I have made homemade sugar cookies with the recipe I’m giving to you about a half dozen times. Sometimes I don’t decorate them, and simply roll them in sugar. No matter how I make ‘em, they’re always delicious . And they would be superb wedding favors!

I decided to whip these up for Valentine’s Day. I am a novice cookie decorator, but I am still pleased with how these turned out!

Recipe for Homemade Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup butter (salted)

1/2 cup margarine

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Instructions:

Cream butter and margarine well. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Mix well. Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda. Gradually add to creamed mixture. (You might have to do the last mixing by hand. )

Form dough in a ball and place on parchment paper. Place another piece of parchment paper over the dough.

Using a rolling pin to roll the dough approximately 1/4 inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut out your shapes.

Place onto cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 16 or 17 mins.

Let cool. Decorate cookies.

Sugar Cookie Icing (Adapted from this recipe.)

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 – 4 teaspoons milk

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

food coloring

Stir together confectioners’ sugar and milk in a small bowl until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until the icing is smooth and glossy. Add more corn syrup if the icing is too thick.

Divide into seperate bowls and add food coloring to each bowl.

Place icing into sandwich sized ziplock freezer bags. Snip one of the corner’s of the bag and add decorating tip.

Use a knife to coat the cookies with icing. After the cookies have been coated, use the piping bag to pipe design. Add sprinkles etc. if desired. Let dry.

Enjoy!

I must say, these two cookies are my favorite of all. My two little girls decorated them.

What are you going to do with all those cash-filled envelopes that will be pouring into your reception? What about a lovely, customized card box from For the Modern Bride?

For the Modern Bride offers unique card boxes that are perfectly suited to your own sense of style. You provide the swatches, as well as your wedding theme and For the Modern Bride will create a card box that accents the rest of your wedding decor.

All card boxes are made with quality fabrics, ribbons, embellishments, silk flowers, and anything else needed to fulfill the requests of their customers. And there is no assembly needed for the card boxes! All you would need to do is unpack it and it’s ready for use. And the slot fits all envelope sizes!

Note: The  production schedule books up extremely fast for card boxes, so it’s a good idea to order as soon as you can to lock in a spot.

So now that you’ve figured out what to do with all those important envelopes, there’s another reception detail to figure out: wedding favors. For the Modern Bride offers a great selection of Kate Aspen wedding favors, including this cute tea box set:

And lemonade mix wedding favors:

For the Modern Bride also creates custom logos and wedding stationery.

Later this month, For the Modern Bride will be launching another part of their website that will have over 2800 favors, gifts, bridal accessories, ceremony & reception decorations.

Check out For the Modern Bride website and blog for more info!

These Valentine’s pops from My Little Cupcake look easy to make.

You need:

Heart Shaped Mold (helpful but not necessary)
Oreo Cookies
Cream Cheese
Wilton Candy Melts (In Pink or Lavender)
Wilton Sprinkles in Sparkling White
Valentine Candy Hearts

Click here for the full tutorial.

Okay, so  feather boas and moustaches were all the rage in 2009.

It’s time for some new photo booth props! When I saw these DIY party blowers over at Martha Stewart, I thought they would be a perfect photo booth prop!

For a paper tongue that will curl properly, choose a decorative paper that is about the same weight as photocopy paper.

Here’s what you need:

Plastic straw

Vellum

Double-sided sheet adhesive

Scissors

Decorative paper

Clear tape

Pencil

Rubber band

White glue

Decorative tape

For the full instructions go here. There is also a tutorial on Utterly Engaged.

This is our first British real wedding here at IW. Lucy and Rob had a 1930’s Glamour theme, with an English country twist. Their color scheme was black and white.

Lucy, 29 & Robert, 32

Leicester, England

Wedding Date: August 22, 2009

Number of Guests: 69

Wedding Cost: £16,000 (including Honeymoon 15 nights in Thailand)

Wedding Ceremony Location: Halstead House Farm, Tilton on the Hill, Leicestershire

Wedding Reception Location: Halstead House Farm, Tilton on the Hill, Leicestershire

Why did you have an intimate wedding?

We considered having a wedding abroad, but we would have excluded a lot of our friends and family who could not afford to travel, and myself & Rob thought that one of the most important things about a wedding is sharing it with our closest friends and family. We loved the venue that we chose, as the ceremony room was quite small and very intimate.

We looked at a lot of wedding venues. Most of them were big hotels, and they just were not right somehow. They were too restrictive and felt a bit like a wedding conveyor belt. With more than one wedding on at the same time this meant that there would have been other people’s guests around at the same time. One of the best things about Halstead House Farm, was that we had exclusive use of the venue, which meant the only people we saw were our friends and family.

The photographer was really important to us, as we are both interested in photography. I spent ages browsing through different photographers websites, just seeing the same picture’s over and over again. We went to visit a few photographers and came away quite uninspired and deflated, then we saw Crash Taylor’s website, and were both impressed by his style of wedding photography as it was different to all the other photographer’s we’d seen.  He got us to do things we would never thought of, and the results are amazing. I think photographs are one of the most important things for a wedding, as they are what you have left after the wedding and honeymoon are over, and every time you look at them you relive the day.

What are some the challenges that you faced planning an intimate wedding?

Not being able to invite everyone, but we also had to keep the cost down, so we did quite a lot of organizing ourselves. So we just looked through magazines and found things that we liked, we did all the decorating ourselves, all the girls stayed over at the venue in a cottage the night before, so we put all the chair covers on and tied ribbon around them, which took a while as there were 70 to do. We also printed our own invitations, place cards, table numbers & table plan. We bought our flowers from a wholesale flower company, so we got them at cost price, we also bought our cake from M&S (a high street store), and decorated it ourselves with ribbon.

Was it difficult to pare down the guest list?

Yes, I think this was the most challenging thing’s of the whole wedding. Choosing a venue with a small ceremony room, gave us a target number of guests (70). In a way, this helped us to choose the people who were most important to us, and we were able to have a lot of our friends present, as myself and rob don’t have huge families. Seventy sounds like a lot of people, but we have lots of friends and once we started to put a guest list together it was apparent that some people would not be invited to the ceremony.

Did you have any ‘issues’ with the small guest list from friends and family?

I think our parents would have liked to have invited more people, but it was important to us to have our own friends there.

If so, how did you address them?

People were quite understanding about the fact we had limited numbers. There were some people who were offended, but you can’t please everyone. I think once you realize that, the easier it gets.

What were the highlights of the ceremony?

I loved the whole ceremony. It was such an intense moment shared between me and Rob. The registrar was fantastic, and made us both feel at ease whilst giving a really heartfelt service. I was quite nervous before the ceremony, but as soon as I walked down the aisle and saw Rob’s face, all my fears left me. I read a poem, which I was really nervous about before the ceremony started, but when I got into the ceremony room I was really looking forward to reading it, and was really calm and really enjoyed it. One of our closest friends also read a poem, which he read amazingly well, and put his heart and soul into it, which made most people shed a tear.

What were the highlights of the reception?

After the ceremony, myself & Rob went for a drive in our hired 1930’s wedding car. We drove around the country roads, surrounding the venue. It was a beautiful day (which is rare in England). This was really nice as it gave us some time together on our own to reflect on the ceremony. We had an acoustic folk band playing outside to entertain our guests, who were hired by our head bridesmaid as a wedding gift; this was a nice surprise, as they were really good and really worked with the country setting. We sat down for the wedding breakfast and had the speeches which were brilliant. We were both touched by everyone’s kind words. The evening band was also brilliant; they played 1960’s style Ska music and they got everyone on their feet dancing all night. When it got dark we invited all our guest’s to come onto the lawn outside and let off 70 Chinese paper lanterns. The effect was stunning, and after the wedding everyone still comments on the lanterns and how lovely they looked.

What was the best thing about having an intimate wedding?

The best thing about having an intimate wedding is that you have enough time to spend with each other and your guests. It’s over so quickly so you need to make sure you spend some time with each other during the day. It’s easy to end up speaking to everyone else and realize at the end of the day that you’ve hardly spoken to your new husband/wife.

What advice do you have for couples who are considering an intimate wedding?

Don’t worry about trying to please other people because you can’t please everyone. The most important people are you and your partner. Ultimately it’s about showing each other how much you love each other, so nothing else should really matter. Also, don’t worry if things don’t quite go according to plan. Nobody will notice. Lastly, enjoy it! It’s your day and your memories.

Vendors:

Venue & Caterers – Halstead House Farm, Tilton on the Hill, Leicester

Dress - Jenny Packham– Liz Corker Bride, Leicester

Band Day – The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Band Evening – Kingsize

Florist – The Flower Company

Car – Amanda’s Cars

Men’s Suits & Bridesmaid Dresses – Debenhams

Photographer – Crash Taylor Wedding Photography

Jewellery –www.crystalbridalaccessories.co.uk

Decorations - www.confetti.co.uk

You are going to LOVE this Valentine’s Day Giveaway from Night Owl Paper Goods! One lucky winner is going to win all of the stationery goodies (and the canvas tote!) pictured above valued at more than $100.

If you haven’t heard of Night Owl Paper Goods, you must take a look at their truly lovely and unique wedding stationery.

Night Owl Paper Goods makes handmade letterpress cards and eco-chic wooden goodies that are unlike anything else! Their work is inspired by Swedish and American folk artists, British haberdashers, as well as the cute critters and colossal colors provided by Mother Nature. Above is just one of many beautiful wedding designs they offer.

So, back to the contest.

Here’s what you need to do to have a chance at winning:

1. Fan Me on Facebook (already a fan? no prob.)

2. Leave a comment at the end of this post telling me what you consider romantic (i.e. a walk in the forest; sushi and saki by candelight; baking bread together etc.) or tell me about something romantic that your partner has done for you.

3. Cross your fingers and wait until I announce the winners on February 14!

You have until 11:59 p.m. February 13, 2010  to enter. This contest is open to residents of Canada and the U.S. only. Winners will be selected by random number generator.

Good luck!

(Bella-the-dog not included.)

You’ve got a wedding to pay for. Perhaps a house. Car. Then there are the bills.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to stash some money away for the future? You can! Forget the linens, toaster, latte machine – why not register for stocks?

WeddingFutures.com lets you do just that. Simply open an account and select your stocks. Let your guests know that you are registered at WeddingFutures.com and instead of running around looking for a wedding gift for you, they simply choose from your list of stocks and pay via Paypal or credit card.

“Gifts from WeddingFutures.com are securely purchased and transferred online, and can actually increase in value over time, so today’s gift will always fit every couples’ needs now and into the future,” says Keaton Nguyen, founder of WeddingFutures.com.

WeddingFutures.com provides the registry and collects the funds. (They charge 5% commission.) The funds are transferred to your brokerage  account to be purchased by your brokerage firm. You can use any bank or brokerage firm. When your wedding day finally arrives, the gifts are transferred to your account.

“Couples can register for gifts that feather their financial nest and set the foundation for a solid financial future, “ says Nguyen. “Gift givers can be confident that their WeddingFutures.com gift – unlike a pricey coffee-maker, which will break or become obsolete — will always be needed, wanted and put to good use.”

Check out WeddingFutures.com for more info.

Thinking of a DIY photo booth? Beware: bum photos are quite possible. Check out this National Post story on DIY photo booths. (Don’t forget to check out my article on the classic photo booth too.)

Photo: Critsey Rowe

Photo: Carla Ten Eyck via Belle The Magazine

Photo: Brea McDonald via Belle The Magazine

Photo: Look and Taste

Photo: Uncommon Events

Photo: Jose Villa, via Belle The Magazine

Photo: Amity Mason via Project Wedding

Now that you’ve made your delicious caramels from this caramels recipe, I’m offering a free wedding printable that will help you make these adorable DIY candy favor bags. You can put just about any kind of candy in these bags and customize them to suit your wedding theme. We used heart cardstock because Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. The free wedding printable is a template – in two different sizes – that you can use when cutting out your card stock.

I got the idea for these candy favor bags over at Martha Stewart Weddings.

Materials

Cellophane candy bag

card stock

scissors

bone folder

ribbon

Scotch tape

1. Download your free printable template by right-clicking on the following links and selecting “save link as”…

Template for 5″ x 11 1/2″ cellophane bag

Template for 4″ x 9 1/2″ cellophane bag

2. Using the template, cut your piece of card stock. Fold card stock using a bone folder, as directed.

3. Place folded card stock inside cellophane bag. Place candy inside bag. (I put a dozen homemade caramels in the bag.)

4. Turn bag over. Place piece of ribbon on the edge of the bag opening. Fold bag over ribbon twice. Although Martha doesn’t mention this, I think it’s a good idea to secure it with a small piece of Scotch tape.

5. Turn bag over and tie ribbon in a knot or bow. Presto, you have your adorable DIY candy favor bag!