DIY Desserts S'Mores and Cotton Candy

I don't care what party I go to I always, ALWAYS look forward to the interesting desserts that are offered.  Here are a couple of non-traditional choices.  S'mores and Cotton Candy.  Pair them with a rustic or carnival theme and you have a show stopper.

S'Mores Bar

How cool would a S'more bar be at your reception?  Make it even better by doing some DIY marshmallows and packaging them up as favors.  This recipe looks amazing and fairly easy to do.  The instructions are light hearted and clear.  Pair these with the unexpected Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or York Peppermint patties for something even better.

DIY Fluffy Marshmallows via SmittenKitchen

Are the marshmallows a little daunting for your DIY attempt?  Try out these S'more inspired truffles instead. Yummy!!!!

S'more Truffles

Create a signature drink for your festivities.  The Cotton candy Cosmopolitan fits the bill!!!!

Cotton Candy Cosmo

Go sticky sweet and romantic with heart shaped cotton candy sugar cookies.  I like the idea of playing with the colors of cotton candy to match your wedding colors.  Here is a how to on tinting your own sugar to make custom colored cotton candy.  Find a cotton candy machine at Amazon.com here.

Cotton Candy Sugar Cookie Pops

Cookies not your thing???  Cupcakes instead then.  Check out these whimsical cake creations.  I bet you could find a baker to help you create a wedding cake in this style :)

Cotton Candy Cupcakes

Hope you aren't drooling too much.  If you are that's okay.  Just wipe your chin and make sure no one saw a thing.  Discreet is the key.  I hope you enjoy these tasty DIY ideas as much as I do.  My Pintrest.com explorations when nuts when searching this topic.

Krissy

Make Believe'N Wedding Alternatives LLC

www.etsy.com/shop/krissy167

DIY wedding favour boxes

Wedding favours are a nice way to say thank you to your guests but what sort of wedding favours do you give them?

A lot of attention is normally paid to what to put into the boxes but we must not forget that the box itself could be personalised as well. One easy way is make them!

The advantage of making them is that you can make them to the size you want and using the paper you have chosen. Yes it will take time and effort but your guest will appreciate your effort as you shall see.

Step one, this is the template you will need to understand to make these boxes.

A = length of box

B = height of box

C = 2 cm length which is needed in construction.

The dashed lines will be your fold lines.

From a standard A4 sheet of paper the largest box you can make is a 5cm(side) x 5cm(side) x 7cm(height) which is more then enough to fit a good size chocolate (or what small treat you may give them).

Step two, rather then folding the paper straight away, I would recommend scoring the dotted lines because these will become the folds. Why are you scoring the paper rather then folding it straight away? Well, this will give a more accurate fold and give a cleaner finish.

Step three, crease each of the scored lines you made so it looks like this.

Step four, fold as following and then insert the two ends into each other.

Step five, this is the tricky bit, pushing the base down. You will need to follow the folds you have made and gently manoeuvre each side on top of each other. This manipulation will open up the side where you have inserted the ends together. To prevent the ends from coming apart you can use a clip to hold them together.

This will require a bit of patient and practice but it will fold down if you gently push it down gradually.

Finished, you have the base for your box.

To make the lid for the box is very simply! All you need to do is

1. Add 1-2mm on A - side of the box
2. Decrease B - height of the box to 2-3cm

then you follows the same folding method as above. Here is my lid to the above box.

As mentioned above, you can use almost any paper you like to make these boxes but I would recommend you use paper that is around 80-100 gsm because it will make step 5 a little bit easier.

Now grab a load of your friends and family and fold to your hearts content!

NOTES :

If you require larger pictures then just click on the picture and it will take you to a larger version.

There is another way of folding the lid to make it more decorative. If you want to learn more then let me know in the comments and I'll sort out a tutorial for those.

Eco DIY Family Friendly Wedding

Elizabeth and Joshua Goldapp decided to have a wedding to match who they are; fun loving, Eco-conscious, and family oriented.  Elizabeth’s advice to couples is to remember that the day is about you as a couple.  Your guests will appreciate a customized representation of who you are.  The amount you spend is not a representation of your commitment or love for each other.    Elizabeth and Joshua took this to heart and you can see it in all of the fine details of their amazing day.

The couple was married close to home by Elizabeth’s little brother (ordained online) at the Pinecone Amphitheater of the 4H Center in Madrid Iowa.  They chose this location because their money would go to a local organization they feel should be supported.  The Goldapp’s have been Wal-Mart free for more than five years and typically buy local and independent.  If they couldn’t buy local then they specifically purchased for the reduced impact on the environment or from an Etsy.com shop.  See the list at the end.   The BBQ dinner meat, cupcakes and flowers were all locally purchased.  They purchased an invitation template from Empapers on Etsy.com and had it printed locally on recycled paper.  Mason jars that decorated the tables came from freecycle.org a free classified site, where every item is free/given away.  Elizabeth’s beautiful diamond wedding ring was a deliberate ethical Eco friendly choice.   Her wedding dress is organic cotton and bamboo by Isadora.  Each option chosen for this wedding clearly represented how much the Goldapps respect the local economy and the environment.

Responsibility aside, fun certainly reigned at this wedding too.  An overall casual feel surrounds the guests with name tags (because seriously who knows everyone at a wedding), picnic style dining, paper lanterns, butcher block paper covered tables (with crayons for drawing of course), and to top it off matching Chuck Taylor shoes for the Bride and Groom.  Come comfortable was a clear instruction to the guests.  Sounds like my kind of wedding!  The favors were inspired directly by the bride and groom.  He has a passion for guitars.  She is covered in tattoos.  Each guest was given a custom guitar pick from www.steveclayton.com and a temporary tattoo.  Too cute!  I think their guests had a blast.  If they didn’t well…that’s their fault.

All the fun was for one reason; to bring the loved ones of Elizabeth and Joshua together to celebrate this union.  When Elizabeth was writing her wedding details to me I don’t think she realized how much her family was included.  It was especially touching to see that traditional family recipes were cooked and shared at the wedding.  Lefse for Elizabeth’s side and peanut butter balls for Joshua’s side.   I loved her explaining why her flower girl received a bubble gun instead of flowers.  (Extreme shyness Elizabeth thought could be thawed with the toy)  There was so much kindness and tons of thoughtful consideration to the comfort of those around her.  (Anybody notice the golf cart in the pics ?– easier travel for the Grandparents)  Tragically Elizabeth lost her father two years prior in Afghanistan.  She did an entire table of memorial photographs to allow even those missing to be a part of her and Joshua’s day.  These special touches are what make a wedding a day to remember.

Thank you to the Goldapps for telling us about your Eco DIY Family Friendly wedding story.  A special thank you to Chris Fowler and Michelle Boettcher for being ‘free’ photographers for a day.

Dress: http://www.etsy.com/shop/isadoraclothing

Earrings: http://www.etsy.com/people/spiffingjewelry

Place card holders: http://www.etsy.com/listing/47875767/handcrafted-set-of-12-rustic-place-card

Name tags: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PansyPatchDesigns

Free classified: freecycle.org

Cupcakes: http://amescupcakes.com/

Paper lanterns: www.lunabazaar.com

Guitar picks: http://www.steveclayton.com

Temporary tattoos: http://www.tattoosales.com/

Eco utensils: http://www.ecoproductsstore.com

Table décor/art favors: http://www.etsy.com/shop/horseshoecrab


Krissy
Make Believe'N Wedding Alternatives LLC
www.etsy.com/shop/krissy167

Beer cookies for a casual wedding

Froo froo and fancy is not my style.  I prefer jeans and ponytails.  For couples that prefer a relaxed wedding reception I've got a very yummy cookie to be served along with a pint.
 Beer cookies:

1 cup salted butter, at room temperature

• 2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting hands
• 1 cup pecans, chopped into very small pieces
• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate morsels 
• 24 Snyder's pretzel snaps
• 
  
• -Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. Line cookies sheets with parchment paper.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar at low speed until it is smooth. Beat in the vanilla. At low speed gradually add the flour. Mix in the pecans and chocolate morsels with a spatula. With floured hands, take out about 1 tablespoon of dough and shape into a ball. Continue to dust hands with flour as you make more cookies. Place onto prepared cookie sheets. Press pretzel into the top of each ball flattening the ball a little. Bake for 40 minutes.  Cool on wire racks.

Parts of this receipe are compliments of the Food Network and Paula Dean,  I have doctored it into "beer cookies"

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/mexican-wedding-cookies-recipe2/index.html

ENJOY!

Eco Chic Wedding Ideas

I can totally understand why my carbon footprint is important, even if I haven't done everything I can to reduce it.  For the wedding couple that is making every effort in having the most Eco friendly wedding.....


These tumblers were originally wine glasses that are now reused and created into a set of glasses anyone would enjoy.  Perfect for the entire wedding reception as favors or as a gift to the Eco conscious wedding couple.  Bottlehood has vision!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/58396890/set-of-six-tumblers-made-from-recycled

10eisha is one of the originators of cruelty free feather wedding products.  All of the feathers in her amazing items are collected without any harm to the birds.  She can also go vegan and recycled at a clients request.  Her Eco friendly supplies can be purchased for your own DIY wedding adventure at http://www.etsy.com/shop/ethicalfindings

http://www.etsy.com/listing/52077805/fully-customizable-cruelty-free-wedding

LaurenLoweDesigns takes the time to do Eco friendly invites right.  There are no new trees used the the production of these invitations.  All of her designs are original and super chic!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LaurenLoweDesign?ref=seller_info

Autumn Wedding Favors - Hot Pepper Jelly

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Hot-Pepper-Jelly/Detail.aspx?src=etaf

I made this for family and friends one Christmas and was so surprised at how well received it was.  I recommended that they serve it over softened cream cheese with crackers.  I had people asking for this recipe for months.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups finely chopped red bell peppers 
• 1 1/4 cups finely chopped green bell peppers
• 1/4 cup finely chopped jalapeno peppers
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 (1.75 ounce) package powdered pectin (available at your local super store)
• 5 cups white sugar
• 
  
• I use a blender instead of "finely chopping" and they turned out just as pretty and tasty.

Directions

1. Sterilize 12 (4 ounce) or 6 (8 ounce) canning jelly jars and lids (available at your local super store and amazon.com) according to manufacturer's instructions. Heat water in a hot water canner (or just use a large stock pot).
2. Place red bell peppers, green bell peppers, and jalapeno peppers in a large saucepan over high heat. Mix in vinegar and fruit pectin. Stirring constantly, bring mixture to a full rolling boil. Quickly stir in sugar. Return to full rolling boil, and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and skim off any foam.
3. Quickly ladle jelly into sterile jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of the tops. Cover with flat lids, and screw on bands tightly.
4. Place jars in rack, and slowly lower jars into canner (large stock pot). The water should cover the jars completely, and should be hot but not boiling. Bring water to a boil, and process (boil) for 5 minutes.

Nutritional Information 

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 88 | Total Fat: 0g | Cholesterol: 0mg

To make this a wedding favor:

You will need colored yarn/twine/raffia/string.

Light weight fabric that coordinates with your wedding colors cut into 4x4 inch squares.

Card stock cut into tags.

Initial stamps.

Ink.

Hole punch.

After jars are completely cool (12-24 hours)  remove the metal ring that screws onto the top of the jar.  Center the fabric on top of the lid and screw the ring back on.  The fabric should be tight across the lid.

Stamp your initials onto the pre-punched paper tags and thread onto your yarn/twine/raffia/string.

Tie the raffia around the jar ring and make a bow.

Voila!  A autumn themed food favor.