Cupcake Stands!

You wouldn't believe the amount of requests I am getting for cupcakes instead of wedding cakes. I'm kind of pushing the idea a little myself, as they are SO much easier to serve on the beach. Cupcake towers are becoming more and more popular and attractive as well. We just ordered an acrylic one to use for weddings, but as I was snooping around Etsy today, I came across a seller that is making customized cupcake stands. Much more colorful and festive than our new acrylic one! I'd love to buy one of these but I think I would have to order like 30 of them to coordinate with all the different color schemes we work with. The one pictured above is from STUDIOofWHIMSY

And yes, I know. I've been seriously MIA from this blog. I think I had what? One? Two? posts for February. Pathetic. My excuses? An illness that hit me, my hubby and two kids (hello antibiotics)...visitors from the North (trying to escape the cold), a trip to the North (wanted to show the kids what it felt like to be cold!) and my birthday (that takes a couple of days to recover from!). So my deepest apologies. I've been a blog slacker. Really hope to make it up to everyone in March. In honor of St. Patrick's Day (on the 17th) I'm going to set the very unrealistic goal of blogging at least 17 times in the month of March! Let's see if I can do it...I know I have 17 posts worthy to blog! Now to find the time... =)

Phalaenopsis No-no's....

These orchids are just gorgeous, absolutely beautiful. Very elegant and very tropical.






But they are very, very testy. As gorgeous as they are, they do not like being cut from their vines. Once cut, they really must stay in water or they start to wilt very quickly. Then they start to look like this:



Not only do they not do well once they are cut, they are also very expensive. The picture above? That one branch of orchids with about 9 blooms on it? That cost the florist over $100. So she has to charge a lot for them. And then I'm completely nervous and the florist is completely nervous that a) they are going to arrive looking like the picture above or b) they are going to look like the picture above by the end of the night. You don't want to spend $200 on a bouquet that looks like that after a few hours!

If you absolutely love the look of these orchids though, I would definitely suggest looking into silk phalaenopsis. I know, I know, a lot of brides will shy away from silks - but there are a few types of flowers out that there look & feel just like the real thing - cymbidium orchids, calla lilies and phalaenopsis orchids are all done very well when "fake". I always suggest to brides using silks for hair flowers - they hold up way better than the real thing and are easy to move around in case they do start to fall. Check out some of the great finds I've seen on Etsy:

Hair flowers::



Bouquets: