Cake, Shoes and JCP

Wow. What a weekend. The Candyman and I had an amazingly full schedule of to-do's all weekend long. We are both exhausted, suffering from allergies, but giddy and happy too.

On Saturday, we had a noon appointment with Sweet 16th - A Bakery and met with husband/wife team Ellen and Dan. While Dan handled the steady stream of customers (all of whom they greeted by name), The Candyman and I sat and discussed cake options with Ellen. While they do not typically do the standard stacked wedding cake, the do offer several varieties of cakes that sounded pretty darn good!

We tasted the chocolate with cream cheese frosting, the vanilla with cream cheese frosting and the red velvet with cream cheese frosting. The Candyman is not a fan of red velvet, but he really liked this one. When I had set the appointment up with Dan, I had mentioned "no banana flavored anything" because, well, banana flavoring tastes like poo. Ellen inquired to my "no banana" request and was determined to prove me wrong. She grabbed a banana muffin for The Candyman and he immediately scarfed and gave a nod of approval. Sweet 16th doesn't use the artificial flavoring that produces the metallic taste I hate. Nice. Ellen's presentation of her single wedding cakes is gorgeous. I wish I had a photo to share. As we have done with out other vendors, we have chosen based on how we feel about the people in addition to the services offered. Maybe that's why it took so long to find a cake vendor - no one quite fit. We think Ellen and Dan do. The cakes vary in cost from $25 (chocolate cake with cream cheese icing) to $45 (The Velvet Elvis: 2 layers red velvet cake, one layer chocolate with peanut butter cream filling and cream cheese icing!). We estimate we'll need about 4 cakes, so this fits into the budget nicely! I need to call them and book for certain, we just need to crunch a few more numbers. Keep your fingers crossed for the cake buffet!

After we were done with the cake tasting, we headed over to Off-Broadway Shoes to see if I could find a pair of cuties for our engagement shoot. I did and they are fabulous and hopefully, you'll see them when I get my engagement shots! TEASE!

However, I did come across these as potential wedding shoes. The blue (and optional cream) ones are lovely, but too high. The ones with the rhinestones were kinda cute, but they didn't have my size and The Candyman was not as interested as I.


The engagement shoot was a blast. Jonathon and Sharon really just are the best people. We had such an amazing time! We met them on Sunday in Franklin, hopped in their van and headed south to Leipers Fork, Tennessee. After several days of rain, the sky had cleared up beautifully, although it was a tad windy. We stopped at a few random places along the way: a discolored cement wall with a barbed wire fence, an old marquis sign and a lonely country road. The owner of the marquis offered it to Sharon and we (OK, it was me) seriously considered hooking it up to the van! I snapped a shot of the marquis and The Candyman along the way:


We arrived in Leipers Fork around 4:30pm or so and cruised around one of the antique stores and snapped a few shots there while we were still in our "casual" clothes of jeans and nice shirts. We changed into our fancier duds and really got down to business. The Candyman did not wear the hat, just so you know.


We took photos outside of store fronts, on an old truck, on benches, on a hill in front of a stream, under this giant gazebo/outside porch thing, in front of cool, old walls and in front of a replica of the General Lee (for those twenty-something brides, that would be the car from The Dukes of Hazard, one of the best 70's TV shows ever). Sa-weet! By the time we got back to our car, it was almost 8pm! I don't know why, but we were completely exhausted when we got home. I mean, basically all we had to do was stand there and make out a little. How awesome is that? OK, we didn't necessarily make out, but there was some smoochin' goin' on! :) I have a slightly higher regard for models now, but not much.

I know that Sharon did a ton of leg-work to scope out the locations and she did an incredible job. All these great photo op spots were within 600 yards or so of each other. It was the first time The Candyman and I had been to Leipers Fork and we will for sure be back! I can't wait to see the photos. I'm not sure when they will be "ready" but I'll be sure to share when they are! So excited to see the outcome of much anticipation and tons of fun yesterday! Thanks you guys! We had a blast!