Take 5 Cheesecake Cups in 5 Steps

Cheesecake is my favorite dessert of all time. Take 5 is my favorite candy of all time. So, when I saw a pin by Love Candy on Pinterest called Easy Reese Bottom Mini Cheesecake Recipe (link to recipe), I had an epiphany: Love Candy's recipe was only 3 ingredients away from combining both of my favorite desserts into one!

I give you Take 5 Cheesecake Cups. 

Steps:

1. Place Reese's peanut butter cup at bottom of cupcake paper
2. Mix together Jell-O No-bake cheesecake, as the box states. Spoon over Reese's in the cupcake paper
3. Drizzle with caramel (I used Smuckers caramel sauce for ice cream)
4. Crush a handful of pretzels and peanuts and sprinkle over caramel
5. Top with mini semi-sweet chocolate chips and a pretzel for garnish

The result? Feast your eyes:

Don't worry too much about the amounts... just use your gut and it'll turn out well. One box of Jell-O No-bake cheesecake yielded 10 cups and I just grabbed small amounts of the additional ingredients to sprinkle on top.

Wedding Invitations: Rustic Flowers for My Best Friend

Designing rustic wedding invitations for my best friend.

I designed my best friend's Save the Dates in April 2012, and had the honor of creating her wedding invitations as well!

Jill's great. We attacked these invites together, creating a joint Pinterest board to share styles we liked, highlighting different fonts, colors, layouts, etc. I can't stress enough how wonderful Pinterest is for collaborative projects such as these.

It was clear what Jill liked: script fonts but with rustic imagery. Her wedding was outside, so she didn't want to over-formalize the occasion with stuffy invitations. I found the Angel Tears font and EUREKA!  I knew it would strike the perfect balance.

At first, I was afraid that the color combination we landed on was too summery, but it turned out to be the perfect transition, as her wedding day had fall colors as its backdrop, with the 80 degrees of a summer day.

Jill and I went back and forth on the "Heck Yeah!" RSVP option, but in the end, it felt more appropriate for the couple to include it. This wedding was just going to be too much fun.

The small website tag was tied around each invitation with twine, adding to the outdoorsy nature of the invitations.

Nice touch, no? I got a ton of compliments on these babies, and I couldn't be happier that some of my best work was for my best friend.

Photo by Amber Engfer Photography.

Save the Dates: Cozy Winter Scene

Designing Save the Dates for my best friend.

My best friend got married in September 2012 to a man that she's dated since high school. [insert awwwws here] When Jill and I lived together a few years ago, it was basically like Kyle was my second roommate, and we had the best time drinking bloody mary's together on Sundays, watching way too much terrible cable TV (damn you, Housewives!), and cooking family dinners.

So, when Jill not only asked me to be in her wedding, but also to design her Save the Dates & invites, I had to say yes. I mean, we were even friends in the womb!

Now, Amber Engfer Photography did most of the upfront work for me with her gorgeous engagement session for the couple, so I can't take much credit. But here were my two concepts for Jill's review:

Luckily, Jill was much more helpful in the designing than my sister was, so this was a fairly painless process. She decided that she liked the second option, probably because there were just too many wonderful photos to choose to highlight just one!

Aren't these two just adorable?

Wedding Invitations: Blue and Orange Tulip

Designing blue and orange invitations for my sister.

Dealing with the wedding planning for my sister's nuptials was, at times, trying. (We won't mention how my normally calm, cool & collected mother turned into a crazy momzilla in the 11th hour... different story for a different time.) But my sister hates planning things that she doesn't care about. That would include anything related to weddings except the booze and food.

This is how a typical conversation with my sister would go:

Me: "Hey Amanda! Did you want me to help with your invites?"
Amanda: "Uhhh.... sure."
Me: "Okay! What do you want them to look like?"
Amanda: "Blue."
Me: "Blue... anything else?"
Amanda: "Nope, just blue. Nothing too fancy."
Me: "Do you want them to be modern or rustic or..."
Amanda: "Blue."

It was like pulling teeth. While it's great to have creative freedom, it's terrifying to design something for someone's big day with absolutely no direction.

My attempt was to keep things simple and clean, like my no-fuss sister. Her favorite flowers are tulips, her wedding colors were blue (did you catch that earlier?) and orange, and she didn't want them to be "too fancy," which led to the inspiration for the design. Here's where I landed:

My sister claimed that she liked them, which is probably the most glowing review that I could ever expect from her.

Pro tip: Square invitations are actually more expensive to send. Something about not being easy for the postal machines to sort them. This sounds crazy to me, but I don't make the rules. You have been warned.

Why Weddings? Why Now?

Full disclosure: I'm not a wedding planner by trade. I'm not a bride-to-be. Heck, I'm not even dating anyone at the moment. (It's been a dry 4 years.) So for those who don't know me very well, you probably think I'm one of those crazy, wedding-obsessed, type-A, desperate singletons who will never and should never be married.

I promise you I'm not. (At least, I hope I'm not.)

The reason why I'm starting this blog is to document all of the joyous memories I've had helping my family and friends with their big days. I've done everything from singing at weddings, being a bridesmaid, doing hair and makeup, being a personal attendant, designing invitations, planning elaborate showers and bachelorette parties... the list goes on. So I thought,

"Self: Why not document all of this?"

And, let's not quit the honesty now, I have been planning my wedding for as long as I can remember.

So, please, PLEASE, feel free to give comments, suggestions, ask questions, because this is something I really enjoy doing!

A Spy-Themed Bachelorette Party for Sister

One of my true loves: planning bachelorette parties. I know these gatherings are oftentimes viewed with derision and sometimes hatred from other groups braving the club scene, but it's one time that I can get a large group of ladies to appreciate my love of theme parties.

And so, as my first and last time being Maid of Honor, I had to make a big splash for my sister's bachelorette party.

The theme: Classified Bachelorette Mission
Outfits: ladies wore wigs, tight black outfits, sunglasses
Little touches: 007 shots, dossier invitations, photo booth complete with "disguise" props, secret missions for the spies to win free drinks.

Pro tip: a lot of bars won't let you enter with sunglasses on. They worry bouncers won't be able to tell if you're drunk or not. As if me walking around in heels like baby Bambi walking on ice isn't a telling enough sign.

Complete list of missions for the spies:
1. Snap the most embarrassing photo of the bride by midnight.
2. Be the first to spy a [insert groom's name] lookalike.
3. Retrieve a number from a male "witness."
4. Be the first to get someone to text the bride a cryptic message.
5. Be the first to spot another spy. (Look for sunglasses at night.)

Despite the poor lighting of the hotel room and a few too many 007's, a fun time was had by all. My sometimes grouchy older sister actually wore a wig and loved it (shocker!)