By Elizabeth Zachry

Cinnamon rolls would be a great addition to a bridal shower menu!  I used to make this cinnamon roll lamb as a kid, and when I made it again recently, it was just as fun as I remembered!  For a bridal shower, this could make a great cinnamon roll bride too!  Instead of organizing the rows as indicated below, I would arrange them starting with a row of 2, increasing until you have a row of 6.  You can use the extra dough for arms, legs, and the face.  Since the original recipe makes two, you have the option of mixing and matching the lamb and the bride for your shower.

Cinnamon Roll Lamb

Ingredients:
Rolls:
2 packages active dry yeast
4.5 cups all-purpose flour, unsifted
1 cup milk
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp salt
2 eggs

Filling:
3 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg white beaten with 1 tsp water

Orange Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp milk
1/4 tsp orange extract

Directions (makes 2 lambs):
In a large bowl, stir together the yeast and 2 cups of the flour.  In a saucepan, heat the milk, the 2/3 cup sugar, the 1/4 cup butter (cut in chunks), and the salt to 120-130 degrees.  Gradually add to the yeast mixture and blend until smooth.  Add the eggs and beat at medium speed for 3 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally.  With a heavy-duty mixer or wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour (about 2 cups) to form a soft dough.  Turn dough out onto a floured board and knead until smooth and satiny (about 5 minutes).  Add flour as needed to prevent sticking.  Turn dough over in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (1.5 to 2 hours).

Punch down dough and divide in half for two lambs; return one portion to the bowl, cover, and let stand at room temperature while you shape the first lamb.  Pinch off about 1/4 of the dough portion and set aside for the head, legs, and tail.  On a lightly floured board, roll the remaining portion of dough into a 10 x 15-inch rectangle.  Brush evenly with half the melted butter.  Combine the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the dough.  Starting with the wide edge, roll up dough jelly-roll fashion.  Moisten edge with water and pinch snugly against the roll to seal.  With a sharp knife cut roll into 20 slices, each about 3/4 inch thick.  On a large, greased baking sheet, arrange the slices side by side in 4 rows.  Place 4 slices in the top row, 5 slices in the second, 6 in the third, and 5 in the bottom row.  For the legs, tail, and ears use about half of the reserved dough.  Roll it about 1/4 inch thick and cut into pieces with a sharp knife.  Tuck the legs and tail under rolls where appropriate to maintain a lamb shape.

Gather together the remaining dough and form the head, using scraps to shape the nose and eyes. Set eyes, ears, and nose in place to make a face.  Then, position the head next to the body. Cover the lamb lightly and let rise in a warm place until puffy (about 25 mins).  Repeat with the second half of your dough to make a second lamb.

Brush the entire lamb lightly with the egg white mixture.  Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until nicely browned.  If some parts begin to brown too quickly, cover them with pieces of foil.  Remove the lamb from the oven and carefully loosen from baking sheet by running a long spatula underneath, then gently slide it off and onto a rack.  While still warm, drizzle the lamb’s body with the orange sugar icing and serve.

If made ahead, let bread cool completely (don’t ice it) and wrap airtight.  To reheat, place unwrapped bread on a baking sheet. Cover loosely with foil and heat in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes, or until warm.  Then drizzle with the icing and serve.

To make the icing: Beat together all icing ingredients until smooth.

Have fun, and I would love to see the photos of your cinnamon rolls!  Or, if you have any questions let me know and I would be happy to answer them for you.

Marry Me Live Guest Blog

Do you remember when you went to the brick and mortar store to find your place settings that you always wanted, scan them, and then move onto the next coveted item. You could do this at 2, maybe 3 stores max, but if you chose items from too many stores, you would overwhelm your family and friends.

I still get a certain pleasure out of entering stores and going through their inventory, feeling the texture, and looking at the shine, but you no longer need to feel limited to specific store fronts or even household items for your wedding registry.

There are many creative registries that fit the needs of today’s bride…honeymoon registries for travel lovers, and online wedding registries that allow you to add any item from any online store. For example, take myregistry.com or WishpotWedding, both of which provide you with a toolbar widget that you push when you come across an item online that you want to add to your registry.

Wishpot takes it a step further with a search function that enables you to search for a specific item across their product database. This is great if you are not sure exactly what you want.

But, for all of you who are not interested in furnishing your home, or outdoor gardening, there is the Honeymoon registry. Personally, I’m a huge fan of Honeymoon Registries. It is your special time…why not indulge a little after all the stress from the wedding! Some Honeymoon registries include Traveler’s Joy and HoneyMoon Wishes.

Whatever your final decision on wedding registries, just know that there are many options out there. And, it means you get to go SHOPPING!

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By Erin Frank

When my then-fiance went searching for engagement rings for his proposal, his purchase gave him pause. Traditional diamonds often come at a high cost cost to the environment, society, and to people’s quality of life. News articles, investigations, and even Hollywood movies like Blood Diamond have introduced the public to the darker side of the diamond industry. It’s a dangerous and deadly business: the profits from “conflict diamonds” have funded devastating civil wars in Africa and are associated with numerous human rights abuses and even terrorism. My fiance wanted a ring he could feel good about giving me. Luckily, he found San Francisco-based diamond company, Brilliant Earth.

The folks at Brilliant Earth ensure that every single gemstone they sell is conflict-free and mined, cut, and finished in a socially and ethically responsible manner. All of their diamonds come from Canadian mines that follow environmentally sustainable practices and are committed to delivering high quality gems. 

Even their settings are earth friendly. Brilliant Earth uses precious metals from secondary sources which are then re-refined in order to ensure that they are identical quality to newly mined metals. This helps reduce the need for additional “dirty” mining by using renewed metals.

In a move that goes above and beyond, Brilliant Earth also dedicates 5% of their profits to communities impacted by the jewelry trade. They feel strongly that luxury goods should not promote such injustice, and that the communities that produce the products should benefit from them. Through partnerships with established, on-the-ground efforts, they try to rectify past injustices of the jewelry trade and help communities develop the skills needed to manage their natural resources effectively.

Don’t worry, an engagement ring with a conscience still sparkles the same.  Let the start of your commitment include a commitment to sustainability and a healthy society. Check out Brilliant Earth’s rings at www.brilliantearth.com.

By Ami Sampat

As we’ve previously noted, the color purple has long been associated with royalty. Perfect for a spring or summer wedding, deep purple will add a hint of nobility on your special day. These are a few items that caught my attention.

Images sourced from Project Wedding and Kaboodle.

By Megan Peters

Trending in the bay area is the peacock feather themed weddings, everything from the actual feathers to using the colors inspired by the bird. As a wedding planner I am quite excited to see the interest in this feather because it is one of my favorite birds and it reminds me of a dearly loved painting we had in our house as a child. The usage of this feather and colors gives a fun, playful, yet very elegant feeling to a wedding.

A few ideas to bring this theme into your wedding is through cake, attire, invitations, décor, even within your flowers. The feather has blues, greens, brown, silver, and gold shimmer, giving you a fantastic palette to work with within your event.

Bringing this theme to your cake can be as intricate as having fondant hand painted feathers added to the cake or as simple as adding the actual feather to your cake stand or cake.

Many printing companies have peacock themed invitations or you can order a simple brown invite and add a individual peacock feather to each invite for a pop of color.

You can use table linens and décor to match the feathers, which will bring rich brilliant colors to your wedding day.

We also love the idea of a DIY project where you can use feathers, ribbon, felt and a few gems to make a one of a kind Boutonniere.

We think the peacock feather theme is a perfect idea for the spring, summer and fall wedding.

By Elizabeth Zachry

I was thinking about what to get my friend for her bridal shower gift and thought to myself “what is something a bride will need, but may not think of for herself?”  Then it hit me: Thank You cards!  My sister and I decided that to make it even more special we would make them ourselves.  It was a little time consuming, but definitely worth it.  Here are a few instructions to help you get started making your own cards too!

One of my favorite techniques is dry embossing.  It is very simple, but always looks great.  Here is what you need to get started:

Items you need:

• Blank cards and envelopes
• Colored paper that matches the wedding colors
• Stencil
• Embossing tool (round tool that fits within the stencil lines)
• Ribbon
• Stamp pad (any color)
• Thank You stamp

Instructions:

Step 1:  I recommend cutting your colored paper to the appropriate sizes.  Measure one color to match the size of your stencil, with another piece slightly larger.  Then, cut your third color to be slightly wider (approximately 1”) than your stencil and a few inches longer so there is room to tie the ribbon.

Step 2: Place your stencil on a clear surface that is lit from the bottom.  (I used my glass coffee table with a flashlight underneath.)  Place your smallest piece of paper over the stencil. Wiith the light shining through, you should be able to see the design.  Trace the design using the round tool from the list above.  If you do not own an embossing tool and do not want to buy one you can try using a small nail head, ballpoint pen, or anything you can think of that will not go through the paper.  When you are finished and you flip over the paper, you should see a copy of the stencil imprinted in it.  That was the hardest part, you are almost done!

Step 3:  Glue your embossed paper to the other two pieces you cut in step 1 (as shown on my card). Tie a piece of ribbon around the bottom and affix the entire thing to the card.

Step 4:  use the stamp to put “thank you” on the card.  I chose the bottom, but you could also put it on the top or running down the side.

Everyone will be super impressed when they find out you made these cards yourself!

Marry Me Live Guest Post

1) What was your inspiration for starting Snapknot?

SnapKnot was started by me (Reid Warner) and my co-founder, Mike Rheaume. Mike and I were freshman year roommates from our days at Dartmouth College. Although SnapKnot is technically based in Massachusetts, Mike lives in Boston and I live in Orange County, so in reality we have a coast-to-coast operation.

I’m recently married and a casualty of the challenging wedding planning process (well, not really a casualty, but you know what I mean ). In particular my wife Eunice and I learned that finding a photographer was very difficult, stressful, and time-consuming. We were fortunate to end up with Jim Kennedy, a very talented and well-known photographer in Orange County. We consider ourselves lucky.

Mike was looking for his next career move and I was looking to get involved in something new as well, so after a series of brainstorming sessions we came up with the idea for SnapKnot, inspired in large part by my negative experience. We thought there was a better way for couples to find wedding photographers.

2) What differentiates you from other wedding websites?

We focus solely on the photographers and their work. Wedding photography is the one thing you will keep from your wedding day years later, so it is very important to get a photographer whose work you are happy with. It’s easy, fast, fun, and free for brides to find photographers to contact without wandering through a bloated site filled with all manner of vendors, advertisements, and unrelated information that distracts from the sole purpose of the site – connecting you with the perfect wedding photographer.

3) What do you hope to accomplish with Snapknot?

The site launched just two months ago on February 15th of this year and has already experienced tremendous growth: We currently have over 500 wedding photographers listed. We hope to have over 1000 by the summer, which we certainly believe is an achievable goal. Based on the positive feedback we’ve heard from photographers and brides so far, we feel we can be successful.

We simply hope to keep growing and hearing more success stories of couples connecting with wedding photographers through SnapKnot!

4) You site is very easy to navigate. Can you tell me more about the benefits to brides?

You hit on the main thing – SnapKnot is very easy to use.

In addition:
A) It saves time – brides only visit photographers’ websites after they know that a) they like their style, b) they are within their budget, and c) they cater to their location. No more endless Google searches.

B) It is free to contact and book photographers brides are interested in (SnapKnot does not receive any form of booking commission)

C) We also think it’s pretty fun to use! It’s always a pleasure to look through the many high-quality portfolios up on SnapKnot.

Because of the reasons above, we believe that SnapKnot helps make an otherwise stressful process much more pleasant for brides.

Readers – Let us know what you think? What do you want to see from Snapknot?

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By Erin Frank

Even the least crafty bride can give her wedding a personal touch by making boutonnieres for the groomsmen and important  guests.  Boutonnieres are one of the simplest ways to add a do-it-yourself element to your wedding without getting in over your head.

To get started you’ll need:

floral wire (26 or 24 gauge should do it—you can get pre-cut lengths or buy a spool)

wire snips

scissors

your choice of flower along with some greenery

floral tape (I prefer the light green)

Creating a boutonniere:

Begin by trimming your flowers to remove any thorns and leaves you don’t want to keep. Take one large bloom, such as a single rose or gerbera daisy, grip the stem just below the flower, and trim about the length of three fingers down (roughly an inch to an inch and a half of stem will be left). Take a length of wire roughly 10 inches or so long (you can always trim the ends later) and insert it where the base of the flower bloom meets the stem. Slide the flower until it is centered on the wire, then fold the wire ends together. The wire can now act as an extended stem plus give the flower added strength and stability. Starting at the base of the bloom, begin wrapping green floral tape around the stem and wire. Floral tape is designed to stick to itself, not the flower, and only when it’s stretched a bit, so pull tightly when wrapping and work your way down the stem. Continue wrapping the tape over an additional inch of wire beyond the end of the stem then cut.

To add a leaf to your boutonniere the technique is much the same.  Insert the end of a wire through the middle of a leaf, catching just a bit of the stem. Bring the ends of the wire together and wrap them together with floral wire.  Place the leaf against the flower and wrap their two stems together.  If you’re using baby’s breath or another spray of tiny buds you don’t need to wire their stems, simply wrap them together with the main flower.

Once you’ve wrapped all components together, create a twist at the bottom using your fingers or by wrapping the end around a pen. Attach the finished boutonniere to a lapel with a long pearl-headed stick pin. Voila!  DIY boutonnieres for beginners. Feeling confident in your skills? Spice up a basic flower by covering your finished stem with a plain or patterned ribbon. Or try incorporating ribbons, herbs, fiddle ferns, or crystals into your design.  The possibilities are endless!

By Megan Peters

If I were a bride I would be excited (oh wait that is me!).

If I were skinny I would wonder how that happened?

If I were shoe shopping I would be wondering why they always run out of my size.

If I were a month I’d be November.

If I were a day I’d be Friday.

If I were an event I would be a huge beautifully decorated wedding.

If I were a dress I would be a comfortable one.

If I were a time of day I’d be naptime.

If I were a cake flavor I would be chocolate.

If I were a movie genre I would be a romantic comedy.

If I were a direction I’d be the one that lead me home to my fiancé and dogs.

If I were a piece of furniture I’d be an overstuffed chair and matching ottoman.

If I were a liquid I’d be ice chai latte.

If I were a gemstone I’d be smokey quartz.

If I were a tree I’d be a tall big one.

If I were a flower I’d be an orange and pink rose.

If I were an element of weather I’d be a warm wind.

If I were a musical instrument I’d be a cello.

If I were a color I’d be espresso brown.

If I were an emotion I’d be silly.

If I were a fruit I’d be a mango.

If I were a sound I’d be laughter.

If I were a food I’d be a warm chocolate chip cookie.

If I were a place I’d be an inviting home.

If I were a material I’d be pima cotton 1200 thread count.

If I were a taste I’d be sweet with a hint of spicy.

If I were a scent I’d be vanilla.

If I were a song I’d be “wild horses”.

If I were a gift I’d be beautifully wrapped.

If I were a door I’d be open.

If I were a pair of shoes I’d be reef flip-flops.

If I were a poem I’d be a love poem.