of any person’s home – I mean, when you’re adding bits of personality into your decor, do salt and pepper shakers really come to mind? And this, my friends, is why they are an amazing gift! Pottery Barn of all places has my favorite finds thus far with lots of holiday-specific choices (Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter, etc.), along with some super cute randoms (Bulldogs, Piggies, Frogs). And don’t be fooled – some of the holiday sets are appropriate for year-round giving. Remember that friend with the chicken coop? She’s getting Easter chicks  and I’ll put money on the fact that they’ll be making an appearance on her table year-round.

Photo: (Clockwise) Driedels, Piggies, Easter Chicks, Partridge in a Pear Tree (Photos taken from the Pottery Barn website.)

2) Corkcicle Wine Chiller

Virtually any wine-related gift is a good hostess gift, because I would bet most people really need a glass of wine after prepping for a house full of guests. The downside is that most wine gifts are boring – I mean, how many sets of wine tools can a person use? The Corkcicle Wine Chiller, however, is different. For starters, it is just funny to look at, but it’s functional too! The Corkcicle actually chills your wine without the bulkiness if a wine chiller. Double score!

3) Kitschy Measuring Spoons and Cups

I suppose I have a penchant for “kitschy” things. I have no idea why this is, because I personally almost always side with buying super practical, classic, boring things for myself…especially when it comes to housewares and such. Maybe that is why I think oddball gifts make great gifts, because they aren’t things that people would typically buy for themselves. I mean, it could be construed as a little wasteful to spend $26 on Driedel Salt and Pepper Shakers that you might use once or twice, after all. But to get them as a gift? Super cute, super fun, and super exciting! I also have a penchant for using the word “super”. Sorry. Anyway, Anthropologie is my favorite store for these kinds of finds – seriously, who thought up Hedgehog Measuring Cups?! They. Are. Adorable.

(Photos taken from the Anthropologie website.)

4) Miscellaneous Cheeky (aka Kitschy) Kitchen Tools

I was trying to get away from using “kitschy”. Again. As it turns out, it is really the only way to describe fun gifts. So there you have it. Anthropologie is also home to a wide array of other amazing kitchen things, but I think the “tools” are the best.  Or at least the best for gift giving. They’re unique, bright, and still very functional.

Photo: (Clockwise) Terracotta Spoon Rest, Poppy Ring Rolling Pin, Chipper and Sprite Serving Set, Painted Amaryllis Spoon Rest (Photos taken from the Anthropologie website.)

5) Fancy-Schmancy Dish Towel-Wrapped Wine

Back to wine gifts! We’re dressing up a nice bottle this time – buy some kitschy (sorry, there I go again) dish towels, nice ribbon (I prefer satin), and wrap up a bottle of wine like so. Favorite places to buy towels?

Crate & Barrel has a great selection of cute and cheap dish towels – the measurement one always seems to get rave reviews.

Sur La Table also has an amazing selection of fancy dish towels – they feel a bit European or something to me.  Either way…love them.

6) Cookie Cutters and Pre-Made Cookie Mix Wrapped in a Dish Towel

I really like this gift for families….since most kids loving baking, or so I hear. Williams-Sonoma always has really fun cookie cutter sets and nice pre-made cookie mixes to choose from year-round. Crate and Barrel usually has a great selection of mixes around the holidays with lots of holiday cookie cutter sets too!

Cookie Cutters: Crate and Barrel Cookie Cutters, Sur La Table Cookie Cutters, Williams-Sonoma Cookie Cutters

Cookie Mix: Sur La Table Cookie Mix, Williams-Sonoma Cookie Mix, Crate and Barrel Cookie Mix is usually available in stores (but not online).

Dish Towels: Crate and Barrel Dish Towels, Sur La Table Dish Towels, Williams-Sonoma Dish Towels

7) Personalized Tea Towels

I think Personalized Tea Towels are a fun gift, especially with some baked goods inside. They are pretty simple to make, you just need fabric paint, some cheap flour sacks from Target, stamps, and a paint brush. In the past, I’ve just wrapped mine around a loaf of banana bread or something of the like.

• Iron your towels to remove all wrinkles and creases.
• Dip your stencil brush in fabric ink.  Apply paint to rubber stamp using a dabbing motion; a smooth stroke doesn’t get enough paint on the stamp.
• When doing this for the first time, do a test run by stamping a paper towel to see how it turns out – you can then adjust the amount of paint you used if there is too much or too little ink.
• Decide on how you want the placement of the stamps on your towel – I tend to side with a simple design along one edge of the towel as a border of sorts.
• Let your design dry for at least 30 minutes.
• Set your designs by ironing over the print; definitely use a paper towel over the print at first so paint residue doesn’t end up on your iron.  After some thorough ironing, remove the paper towel and iron directly over the design some more.  After the design is heat-set, the towels are washing machine-friendly.

We can shoot straight ahead to where we pat me on the back – I made an adorable little tin with a HUGE chalkboard label for less than $2.  I mean, $2 is even totally over estimating the cost since I can make like 15 more tins with the paint I have left over.  Go. Me. So how can you create your own chalkboard labels on, well, anything?  Keep reading!

First, let’s go over the supplies that you’ll need:

Second, you’ll need a container, or whatever it is that you want to label.  I happened to have a pre-made cookie mix that came in a cute tin, so I used that.  Don’t judge the laziness of my cookie making….they were really good.

 Third Step: WIth the precision of a master painter, you need to tape of the edges of the area you would like to paint.  Kidding – I used scotch tape. In my case, I taped around the existing label as demonstrated below.

Now the fun part!  Start painting! If you’ve ever painted pottery before, the instructions are roughly the same. Paint in one direction (e.g. vertical) all the way around, then do the opposite for your second coat. The only difference with this is that you need to let each coat dry for an hour in between.

Once everything is painted, and you can’t see the material beneath, let the paint dry for at least 24-hours before you remove the tape and break out the chalk. I personally prefer the chalkboard pen as it just looks cleaner, but regular chalk is fine too. Happy labeling!

With all that said, let me introduce you to these amazing confections: Baked Spinach Dip in Individually Sized Bread Bowls.  They are ah-maze-ing to eat, but they also provide equally entertaining people watching.  I’ve made and brought them to several dinner parties now, and the scene is almost always the same.  The guys dig in right away – Cream cheese? More cheese with spinach? Buttery bread?  Sign. Me. Up. The ladies, however, often say, “well, maybe I’ll just try a little of this” and they daintily slice the cupcake of spinach goodness into quarters and help themselves to a whole one square inch!  Way to live it up ladies. Then, when they think no one is looking, they go in for another quarter slice. Then, soon-there-after, they take the remaining half.  By the end of the night they’ve had three or four entire cupcakes (aka spinach bowls), and think no one saw them. Oh, don’t be fooled – I’m watching.  Long story short, everyone loves these, even those who have something against carbs.  Because they still eat them, and they love it.  These little spinach bowls are all sorts of cheating on any diet you might be on, but they are worth the cheat. I wouldn’t steer you wrong. I swear!

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray the muffin cups with non stick cooking spray.  Unroll package of crescent rolls, and roll each triangle (1 crescent roll) into a ball.
• Using your hands, press each slice into about a 3 inch round. Press into the bottom and up the sides of the muffin cup. Set aside.
• Heat the olive oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir spinach until wilted (about 3 minutes ), then add garlic. Cook and stir for another minute then turn the heat off.
• Place cream cheese, sour cream, cooked spinach and garlic, Parmesan Cheese, Chili Powder, garlic salt, salt and pepper into a medium bowl.  Mix until well combined.
• With a medium cookie scoop, scoop dip into each of the centers of bread bowls.  Top evenly with shredded mozzarella cheese and bake for 15-17 minutes – the edges should just barely be turning brown. Remove, and let cool for 3-5 minutes.

See? Super easy, and super tasty.  Enjoy!

Printer-Friendly PDF: Baked Spinach Dip in Individually Sized Bread Bowls

This recipe was originally found, and slightly modified from, the Picky Palate website.

Directions:

• Season your chicken with salt and pepper. Lightly cover in flour.
• Heat a large skillet on medium heat; when hot add 1 tsp butter and 1 tsp olive oil. Add the chicken to the skillet and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes on each side, or until chicken is no longer pink. Set aside in a warm oven (200 degrees).
• Add additional oil and butter to the skillet, then garlic and cook a few seconds; add mushrooms, salt and pepper stirring occasionally until golden, about 5 minutes.
• Add wine, chicken broth, and parsley. Stir the pan with a wooden spoon, breaking up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook a few more minutes or until the liquid reduces by half. Top the chicken off with the mushroom sauce, and serve!

Printer-Friendly PDF: Chicken and Mushrooms

This recipe was another great find from Gina at Skinny Taste - visit her site for nutritional information, as well as Weight Watchers Point Values.

Since most of our guests were coming to Vail from the Denver/Boulder area, and the rest were real out-of-towners, I wanted to kick off our wedding weekend with something that 1) actually made people feel welcome and appreciated, 2) provided instructions, directions, and other helpful hints for the next couple of days, and 3) shared a bit of our personality.

My initial ‘wants’ for the bag were this: snacks (mini-bar style), water (because of the high altitude), wine (because, well, it’s wine), a hangover kit (for the wine), wedding mad-libs (for the Bride and Groom to enjoy later), and a welcome letter to say THANK YOU and offer up all the details for the weekend on where to be and when.

The Actual Bag, aka The Vessel

Since I wanted to shove a ton of stuff in my bag, I needed something sturdy.  A paper gift bag was definitely not going to do the trick.  I was so excited to find these personalized canvas bags (mine had super cute bunting that read, “Welcome”, along with our names, wedding date, and wedding locale.  When you buy in bulk, they work out to be $5 each – I don’t think I could have even made something that cheap (I looked into that too).

The Treat Sack

We were definitely going for a Colorado theme with the snacks since this is home and all….and we thought it would be fun. It was! Who knew Colorado was home to so many tasty foods?! Each snack bag had two of most items as they were intended for a couple to share – each one included the following: Izze Soda (Made in Boulder, CO), Boulder Canyon Chips (Made in Boulder, CO), Rocky Mountain Popcorn (Made in Centennial, CO), Justin’s Nut Butter Packets (Made in Boulder, CO), Justin’s Nut Butter Peanut Butter Cups (Made in Boulder, CO), Nita Crisp Crackers (Made in Fort Collins, CO), Chocolove Chocolate Bars (Made in Boulder, CO), and Veggie-Go’s (Made in Boulder, CO and Found at our Local Farmer’s Market!)

The Treat Sack – Packaging

I put all of the snacks above into a paper lunch sack – they barely fit, but it worked.  I folded over the top of the bag twice, then punched two holes to run the twine through, then tied it into a bow.

I bought these cute, custom stickers from Delphine Press that read, “Colorado-Made Snacks.  Enjoy a taste of Colorado with some of our favorite treats.  Love, Sarah and Bart”

The treat sack was then very gently placed in the canvas bag. I learned the hard way that if you hold the sack from the top, the paper rips. Oops.

Post-Wedding Recovery Kits

I have blogged about these before – Hangover Kit Party Favor – and still think they make a great party favor.  I went with a more PC name for the wedding, but they definitely got used.  I made a couple of changes to make them more wedding-y, but they were really limited to the stamp I used and a small business card that I added saying what it was.  The stamp choice was maybe a bit too detailed though – I ended up having to use a really fine paint brush and essentially hand-paint the image on every bag.  It took FOREVER.  I added the date with a fine-tip Sharpie.

For the tags, I just used Avery Business Card templates (Office Depot) and got creative with layering in a background and text box.  The Word Doc of my template is here: Post Wedding Recovery Kit Label. Just in case the formatting is off, this is what it is supposed to look like (PDF): Post Wedding Recovery Kit Label PDF.

Personalized Wine Bottles 

I’ve posted about these before too – Personalized Wine Labels – I’m not really all that creative.  :)  These were a huge hit – I mean everything was, but the wine was unexpected I think.  My big tip (which I added to the original post) is to check with large liquor stores in your area before buying the wine.  I accidentally found out that I could order 75 bottles of a California Red with no labels on them – this made everything so much easier….and they looked nicer too!  I bought the labels from Pinhole Press – they are a thick material and actually look really professional.  You can upload any picture you want, but for a wedding I would use your Engagement Photos – my Mom was so cute and saved it for posterity.  Well, she technically saved everything, but the wine is proudly displayed in her kitchen for all to see.

Water Bottles with Custom Labels

Aaaand we have another repeated post – Custom Water Bottle Labels – but for good reason.  I’ve used this at all sorts of events now (fundraisers, parties, overnight guests), and they don’t seem to get old.  Especially fundraisers – we felt better about charging money for water with a logo….and I think people felt better about paying too!  Anyway, I just changed up the template a bit so it coordinated with everything else I printed.  Easy, peasy.

Water Bottle Template: Waterbottle Label Template

Welcome Letter and Wedding Mad Libs

I thought it would be fun to have everyone do a Wedding Mad Lib then read them later – mostly because Mad Libs remind me of those awesome years in third and fourth grade, but also, I wanted to have something other than photos to remember everyone from the wedding by.  The ones we got were super funny, but most people forgot to either fill them out, or bring them to the reception.  Nice try, but a bit of a failure I suppose.

I formatted it so that two cards would fit perfectly on one sheet of card stock, then I just cut them in half.  The top half being the welcome letter, and the bottom was the Mad Libs.  I used card stock so that I could tie them together with twine (I also added a Vail-area map in the back) and they wouldn’t lose their shape in the canvas bag.  They held up really well!

Welcome Letter/Mad Libs Template: Welcome Letters and Mad Libs

Welcome Letter/Mad Libs Template, PDF Version: Welcome Letters and Mad Libs PDF

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The last small touch was that I added a kraft paper tag with the wedding guests’ name on one side, and hotel on the other. After having worked in hotels for most of my career, my big Pro Tip is to personalize the tags….the front desk very frequently forgets to hand welcome bags out. The only way they can tell who they forgot is by looking at the name tags later in the day. I added the hotel name only because there were several hotels where people were staying – it was just a reminder of where to take the bag. So, parting thoughts on the Welcome Bags:

Upside: The Welcome Bags were a big hit! I absolutely loved them and so did everyone else.  We used a free App called Wedding Party where you can crowdsource photos from your friends – there was definitely a theme in the pictures for a bit.  That theme being pictures and comments about the Welcome Bags.  You know I loved that.  A few of the pictures our friends posted are below.

Downside: The bags were made up of a million projects that took up a ton of time.  Luckily I had no other wedding planning responsibilities, so I stretched this project out over a few months. I don’t really know if this was actually a ‘downside’ though since I always love a good project.