Top cake toppers.

A much as I love baking...decorating is the next best thing! But this time I can leave my piping bag in the cupboard. Today I am looking at pieces that can be placed into the icing and on top of the tiered wedding cake.
Let's start with some humorous and easygoing numbers...

The traditional bride and groom standing side by side is a classic but with these toppers, the couple can still have a piece that reflects themselves but with a funny twist. There are custom made toppers which convey the couples jobs or hobbies such as fishing, dancing and medical themes to create a truly personal cake topper.

Animals such as love birds and swans have always been popular idea for toppers but now there are a whole new modern range of wedding creatures:

The famous saying "Be my Penguin" refers to tthe fact that once a penguin finds a mate they become soul-mates and will stay together for their entire lives. This has led to these animals being very included into a wedding design including toppers:

Other designs can include flowers, bows, ribbons, feathers, glitter, personalised pictures...the choices are endless allowing the Bride and Groom to really make their cake personal!

Mmm this makes me peckish.

Tangerine Dream!

For the bold bright bride! This orange tone has been awarded colour of the year by Pantone, colour experts:

With this, fashion designers across the world began designing garments adopting this colour as the main aspect or just adding small aspects of this bright beauty to keep bang on colour trend.

Now...for weddings, this colour will no doubt be a Summer Wedding must have!

Tangerine Tango Bouquet mixed with complimenting colours for a bright eyecatching look.

There are endless cake ideas using tangerine from the extravagant mixed with other brights to the simple small additions of tangerine on a simple white iced tiered beauty.

  

From these pictures you can see that the colour, tangerine can be altered to many different tones from the slightly pastel on the left to the bold bright on the right. This gives a bride great variety in how to use tangerine in the wedding.

Rustic tangerine coloured leaves create a great autumn/fall wedding table décor with the addition of trees. Matched with other vivid colours such as yellow creates the ultimate summer vibe.

Tangerine Tango may seem a very bold colour to surround your wedding day on but with it's versatility there are endless ways to feature this stunning colour in the big day!

Roll on Summer!

=)

Yella and Grey...

I think this is one of my favourite colour combinations for this year... creating a brilliant fresh look-perfect for any season wedding!

With the ever popular pastel theme occurring throughout many a wedding in 2012, this colour scheme  involves pastel tones with the pales but it is the bright contrast of yellow that brings this theme right onto trend for 2012! Again the colours could be incorporated into just about every aspect of the wedding from flowers to dresses to food. Elegant and Chic.
=)

Scottish Wedding Venues at their best.

In Scotland we are known for our national pride, our long-held traditions, spectacular scenery, highland games, rugby, accents, drinking....and so on! But what more people need to learn is the amount of great wedding venues the country has to offer to any bride! From spectacular castles to grand manors to modern builds...there's a venue in Scotland that will suit any couple!

Here are a handful of my personal favourites:

The Vu, Bathgate near Edinburgh. This glass walled building is a spectacular venue which boasts panoramic views of the water. With distinct interior design, this is a modern venue situated in a traditional Scottish area not far from Edinburgh- the best of both worlds! With wedding open days and packages available it is truly a unique place to celebrate your big day. For more information on the venue look here.

Dunnottar Castle, Aberdeenshire. This castle is situated on top of  a spectacular cliff face surrounded by deep blue ocean. Although the castle is mainly used as a visitors attraction, weddings can take place at this special venue. There are endless areas of the castle grounds here wedding ceremonies can be conducted but  if the weather in true Scottish manner is not all blue skies the Drawing room can hold up to 80 people and create an undercover ceremony area. Wedding pictures taken in this venue will be nothing less than stunning and memorable! For all information looky looky here

Eilean Donan Castle, Dornie. One of the most visited attractions in the Scottish Highland, this grand castle is world famous and has been seen in films across the world. This venue has it all: Castle, water, mountains, forests, opportunities for magical wedding photography...For everything else look this way.

Turnberry Resort, Ayrshire. I grew up visiting this hotel where my Papa worked for many years and even at a young age, I knew it had something special. My very own parent were married here which ended up in a riot of islanders having a good shindig within it's grand walls! With magnificent views across the sea to Ailsa Craig and 2 golf courses within it's vicinity, it has a lot to offer. With a number of restaurants, spas, activities and packages...it's hard to say no really! http://www.turnberryresort.co.uk/

Kildonan Hotel, Isle of Arran. On the bonniest of all isles, Arran, this family run hotel boasts beautiful scenery and it situated right on a sandy beach. From the ceremony to reception to evening celebrations, this hotel can do it all! Even on a stormy day wedding pictures will be stunning with views such as:

The 2 islands seen here are Pladda with it;s very own 1 hole golf course (I wouldn't recomment it as the best golf course on or near Arran) and Ailsa Craig in the background home to the Puffin!

This Island is my true home and I cannot think of a better place to celebrate the love of 2 people.

But I guess, that's just  favouritism.

Time to get your hands dirty...DIY Wedding ideas.

Taking the time to create aspects of your wedding design, will give the big day a real personal touch. I am not saying you need to get the sewing machine out for your dress...but you will be surprised how many small details can be done by friends and family with hidden talents such as...:

Edible Favours: Gone are the days of sugared almonds in an organza bag..If you or any of your friend or family (Think Granny's home-baking) has a passion for baking then this idea could work well and will be a lot cheaper than paying a caterer to carry out this task. From cupcakes to truffles to shortbread, these sweet treats will be welcomed by wedding guests late into the evening celebrations. I especially love the idea above with spoon readily attached ready to attack! There are thousands of recipes on-line giving great edible gift ideas if you are stumped for miniature tasty goodies inspiration.

Home-made decorations/centre-pieces: Want your evening reception décor to really be unique? Then create your own table decorations, no one will have seen any like them before! Whether you have a theme running throughout the day such as the outdoorsy look in the photos above, you can adapt these to match any style. For any friends or family who are crafts enthusiasts, this would be just their cup of tea! Using rustic twigs, stones and other natural elements won't cost a thing and will still give the tables that much needed oomph! There are plenty DIY Wedding Templates on-line to help Brides to Be create their own personal decorations!

DIY Invitations: For the artistic bride or groom! Ensure your guests first glimpse of your wedding show off your talents and personalities. Use the invite to introduce yourselves as an engaged couple by adding in drawings of things personal to you such as your favourite past times or portraits of yourselves or even a picture which reflects what you do for a living! For the bride with an abundance spare time (not many of them) each invite could be hand painted but with weddings which have over 100 guests this might not be possible or practical! Designing one key invitation style which can then be scanned onto a computer and printed off multiple times is a more realistic idea. This hand painted idea could be incorporated in many other design aspects of the day to create an overall personal theme.

Design your own Venue: Want a stylish wedding ceremony or reception but don't have the spare money to pay for a design team? Well fear not! If you have a true vision of what you want the venue to look like then there is no doubt that with great research and trips to craft stores you will be able to create the perfect design yourself! With hundreds of craft wholesalers online which offer ribbons, petals, candles, flowers, fabrics and so on, any bride could give venue designing a bash! Just take a look at the photo above..obviously the venue owner will supply furniture but other than that the main aspects that have been added to this ceremony room is ribbons, petals, candles and plants/flowers. Simple will always emulate elegance, you do not want to go to over the top which could create a cluttered messy look..(Unless that is what your wedding design vision entails!)

The cake: Again if you are a baking enthusiast or know one, there is no need to spend hundreds of pounds on a professional wedding cake designer! At the end of the day as long as it tastes good and looks decent enough, that's all that matters! Cake decorating utensils are available from many supermarkets and online and it really is another way to put a personal touch to your day if you can say that Bride and Groom baked and decorated it together. My fool-proof sponge recipe is as follows:

• 8oz Self Raising Flour
• 8oz Cater Sugar
• 8oz Butter
• 4 Eggs
• Wee Spladoosh of Vanilla Essence.

Mix butter and sugar to a light fluffy consistency, then add all eggs and vanilla-mix into a runny mixture and add sifted flour a wee bit at a time until you are left with a smooth non lumpy mixture! Pop into 180C oven for around 20 minutes or until when poked with a knife, it comes out clean with no raw mix attached.

This recipe can be altered to be double, tripled, halved etc to cater for more or less people!

All in all, a wedding day can be extra personal to the happy couple by taking part in the design process of the day! For the low budget bride, a DIY wedding is a great idea to save money but still have the perfect day knowing how much hard work has been put into the day from talented friends and family who can also have a sense of pride seeing their talents showcased to all guests.

Have a Happy Monday!

Here we, here we....

The beautiful Isle of Arran. Top Scottish Wedding destination.

Here we go then! The plan is to post daily on wedding trends and ideas ranging over every aspect of the big day! Do not be surprised if I do post random pictures which might not quite relate to weddings...but all will be very enjoyable indeed! This is not solely for Brides-to-Be..anyone can enjoy ideas posted as they could be incorporated into a birthday or other celebration of course! Due to my obsession with baking I plan to upload recipes that could  be used for weddings in the form of DIY favours or catering ideas. I am from Scotland which conveniently is one of the greatest countries in the world especially to be married in boasting spectacular scenery, culture, traditions, food and people of course so stay tuned for unique and quirky wedding inspiration!