{wedding} Reception (a lot of photos!)

While we were looking for a venue for our reception we quickly became a little discouraged with the high cost for anything that was remotely different. We were looking into farms in the area because that really suits our style, but they were all very high priced (for our budget). In desperation I posted on facebook asking if anyone of my friends knew of a barn we could use, or tents that they would let us borrow. I almost immediately got a response from a couple people suggesting we look into The Dutch Barn. It is very near where we live so I called and went and looked it over. It was perfect. The price was even more perfect. (side note- we did, however, have an issue trying to get our deposit back which I heard later is not uncommon with this venue. But eventually he did give our deposit back and I honestly don't think he was trying to cheat us, I think his rental business is just not run very efficiently) 
I was beside myself with excitement when we saw it.

The license plates are not a permanent thing. They just happened to be up the day we took photos.

We booked that week.

I started looking around online for barn decor ideas staightaway. I found so many fun ideas that eventually I had to stop myself from looking at any more. I had more ideas than I was going to be able to work with!

My parents were unbelievable in helping us plan our wedding and reception. They helped us purchase lots of paper lanterns and burlap, and so many other little details to help us make it perfect. I scoured the internet for the best prices on centerpiece containers and floral arrangement ideas. We waited until the Christmas lights came out and bought lots and lots of them. I got busy making banners (I only ended up making 2, but that's ok :) and gathering ideas for dessert table and gift table. We had decided very early on that we wanted to have pint glasses for our guest favors. We started looking around for printers since we would not be able to print them ourselves (we don't have a setup for printing on glass).

We got the key at the beginning of the week so we could get in the barn and get it cleaned up and sweep out the hay and cobwebs, and get to decorating! Family and friends were so, so helpful!

we forgot to iron the linens... oops! Good thing I don't care about things like that :)

My Daddy made these perfect boxes for all of the tables for use to put the flowers in. I love them. 

Let me tell you about these flowers.
::prepare for long story::
I went our entire engagement with no meltdowns until the night before our rehearsal. I had gone the day before that EVERYWHERE in town looking for mums. I wanted potted mums to place all over the barn. I love fall flowers and mums were just the right choice. I had gone to all of the local nurseries (I had wanted to support some local business) but, to no avail. They had none. Well, they had them, but they were all half dead and would not have made it though the wedding. So, on the way home, in desperation, we stopped at Lowe's.  The entire way there I was praying that they would have some. And I'm telling you, God does care about the silly little things that we want sometimes, no matter how trivial... because walking up to the garden center, there sat a brand-spankin' new shipment of rust colored (THE color I had been hunting all over town) mums. PERFECT! they were beautiful. So we loaded up about 16 and headed home.
Well.
When we got them all in the barn and set up on tables, we decided we needed more. So I headed back (this was now the night before out rehearsal... the night when everything had to be completed) to pick up a couple more. I walked up to the garden center and there was not a rust colored mum to be found. none. So I walked my little hiney back to the clearance section fussing the whole way that they better not have put them all on clearance the DAY AFTER I bought them. Well folks, that is exactly what they had done. So I took a deep breath and thought, well maybe I can get my money back. No such luck. I went to the customer service desk and she said that they could not refund me the money for some silly reason. aaaaaaand I burst into tears. And not just a little tear-in-the-eye thing. . . it was I can't-catch-my-breath-sobbing. ha! First time I had broken down since planning the wedding had begun. And it was a m-e-l-t down!
I made my way back through the garden center to my friend who was with me, passing a lady on the way who had helped me purchase the flowers the day before. She asked what she could do and was very helpful and kind, but I couldn't talk because I was sobbing. I said no thank you. well, she went to find out what happened, and then came and found me again. She said there was a mistake and they would refund me the money. **!** ...We had gotten our flowers for a little more than 75% off. Unbelievable. Again, God really does care about the small things.

My Grandaddy's old suitcase

We wanted to keep things simple as far as menu went. We chose our favorite barbecue joint around town and they catered for us. If you're ever in the area, you must try Mutt's. It's pretty amazing. Also, my mother-in-law made her always delicious cheese-berry salad. If you have never heard of such a thing let me tell you. well, I don't know what. But it's so good. (for the curious, it is cream cheese yumminess topped with cranberry/jello goodness... yep.)
We had already lined up for our beer to be purchased through a local business with which we have become friends. The Community Tap is an unbelievable place. They were happy to supply us with a keg of Highland Oatmeal Porter (hubby's go-to beer). I'm a big fan of Trader Joe's so we had some 3-buck Chuck on hand as well.

As for music, we are huge bluegrass fans so that was a given. I mean, come on-- it's in a barn with barbecue for pete's sake! :) We asked local favorites The Bent Strings to join us. They are a very talented group of guys who can play all of the great bluegrass standards, as well as great jazz and, well, pretty much anything.

I just realized this was one of our groomsmen asking me to sign my new name for the first time :) nice little memento.

A dear friend of ours who is a pastry chef in our area made our cake for us. Chocolate espresso cake with cream cheese frosting. YES PLEASE! We wanted it to be very rustic and she did a perfect job!! ...it was delicious!!! And our little cake topper was made by me. I had put it off until the week before the wedding and finally got busy constructing it. I'm so happy with how it turned out. 

And, as you're probably noticing by the number of photos I have put in my blog concerning our wedding, I sometimes can go overboard with things I am excited about. In addition to our wedding cake, I also wanted a dessert table with lots of home-baked goodies. I asked my soon-to-be uncle to bake his AMAZING apple pies, and my wonderful aunt to bake a carrot cake and some sort of cupcakes. They were so sweet to do this for us. It turned out beautifully. 

it's funny looking back at it... looks a little sparse... but I thought it was perfect :)

These little cupcake stands were made from a DIY I found online... made from burner covers from the $1 store!

Birch flatware

 We decided to do a "welcome" instead of a "send-off". We had planned to stay through the entire reception and had not planned to leave for our honeymoon from the reception site, so we had sparklers and a welcome when we arrived to the barn from the church. I loved doing it this way. The only thing I regret is having the guests wait. I didn't expect them to, but that's the way it worked out.

My adorable little cousin decided to join us walking in :)

Thanks so much to our friends, the Quebes, for taking some great candids! 

Thanks to our friends, the Quebes, for taking some great candids!

Well y'all, I think I've taken up enough of your time for now. I hope you will put up with my excessive photo sharing. I'm still so excited about how our wedding turned out that I just want to share as much of our experience as I can. 

Thanks again to our photographer, Angela Cox! 

A little change... maybe?

This blog began in an attempt to show the goings-on in our lives as Zach and I planned for our wedding. I still have lots to share, but I was looking at my page today and am now wondering if I should change the tag line-- because I am now a Landrum. And this thought led to another- I think it may be time to revamp this blog into something a little more presentable. I think it needs a more stream-lined look, and a tag-line change. We will see what happens. I think I may need to ponder this for a while.

So you may see a few changes to this before it is finalized. "Please pardon our mess!"

{food} New cake recipe

I have a white cake recipe which I got from my cooking class in high school. It has been my go-to recipe for white cake since that time. The past few times I've made it, I realized that it is a little dry, and doesn't really have the texture that I am looking for in a white cake. This week I went on a hunt around the internet to find the perfect white cake recipe. I am looking for one that produces a moist, tender, fluffy white cake. Not too sweet, and not too heavy or dry.

The one I am focusing on right now is one that I found on thekitchn.com. This recipe is actually for a "funfetti" cake. Perfect for birthdays... only, I just want a simple white cake. So I just left out the sprinkles.

photo credit: www.thekitchn.com

My favorite cake in the world is white cake with homemade chocolate fudge frosting. This time, however, I wanted to put together a 4 layer cake with homemade strawberry freezer jam (made by yours truly), and cream cheese buttercream frosting.

When I started with this recipe I hadn't read through all of the instructions, so when I was getting my ingredients together I was taken aback when I saw that I was supposed to put all of my dry ingredients in the bowl first. What? If you bake often, you know that typically the sugar is placed in the bowl first with butter and shortening, and is creamed together. Then eggs are added. And then dry ingredients are mixed in alternately with milk.

So I did as I was told-- I separated the eggs and placed them in a small bowl with part of the milk, and the vanilla. I put the dry ingredients in the mixer bowl, and added the butter and shortening. The result was a very thick dough, similar to a bread dough. I was trusting the recipe because I wasn't really sure what to expect, or what it was supposed to look like. 

I don't know why I was even skeptical after reading the post where I found this recipe. It sounded like a great recipe. And, once my cakes were out of the oven looking wonderful, I was excited to move on to the next step.

I've never made a layer cake with more than 2 layers. I wanted to make this one with 4 layers. After seeing my cakes after they were baked, I was a little nervous about being able to cut them in half.  Next time I may try 8-inch, or 6-inch pans to get a little more hight on the finished cake. I cut carefully and was able to get them into 4 layers with only a slight variance in thickness. 

I had read online that it was wise to pipe a border of frosting around each layer, just inside the edge, so the jam won't seep through the layer and onto the outside of the cake. I did this after I spread a third of a jar of jam on each layer. Also, it helped to use the bottom of a cake as the bottom layer, and the when I placed it's "top" I placed it upside-down. it helped keep the next layer flat. 

What remained was just to frost the cake like I would any other cake. 

Of course I IMMEDIATELY cut a piece to try. I didn't realize that my fiance was in the house with me. I was "mmm-ing" and "oooh-ing" and "oh that's good"-ing, thinking I was alone. Then from the living room I hear "it's that good, huh?"... HA! oh well. He knows how excited I get over food. When I find the perfect recipe and I can execute if perfectly, that is my reaction. 

Yes, I ate it all.

{food} 5 Flavor Poundcake, and Family

So here I go on another food post. This may be a good time to explain something about myself.

For some folks, food is just a way to stay alive. They go on about their everyday lives eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner while never being excited about anything on their plate-- and they don't really care to be.

I am not one of these people. I will actually clap when a wonderful meal is placed in front of me.  There is something in me that resonates with the effort and love that I know goes into good food. I think of food as a form of art; an expression of ones self and one's family. There is something intimate about preparing a meal for someone you love. I believe it is a connection to the past; my history. I hold a deep emotional connection to many of the recipes that I own. They have been around for years, and passed down to me from my mother, her mother before her, and from others I hold dear. When I was small, my mom would stand me up on a stool beside her in the kitchen, and we would cook and bake together. Times spent in the kitchen are some of the fondest memories I have from my childhood.

me

The roots of my love for food (especially baking and sweets) run deep. My mother has 5 sisters who have all stayed very close throughout the years. I have 15 cousins, and 12 (if i have counted correctly) first cousins once removed... just on my Mom's side. We are all spread around 5 states, but we keep in touch (thanks to the wonderful world of social media and some very determined mothers).

 [The sisters]

As early as I can remember, whenever all of us were together, which is at least once a year at Thanksgiving, there was ALWAYS a dessert/snack table in addition to our meal table. All of us kids would sneak by the dessert table and grab the mint chocolate brownies, peanut butter balls, and the homemade chex-mix, thinking we were getting away with something. All along our mothers knew what we were up to.  I remember so many evenings sitting around the dining room table with my Grandma, my mom, and my aunts and cousins after dinner, just talking... about whatever. It didn't matter what we talked about. The important things was that we were all there together.

[The early days before us cousins were even thought about]

Every year at our Thanksgiving get-together, the sisters give "sister gifts" to each other. Several years ago, however, they gave a "cousin gift" instead. All of the sisters, and my Grandma, got a collection of recipes together and made us a cookbook of all of our favorites.

...It is one of my most cherished belongings.

If you were to ask me to choose one recipe that I would consider a family recipe that I will pass down to my children, I would tell you about 5 flavor pound cake. I don't really know if it is a true "family recipe", as in, I'm not sure if it was completely made up by a distant relative. This doesn't matter to me. It is something that has been a part of our home for years. And I plan to keep it going. 5-Flavor Poundcake is the first cake listed in this book. There is a reason.

I had a request to make this cake recently, so I whipped one up today. Actually, this is not a "whip it up" sort of recipe. While it is fairly simple to make, it has to bake for and hour and a half, and then you make a glaze for it. It is a labor of love.

If you would like this recipe, I will share. Just leave a request in the comment box and I will email it to you. I think it is a little too special just to post online.

I hope this post inspires you to look into your family's past and find some of the cherished recipes that have made it through the generations of your history. I have been blessed by God beyond all my imagination. He has chosen to place me in one of the most loving, wonderful families and I hope that I always remember to thank Him for this.

The women in our family started a recipe club, and we started a blog to help keep up.  If you are interested in seeing any of these recipes, click here.