Kids, musicians, and a red dress makes Michelle & Sean's Winter wedding shine | @offbeatbride

Our wedding got featured on one of my favorite wedding websites.  I checked their site out a lot when I was looking for inspiration! Check it out!

Kids, musicians, and a red dress makes Michelle & Sean's Winter wedding shine | @offbeatbride

Make a tiny garden with your tiny tot!

I've been trying to come up with activities that will get the kids outside and keep them occupied. This idea is super easy, fun, and really not very expensive.  You can create an adorable garden that your child can nurture all Summer for less than $20.

He picked a nice pinwheel to finish the decoration.

First we picked up a fence at Home Depot.  Then I let the boy pick whatever color of spray paint he wanted and we decorated the fence.  (Mom did the painting part)

I then had him pick out whatever flowers he wanted in his garden.  This time of year you can get loads of sturdy flowers for $1 each.  You don't need a lot, since you are just making a tiny garden.

I let him pick out his own watering can at the store.  I wanted it to be something he picked and small enough for him to handle, because my plan is to have him water his plants every day as part of our routine.

It took us a few hours of playing in the dirt, and I let him pick where the plants went.  In the end we have a very sweet little garden that he can take care of all on his own this Summer!

A Healthier Peep Just in Time for Easter!

When I was in the store the other day I saw the Wilton Peeps Mold and had to buy it.  I was instantly inspired to make my kids a healthier version of the fun holiday treat!

I once again used my healthy chocolate cupcake recipe that I've also used to make healthy donuts.

Instead of dipping them in dark chocolate, this time we used up the rest of some white chocolate bark that I had leftover and cut it with a bit of coconut oil so it didn't solidify all of the way.  Then I dipped them in Wilton decorating sugar in the perfect Peeps colors and used a skewer to poke the holes for the eyes and bunny nose to give them that classic Peeps look.

I'm really happy with the results of the bunnies and the boy was convinced he was getting what he saw in the store.  (Let's hope he never figures it out!)

Made a few Easter colored doughnuts too with the leftover batter

The chicks were a little harder.  I could have used the same method, but since I had such a sparse amount of white chocolate I was working with, my double boiler wasn't full enough to really dip them in there and get the coverage I needed  I'm sure it would have been successful if I had more chocolate.  But I kind of prefer the flat surface of the bunny, because it leads to less chocolate and a healthier (less sugar) treat for the kids.  I think I will go back and buy the all bunny pan they were selling next to the bunny and chick pan that I purchased. 

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Healthy Chocolate Doughnuts made with Garbanzo Beans and Avocado! (White sugar free and gluten free)

After I made those healthy chocolate cupcakes last week, I decided to test them out as mini doughnuts!  I thought the texture could lend well to a cake doughnut.  The first thing I did was order a perfect pan for my cupcakes. I love THIS PAN so much, I ordered a 2nd one today!

My recipe made enough for 3 dozen of these mini doughnuts.

Aren't they so cute!?

I followed my recipe.  The only variation was that I added a little bit more rice flour just to make the batter a little thicker.  Then I piped it into the pan with a piping bag.  Cooked for 15 minutes at 375 and out popped perfect doughnuts!

When they were done, I dipped them in a few chocolate wafers melted with a bit of coconut oil.  I had some sprinkles in the cupboard, so I added them for flare. The baby ate 5 of them before I even put chocolate on them.  They are yummy without frosting, but once I added the flare, the 8 year old and Papa both ate some too.  They got thumbs up all around! 

I'm thinking some version of these are going to the next preschool snack day!

Winter Sangria Recipe from our Winter wedding

This was a HUGE hit! Even the bartender asked me for the recipe after the wedding.  I lightened it way up from the usual Sangria recipe since it was a Sunday afternoon and I didn't want our guests to get loaded.  I wanted something light and perfect for a Sunday Winter Wedding.

This recipe is to be made in a large Mason jar dispenser for a crowd (as pictured above) I'm sure you could halve the ingredients to make it for a smaller party:

3 bottles Red wine (Get the cheaper stuff since you are adding so much to it, no need to spend a fortune)
1 cup Brandy
1 59 oz bottle Simply Apple Pure Pressed Apple Juice
1 red apple, sliced
1 green apple, sliced
2 oranges, sliced
2 apricots, sliced (look for a juicy ripe one)
2 pears, sliced  (look for a juicy ripe one)
1 Pomegranate seeds only
4 cinnamon sticks broken in half (more for optional garnish)
1 bottle of Cava

Cut all your fruit in equal sizes slices and drop into the bottom of a pitcher or glass jug. Add cinnamon sticks. Pour the bottles of wine, Brandy and apple juice over the fruit and gently stir to combine. Cover and chill in the refrigerator overnight and up to 2 days.

Right before serving add the bottle of Cava into the jug and give it a gentle stir.

This was a huge hit at our wedding.  When it ran out, we just kept adding Cava and it made a fruity sparkling wine cocktail which was also super yummy!

Our Perfect DIY Winter Wedding (on a budget) 01-04-2015

We met in the Winter and fell in love in December, so we really loved the idea of having a Winter wedding.  Since we had Sylvia for the majority of Christmas break, we decided that the weekend before she went back to school would be the perfect time.  The day was amazing.  Everything really fell into place.  The colors were neutral tones with bursts of red and green.  It was just post Christmas so the perfect time for this combo. 

 Cindy Apple provided these lovely photos. 

The venue for our wedding was Sodo Pop.  Perfect size for our event and totally budget friendly! 

 I had this very specific vision of a dessert table, I'd been seeing so many lovely ideas on Pinterest, so that was truly my baby.

The cake plates were mine and borrowed from a few of my friends. Having the variety, created a sweet shabby chic look for the table.

The photos of the kids and the suitcase were just things from my own house!

 

I baked a  variety of cupcakes, and a small carrot cake. (The cake was less for eating but to create a perfect centerpiece for the cake topper and the table.)  I also added baby photos of all three of our kids to the table.

I used a wood burner to burn words into little cut wood discs and used that to label both the dessert table and the buffet.

 All of the cakes turned out so yummy!

 The Cake topper was a statue I found the very first time Sean and I went thrifting together, on one of our very first dates.  It was meaningful to us, so I wanted to incorporate it into our wedding.

My son approved of the dessert buffet!

My Bridesmaids all wore black dressed that they already owned.  I purchased the Jr Bridesmaid dress and Alice's flower Girl dress on after Christmas sales for 70% off.  The ladies all wore red shoes and the guys all wore red ties, that is how we tied it all together.

I had always dreamed of getting married in a red dress, so I was super excited about mine.  I also have always been in love with this vintage style.  My perfect red dress I purchased at unique-vintage.com on clearance for $50! I didn't even need to get it altered.  It was perfect! So well made and such a lush fabric!  I got a million compliments and felt like a princess. (Sylvia even told me I looked like one too!)

My flower Girl Alice and Jr Bridesmaid Sylvia

 The Groomsmen ties were also all on after holiday clearance at Macy's.  They all wore their own suites.

For the decorations, we used a lot of things from nature.  The pine cones were all collected over the prior months by me, baked in my oven to kill anything living in them and then painted with glitter spray paint.  I used my wood burner to decorate the logs.

Perfect center pieces designed by Audrey

Sylvia made the "stained glass" jar for me as a Christmas gift, so I really wanted it to be incorporated into the wedding decor.

All of the greens were fresh and purchased the day before. They were meant for holiday centerpieces, so I lucked out and got them on post holiday sale!  Marked down from $5.99 to $.99 a bundle.

 

The table clothes were a mix of thrift store vintage and snowflake holiday tablecloths that I got after Christmas for 75% off.  We also re-purposed a lot of the burlap table runners, the white lights and small candles from the office holiday party.  We found that doing a Winter wedding right after New Years really did offer a lot of great prices on post Christmas clearance sales

The arch, the isle runner, the cupcake stars, the gold paper straws, all of the flatware and paper plates (All biodegradable and green) and some of the burlap banners I purchased on Amazon at very reasonable prices.

I made a beautiful Winter Sangria as the signature cocktail.  Since it was a Sunday afternoon, I made it much less potent than most Sangria recipes, but it was a hit.  The bartender said people were flying through it!  When the Sangria ran out, we just added bottles of Cava to the fruit in the container which made a fruity Cava cocktail.  People loved that too!















We also had a little photobooth by the door.  It was just a jar with some paper props and a backdrop.  It gave people the option of doing their own photos with their cell phones.  Our guests had a good time with it! 




Our friends all came up and sang a variety of meaningful songs for us and then we had a live band (CFO) finish the night.  It was a dreamy evening for sure!

I even got serenaded by my groom!

 We really did have an awesome stress free day and stayed on budget! It was dreamy!