Cerveza, Tequila, Mezcal and Cocktail-y goodness

So for this post it seems only fitting that I hand over to C.

So, the drinks in Mehico have been plentiful, cheap, tasty and, well, tasty.

First the beer, or cerveza as those in this part of the world call it. Having only a limited selection of mexican beers available at home, it is fairly easy to think that they are all light-as-water summer drinking lagers like corona. Indeed, a lot of them are, and they go down very nicely indeed while sitting on the beach in mid-30's warmth. But there are a lot of other far more interesting brews available too. My favourite would have to be a beer by the name of Bohemia. It's quite a full flavoured job, more reminicent of an Australian beer, yet with that nebulous and undefinable super-refreshingness that Mexican beers seem to have in spades. There have been many more goodens - here is a partial list of sampled brews - Sol, Corona, Dos Equis, Pacifico, Tecate, Buchanero, Bohemia, Modelo and the list goes on. Did I mention that it is pretty difficult to find a beer costing over about $1.50 at almost any place over here? How about $5 for a six-pack of corona? Yep - strike another one up for Mehico.

We have sampled quite a few cocktails over here, but the most noteworthy one that Brooke and I have gotten into is the Bull, or the el Toro Bravo. It consists of a beer, into which is placed a shot of rum and some lime juice, a lime and that is all. It is very tasty.

We have also tried plenty of tequila and mezcal. Mezcal turns out to be astoundingly nice - it is like a smoky tequila. We did a tour of the Jose Cuervo distillery, where we learnt a fair bit about tequila and the processes that go into making it. We tasted some extremely nice tequilas - they bear almost no resemblance to the tosh that destroys the nights of underage teenagers everywhere. The good stuff is remarkably smooth and subtle - so we bought a bottle of the 'special family reserve', and will open it for a special occasion. We've also picked up 2 bottles of Mezcal, an Anejo (aged) and a fruit flavoured.

Anyway, no photos for this post - you all know what an alcoholic beverage looks like.

Food

So C and I had a busy weekend this weekend getting heaps of stuff done. One of my favourite jobs on the weekend was the food tasting. Food is something that's really important to C and I, it was really important that everyone gets enough food (we've all been to weddings where the food is a little light on) and that the food is good. It is were we are spending most of our budget so we really want to get it right. The tasting was great C we are really happy with everything we choose for the final menu.

We gave the food options a lot and of thought, the only concern now is for the canapes, making sure they are spread enough within the crowd and everyone gets feed, particularly as we are extending the canapes and not having an entree. There is also the problem of some people not liking this or that but I think we have some up with a menu that is pretty likable, and if they don't, well honestly you can't keep everyone happy and if we attempted to we'd be miserable.

Some my highlight of the menu where the:

hand formed poppy seed bagels with capsicum, Persian feta, rocket and almond paste - so much better than I'd expected.

baby beef fillet wrapped in prosciutto and truffle on potato galette - I could get an entire plate of this.

ginger crust - part of the main, I'm not 100% sure whats in this but I love it, I want the recipe.

twice baked passion fruit soufflés - actually backed in the shell the the passionfruit, and so light and summery.

Have to thank the team at The Boatshed, for pulling it all together and doing such an amazing job, really looking forward to eating it all again at the wedding.

I'm in love

When I was a little kid you could walk to the corner store and buy these individually wrapped strawberry heart candies, they where the best, both C and I have memories of saving our pennies to blow it all on strawberry candy. Neither of us thought they existed anymore, but i found them on ebay when I was searching for wedding lollies and I couldn't resits. Today 3 tubs got delivered to my desk and I'm finding it difficult not to rip them open and eat them all myself.

When I get stuff like this I get really excited about the wedding, they are just fun little things that I love.

Image from theartoffee.livejournal.com

The sun comes out

So a few weekends back C and I went down the coast for a wedding. We arrive early on the Wednesday night and the weather was awful, to be generous, it was raining. No one held much hope for the weather on Saturday. As most guest had arrived early everyone meet at the local pub for dinner and it seemed most of the female conversation revolved around what we were wearing and how we planed to combat the cold.

But on Saturday morning when we woke up the sun was out and it was warm, I'm not going to say hot but a huge improvement on where we had been. Looking back I felt that was appropriate, getting married within 2 month of one another the bride and I had spoken to each other a lot about the ups and down and helped each other out as much as we could during the whole process. She had a rough time planning her wedding so when the sun came out on Saturday and everything seemed to fall into place it seemed right.

I know there would have been problems and some things wouldn't have gone as planned, but as a guest I didn't notice any of it, to me it seemed perfect. The day they deserved after all the hard work.

I didn't take my good camera but I got a few shoots with my point and shoot, so I thought I'd share some of the awesomeness of it. (Just the details)

I've always said my weakness is food, Lollies, cake, dinner.

Holiday

This weekend C and I have taken some time off and headed down the coast for a long weekend. We are staying in Gerringong for a friends wedding, I'm really excited, it sound like its going to be heaps of fun.

And while we are down this direction C and I thought we'd get some wedding chores knocked off, so later today we are headed to Nowra to work out travelling time between venues so we can finalise the running sheet, order the cakes, which we are now having on the Saturday at Brunch rather than during the wedding, to many people don't eat the cake at the wedding, and these cakes are really good we want people to eat them. The most exciting of all, we are picking our ceremony location, we'll stop in at about the time of the wedding to see where the sun and shade is to pick a nice place on the field to get married.

Its going to be a good weekend I think.

What it should be

Found on www.oncewed.com rest of this wedding is also well worth a look.

If you were to ask me a wedding cake should look like a cake you want to get, not a fancy table ornament. like this cake. I just want to want to eat it all and lick the plate clean, I mean fresh cream and strawberries who wouldn't want to eat that.

I scream, you scream, we all scream..

for ice cream. I have had a bit of a bad day today and this cheered me up straight away. I love the idea for a "Make Your Own Sundae" Ice cream Parlour. I'm already having a dessert buffet for my wedding, so I need to find another reason to use this one. Maybe for my next bday.

Check out more on www.eatdrinkchic.com

So fun

I have to thank One Boy One Girls for today inspiration, this pre-wedding bash Nixon and Egan throw the day before their wedding would be perfect for a relaxed yet stylish wedding. I love weddings where everything is aimed at being fun. Wedding really should reflect the couple and if you not one for formal events than bbqs and carnival style parties are a great idea. This idea would also work really well for anyone on a budget

found on www.oneboyonegirl.com

Its similar to what i attempted to create for our engagement party however our budget DIY attempt wasn't quite as polished as this.

Brunch

Since I still have heaps of stuff I need to organize for the wedding I thought it appropriate to ignore all of that stuff and focus on the brunch. (joking still doing wedding stuff as well). The recovery brunch for me a a time to relax, eat too much food, talk, swim, kick around a foot ball and generally hang out together. I would still like it to look pretty as well, so I've put together an inspiration board of my thoughts so far.

Images sources 1st row: Sorry not sure where I found this been in my I LOVE folder for ages, this is mine and is the brunch venue, thayerphoto.com, snippetandink.blogspot.com
2nd row: stylemepretty.com, twigandthistle.com, frolic, weddingstyleguide.blogspot.com,
3rd row: weddingstyleguide.blogspot.com, stylemepretty.com, snippetandink.blogspot.com, duet-weddings.com, snippetandink.blogspot.com

More on the plans and making this happen soon.

I Must go to...

Adriano Zumbo, a friend just set me the link to the website and now I must go. So when I have some free time again and a little bit of spare cash I'm going to attempt to organize a ladies indulgence day.

Images from adrianozumbo.com

Cake Alternative

This cake alternative would be perfect for any chocolate lover, the only problem I can see is not wanting to spoil how amazing it looks by eating them. You could even have a few real flowers intermingles to add a pop of colour.

Found on weddingstyleguide.blogspot.com

Marthaish

I'm feeling rather Marthaish at the moment. When I say Marthaish I mean crafty. I have a list of things that I really want to DIY - not wedding related, because it shouldn't all be about the wedding.

I am curious to try Homemade cordial. I haven't tried it yet but I'm already thinking of how I can improvise and create my own flavours. I think homemade cordial would be great in cocktails.

You can find the recipe and a label temple at styleguide.com.au

But it doesn't stop at one thing, I'd also really love to give Jam making a go, I don't eat that much jam but I imagine fresh homemade made jam on fresh homemade scones would be heavy in a tasty morsel. And can you image the smell while you are cooking it would smell amazing.

Images found on alovelymorning.blogspot.com she also has links to some recipies

Last but not least (this one is wedding related but not my wedding) is pom pom making. My good friend over at 7yearwedding.blogspot.com is having a pom pom making day on Saturday in preperation for her Engagement party and I will be helping with DIY engagement party magic. I know this probably sounds strange but I'm really excited about it, a fun ladies craft day.

Her inspiration found at 7yearwedding.blogspot.com

Also good news from the people at weddingstyleguide.blogspot.com Martha Stewart Celebrations range is coming to Australia and will be in stores at Spotlight soon.

More on cakes

C and I went down to Nowra with our parents for the weekend on a planning mission. It all went really well, I'm happy and we achieved a lot.

When I 1st started the planning process I got our reception place to quote us on a cake. When I 1st got the quote I thought it was crazy expensive but after some research and looking around I found it was actually a pretty good price, and I really didn't want to cook it myself. Yesterday we did a tasting and the cake was good....

But my 5 cake idea will work out cheaper and I think look really good. We found a cake shop in Nowra that we are happy with and are the right price. Considering the cake isn't a high pirority for us finding a cheaper alternative is important. Just need to find out the cost of cakage is, if its too expensive maybe we'll go without a cake.

Found at snippet and ink

stumbled across

Today I was wondering around and found these two great shops Cute Cups and Spruce your home. Check them out.

Checkout more at Cute Cups

Checkout more at Spruce your home

Drink up

We have a few non drinkers coming to the wedding and we want to make sure we cater for them with something nice/special as much as the drinkers. I have been thinking of having a mocktail or homemade ice tea or lemonade. And I have been thinking that it would look really cool to have big glass buckets of whatever punch we choose. A few inspiration photo.

found on www.oncewed.com

found on www.brides.com

I'd even love to have jars for punch cups. but I don't think I could collect enough jars.

found on www.oncewed.com

Celebrate

I was thinking of taking C on a picnic to celebrate the end of his exams nexts week when I came across this

from www.projectwedding.com it looks so nice, and I just have to try it out, so I think I'm going to put one together for the picnic.

done

Doing well at the moment - I love crossing things off my list. I've finished buying all the jars for the lolly bar, and I have the scoops, all I need now are the lollies and bags.

More DIY

I'm going to diy my cake boxes, printing them at work, than assembling them myself. That way I can have design printed on them and they will still be cheap. I figure if I start them now a few each night and I'll have 80 done in no time.

I've made up 2 designs based on the designs we used for the save the dates and what we'll use for the invites. just need to pick one.

Design option 1

Design option 2

Not very good pictures, but you get the idea. I think I'm leaning towards option 2.

Lolly pops Lolly Pops La..La..La.. Lolly pops

So I've started collecting things for the lolly bars. So far I have:

3 large metal scoops that we used for our engagement party.
4 small metal scoops
1 Vase from home
1 tall thin vase (bought from hot dollar, a bargain)
2 glass container with glass lids (on sale at Victoria's basement - best value for money)
20 medium colour lolly pops - very excited about these usually really expensive but I got them really cheap at a liquidators store.

My vases

Lolly pops

How sweet it is...

I love love love lollies, so of course I'm having a lolly bar. They also make great decorations. Mum works at a nestle own company so I can get the lollies cheaper in bulk that way, and I'll get small bags through work which shouldn't cost too much. I'll probably be looking at a small lolly bar, we only have 80 guest and we are already having a 3 course meal and cake. I found some pictures for inspiration.

Image from elegant candy buffets

Image from amy atlas

Love the symmetry of this, and the colour scheme - not my colour seem but love it.

Image from amy atlas

Love the fun colour and variety of this buffet. Take out some of the lollies and add in some chocolate (C request) and pretty close to what we where after.