I Love Weddings!
We loaned our giant cupcake stand to our friends a couple weeks ago and it looked pretty awesome!!!
Shameless plug: Handy Andy is for hire to make your very own Giant Cupcake Stand!
Or, don’t forget if you have your own version of a Handy Andy at home you can make your own!
The Seifferts were nice enough to hire me to make their programs, favor tags in addition to the invitations!
I also did some fun decals for the reception and the get away car. Please forgive my feeble attempt at snapping a photo, my camera is on its last leg. The Seifferts promised me some good shots from their photographer, so stay tuned for those!. 
Absolutely Amazing!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, hiring MediaInnovations was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding. I just have to brag again about the wonderful job they did for us. They captured so many wonderful little moments that still shot photos simply cannot match.
Please note that the page takes some time to load, but do have a look: http://www.mediainnovations-online.com/wedding_videography/andyandlaura/
Candy Buffet = Big Hit!
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed our nostalgic Candy Buffet! I kept hearing comments like “I haven’t had Pop Rocks since I was little” and “I didn’t know they still made Rain-Blo Gum”! I probably had a good 60-70 pounds of candy for our estimated 200 guests and we surprisingly had a decent amount left over. I bought most of the chocolate at Sam’s Club and the rest I ordered from Old Time Candy. The awesome name logo came from elle Z designs of course, (in case any other brides are interested orders are now being taken!) 
I decided trying to do only color coordinated pink, orange, black & white was just NOT going to work. I also thought using scoops and containers was going to be too much of a hassle. I am very pleased to have used only completely wrapped candy so you didn’t have to worry about grubby hands dipping into the candy. Ew! Plus, it was really easy to setup and tear down at the end of the night. We were sending people home with entire containers full and we ended up with a good 4 large containers afterwards!
This was probably one of the big favorites of our reception and I would highly recommend it to other brides.
Lookin’ Good So Far!
Aside from the fact I will be marrying my Prince Charming,
this may very well be the best part about our wedding day.
I had a craving for a bit of chocolate yesterday so I ran downstairs and dug into our candy buffet supplies. Out of the 60+ pounds of candy I thought we could spare a few pieces. I poked around awhile looking at all the fun candy we had. It was still mostly boxed up so I began to organize and assemble a mock candy table. It appears I need to get some more containers because there’s quite a bit left and I ran out of room!
Putter ran down to check on me so the two of us sampled the Sour Patch Kids and Bit ‘o Honey. Then I sampled some of the chocolates. And a few more chocolate. (And took a couple pieces back upstairs with me when I left.) I really wanted to tear open the Fun Dip but I didn’t. And I couldn’t keep my hands of the giant whirly pops. I don’t even want to eat them. I just like looking at ‘em. For the first time in my life I think I felt a true sugar high…and it gave me a headache. 
But it sure tasted good!
For all you other brides who are having or had a candy buffet (a/k/a a “candy bar”), did you dip in your stash or were you able to contain yourself? (And if so….HOW???)
Like a Kid in a Candy Store…Literally!!
It’s here! It’s HERE!!! 49 POUNDS of candy…I have dreamt of this day since I was about 5 years old. I am in Candyland/Willy Wonka Heaven!!! Warning: You may get a toothache just reading this.
Haha! Okay…maybe it’s not THAT big of deal…but it is fun. Seriously – check out the Giant Whirly Pops!! Mucho props to Old Time Candy. The only thing really missing is the candy stick swirls. They couldn’t guaranty that they would arrive in one piece. I think I need some of those though, so maybe I ought to find a local source.
How Sweet It Is Indeed!
I’m kind of a sugar freak and one of our favorite things is to scour the candy aisle for fun treats. So, for our guests’ tasting pleasure, I just ordered a boatload of candy for the candy buffet including: Read more
Change of Plans
If you recall, Andy was helping me awhile back to create a really neat rotating photo card box. I got the idea from another member of The Knot and it was supposed to look something like this, only black:
Photo Credit: Knottie Anirahc
Well, let’s just say ours did NOT turn out quite so nice. I was trying to “Fun” it up with some crazy fabric and embellishments and that turned out to be not such a good idea. I had been planning on tearing it apart and redoing it. That is, until I walked in to JoAnn Crafts the other day, turned the corner and saw this lovely box that practically sang out my name:
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Hellooo Beautiful!
I love stripes and polk-a-dots so my eyes were immediately drawn to it. YES!!! This was it. THIS was going to be our new card box. To add to my delight, when they rang it up it was on sale; marked down from $12.99 to $9.99!!! I love a sale! It completely made my day. I could not stop talking about my fabulous find for the rest of the day.
Nevermind that I probably spent more than three times the amount on my unfinished mess of a card box project…but oh well. Whatever. I am in so love with this box. Task complete, check it off the list.
Do Me a Favor…or Ten!
Okay…I’m sort of a favor freak so we are going to have an assortment of fun favors!
All this PLUS a fun candy buffet!
(And who knows what else…I’ve got 5+ months people. I can think of A TON of fun stuff to make!)
Goal: Find Reception Site – CHECK!
The Zaruba-Meckley wedding reception will be held at the iWireless Center in Moline, Illinois. Formerly known as The Mark of the Quad Cities, this venue offers seating up to 500 (though we may need less than half that!), plenty of parking space, as well as a convenient walking path to the Radisson Hotel for our overnight (and/or intoxicated?) guests. (Group room info coming soon.) Additionally, it is located across from the John Deere Pavillion, which is one of Andy’s favorite places to take out-of-town friends and family.
Did I Mention I Like Color???
Color inspiration for your viewing pleasure:
Notice any trends here? Bright. Bold. Fun. Whimsical. (Yes Andy, maybe a little Dr. Seuss.) For overall “colors” so to speak, pink & orange are looking pretty good. (Wait until you see our Save the Date Cards.) And I’ve always been a gerber daisy & rose girl. Yay! We just might be close to our final decision on colors.
(P.S. The John Deere centerpiece is just in there b/c I thought it was appropriately cute.)
