A new trend of miniature white wedding cakes on sticks is taking the wedding world by storm.
To define this new treat is to not really do it justice; it is sort of like a super fancy and much nicer doughnut hole ‘munchkin” on a stick. However, add frosting and additional decorations.
ADD RIBBONS! Another way to really puch a theme is to add decorative ribbons in the mix. Using the right ribbon can really punch up the look of the pop!
DISPLAY! Wedding Cake Pops are a wonderful complement to your wedding cake or can actually take the place of your cake with a beautiful custom layer-inspired display.
Below is a gallery of some cake pop pictures to help you get an idea of what is possible:
Here is an idea for your wedding. Have your guests “hastag the hell” out of it!
CREATE YOUR OFFICIAL WEDDING HASHTAG
For those of you not familiar with the term, “Hashtagging” is creating an easy way of searching social-networking Web sites for pictures, videos or status updates relating to a specific topic. Simply enough, when you hashtag (#) a word or phrase, you are indexing a very specific topic to make it easy for someone to find on social sites like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Vine.
If you have been living under a rock and are not a user of any of the above forementioned social media sites already, the benefits of hashtagging your wedding are a great reason to start!
The hashtag originated for use first on Twitter.com, of course, but is now becoming the goto measuring stick indexing on all social networks. So, what does this mean for weddings? It means more pictures, more videos and more different perspectives of your wedding will be available at your fingertips, for free.
3 STEPS HOW TO MAKE YOUR WEDDING HASHTAG WORK FOR YOU:
1) CREATE YOUR OWN OFFICIAL HASHTAG – If you create an original and uniform hashtag for everyone to use, their will be no guessing or confusion on what word combo should be searched. Try and chose as few letters as possible for less spelling issues, but something that won’t bleed into a hashtag that someone else has already used. A hashtag like #smithwedding has likely already been used by many people, so your best bet would be “#smithwed2013” or “#fredwedsjaney.” Try and pick something original. You can do this by first searching the proposed hashtag on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Vine, so that you are not mixing your event with someone else’s event int he world.
2) SHARE YOUR WEDDING HASHTAG – All you really have to do is announce your custom offical hashtag to all your mobile device using wedding guests, and let the magic begin. Ways to do this can include but are not limited to: adding your hashtag to your reservations and the wedding ceremony program, putting your official hashtag on your place cards or table, and having the disc jockey announce your official hashtag throughout the evening periodically. (If you do not have a DJ set yet, drop me a line! (I know a great one!)
Table Cards
Invitations and programs
Chalkboards
Decorative Signs
3) SEARCH THE HASHTAG – After the event or even during, the hashtag will bring up a well-organized and beautiful log of your special day as it does any topic or event. The hashtag will capture behind the scenes action, as well as a different perspective on the special moments like the kiss at the ceremony, or your introduction and first dace at the reception.
This idea is great for weddings! The benefits are countless. No more messy disposable cameras on the tables. Multiple mediums will be shared. Pictures are available immediately for sharing. Friends and families who were not able to make it can follow the event from afar. Guests can even request songs to a participating DJ!
In the end, you will get extra pictures/videos at the end of the night, as well as annotations from your hashtagging guests all throughout the night.
A Wedding “Selfie Station: could be a big photo fun hit! (Photo Cred. M.Shaefer)
ALBANY NY DJ TELLS HOW TO CREATE PHOTO FUN FOR YOUR WEDDING!
Want to have that photo booth feel at your wedding, but don’t want to take up a ton of space or pay the big bucks? Here is a pretty cool idea I saw recently.
Trying to keep your wedding affordable? You too can save a lot of money and make this happen at your wedding for virtually dimes on the dollar. It’s really a simple idea. All you do is put out a selection of gimmicks and props and leave the photo fun up to your guests.
HERE ARE THE TOP 5 THINGS TO THINK ABOUT WHEN INCLUDING A “SELFIE STATION” TO YOUR WEDDING DAY
PROPS – Everything is about gimmicks. Fun hats, mustaches, picture frames, sunglasses, feather boas, wigs, foam fingers, canes, bandannas – you get the idea. Just go crazy at the dollar store and you really should be good to go.
INSTRUCTION SIGN – Don’t forget the instructions! Even though most guys don’t read them, it is important to not forget this next rule. So it doesn’t just look like a pile of junk from the thrift store, it is very important to put out a sign so people know the intended use of all the colorful goodies.
The Wedding Selfie Station Can be loads of fun!
BACKDROPS – Much like a photo booth shoot, you set aside a little area where pictures would look good. While a backdrop is not entirely needed, it is a nice touch. If you are creative or really ambitious about this idea, you could set up a backdrop curtain to really help the station take off. Usually you can find these backdrops available online for $100-$200 or so on say eBay, or you could even put something together even cheaper using PVC pipe form Home Depot.
OFFICIAL HASHTAG – Finally, what good are pictures that you never see? Post your wedding’s official hashtag and tell people which social media platforms you endorse (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc…) If you create a good official hashtag for your wedding (make it something original,) all your guests’ pictures will be easy for you and other guests to find on social media.
SMARTPHONE WEDDING APP – Don’t really want to go the hashtag route? There are now some really cool wedding picture aps that allow your guests to snap shots and send them all to one place in the cloud. If you think you have a number of photo-bugs with iPhones on your guest list, tell them ahead of time, maybe in your invitation, to download an app like The WedPics Smartphone App. This app doesn’t only collect unlimited photos taken by the guests, but it also gives important information like accommodations & your registry information.
Every bride-to-be has dreamed about getting married practically since they were little girls. Some brides remember drawing themselves with veils in crayon in preschool. Others remember practicing a new surname on the back of a a high school notebook.. No matter how you cut the wedding cake, every bride-to-be wants their wedding to be considered happy, special, and sometimes “THE BEST THERE EVER WILL BE.” However, the reality is …dreams do not always unfold into reality. So, what exactly can a bride do to help her happy visions actually come to life?
The Perfect Wedding
DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
A wedding reception is like a research paper. To make for a great one, research has to be done. But before you do any research, you need to focus on finding the right questions, before you can try to find answers. First off, the bride and groom should identify “The Big Question” and then decide on a thesis (an answer) they are both comfortable with.
THE REAL QUESTION IS…
The only real way to be happy with your reception is if all the people around you are happy. The big question, therefore, then should not be “What do I want?” but rather, “What do I want for my guests?”
By formulating this question every time you plan an aspect of your party, you are planning from the guests’ perspective. Planning using the “Big Question” instead of something more selfish and meaningful to only you, will spawn a number of sub-questions that go along with it like, “what do I want my guests to say when they sit down?” and also, “what do I want my guests to say when they walk out the door?”
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?
Demographics is everything. Thinking about who is going to be there before you actually plan, will make your reception “the best wedding of all time.” Different people like different things and you have to have a happy medium of what they will like and what you will like too.
BEING A GOOD WEDDING HOST MEANS BEING UNSELFISH –
Realizing that you are trying to accommodate all of your guests’ wishes from a great wedding reception is only the first step. Next, you have to do your research. Your homework is to find what really makes you happy, and also makes every guest attending happy as well. Because wedding receptions happen everywhere everyday, it is safe to say thousands of reception options have been created and your answers are out there. You just have to find them. Using this planning philosophy can work in every area including food, entertainment, music and even the overall look & layout of the decor.
Fun With Design
THINK OF EVERYONE AT YOUR RECEPTION –
Don’t force eating restrictions on your guest. It causes friction.
Let’s apply this unselfish planning thinking from the guests’ perspective to one particular aspect of the reception: The Cake. While you may absolutely love the idea of a classy cream cheese carrot cake, Uncle Charlie may absolutely HATE IT. That doesn’t mean you have to be unselfish and not have carrot cake, it only means you have to think outside of the box. What would my guests like to see in a cake? How can I make everyone happy? In this case, why not TRY WEDDING CUPCAKES. Have you heard of this? You tier up a wedding cake display with many different types of cup cakes, in displayed in the shape of a traditional wedding cake. Everyone, including you and Uncle Charlie is now happy.
Same goes for the seating. Putting older folks close to the DJ is usually a bad idea!
As a wedding DJ specialist in Upstate New York, I tell my clients that if you really want to have your guests look back at attending “the best wedding ever,” keep them in mind as much as yourself. Happiness breeds happiness. Playing your favorite songs is important and fine, but remember to always involve some of your guests’ favorite songs as well-even when they might not involve the same types of musical tastes.
Find the happy medium, it is out there.
CAKE
Speaking of the cake… Here is something else to think about: Try to make the cake as late as possible as this is often a point of exit for many guests. No matter what anyone says, dessert feels like the end and if your reluctant party-goer guests get this feeling, they may leave early!
The French-Canadian Trough Dance by Albany NY DJ Kenny Casanova
In an earlier article, I discussed how the tradition of the French-Canadian Ugly sock dance (click here to read) was making a comeback and beginning to flourish once again, throughout Ontario Canada and other French-speaking parts of the country.
Subsequently, this odd sock dance tradition that punishes single siblings for not already being married has bled some into the states. Today, brides and grooms in the Capital Region and specifically Albany and Saratoga Springs, NY who come from our northern neighbors have been working the custom into their wedding planning. Now, another odd Canadian tradition related to the Ugly Wedding Sock Dance is making its way into our wedding halls. This one is called “The Hog Trough Dance.”
The overall philosophy behind The Trough Dance is still the same as the Sock Dance; to punish an unmarried older sibling at a younger sibling’s wedding reception by making them dance in a ridiculous manner for not being married yet. Hoever in the Hog Trough Dance, the sibling dances barefoot in a pig trough or a wash basin, sometimes full of liquid. The idea is that if you are older and still not married, you need to be thrown into the spotlight and peer pressured into tying the knot soon, to avoid the public ridicule at your next brother or sister’s wedding. Because you are not already married, you are indangering the passing down of the family name, and this is punishable by mud.
The French-Canadian Trough DanceFrom my research, I found Ethnologist Jean-Claude Dupont of New Brunswick , showing the earliest written description of the trough dance. He said that, “a musician would play a tune and the single sister had to dance in the muddy pig trough, which had been brought inside special for the event.”
Dupont went on to explain that if the sibling were a male, things would be even worse in a French-Canadian Hog Trough Dance. When it was a bachelor who was being punished for not marrying before his younger sibling, “the brother would actually be made to eat out of the same trough!”
The tradition also sometimes involved dancing in and around a trough filled with food that would be sampled after the dance. Sometimes, a variation with a basin filled with alcohol, a mixture of beer, and hard liquor that the dancer must also drink after the dance.
Hopefully it is just mud.I have learned that updated variations to this tradition that has evolved some in recent years. Early on, legitimate dirty old troughs pulled right off the farm complete with mud, steaming fresh pig droppings (or worse) were in fact used for the dance, in the most extreme cruel and unusual forms of this wedding torture tradition.
You can bet that feet covered in pig droppings would have left some really lasting impressions on guests sitting near the dancer’s piggies after the festivities. This is all the reason more to make sure that you are married before your younger sister.
However, in today’s more politically correct version of The Dreaded French-Canadian Trough Dance, we see a more forgiving version. People spend a lot of money on clothing on the big special day, and not many people will want to cooperate in such a dance knowing that they will get ridiculously dirty. Another issue, is many halls do not want confetti getting around, let alone pig $#!t, so you can imagine what their responses may be to this type of custom.
With the loosening of family constraints, we now see relatives pushing victims into the Trough Dance in a clean trough purchased just for the occasion.
Video Confessional Booth – Want to take the boring, played out idea of a traditional photobooth shoot to the ext level? Have your guests confess and have a video condfessional booth set up so people can tell their sins. In the spirit of reality TV, have your guests record a quick on-screen message for you of well-wishes, or better yet, some naughty or funny story that happened at the wedding. This is the perfect way to know which of your guests needed to get voted off the island!
Ceremony Cue Cards – Want a fun ceremony? Add cue cards. They can say anything and will get a great response!
Have a cue card guy, or hand cards out to random people in the audience.
Reception Ushers – Have some stubborn guests coming to your wedding? I’m sure you are going to have ceremony ushers, but why not do the same for the reception itself. Quite often, it is very difficult to coral the guest in from the cocktail hour – but this is the perfect way!
Pizza Run Midnight Snack – want to keep attendance up? Bring out more grub! A slider bar, a smores roasting table, a milkshake spread, or a DIY taco tray are all ways to keep the party rolling. If it were a straight up pizza delivery guy delivering the fun, that would probably be even better!
Hot Air Balloons – If you need to shuttle from the ceremony to the reception, why not take wedding transportation to new heights? How about a magical hot air balloon ride? Make sure to add a “Bride and Groom’s wedding or bust” sign!
A guest at the end of each aisle hands the bride a piece of her bouquet…
Built Bouquet – Have a small basket at the end of each aisle for your ceremony, each with one flower in it. Have guests hand the bride a flower as she walks down the aisle and create her own bouquet live as she walks!
Blindfold the Groom – for the first look, make the groom wear a sleep-gear-like blindfold. This way, there is further anticipation, and the first thing he sees at the ceremony is his beautiful bride in full regalia.
Face Painting Booth – Want to add color and fun to your wedding? Set up a face painting booth to make the party even more fun and over-the-top.
Air Guitar Basket – You have probably seen the basket of flip flops for dancing. Borrowing from this idea, put out an empty basket and label it “air guitars.” Then pass the basket around and have your guests mime that they are taking an axe out of it to jam with during your best rocking rock song!
Imagine the jamming potential!
Official Hashtag – Social Media is everywhere. You know already that your guests will be taking pictures of the event. Why don’t you create the official hashtag for your wedding and plaster the place with your soon-to-be-trending keyword? After the wedding reception, all you need to do is search the hashtag and find more pictures from different perspectives after your special day!
